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The past year has been a bittersweet ride for Dale Earnhardt Jr., but he still is succeeding.
By JOANNE KORTH
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 9, 2001
HOMESTEAD -- Hoping to encourage people to resume their daily lives after the events of Sept. 11, someone got the bright idea to put Dale Earnhardt Jr. on a roller coaster.
Wheeee!
His stomach flipped. His feet dangled above his head. His shoulders slammed against the restraint. His backside hovered above -- er, make that below -- the upside-down seat.
"It was cool," Earnhardt said.
The message was to get out, have fun, spend money at Busch Gardens. The irony was that for the past nine months Earnhardt's daily life has felt a lot like that roller-coaster ride -- a heart-pounding series of dips, flips, drops, loops and turns.
Earnhardt, 27-year-old heir to his father's racing legacy, not only has endured this topsy-turvy season of tragedy and triumph, but has emerged with a clearer sense of place. He knows who he is and what he wants. He has his bearing.
"When I was a little kid, I would look back through all the books and old racing magazines and I'd look at the winners and all the statistics of the races my dad had raced," said Earnhardt, whose father, seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt Sr., died in a last-lap wreck at the Daytona 500 in February.
"Now, every time I win, I feel like it's a mark in the books of the sport forever. I know it will be many, many years before I come close to what my father has done. But each thing I do is a step toward that. I want to go down as one of the best. And then, maybe one day when I have a son, he can look back in the books and see what his daddy has done."
More than any young driver on the Winston Cup circuit, Earnhardt is a symbol of his generation. Blue jeans and rumpled T-shirts, always untucked. Scruffy three-day stubble. Dark, wrap-around sunglasses and backward baseball caps. Often times, he looks like he has just gotten out of bed. Often times, he has.
He plays video games and drinks beer. If he were not making millions of dollars driving a stock car nearly 200 mph, he likely would have a job at the dealership changing the oil in your car. Not long ago, that seemed fine with him.
But these days, Earnhardt is more than what meets the eye. He is insightful, witty and aware. He is focused. And, whether it be genetics or opportunity, he is an extremely talented driver with a burgeoning fan club and the most promising of attributes -- desire.
"It's pretty amazing," crew chief Tony Eury Sr. said. "I mean, nobody can feel exactly the way he does. Every weekend they have some sort of tribute (Earnhardt Sr.) and you're asked 50 questions about how you feel. To be having a much better year than we had last year is pretty remarkable."
Last season, Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Chevrolet team were plagued by inconsistency. He won two points races, sat on two poles and became the first rookie to win the Winston all-star race. But he finished with five top 10s -- a 10th at Dover in early June was his last -- and 16th in the standings. Matt Kenseth was rookie of the year.
This season, Earnhardt has three victories, all emotional. In July he won the first Daytona race after his father's death. In September he won at Dover in the first race after the terrorist attacks. In October he won at Talladega, duplicating his father's final victory right down to the $1-million bonus.
What higher power is at work?
"I'm waiting for someone to tell me, actually," Earnhardt said. "We've won three races in some incredible and adverse circumstances. I don't really know what to attribute that to, but maybe there's somebody smarter than all of us."
With three races left, Earnhardt is seventh in the standings, 136 out of fifth. He has nine top fives, 14 top 10s and more than $5-million in winnings -- impressive totals for any season, let alone this season. Clearly, he is more than just a namesake.
With every race and every day, he grows more comfortable with himself, more confident in his instincts and abilities. Nearly a year after losing his mentor, he is becoming his own man.
"I feel great about my ability to drive race cars," Earnhardt said. "I'm not trying to be modest about that, whatsoever. I'll be first one to tell you, I think I'm the best one out here. There's nothing better and nothing I'd rather do than be going around the track in a race car. That's something I've fallen in love with and don't want to give up for a long time."