Michael Waltrip to race at Daytona 500

With Brian Vickers sidelined from the No. 55 Aaron’s Toyota for the first two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races of the season while recovering from heart surgery, owner Michael Waltrip will once again exhibit his restrictor-plate racing prowess in the Daytona 500 (Sunday, Feb. 22 at 1 p.m. ET on FOX).

A two-time winner of the Great American Race, Waltrip won the event for the first time in 2001, taking the checkered flag seconds after his car owner at the time, Dale Earnhardt Sr., suffered a fatal last-lap crash.

If there is ambivalence in Waltrip’s memories of Daytona International Speedway, his anticipation for this year’s season opener is undiminished.

“It really hit home three or four days ago,” Waltrip said. “They said, ‘We’ve got your seat in the car. Come down and check it out.’ Just to get to the car and see the crew guys come over and say, ‘How is it? We’re so happy you’re driving our car…’ That’s amazing.

“I’m obviously down to my last couple of Daytona 500s, if not THE last one, and to be able to have that energy and to have those boys be happy that I was climbing in their car, it reminded me of back in 2001 when I went to drive for Dale, how good that felt. And I had that same feeling.

“Obviously, I think Daytona probably means more to me than most, the ups and downs. Just as a kid in Kentucky, going there for the first time and seeing that track and how much it meant to me, I felt like that kid again the other day when I was sitting in that car, and all the crew guys were there to help me get fitted in and ready to go.”