Risky business

Dale Earnhardt Inc. shuffles personnel, hoping to win more often at tracks other than restrictor-plate speedways.

By BRANT JAMES
Published February 20, 2005

	[AP photo]
	Dale Earnhardt Jr. initially resisted wholesale changes made in Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s teams.

DAYTONA BEACH - There was never really any need for a change. Not if Dale Earnhardt Jr. was content building his legacy with exploits at NASCAR's two restrictor-plate tracks. He could have remained the sport's most beloved driver, done all the TV commercials and kissed all the girls and had fun dabbling with his Busch Series team.

But that was never the plan. Not the one his father laid out when he designed the blueprint for the company that bears his name.

So with little reluctance and less worry, Earnhardt Jr. allowed his stepmother, Teresa, and DEI director of motorsports Richie Gilmore to tinker with a formula that has been incredibly lucrative for them all.

All in the name of getting back on track.

A swapping of Earnhardt Jr.'s successful No. 8 Chevrolet team with Michael Waltrip's struggling No. 15 could strengthen the depth of the operation or reduce proud DEI to mediocrity.

Assigning Earnhardt Jr. straightforward New Englander Pete Rondeau as crew chief could provide him the stability he needs or saddle him with someone who wilts in his first full-time Nextel Cup assignment.

Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt's cousin and former car chief, could provide the insight Waltrip needs or founder in his first job as crew chief.

The look on Gilmore's face suggests he realizes the weight of the gambit.

"It's definitely risky," he said. "We had a team (Earnhardt) one wreck away from winning a championship. ... Sometimes it takes risks."

Earnhardt seems to have the most to lose from the changes after winning six races and finishing fifth in points last season. But his open acceptance of the switches underscores how uncomfortable he had become with the growing personality conflict between him and his cousin. Earnhardt Jr. didn't ask for the changes; he agreed after being asked several times in the offseason.

"Everybody assumed that I just stood up in the middle of the room and demanded it," Earnhardt said. "It had been talked about for a long time before this. It was something I couldn't really sell myself on for a long time. I didn't really want to make the change, and decided not to make the change for a long time."

If Earnhardt Jr. defends his Daytona 500 championship today or Waltrip wins his third, the great gamble will be considered an immediate success. Though maintaining a grasp on restrictor-plate racing would be a relief, everyone within DEI knows that's not enough, especially Earnhardt. His team has been here, done that. Daytona is just a piece of the puzzle now.

"I prayed to the Lord this offseason that I'd trade all my success at restrictor-plate races for good runs everywhere else," Earnhardt said. "I don't know if he makes trades, but hopefully he did."

Earnhardt's victory last season was the snapshot moment of his career to that point, but he found it hard to celebrate. The reaction was not so much jubilation, he said, but relief.

"It was like escaping something. Like being let out of prison after 13 years or something," he said. "Maybe it's because we get so much attention. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to win, but everyone always says, "I picked you to win it.' So, when I won it, it was relief. And I watched my Dad run it and lose it a lot and finally win it. So I didn't want to be one of the guys who are retired and hadn't won that race."

Though Earnhardt and Waltrip remain among the most likely winners today, they are simply part of the pack elsewhere. Hendrick Motorsports is much deeper with four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon and two-time runnerup Jimmie Johnson, and Roush Racing has won consecutive titles with Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch.

A main thrust of DEI's restructuring was to regain footing with teams that keep adding more and more competitive cars.

"A year and a half ago I'd say we got off course," Gilmore said. "Dale (Sr.) raced first, wanted competitive cars. The sponsorship stuff and why we did stuff came secondary. We raced to win and that brought the sponsor money. We got a little off track. We started doing sponsorship stuff and racing special events, maybe doing too much and taking too much from the race team. It really wore our company out trying to do too much."

Waltrip is under pressure though he says he has no problem leaving if he cannot win in this car. He appears to have his best chance ever of winning in the 32 races not at Daytona or Talladega.

His three wins at Daytona and one at Talladega suggest - fairly or not - that his success is a product of DEI's equipment and acumen at restrictor-plate racing. Now he will use cars that won at Atlanta, Bristol, Richmond and Phoenix in 2004. "I didn't realize what was going on with Junior," Waltrip said. "They told me the change, I was really happy. I knew my team needed a change. It needed to be shaken up. And I got it."

With Gilmore asserting that both the team and the sponsor of the No. 15 car want a top-10 driver, Waltrip apparently has one last shot at a new contract when his deal expires at the end of the year.

"DEI needs to be in the Chase, and Michael wants to be in it," Gilmore said. "We felt like last year we did not give Michael everything he needed; that's why a lot of these changes were made. We feel like he has a team that is behind him, that backs him 100 percent. We feel this is probably the best opportunity he's probably had in his whole career."

Same for Eury Jr. After all but running Earnhardt's program the past two years as his father, crew chief Tony Sr., prepared him for a promotion, Eury Jr. finally gets to run a team. That, too, was part of the plan when Earnhardt Sr. turned his son's program over to Eury Sr. "That's something me and Dale always said, we were going to teach these kids how to race and we were going to sit on the porch and drink beer and watch them," Eury Sr. said. "We pushed for them to get there. It's time."

It's also apparently time for Earnhardt Jr. to take a first step toward his future at DEI. Whether it was defined by turning 30 or the desire to push for a title, Earnhardt has grown more serious about his career recently.

He entered the sport with the immediate fanfare of being the son of a racing legend and built expectation by winning Busch Series titles in 1998 and 1999 - mostly with vastly superior equipment, he said.

Earnhardt Jr. ascended the throne as the sport's icon when his father died in the 2001 Daytona 500. He wasn't sure he was worthy or capable of pulling it off. He proved he was, Waltrip said.

"He's real fortunate to have had the game and been given the opportunity," Waltrip said. "You know, there's a lot of people that have the game and don't get the opportunity and there's a lot of people who are given the opportunity and don't have the game. He is a combination of both."

Earnhardt has 15 wins in five full seasons and finished 8th, 11th, third and fifth in points the last four seasons. "I've already done more than I thought I would," he said. "I didn't know if I was going to amount to a whole lot. I didn't have a lot of things I enjoyed ... I didn't want to work a job that I didn't like. If that was the case I probably would be jobless.

"I got into the racing thing. I was scared I wasn't going to make it too good in that. I'd seen other drivers come in and not have success 'cause their dads did. So I've already got more money and more victories and way more than I thought I would. To me, it's amusing sometimes to hear what people think you should do cause I'm way past what I thought I would be."

Winning a Busch Series title as a car owner with Martin Truex, a driver he befriended and mentored, showed Earnhardt Jr. he had even greater aptitude. He was fulfilling his father's wishes, following the plan. It was time to start leading.

"To have this ability to have some control for a change, to say, "Hey, I'm in this position. Now I'm working with somebody where I have a lot more control with what goes on,' that's a good feeling," Earnhardt said.

That includes taking more charge of his image.

"I feel like I have more say," he said. "When you first come into this sport everybody is pushing you in different directions. You go here, go there. You don't know any better, so you just listen to what everybody says. After a while you start to figure things out. Some of the things you did, you didn't have to do. Some of the times when you wanted to say no but felt obligated, you can drop the obligation part. You can take it or leave it."

You can take a chance, or get left behind.

[Last modified February 20, 2005, 00:54:14]