Motorsports 2006

Remembering #3

By BRANT JAMES
Published February 17, 2006

KEVIN HARVICK

... was the 2000 Busch Series rookie of the year but still a relatively unknown 25-year-old on Feb. 18, 2001. He finished second in the previous night's Busch race. He had one more season there to prepare for an eventual ride in the No. 30 Chevrolet in 2002. Everything changed when his teammate, Dale Earnhardt, died. Given the unenviable task of replacing Earnhardt in a No. 3 Chevrolet, renumbered 29, Harvick thrust himself headlong into a lifestyle he was not prepared for. He handled it remarkably well, winning in his third Cup race at Atlanta, again at Chicago, and amazingly finishing ninth in points despite running just 35 of 36 races.

"It's something you don't think about at the time it's going on, but I think our win at Atlanta and the success we had that year helped a lot of things going on - Richard being a part of the sport and continuing to own the car and really doing the things he did to still be at the track and show his support of the sport probably meant as much as anything, just keeping himself involved was probably the most important thing for the fans.

"Our success did have a little bit to do with helping things along but I don't think it was a major part of why it kept going."

... lost a friend, a contemporary and the heart of his team, with whom he won six Winston Cup championships.

"Five years, it doesn't seem it. It doesn't seem like it happened five years ago. We all still miss him as much as we did then. It's still a big void and all of us, after the loss of Dale, I'm sure what's happened there is drivers have always thought of their safety, but a lot of the drivers today look back and say, "How can I make my cocoon or my compartment in my race car safer?' and I think it opened a lot of people's eyes how they could be safer."

On the way Dale Earnhardt Sr. separated racing and relating to his peers:

"A lot of our younger drivers fail to realize that you can - on the racetrack - be intense, be selfish, be self-centered, only care about what's going on with your team right then and there, but when the race is over that needs to stop. A lot of our younger drivers don't get that. You can't live your life the way you drive a racecar. If you live your life the way you drive your car you're an a------. That's just the way it is. A lot of drivers don't understand it's okay to be somebody different out of the racecar. As of matter of fact, it's not only okay, it's mandatory if you want to be a productive person in society. "Dale understood that. You go back and watch all the things that Dale's involved in, how many times did he lose it on TV? How many times did he have something bad to say about somebody. He'd say, "Ah, that's just racing" and walk off. Now three weeks later, the guy that was racing with him, got spun out."

On Earnhardt's ultimate impact on drivers' view of safety equipment:

"The older drivers, after my lecture here in January (2001), Dale Jarrett went right out and got a (Head and Neck Restraint) device and a six-point belt. The younger guys still thought if you're really good, you don't crash bad. After that, it really changed their attitude. If Dale Earnhardt could get killed, anybody could get killed. We wanted to make him sort of our poster boy for safety by getting him to change, but we never got quite that far with it. Instead, his passing transformed the sport, no doubt about it."

On Earnhardt's legacy:

"I would say a Babe Ruth figure. That's the way I look at him. He was probably the best driver I raced against, and certainly the way he left the sport is something that is only going to leave his persona at a higher level. He still had things to accomplish, he still had things he wanted to do. The fact that we didn't get to see that happen is going to continue to make him larger than life."

About the time Earnhardt "rattled his cage' at Bristol, wrecking him:

"We didn't talk about that one for a long while. The next springtime I was down in the Bahamas and his fishing boat was down there, so he got tied up and didn't come down so we were supposed to go fishing. I took his boat out all day with some friends who were there. I told the captain, I said, "Hey, pull the boat in here and let's put fuel in it.' And he looked at me and said, "Don't worry about it. He owes you that.' So we were fine. I hate that it happened. I told some people, I don't think he really, really meant to wreck me and they told me I'm the only person that really believes that."

On why he was "The Intimidator's" whipping boy:

"I did seven races with him in 2000 and the Daytona 500 in 2001. He was mad as hell at me. At my first race in Dover, I got done qualifying he asked me, "Son, were you ever going to lift going into that corner?' And I said, "I thought that was the way you had to drive it in there. I didn't know.' He said, "All right, well, keep 'er off the wall.' So that was my first dialogue with him. The next was, I accidentally ran into Dale Jr. at Rockingham and spun him and Junior was running for the Rookie of the Year that year and he was p----d as hell after the race. I think Miami was the next race and there wasn't a straight side on my car afterwards, just from him roughing me up. There's a picture in the Winston Cup Scene of him jacking me up sideways and all the fans were writing in, asking "Has Earnhardt gone too far?' So it was a great article of me just plum sideways with Earnhardt beating the crap out of me."

On Earnhardt's connection to his fans:

"The unique part about his death is, when a driver retires or leaves, his fans usually go to another driver. Bill Elliott picked a lot of Richard Petty's fans up. Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s fans, I think immediately, out of sympathy, went over to Junior. Probably half of them stayed there. The other half really don't have anybody to pull for now because Dale Earnhardt was the last working man driver that we had. The guy running the backhoe and the shrimp boat captain and the people out there working with their hands for a living, they loved Earnhardt. And this is a tremendous opportunity for a young driver right now, but you can't fake that. You have to be that way."

On the five-year anniversary of his father's death:

"I didn't really expect it to be talked about a lot. I hadn't personally thought about it. Obviously, I heard it mentioned a few times over the last couple weeks. But I didn't really know or really I didn't even think that there would be a lot going on, a lot of tributes or anything happening prior to the race, building up to the race, or really a lot of talk in the media. Because I didn't ... there aren't too many other things that you celebrate a fifth anniversary of. You know what I mean? I didn't think it was that big a deal."

On being the son of a NASCAR legend:

"It was hard to be Dale Jr. when dad was around. Still tough. A lot of advantages. I had a lot of fun. Wouldn't trade it for anything. I don't really know how different that would have been (had he survived). When he was around, man, you knew he was there. That was tough. But, you know, I miss him a lot. Obviously, he could (have been) a huge assist in a lot of things that happened to me personally over the last five years."

[Last modified February 16, 2006, 09:46:05]