"I'm screaming, 'we can't make it'": When Darrell Waltrip took a bold fuel gamble to win the Daytona 500

Former NASCAR driver Darrell Waltrip’s Daytona 500 win 36 years ago was about strategy and taking risks. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion had won many races by saving fuel but this one was extra special.

In 2019, Waltrip recalled his 1989 Daytona 500 win conversation with his crew chief, Jeff Hammond. Hammond had planned for him to stop 53 laps before the finish. However, with 55 laps left, the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17 team decided to gamble on fuel. They slowed down and stayed behind cars to save fuel. No other team took the risk.

"I'm screaming at Hammond, ‘we can't make it I don't think we're going to be able to do this... we're going to run out of fuel. He said, ‘shut up and drive the car. If we run out of fuel, then we run out of fuel. There's nothing we can do about it now. We are committed,'" Waltrip said (via wwmt.com).

Before the race, Waltrip noticed a pattern. His car number was 17, he qualified in 17th place and his name had 17 letters. When Hammond, asked what it meant. Waltrip joked and said:

"We’re either finishing first or 17th. I just don’t know which one."

It was also his 17th attempt at the 'Great American Race' and Hammond’s wife, Debi, gave her input during the final laps. This was Waltrips only Daytona 500 victory.

"She grabbed Jeff when we were talking about if we were going to make it or if we were going to go for it or not. She told Jeff, 'We’ve found ways to lose so many times. Let’s try something different and go for the win,'" Waltrip said.

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"Betty’s being bad" - Darrell Waltrip's crew chief on their car's bad luck

Darrell Waltrip, who raced in NASCAR between the 1970s and early 2000s, had won three Cup championships (1981, 1982, 1985) before his Daytona 500 win. Waltrip joined Hendrick Motorsports in 1987 in the No. 17 Chevy and had limited success in the 'Betty' during the first two years.

"Honestly, coming into that year, I was very confident. The car that we were going to run had been built the year before — a really good, fast race car. We had a lot of bad luck in that car, which if you don’t know, was named Betty. Darrell had named that car Betty, and he liked to go around saying, ‘Betty’s being bad,'" Jeff Hammond said (via NASCAR.com).

Waltrip won 84 races including five Coca-Cola 600s in around three decades in the Cup Series. After retiring he worked as a Fox Sports commentator until 2019.