Jeff Gluck: Michael Waltrip spends day as Mr. Mom as part of fan swap contest

COMMENTARY

TEGA CAY, S.C. – The kids on the school bus could not believe their eyes.

The story told by 10-year-old Jackson Prince was no lie: NASCAR driver/team owner Michael Waltrip really was at the bus stop waiting to pick him up from school, take him home and hang out for the afternoon.

“The other kids were cheering,” Prince said. “And I heard a couple of them say they didn’t believe I was actually telling the truth.”

Jackson’s parents, Jack and Jami Prince, had bid just more than $5,500 to win Best Western’s “Fan Swap.” The proceeds went to charity, and Waltrip “swapped” jobs with Jack Prince – a new-age Mr. Mom – while the family also got a behind-the-scenes look at Waltrip’s life on a race weekend.

It gave Waltrip an opportunity to shine where he does some of his best work: Promoting his sponsor and interacting with fans. NASCAR’s best pitchman for the last decade, Waltrip understands what it takes to keep sponsors happy.

On this day, it wasn’t too hard. He was tasked with Mr. Mom-type chores, such as helping Jackson with his homework, making a snack, doing laundry, cooking dinner and squeezing in a little game of bowling on Nintendo Wii.

First, he picked up the cherub-faced schoolboy from the bus stop in a No. 99 Best Western street car, much to the surprise of Prince’s classmates, who leaned out the windows and screamed with delight.

As the bus continued its route, driving by the Prince residence, Waltrip stood on the front step and waved, yelling, “Hi y’all!”

“C’mon over!” he called to a neighbor walking by with her child.

Once inside, Waltrip went right to work. As the family and friends watched curiously nearby, Waltrip found a seat at the kitchen table as Jackson brought over his homework – a booklet of math problems.

The two sat side by side and got down to business, with Waltrip helping Jackson estimate such problems as 231 divided by 6 (the homework required Jackson to show his work).

“My guess is about 36,” Waltrip said (it was actually 38 or 39). “Did you know I was just on ‘Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?’”

Waltrip didn’t just pretend to help. He actually worked through the problems with the real-life fifth grader and compared the estimating to adding his golf scores.

“I’m operating a couple grades above my level,” Waltrip eventually concluded.

A level of comfort filled the room. Waltrip has an ability to relate to real fans, and when he does so, the people around him drop their fascination with his celebrity.

After about 10 or 15 minutes, Waltrip casually asked Jackson, “Are you hungry?”

“So-so,” Jackson replied non-chalantly.

“I’m kinda hungry after all this hard work,” Waltrip said.

The pair moved to the other side of the kitchen, where Waltrip opened a box of crackers from Lowe’s Foods – another Waltrip sponsor.

“As a driver, it’s important to be brand-loyal,” Waltrip told Jackson. “Your mom sells houses; I’m selling crackers and hotels.”

After the snack, with Jackson’s smiling parents looking on, Waltrip walked over to the family dog and leaned down to pet it.

Suddenly, he jumped back.

“Ow!” he exclaimed, shaking his hand as if he had been bitten.

There was a brief moment of silence before Waltrip revealed it was another of his many jokes.

“No, I’m kidding,” he said. “Did you all see my underwear when I bent over?”

Just then, Jami pointed out a message written on a small chalkboard on one of the kitchen walls that read, “Mr. Waltrip coming Wednesday. Can’t wait!”

Waltrip picked up a piece of chalk and added to the bottom, “He is here.”

Then it was time to head to the second floor of the sprawling home filled with Halloween decorations and smelling of fall spices. Waltrip got a brief tour of Jackson’s room – praising its outdoors theme as one he would enjoy himself – and sang along to a Bob Seger song playing on a nearby clock radio.

Jami directed Waltrip toward the laundry room, but it seemed as though the driver had little experience in this department. He was handed some Tide to pour into the machine, but picked up a bottle of Clorox (a sponsor of Marcos Ambrose, whose team is related to Waltrip’s) and told Jackson he was going to pour the bleach in when Jami wasn’t looking (he didn’t follow through on the threat).

“This housework is easy,” he joked, slapping high-five with the boy. “It’s fun hanging out with you, Jackson.”

Jackson then brought Waltrip back downstairs to play a bowling game on Nintendo Wii (in real life, Waltrip said he averages a 170 at bowling and has a high score of 206).

But before they played, Jackson told Waltrip he needed to make a Wii character. The driver picked what he described as a “Best Western/Napa blue” shirt, big sunglasses and a dark goatee.

They named the character “MW” and entered its birthday as April 30. Waltrip told Jackson he was born in 1963, but the youngster said there was no place on the game to enter birth years, and a relieved Waltrip said, “Oh, good.”

The pseudo-father/son duo played a few frames, with Waltrip leading after recording three spares.

“Nice spare!” the game announced.

“Nice pair? Is that what he said?” Waltrip said innocently.

A team official, trying to keep the day moving along, told Waltrip he needed to start dinner.

“But I’m winning!” Waltrip said, then sighed. “It isn’t easy being a housedad.”

“I know that for sure,” Jackson replied.

Once in the kitchen, Waltrip donned one of the family’s aprons that read, “Italians Never Die – They Just Pasta Away.”

He stirred some meatballs (that were already prepared by the family’s Italian-born grandmother) and put some in a dish for him and Jackson, topped with cheese.

They ate in silence – the only time Waltrip didn’t have something to say. The driver then helped himself to seconds.

This was turning out to be a pretty good day.

“Tell you what I’d do, Jackson,” Waltrip said, motioning to the family. “I’d keep all them around a little while. … This is a very loving house. I like being here.”

Replied Jackson: “Wait til my sisters get home.”

Well-spoken and seemingly unfazed by the celebrity in his presence, Jackson evaluated the day by saying Waltrip “could have done a little better” on the math problems but added, “A NASCAR driver probably doesn’t have to do much math or division.”

The 10-year-old said he wasn’t sure he would have beaten Waltrip at Wii bowling, but said, “You don’t want to make him look bad.”

This was the second “Fan Swap” event for Waltrip, who previously changed jobs with a Texan who had a restaurant and a car restoration business.

The hotel chain has even done things like April Fools promotions, all of which led Waltrip to say, “I don’t know if anybody does it much better than Best Western does.”

“When they ask me to go somewhere and do something, I usually raise my hand and say, ‘OK’ because usually it’s fun and different, and certainly it’s benefiting them and their sponsorship,” he said.

Events like the “fan swap” are the perfect example of how NASCAR sponsors can help drivers show their personalities and bring more publicity to the sport.

Fans often complain that the drivers are too boring or vanilla, but being creative as in the “fan swap” example is the perfect chance to show a side of a driver away from the track. And when it comes down to it, personality is what sells NASCAR.

“You have to be creative,” Waltrip said. “If you’re a sponsor like Best Western, you say, ‘OK, we’re going to have a promotion. What do we have to do to get more people to show up and talk about our promotion?’ And this is a great example of that.”

More and more these days, drivers need to remember who they’re driving for – the fans, who support the sponsors and allow them to keep racing. Waltrip said he reminds his drivers to “please show up with a smile.”

“It can’t be fake, but if you’ll just think about what people have gone through and how they feel to get to see you, if you can’t build off that energy, then I don’t think you’re very appreciative of what you’re able to do,” he said.

Perhaps more than anyone in racing, Waltrip gets it.

“It’s not accident,” he said. “It’s how much I love what I do and how much I appreciate the sponsors that allow me to do it. I don’t know why it all turned out like this, but I love it.”