In the first race of 1989, the Daytona 500, Waltrip won the race for the first time in his 17th attempt with a fuel conservation strategy along with his long-time crew-chief Jeff Hammond, making his final pit stop for fuel a distant 53 laps (132 miles) from the finish. Most of the other cars could run no more than 45 or 46 laps on a tank of fuel, so that meant Waltrip would need to feather the throttle and "draft" off other cars in order to save enough fuel to make it to the finish without an additional pit stop. Hammond, interviewed by television pit reporters during the final stint of the race, said that his strategy was for Waltrip to "draft off anybody, and everybody", to save fuel. Even though Waltrip's car ran much slower than other cars in the last 53 laps, he was able to avoid making the additional pit stop for fuel that the other cars had to make. The strategy provided Waltrip with the track position needed to win the race. His post-race interview with CBS pit reporter Mike Joy, became famous, with Waltrip shouting "I won the Daytona 500! I won the Daytona 500! Wait, this is the Daytona 500 ain't it? ... Thank God!", accompanied by the "Ickey Shuffle" dance in Victory Lane. Later, after the Daytona 500 win, Waltrip visited president George H. W. Bush at the white House in Washington, D.C.  Waltrip's popularity as a driver would come full circle on the evening of The Winston, an all-star racing event held May 21, 1989, (an event that did not award points toward the NASCAR national championship), at Charlotte Motor Speedway. With two laps to go, Waltrip was leading the race and poised to win when Rusty Wallace hit his car exiting the 4th turn, sending him into the infield and costing him the victory and the $200,000 purse. Not only was Waltrip and his crew upset at being knocked out of the victory, the 150,000 fans watching the race issued boos to Wallace, the winner. The two crews scuffled in the pits and harsh words were said after the race. Waltrip was quoted after the race as saying "I hope he chokes on it", referring to the $200,000 that Wallace collected for the victory. Waltrip's car was clearly superior to that of Wallace and, had it not been for the contact initiated by Wallace on the final lap, Waltrip would have won the all-star event.