NASCAR Legend Reveals Heartbreaking Diagnosis

Darrell Waltrip’s family told fans this week that the Hall of Fame driver and longtime broadcaster has a progressive brain disease and will pull back from public life. The statement went first to Fox Sports, where Waltrip spent years in the booth after he left the driver’s seat.

Waltrip is 79. The family said he has been diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration, complicated by possible chronic traumatic encephalopathy “likely from injuries incurred during his racing career.” FTD attacks the frontal and temporal lobes, the regions tied to personality, behavior, and language. CTE can be confirmed only after death.

“We wanted to share a health update with all of Darrell’s friends and fans who have supported him throughout his racing career,” the family wrote. They added that the illness “will inevitably progress” but is “currently limited to some minor noticeable symptoms.”

Because of that, they said, “he will be stepping further away from the public limelight.” They asked supporters not to assume the worst about his daily life. “Be assured, Darrell is happy and otherwise healthy — spending his time with his wife, Stevie, two daughters and his three young grandchildren.”

The note closed with gratitude and with the call that defined his years on television: “Boogity! Boogity! Boogity!”

Waltrip won 84 Cup Series races, fifth on the all-time list, and championships in 1981, 1982, and 1985. He raced from 1972 to 2000, then moved straight into Fox’s NASCAR coverage when the network entered the sport in 2001. He left the full-time booth in 2019.

He still made cameo appearances. His last guest spot came at Darlington in March 2026, when he delivered the familiar start-of-race line one more time. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2012 and later named one of the sport’s 75 greatest drivers.

The family did not say whether he will donate his brain for research, a step other drivers have discussed as awareness of racing-related head trauma has grown. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has publicly pledged to do so.

Waltrip’s younger brother, Michael, remains part of Fox’s race coverage. The family lives in the Franklin, Tennessee, area. They asked for prayer and said they wanted friends to hear the news from them rather than from rumor.

The diagnosis does not end his place in the sport’s memory. It does mark a quieter chapter for a driver who built a second career on a loud, unmistakable voice.