Published: Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009 / Updated: Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009 05:31 PM

NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip plays 'Mr. Mom' in Tega Cay

TEGA CAY -- The school bus lights started to flash and school bus driver Valerie Crawford pulled old yellow to a stop on Tega Cay's Lake Forest Drive. The kids piled out and boom – crossing the street strode this tall rangy guy about 6 feet 4 with a bush of brown hair wearing a Best Western racing shirt and the biggest smile any kid who just got off a school bus ever saw.

“Hey, that's Michael Waltrip, the racer,” called out one of the throng of little kids who tumbled off the bus.

Sure enough, Waltrip the famous NASCAR driver strolled up and asked for Jackson Prince. Jackson raised his hand, took the racing shirt Waltrip gave him, put that shirt on and immediately became the coolest 10-year-old fifth grader in the history of this sleepy suburban enclave on the shores of Lake Wylie.

Here, to pick Jackson up from the bus stop in a No. 99 race car similar to one that zooms 200 MPH in places called Talladega and Darlington and Daytona, was Waltrip himself.

Jackson's parents, Jack and Jami Prince, had won a Best Western fan swap charity auction with Jami's last minute bid of $5,515. The prize meant Waltrip, who owns and drives the Best Western car, would swap jobs with Jackson's daddy.

In September, Jack and Jami prince spent four days in Richmond, Va., with Waltrip's team for a NASCAR race. That was Jack's swap and he sure loved that. But Jackson didn't get to go: The cool part for him came Wednesday, when Waltrip's job was to be like Jack Prince, who sells commercial real estate but is home a lot a new millennium Mr. Mom set-up. That means Waltrip had to meet the bus, check the homework, feed the kid, start the laundry, and hang out until the older sisters got home and the chaos of family starts afresh.

Wednesday afternoon, it sure was cool to be 10-year-old Jackson Prince. His new buddy/dad Waltrip hammed it up with the girls at the bus stop, telling a beaming 6-year-old neighbor named Delaney Jones, “You have a beautiful smile – some of your teeth are missing.”

Sure enough Delaney's baby front teeth are long gone and she's waiting for the big ones. She said she had no idea who that tall guy was, “but he sure was nice.”

“Wanna go make some laps?” Waltrip asked Jackson.

“Sure, let's roll,” Jackson said.

Jackson leaped into the front seat of the car with Waltrip one of the best racers on earth at the wheel. A round of cheers boomed from the kids left on the school bus and the No. 99 car high-tailed it away - in 25 MPH zone Tega Cay. No. 99 flew at about 13 MPH. Walkers passed them they went so slow. But the look on Jackson's face showed it still was cool to tool around in the 99 car after school.

Then they got to the house – after waiting in school bus traffic - where ESPN waited to tape Waltrip's antics. The bus came back by on a loop and the kids on board cheered again and Jackson yelled out: “Hey everybody come on over later! We're havin' a party!”

Jami had the house all set up, had a few friends over, took the day off from her job selling houses in Concord, N.C. She didn't have to do anything more than direct the traffic of the house – which is what wives and moms do all the time anyway. She was a great hostess, cutting up with Waltrip and everybody else.

“But he hasn't done the laundry, yet,” she said with a grin, as Waltrip seemed to have this afternon fatherin' thing down pat.

Waltrip and Jackson got busy with the homework. Long division, estimating quotients from the “Math Connects” workbook just like every other fifth grader at Gold Hill Elementary School took home Wednesday. Except nobody else had a famous driver going over the answers.

Then they ate a little bit and trudged up stairs to the laundry room.

“Time to fold the socks and underwear,” Waltrip called out.

“You better do it right,” came the melodious tones heard in a million houses on earth Wednesday afternoon, in so many countries and states and even little cul-de sacs in the ‘burbs like this house in Tega Cay. The shouter: The mother-in-law.

Freda Borden, Jami's momma, first-generation American whose parents came from Italy, had already cooked homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs because that is what Italian mother-in-laws do, and the sauce bubbled on the stove so she could feed everybody.

She even had a good laugh with Waltrip and everybody else about the laundry and the whole hubbub in her daughter's house. Great lady, that Freda. Betcha she double-checks that laundry later.

Waltrip didn't have to fold any clothes, but he did start one load of wash. Jack Prince, the dad, sure didn't mind not doing chores for one afternoon.

“Hope he doesn't mind doing one of my jobs, paying the mortgage,” Jack Prince quipped.

And then Waltrip and Jackson went back downstairs to play some video games and hang out a bit. The homework was done, the house was sparking clean. Just a swapped dad who drives fast for a living and a 10-year-old kid, hanging out.

On the way to the couch Jackson Prince summed up having Michael Waltrip as his dad for a couple hours on a Wednesday afternoon: “Sure is pretty cool.”