That would have been hard to predict, judging from his IHRA debut. He missed the cut for the 2006 season-opener at San Antonio by .064 of a second, then took another disappointing blow on race-day morning. Vinny Arcadi, whose car exploded and burned in the final qualifying session, was unable to compete Sunday, and IHRA officials stopped by Wyatt’s pit to remind him that as first alternate he was in the field. Wyatt wasn't aware that IHRA, unlike NHRA, had such a rule. So his race car was torn apart for servicing, its pieces scattered about like the beginning of some jigsaw-puzzle project. He had no way to reassemble his car in time to race.
By the end of the season, he was just five points short of the championship.
His entire 2006 season was unpredictable. His sponsor disappeared the week after he won the spring race at Rockingham. He was runner-up to Creasy two races later, at Edmonton, but after two more events, he had no idea if he would have enough money to compete at Martin, Michigan. He scraped up enough money to enter the Wednesday night before the race, hauled his rig there quickly, and beat Bob Gilbertson in the final.
"After all these years, I just never give up. I still won't," Wyatt said. "If we can find another dollar somewhere, we're going to put it in the tank and run. Whatever it takes."
 Wyatt racing Dale Creasy Jr. at Grand Bend in July 2007. (Brad Turk photo) |
That's why IHRA President Aaron Polburn called Wyatt "an old-school drag racer who does it for the love of the sport." Polburn said that in presenting the 2007 IHRA Sportsman of the Year Award to him at December's awards ceremony at Sandusky, Ohio.
Again, Wyatt found himself somewhere he never imagined he would be -- on stage, accepting an award from his peers. He never thought he would hear Polburn announce his name even as a candidate for the honor, which is open to all IHRA competitors, pro or sportsman, and honors camaraderie in the face of competition.
"Wow! That's really cool to be nominated!" he said he was thinking. "I had no idea I was being considered."
And he sure never thought that on his way to the podium he would see Jimbo Ermalovich, Scotty Cannon's crew chief, with tears in his eyes. He never expected to see Creasy crying for him.
"That's when you know you're truly loved," Wyatt said.
But he was rocked out of his comfort zone. Seconds before he had been in the darkened audience, his year-old daughter, Dakota, snuggled and snoozing in his lap. Girlfriend Melissa squeezed his leg. "It's you!" she said.
"Huh?"
"You won!" she said, beaming and scrambling to scoop their daughter from his lap so he could make his way to the stage to accept the award.
Polburn was saying that Wyatt doesn't let his spirits get too high or too low, and he "can find a positive in literally anything."
 After last year’s shooting at Virginia Tech, Wyatt kept the school “In Our Thoughts.” |
Maybe, though, the racers honored Wyatt because of how he honored others -- complete strangers, but people who were hurting. He was driving to Rockingham last April for the Spring Nationals, when he heard of the shootings on the Virginia Tech campus.
"It's unbelievable something like that could happen. As I found out more, I just really knew I had to do something, and when we got here I started looking for a vinyl shop. If we don't get a sponsor we are going to run the Virginia Tech logo on our car for the rest of the season," he said after winning for the third straight time at the storied dragstrip. "If us winning this race helped one person, I will feel good about it."