"There's people saying, 'Oh, he needs to quit, he shouldn't race anymore' and all that kind of stuff," Waltrip said after his 11th-place finish Saturday at the Brickyard 400. "Like I said up there in the press room the other day: 'Now there's just a shadow of doubt and maybe they'll reconsider that.'"

On that "other day," the 53-year-old Waltrip looked more like the driver who they called Jaws, not Ol' DW. He looked like the guy with 84 career Winston Cup victories and, for a moment, made everyone forget he hasn't won a race since September 1992.

For a brief August day, Waltrip looked like the driver in the summer of his career, winning three Winston Cup titles.

Darrell Waltrip hugs his wife Stevie after he briefly set the Brickyard 400 qualifying track record.(AP)

That Ricky Rudd would knock him off the pole for the Brickyard was of little consequence to Waltrip and his team.

"All I kept telling the guys is seize the moment," Waltrip said. "We're on the front row, let's live that moment for now, worry about dropping the green flag and how we're gonna fall in line when they start, worry about the pit stops when we've got to make one, but let's don't let anything interfere with having a good time here."

That's how much starting second meant to Waltrip, who had been starting and finishing in the 32nd-spot, on average, in his Victory Tour.

It was his best starting position in years. Waltrip didn't start inside the top 10 at all in 1999, a year that saw him miss seven races because he failed to qualify.

He hasn't been a factor in the Winston Cup Series in years. The first signs of the fall came in 1990, when he finished 20th in the title chase driving for Rick Hendrick. The next season, with his own team, Waltrip recovered to finish eighth.

And every season, every race, DW just looked older and older. Toothless Jaws.

The losing culminated in 1998 when Waltrip folded his team. He found help from an old rival, Dale Earnhardt. A man who Waltrip once described as a "controlled crash."

"Darrell's still got that competitive edge and ability to drive a race car," Earnhardt said after Waltrip's qualifying run.

"Good drivers perform well in big races," Waltrip said.

But Waltrip hasn't been a good driver for years. Part of the problem has been the equipment, for sure. But another part has been the losing, which has eaten away at him like a cancer. Winning used to be the only thing to Waltrip. Then, it became finishing. Lately, it's been just making the show.

"I don't have to win and I don't have to be on the pole," Waltrip said. "As long as you can leave here this weekend and say, 'Ol' DW was up there,' that's all that matters to me."

So that's how it will be with Waltrip. Instead of remembering his tussles with Earnhardt in the mid 1980s, he'll be happy that we recall his near pole qualifying run at the Brickyard. He'll settle for you saying he was charging all the time at his last Brickyard, that he nearly caught Scott Pruett for the top-10 finish he so desperately wants in his Victory Tour.

But try and recall just how fearless he was in winning those titles in 1981 and '82. Or how he won the 1985 championship by rallying from 143 points down with only 10 races left.

Ol' DW is a great guy. Jaws was a great driver.