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.
Back To F1’s Future
Monday, June 9th, 2008 Write a CommentJust when I thought last year’s Ferrari spy scandal couldn’t be topped, the now infamous video of the embattled FIA President Max Mosley, caught in flagrante dilecto as the divorce lawyers like to say, appeared. Given the choice of following all the details of yet another tawdry scandal — or not — I chose to put F1 on the back burner.
Monaco, with all its compelling traditions, was my return date for full-time viewing of the races. Given that the absence of the U.S. Grand Prix no longer creates newspaper or magazine assignments to cover F1 in Indianapolis, television is the only option. With intermittant rain at Monaco, a superb and unpredictable race ensued, well worthy of the sport’s tradition. Then on Sunday, the Canadian Grand Prix served up its usual unpredictable smorgasbord, ending up with the sport’s first Polish victor.
It was not a surprise that Robert Kubica finally stood on the top step of the podium, nor that BMW returned there. Long live the king, as the tradition goes, when the old guard is no longer in place.
When the race was over, I not unexpectedly asked myself the question of whether the current crop of drivers measures up to the days when Ayrton Senna vyed with Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell as a young Michael Schumacher made his way onto the scene?
If one asked the team owners that question, the answer would be an unequivical yes. Team owners do not have the luxury of sentimentality and are quick to move on to the next generation, lest they themselves become yesterday’s story.
Driving for Renault, Fernando Alonso beat Schumacher en route to two championships. Kimi Raikkonen so impressed Ferrari that the scuderia moved the great Schumacher into retirement in order to secure the Finn’s name on a contract.
Raikkonen promptly rewarded the Prancing Horse team with a championship last year ahead of Alonso, in his first year driving for McLaren, and last year’s phenomenal McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton.
But times past are different, just as generations are different. And the current crop of drivers sometimes bear little similarity to their predecessors in ways that are significant, if not necessarily important.
Can any driver in the current generation invoke the concept of God and how He relates to motor racing as did Ayrton Senna? Has any driver in the current generation of teen phenoms quickly promoted to the top rank suffered through the early career trails of one such as Mansell? Did Alain Prost have more talent and a little less career luck than the incredible Schumacher? After all, how many guys have lost a title by half a point the year after losing it by two points?
I’m not sure in the current scheme of things if a team would hire a driver who put religion as one of the highest of his priorities. Or, if a somewhat goofy guy like Mansell, after his early penchant for accidents, would get a shot at a front-running ride. In any event, Mansell was 26 years old when he arrived at Lotus, about the age most of his front-running peers arrived as well.
What we have now are an army of brilliant young drivers groomed for stardom from a young age in a sport where many millions are at stake for all concerned. There’s not a potential fun-loving James Hunt, who nevertheless drove through the fog at Fuji to win his title, in the lot. Raikkonen might have taken up this mantle of playboy at large if not for the repercussions — gadzooks — from Fleet St. that now play a heavy hand in the eyes of team owners and sponsors.
It’s easy to forget sometimes that all these observations and judgements can come relatively easily through the cornucopia of TV and the Internet, which are also the offspring of the rising tide of money in so-called modern lives. There was a time when you had to search or pay dearly to find someplace to read about F1. The race reports back then were sometimes so archaic in style and late in arrving that you almost expected Don Quixote to be listed at the back of the grid. Or, they were so confusing that it seemed as if Tazio Nuvolari might have been a front runner midway in the event.
So one can’t get too irate at sanctioning bodies, manufacturers, team owners or drivers for the changing times that have made the sport more readily accessible as well as profitable. It’s not as if we’re held hostage, although Mosley’s pathetic affair comes close. It, too, is the result of changing times and electronic viewing habits.
In some significant ways, we’re down to pure sport as art. Watch the race, appreciate the talent, commitment and skill on all sides when it comes to building and driving the cars, then forget about the boring interviews unless they might reveal information about a turning point in the outcome.
At least these days there’s no burden about the possibility of motor racing disappearing all together. Previously, it was possible to believe that without the support of those who followed it despite the absence of coverage by the mainstream media the sport of motor racing might fall off the planet. It’s now possible to tune in, turn on or drop out, which also might be a forecast of viewing habits in a few years’ time.
In my case, after dropping out briefly the turning point was Monaco, where I enjoyed a fantastic trip in 2000 with my future wife and saw Shumacher win the pole from the hillside at Le Rocher and a guy named Coulthard — the same one who showed up on the podium in Canada — come home first.
It’s a funny thing how memories help make the anticipation of each new day.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com.
Top 10: A Good Thing If Coulthard Switches to NASCAR
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 Write a CommentHeaded for the Canadian Grand Prix, F1 driver David Coulthard recently visited the garage in Dover prior to the NASCAR race as part of a promotional tour for Red Bull. Naturally, speculation emerged about the chances of the Scotsman giving it a go in NASCAR. Here follows ten good reasons for making the switch.
10. With an accent like that, Couthard could help promote NASCAR’s diversity movement. 9. Fellow Scotsman Jimmy Clark, who drove at Rockingham (N.C.) in 1967, would be smiling if Coulthard made the switch. And besides, the Sprint Cup could use two Scotsmen in case stuff happens like Dario Franchitti getting sidelined by an ankle injury. (Don’t believe the rumors Dario won’t be back.)
8. Every major racing series needs at least one square-jawed driver.
7. A driver like European-based Coulthard could really begin to change perceptions. In 20 years, NASCAR will finally be as mainstream as baseball in America, but it will still trail the NBA and all its foreign players outside the U.S.
6. Now that reunification has occurred, NASCAR needs to get the former F-1 guys before the IRL does.
5. It would be a reminder of Gerhard Berger’s send-ups of the media about switching to NASCAR or the IRL at the height of his F1 career.
4. Perhaps people would begin to realize — at long last — that the southern drawl is actually only a slight modification of the Scotch or Irish accents.
3. Juan Pablo Montoya could relive his days of driving into F1 drivers.
2. If Coulthard makes the switch work, could a bored, retired guy like Michael Schumacher be far behind?
1. Free Red Bull for everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrybodddddddy!!!!!!
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jonathan@jingrambooks.com.