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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip will have to race his way into the field through Thursday’s Daytona Duel qualifying races because he is not protected with a top-35 position from last season.

Waltrip will retire as a race driver this year and was asked if this could be the last time he ever drives in a race car.

“No, I don’t, but if it were, then I could live with that,” Waltrip said. “I’ve over-exceeded what 99 percent of kids that want to be race car drivers ever could have hoped to accomplish. First of all, it just makes me thank God for the last 24 years — I was able to show up and race my car. I had a sponsor, I had a team, I was healthy — I didn’t get sick and I didn’t wreck and hurt myself. To be able to say that and know that I’ve won eight races and especially won on the biggest stage we have, I’m thankful and I’m happy. I also feel like there are still some races for me to win. I think I can win this race and certainly there’s one in Talladega in a couple of months that I know I have the knowledge and the capability to win. If the opportunity presents itself to run some races then that’s what I want to do.”

Waltrip has made a successful transition to owning a NASCAR team and is ready to focus on that as well as being part of the “Inside NASCAR” show on ShowTime.

“I might race a truck a few times — haven’t worked all that out yet,” Waltrip said. “I went to Dubai and raced a Ferrari. Went to New York and was on ‘Hannity,’ so it’s been fun being retired, but like any retired dude, I know how retired people are in that as soon as they’re retired they want to figure out what they want to do next and that’s sort of how I’ve been.”

- Three-time IndyCar Series champ and 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner Sam Hornish, Jr. continues to be the target of criticism from four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, who continues to say he is upset with Hornish for the incident that happened at the start of last November’s Chase race at Texas Motor Speedway that sent Johnson crashing into the infield wall on the backstretch.

Johnson was asked if a young driver was coming up in the sport who he would want to learn from and that is when he took a swipe at Hornish.

“The guy I wouldn’t want to learn from would be Sam Hornish,” Johnson said. “He hits way too much stuff, including me, at important times of the year. And then he’s never said a word. I wish he’d just walk up and say, ‘Man, I meant to crash you.’ Either way, wouldn’t you think with what is on the line, you would just walk up to a guy and say, ‘it wasn’t my fault, somebody hit me.’ The guy just doesn’t talk, doesn’t say anything.”

“Maybe he’s right that I should have gone over and talked to him,” Hornish said. “I heard one time from somebody else that when you get into somebody, it don’t matter if they hit you or not, you still got into them. Either way, I should have said something to him about it. I don’t have any problems with Jimmie. I certainly would never try and take him out. A lot of people want to say, ‘Are you guys trying to start a rivalry?’ My opinion is that I don’t want to start a rivalry with anybody. If I’m going to, I going to have to start finishing better to be able to do that.”

- Credit Dale Earnhardt, Jr. with the best response to a question so far at Daytona when he was asked if he has to get back to victory lane in order to be a central figure in NASCAR?

“Apparently not,” Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt was able to further explain why many look to him in the sport.

“Somebody asked me how you get respect,” Earnhardt said. “You get respect because of the way you act. They asked me whether if that was in or outside the car. I said it’s all the time, no matter where you’re at. You don’t get mulligans for being an ass.

“I feel like what I do, how I carry myself. I try to earn respect when I go and do stuff, whether that’s inside the car or not. I think that I am intelligent and I have a good point of view about the sport. I think I’ve got a pretty good perspective from where I stand of what’s happening. So, I enjoy being in that position. And obviously my heritage, my father, all those things play a big role in who wants to listen.”