Waltrip’s ease in front of a microphone - both in driver interviews or as a broadcaster - can be traced back to those earliest radio and TV appearances. Even during the peak of his driving career, he was a regular guest and occasional substitute for Nashville disc jockey and television host Ralph Emery.
Waltrip’s first experience with broadcasting pre-dates his long tenure with FOX Sports. PHOTOS: Darrell Waltrip through the years He was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Class of 2012. The transition to full-time broadcasting came after a successful driving career, where Waltrip won three championships and 84 races in NASCAR’s top division. Waltrip, 72, has been a fixture in the FOX Sports booth since 2001, when the network became an official broadcast partner of NASCAR. I’m still healthy, happy and now a granddad, so it’s time to spend more time at home with my family, although I will greatly miss my FOX family.” “I have been blessed to work with the best team in the sport for the past 19 years, but I’m 72 and have been racing in some form for more than 50 years.
“My family and I have been talking this over the past several months, and I’ve decided to call 2019 my last year in the FOX Sports booth,” Waltrip said in a FOX release. The news, later confirmed by the network, was first reported by The (Nashville) Tennessean. Waltrip’s final NASCAR race from the broadcast booth is scheduled for June 23 at Sonoma Raceway. Darrell Waltrip, who brought his folksy, outsized personality from the driver’s seat to a prodigious second career as a broadcaster, announced Thursday that this season will be his last for FOX Sports.