What Would Dale Sr. Think?
Monday, June 16th, 2008 Write a comment
Not long after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his first points race for Hendrick Motorsports at Michigan, I put in a call to one of my friends in High Places and asked a favor. I needed to talk to Dale Earnhardt Sr. and could he please put me in touch? Within a miraculous minute or two, the phone rang. It was Dale.
‘Dale,’ I said, ‘Thanks for calling. Did you see June Bug win that race at Michigan today driving for Hendrick Motorsports?’
There was a long pause. “Yeah, I saw it,” he said. Then you could almost see that big grin breaking out on his face. “Pretty darned good, wadn’t it? I was really proud of the way Junior and Tony Eury Jr. worked together to win it on fuel mileage. Kind of reminded me of beating Bill Elliott on the last lap at Darlington one year.”
‘But Dale,’ I said, ‘He left Dale Earnhardt Inc. and now he’s winning for Rick Hendrick, never one of your closest friends in the garage, especially back in the days when you used to hammer on Geoff Bodine.’
‘Yeah, well,” said Dale after another pause, “Whenever your son wins a race, it’s a big deal. It don’t matter who he’s driving for. A father has to be happy when a son wins a big race, especially one at Michigan on Father’s Day. Chevy really needed a win there and it will probably help sell some cars at Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet.”
‘Well jeez,’ I replied. ‘It’s not like I’m fishing for a controversial quote. I mean who’s going to believe me, anyway? It just doesn’t seem like you would cotton to the idea of Little E and his sister Kelly splitting from DEI to move to Hendrick. Pardon the expression, but as the Intimidator you’ve always been pretty black and white about such things.’
“I guess it looks like two choices,” said Dale. “But the way the situation is now, I don’t have to pick sides. I’m pulling for everybody to win, including DEI. I mean, how do you think I got admitted to this place up here, anyway?”
‘OK, OK, I get it,’ I said. ‘But you don’t mean you’re pulling for everybody literally. Jack Roush is still a peckerhead in your book, right?’
“Man,” said Dale, “You don’t get it. Once you’re up here, giving driving lessons to the Big Guy, the perspective changes. Things start rubbing off on you, and I’m not talking about fender and door paint. Some days, though, even He thinks He’s Dale Earnhardt and I have to straighten Him out about that.”
‘Speaking of getting things straight,’ I said, trying to regain the momentum, ‘Did you hear how Dale Jr. said he had you whupped at Michigan in the IROC race back in 2000 on the last lap until Rusty Wallace gave you a bump draft?’
Just then a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere and landed just outside the window to my office. Funny thing, though, it didn’t affect the phone connection.
“I had his ass whupped at the finish line, didn’t I?” thundered Dale.
‘I see,’ I said, now getting warmed up. ‘As long as you’re not on the track, everything’s OK, because you’re not getting beat. Is that it?’
“What makes you think I’m not out there?” said Dale. And once again I could sense that sly grin begin to uncurl at the corners of his mouth. “I mighta even been there the day my son Kerry won at Michigan in the ARCA race back in 2001, too.”
‘Well Dale,’ I said. ‘You’ve never failed to amaze me, so I guess anything’s possible, including this phone call.’ I decided to tuck into the draft at this point. ‘So what do you think about Little E winning this year’s championship?’
“I don’t like talking about the Chase, even though Bill France Jr. and I finally worked that out once he got up here. I think Dale Jr.’s got a good chance, if Hendrick can get its act together on the Car of Tomorrow. It looks like they’ve turned the corner. Jimmy Johnson had a pretty good race at Michigan. I think Dale Jr.’s really been carrying the car a lot up until now. You can’t win the championship on fuel mileage. But if they really catch up, maybe ol’ DW’s prediction of six race victories ain’t too bad.”
‘He’s already got three if you include the two prelims from Daytona,’ I said. ‘And four if you include Brad Keselowski’s first Nationwide win for JR Motorsports. How do you think Dale Jr.’s doing as a team owner?’
“He’s getting there, ain’t he?” said Dale. “I honestly think that comment Teresa made about him having to choose between being a celebrity and a race car driver got his attention. She prayed a lot about it beforehand, so I can’t fault her for that. It’s too bad the rest of it didn’t work out. But I really couldn’t see Dale Jr. running the team and the rest of the DEI stuff better than her at this point in his life. He’s better off sticking to driving.”
‘I see,’ I replied, this time really mystified. Was I really talking to my old friend Dale? Could he be this mellow? So I gave it one more try.
‘You probably saw where Dale Jarrett and Bill Elliott are hanging up their helmets. Sterling Marlin’s almost done. So I guess your career in NASCAR would be over about now. Otherwise, I’d ask you whether you could beat Junior to the championship if you were still driving for Richard Childress.’
“Well, I guess you already know who did the better job the last time we drove the same equipment, that Corvette in the Daytona 24-hour,” said Dale calmly, not missing a beat.
‘OK, OK,’ I replied, on the short end yet again in a conversation with the seven-time champion. ‘You got me there. Too bad you never had a chance to get your Corvette team together. I know how much you wanted to race at Le Mans. By the way, did you see the Le Mans race this weekend? Allan McNish was incredible when he ran that quadruple stint against the Peugeots at the start and put the Audi into the lead.’
“Did I see it?” said Dale. “I was right there on his shoulder.”
Jonathan can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com.
On NASCAR’s “Car of Tomorrow”
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 Write a CommentThere’s been a lot of grumbling about the Car of Tomorrow, but judging by the number of them built and tested at Michigan earlier this week the moaning phase is over. Get used to standardized cars for all makes with front splitters and rear wings, where the distinguishing characteristics are a manufacturer’s decal and engine.
I, for one, would rather turn back the clock to the good ol’ days. When Junior Johnson unloaded at Bristol Motor Speedway in the 1970’s and 1980’s, for instance, one never knew what concoction of sheet metal would roll out of his truck. Johnson’s cars of yore would only vaguely resemble something at the dealership, but his one-of-a-kind entries would be transcendent in their cheated up glory.
“It’s all been tamed now,” said Johnson of the current state of NASCAR in Pete Daniel’s outstanding book about cultural changes in the South. (Lost Revolutions/The University of North Carolina Press).
But will the NASCAR of Tomorrow be better?
Well, it will be safer — and who can argue with that? This writer always praised the all-out pursuit of safety from a technical point of view in Formula 1 after the death of Ayrton Senna. Only a clod would then come back to criticize NASCAR for doing likewise after the death of Dale Earnhardt.
Will the racing be any better? Well, if IROC is any clue, then we may lose our voices and be waving our trousers over our heads if the rear wings and front splitters provide much needed aerodynamic relief on the cookie-cutter tracks and biggest ovals.
Is there a secret agenda by NASCAR to control competition more easily? Of course.
The much-vaunted level playing field — will it actually arrive? Yes, and please stand by for the docking of the Titanic in New York. The teams with the best and deepest group of engineers and consulting engineering firms will make the most of the remaining variables of suspension and splitter/wing settings. These are the same teams that always spend more money, win more races and usually get what they deserve in terms of results.
Do we have to like this Car of Tomorrow state of affairs? Hell no. But if the world stayed the same, how could we ever stand around the infield campfire holding nothing but beer, a conversation and sweet memories of the days long gone?
Besides, this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened. Nothing in the history of NASCAR “showroom stock” racing ever quite measured up to hauling the mail (if not whiskey) in one of the modified Fords, Chevys and Dodges in the late 1940’s. Completely hot-rodded after a decade of existence, these cars had gigantic wheels and tires, leaf springs, high-waisted rocker panels and run-what-ya-brung under the hood. Oh, baby.
Driving one the those lovelies in a short track race that resembled bumper cars at high speed, perhaps with an extra tank of fuel in the back seat for longer races to save one pit stop (which assumed no major conflagration in a crash), now there was a real driving challenge. And a sight to behold at speed. Now available in slow motion at vintage car shows everywhere.
There are times that the only decent progress is a dwindling supply in the cooler in the dead of night.