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.
Top Ten Ingredients In The Merger of Champ Car Into The IRL
Monday, February 25th, 2008 Write a Comment1. Tony George — Like him or loathe him, George has never waivered from the assumption that no open-wheel series could survive without the Indy 500 on the schedule. Since his family’s business depended on the Indy 500 as the cornerstone of a lucrative empire, it would have been foolish to risk that asset by letting others make the rules without any involvement by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The George haters tend to forget he tried working within the system at CART, served on its board and got nothing but condescention for his efforts — the same attitude that alienated virtually all of CART’s promoters. It must be said George’s efforts were often awkward and ill-advised, such as a low-dollar buyout of CART team owners proposed in 1992 in Houston.
In any event, a lot of George’s share of the Speedway’s money has been spent on the IRL in the last 12 years for precious little return and it would be hard to describe him as a winner at this stage. The key for George will be re-building the IRL in the image of CART (i.e with major North American road racing and street circuits on the schedule with ovals). But this time American driving stars need to be prominently featured.
2. Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven — Say what you will about the rich, they tend to notice negative cash flow sooner or later. Inevitably, the Champ Car owners had to remind themselves they didn’t get rich by bleeding money. That is a dramatically different position from George, whose family did get rich from racing, among other enterprises, and could afford to wait out Forsythe and Kalkhoven, as he had their predecessors. Those predecessors at CART, meanwhile, squandered millions from an initial public offering that temporarily caught Wall Street’s fancy while George built up his financing by adding the Brickyard 400 and the U.S. Grand Prix at Indy.
3. CART — When Tony George inaugurated the hated 25/33 rule at Indianapolis in the first year of the IRL, reserving the majority of spaces for league members only, the CART teams howled and attempted revenge by running a 500-mile race at Michigan the same day. Had they run for points at Orlando and Phoenix to defeat George’s lockout, the IRL may well have been stillborn. The CART owners remained in denial about the importance of the Indy 500 until Chip Ganassi broke out and came back in 2000.
4. Buddy Lazier — The heroic victory in the first IRL race at Indy in 1996 by Lazier, still suffering from a broken back, gave a huge psychological boost versus the huge and embarassing starting line crash by the CART teams in Michigan the same day. It also helped the sport move past the death of Indy pole winner Scott Brayton in a practice crash.
5. Tony Stewart, Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr. — You can’t sell tickets or TV time without star drivers and these guys’ choice over the years to pursue NASCAR careers underscored that fact for both sides of the open-wheel war at various times. Bleeding star drivers is the same as bleeding money.
5. Chip Ganassi, Roger Penske and Michael Andretti — When these team owners switched to the IRL with the financial inducement from Toyota and Honda over the course of three years from 2000-2003, the handwriting was on the wall. Ganassi started it all by winning with Juan Pablo Montoya at Indy in 2000 the day after CART ran at, um, Nazareth.
6. Danica Patrick — She passed Dan Wheldon with 11 laps to go and led 19 laps over-all before finishing fourth. Danica Mania in 2005 proved beyond the shadow of doubt the status of the Indy 500 versus any other open-wheel race in America.
7. Alex Zanardi — If an American road racing fan can see a future F1 world champion, they are more likely to buy a ticket. And, as the CART owners learned again and again, ticket sales and fan enthusiasm remains the heart of the business. When the charismatic and talented Zanardi failed to be competitive after his move from two-time CART champion back into F1, it removed some of the lustre of the American series. Juan Pablo Montoya won races when he switched to F1 after succeeding Zanardi as a CART champion, but hardly reclaimed the mantle of world champion-in-waiting established by Jacques Villeneuve. While not decisive, these developments hurt CART’s gate appeal in the U.S. It remains to be seen if George’s league can do any better along these lines with drivers like Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti. Or how well former Champ Car champ Sebastien Bourdais goes in F1.
8. Honda and Toyota — The representatives of these manufacturers never could figure out how to explain the split in American open-wheel racing to their bosses in Japan, who only knew about that piece of Americana in Indiana. The Japanese also knew they could spend more money on the Indy 500 than GM or Ford — and that they were not getting their money’s worth out of CART’s air time on TV. Cost containment was never an issue at CART, where team owners instead constantly pursued a strategy of coming up with more money than their rivals.
9. Dan Gurney and Leo Mehl — Gurney helped launch CART in 1978, which was very much needed at a time when open-wheel racing was rudderless under USAC. The Speedway was rudderless, too, back in the days when the George family was entangled by personal problems, not the least being the death of George’s grandfather Tony Hulman and father Elmer George in successive years. Mehl was nominated at the infamous Houston meeting of CART to run a new structure proposed by George in 1992. Had either of these men been put in charge of American open-wheel racing for any substantial period of time, things very well could have been far different and for the better. Alas, Gurney and Mehl were too rational and knowledgeable in a branch of American racing where an oversized ego seems to be a prerequisite.
10. The USAC board of directors — A tragic plane crash in the cornfields of Indiana claimed the lives of several prominent members of the USAC board of directors in 1978. This crash helped open the door to the much-needed formation of CART, whose model of street courses, road circuits, ovals and the Indy 500 remains quite possibly the best form of racing to ever hit America. With some luck (i.e. the arrival of more charismatic American stars), we may see it rise again.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com.
Say, Who’s In That Blue Car That Just Blew My Wings Off?
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 Write a CommentIt’s not often one gets to take a poke at Junior Johnson over vittles. But the necessity of lunch while promoting his legal liquor deal brought us to the same table in the media center at Daytona several hours before the 500.After some conversation about events in the past — such as some of the, ahem, equipment Junior had used in the restrictor plate era — and talk of the bootlegging business way back when, there was an opening. We had worked through a couple of questions pertaining to Choir of Glory, an upcoming book. That established some groundwork on the subject of cheating and bootlegging that left laughter all around with Junior’s responses.
I offered that there had been much debate recently about who invented the draft at Daytona, a claim Johnson had long since made for himself along with the creation of the bootlegger turn on the back roads of North Carolina.
So how about it Junior? “Those other guys can talk about inventing the draft all they want,” he said, dander up. “But I was the first one to win a race with it.”
Whatever might have taken place in the preliminary sessions in February of 1960, indeed Johnson took an underpowered Chevy versus the stronger Pontiacs to victory by drafting and saving gas in the second running of the 500. In retrospect, it is clear quite a few may have gotten a piece of the same pie when it came to discovering the effect of the draft at Daytona in practice, but crafty Johnson quickly made the best use of it and can stake his claim accordingly.
From the victory by Johnson, races at Daytona quickly evolved into drafting to pass, or the slingshot. That mode disappeared along with the aerodynamic cars of the 1980’s, followed by the restrictor plate era of no acceleration and the two-cars-against-one pass. That brings us to the present, otherwise known in NASCAR-speak as the winged Car of Tomorrow.
Judging by this year’s finish of the Daytona 500, we have gone from the slingshot to the cannon shot.
Last year’s dramatic finish resulted from Matt Kenseth bump-drafting Kevin Harvick down the backstraight on the last lap, catapulting him past Mark Martin, who couldn’t catch up before the checkers. Harvick and Kenseth weren’t even teammates, nor did they drive for the same manufacturer. It was a typical dog-push-dog maneuver to get to the front at the finish.
This year, Penske Racing perfected this methodology by getting its veteran teammates at the front of the field at the end of the race through pit stop strategy. Ryan Newman got the bump draft from Kurt Busch on the last lap and boom! Newman went past leader Tony Stewart like the latter was a couple of decades behind the times.
The calvary in the form of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kurt Busch was too late in the lower lane to help Stewart counterattack. In other words, Penske’s pit strategy meant its ducks were in a row. “We just never executed at the finish,” said team owner Roger Penske of his team’s losing streak in points races at Daytona of 57, which began with Mark Donohue’s bid in an AMC Matador in 1972. This time, “The Captain” and a team well known for chess moves directed from the pit wall got it right.
For the forseeable future, expect to see more heavily orchestrated team tactics, with teams coordinating their cars from the pits instead of the traditional method of leaving it to the drivers and hoping for the best. After all, Gibbs is receiving $25 million per year from Toyota and has to be examining an improved approach to team tactics on this Monday morning after such a near miss on the heels of dominating earlier races. In the 500, the Gibbs Camrys of Stewart and Busch led 102 of the 200 laps.
There’s been a lot of talk about Indy car and F1 drivers making the transition into NASCAR. But it’s the team owners who have preceded them and made it possible such as Penske and Chip Ganassi. The third Dodge in line on the outside line on the last lap, it bears mentioning, belonged to Reed Sorenson of the Ganassi clan. Juan Pablo Montoya of Ganassi was also in the lead draft as the laps wound down.
If the Car of Tomorrow requires a more detailed understanding of technology when it comes to building a frame that bears aerodynamic loads more effectively, then the boys most familiar with Indy cars might have an edge. Clearly, the Hendrick Motorsports cars, dominant in the shorter races, did not have the right stuff over the long haul. There’s likely some head-scratching on that subject in post-race discussions at Hendrick as well.
In any event, the Indy car guys have some depth when it comes to strategy in 500-mile races, given the experience of winning a race up across the Mason-Dixon line in the month of May that pays considerably more money than Daytona’s version.
The re-birth of NASCAR had long been established (by last week’s Bud Shootout). What’s news this week is that Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t have to win to sustain that momentum, although it helps if he’s in the mix.
As it was, a mix-up between the sport’s current most celebrated Junior and Crew Chief Tony Eury Jr. took Little E out of contention. They flat blew it by sticking with the old-fashioned pit-or-not-to-pit approach and knew it. On old tires, the last hope of Hendrick, which crashed two cars and lost one car to suspension failure, was doomed.
With the concussion of a canon shot, the 50th Daytona 500 instead went to the smartest and the swiftest, if not craftiest.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com
RACSAN Lives. Junior Wins Again.
Monday, February 11th, 2008 Write a CommentAt the conference of anthropologists who met at Daytona on Saturday night, it was confirmed the species RACSAN is alive and well. The guest speaker at this conclave brought down the house after touring the entire Daytona facility rather quickly and then addressed the gathered note takers at the lodge in the infield.
It has been a matter of frequent public discussion that the hey day of the RACSAN tribe has passed. Those worshiping at the electronic alter have dwindled, according to the priests who record such things. But the tale woven by our guest speaker this past weekend suggests the live story is what counts, not the recording device.
Our speaker is a familiar man on this trail. His father came before him and both of their stories are oft-told. Yet, our guest speaker manages to keep his account compelling, one reason his coffers are so full from the offerings of fellow tribesmen.
It is the job of those gathered with notepads to help trace the arc of history, which can and will move in various directions. On Saturday night it was easily observed by the various questions as well as responses from our guest speaker that he’s one member of the tribe who can move that arc dramatically in either direction by his leadership — or failure — in RACSAN events.
At least, that was the message in the question-and-answer period. And perhaps what was left unsaid meant more than what was said. By that I mean there was an unspoken admiration for our guest’s account of things, because they came from a big-hearted soul, one whose world view has been forced into a broad perspective by events amidst the tribe he passionately believes in.
By his account, it seems, others draw the sweet marrow of what it means to be in this particular land.
He cited his life and times without the self-consciousness of his position, rather an acceptance of both its pain and promise. He said he had “worked and lived in tumultuous situations and I just got used to it I guess.” He cited his second-in-command, a cousin who also carries a Junior along with the name of his father before him. He pointed out that along with his cousin he has lived in the rhythms of the RACSAN way, which are beyond any one single individual. “We grew up through it even before we got to his level. Life wasn’t easy. It wasn’t ever a golden road and easy to travel. But it is what it is. There is a lot of pressure, I think, for us. But we’ve always delivered.”
It is an art form for RACSAN leaders to lay bare their soul when it comes to the inevitable individual trials amidst a tribe of defiant fighters. Not many can both conquer on the battle track and then submit to describing the struggle with such conviction, humor and humility. There is a constant awareness of the vulnerability, that the battle axe could fall at any moment. Then there’s the temptation to gloat once success is in hand. But not on this night.
“I was leading and leading, but I was afraid that I was going to get beat by a slingshot pass at the end,” he said. “I’m glad the slingshot is back, but I don’t want to get beat that way.”
The elders at RACSAN must also be given credit for providing the platform for our guest speaker. They commanded a new strategy for the battle wagons, one that has rejuvenated the slingshot. Above all, the new vehicles put more emphasis on the skill of the man in command. By this latter measure, our guest speaker has re-established himself after almost two years on desolation row.
Our guest, as has been known throughout the land, also decided to change chariot makers to the Hendrick brand. This, too, enabled the chariot maker to rejoice. The chariot maker shared the podium and was relieved his new model worked so well. “It sure takes a lot of pressure off to come down and run good in the first race and get a win early and just have a lot of fun,” he said. “I think that’s the important thing.”
The chariot maker and the guest speaker have endured their share of tragedy. The guest speaker recalled that Daytona “is where we lost (my father) and I want to keep whupping it.” That neatly summed up the most intensely shared values among the RACSANs of courage under pressure, dedication to hallowed ground, loyalty to kin and kind.
The chariot maker said his son had dreamed of this situation, the same son that was lost in a violent crash with so many other family and team members while en route to some of the hallowed ground in Virginia not so many years ago.
So here was the embodiment of not just the perseverance by the two Juniors and the chariot maker. Their individual chariots had swung so low along different paths in the not-too-distant past. Together they were now riding high and sweet.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com
Who Needs Three?
Monday, February 4th, 2008 Write a CommentAt the risk of joining the never-ending critiques of television’s view of racing, I have a suggestion. Dump the usual model of three commentators in the booth in favor of two.
Whether it’s an ex-driver or former crew chief, put a knowledgeable guy together with an experienced “play-by-play” caller. That way, the show is forced to focus on what’s happening on the track — instead of what’s going on in the talking heads residing in the booth.
Howard Cosell is long since dead (but likely still providing astute analysis of the hereafter). So why keep trying to hitch television sports to the same tired three-man formula? Cosell’s presence on Monday Night Football made that approach perfect and since then — what?
Racing fans tune in to follow their favorite teams and drivers. The more focus on those teams and drivers, the more interest by fans. But producers inevitably seem to have their eye on expanding coverage by adding drama in the booth that captures the imagination of the casual fan — or by having explanations drawn up to be sure the casual observer knows a pit stop from a pit pass.
I can’t tell for sure from where I’m sitting, but most producers strike me as the classic ego-driven nut cases who need to see their own vision come to life. Hand them a TV show and presto! It’s a shame the emphasis sometimes seems to be more on ego and less on vision.
All producers not only know television, they know sports. If so, then they should all check out yesterday’s telecast of one of the all-time best Super Bowls. Two knowledgeable, well-prepared guys in the booth focused on the challenges facing the individuals on the field. When it was over, it was clear everyone had just viewed a great game. The commentary was great because it wasn’t the focus.
The three-man approach has a lot of vulnerabilities, chief among them the tendency to believe what goes on in the booth is more important than on the track. Above all, it allows less talented people to work in the booth and puts less emphasis on individual preparation. With two guys, they have to walk and talk as opposed to argue and kibitz. There’s no hiding a lack of talent — or preparation.
Given the budgets, there’s no reason producers can’t find two commentators who can carry an entire race. If the budgets are big for shows like NASCAR, money is no object. If the shows are run on a nickle like SpeedTV’s F-1 telecast, it’s easy enough to pay one less guy to travel to the studio in Charlotte.
With two guys in the booth, it naturally puts more focus on the pit road reporters, who can provide updates on the day’s drama for individual teams. That’s what fans want to know.
So what about making it a show? Well, as NASCAR has learned over the last couple of years, any sports show is about authentic drama (see again this year’s Super Bowl and its ratings). The more you hype a sport in the course of competition, the less authentic it becomes. Put the hype into the pre-race show by creating real story lines.
I share the concern of producers who worry about the “long middle” portion of motor races that inevitably follow a big start and precede a big finish. It’s just not possible to fill the air time with strategy discussions or updating what is going on in the pits of each contender. In addition to lobbying for shorter races (in the case of NASCAR), there are other possibilities beyond relying on the pit road reporters.
Get two guys in the booth who are interesting enough that their discussion due to the passion, knowledge, insight, humor and anecdotal information actually engage the viewer without getting in the way of the race. Who needs a third guy in the football broadcast booth, for instance, when you have John Madden?.
The formula is as clear for motor racing on TV as yesterday’s Super Bowl. Team a bona fide TV professional like Mike Joy, Bob Varsha or Lee Diffy with an engaging former athlete who doesn’t waste time talking about what he did ten years ago. In NASCAR, the best choices are obvious and are currently available such as Darrell Waltrip, Andy Petree, Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach Jr. In open-wheel and road racing, Scott Goodyear, Calvin Fish and Dorsey Schroeder set the standard. In the NHRA, Mike Dunn is superb.
What we need is more talent, more racing and fewer commentators.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com