Chicago Breaking Sports reports that Michael Waltrip, a two-time winner of the Daytona 500 who is in the Phoenix area this week for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Phoenix International Raceway, is hanging out in White Sox camp and plans to work out with the team:
↵↵"I love baseball," said Waltrip, who grew up following the Atlanta Braves from Kentucky. "Just getting to peek inside the game is really ... I feel really honored to be here just to see ... you know, you watch a game on TV and you don't really think about all the things that go into it or what's behind the preparation.↵↵↵
↵"These guys have just been really nice to me, they make me feel like I'm part of the team. I really enjoy seeing this."
Sounds great, especially seeing a race driver who actually knows baseball, as opposed to Jeff Gordon, who, when asked to sing the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field, called the iconic ballpark "Wrigley Stadium" and got booed. But the funniest part of Waltrip's foray into White Sox camp is this:
↵↵Waltrip would like to see Sox manager Ozzie Guillen driving a race car.↵↵↵
↵"We have the Richard Petty Driving Experience in NASCAR where you actually get to show up and drive a car," Waltrip said. "So when people get to do that, it's something that really gets their attention. We'll go out to Charlotte and run 185 miles per hour and you put someone in a Richard Petty car and they'll run 140 and think they're the next coming of Jeff Gordon.↵
↵"It would be the equivalent of me actually getting a ball out of the infield here and thinking I'm ready for opening day."
Ozzie driving a race car? Now that would be something to see.