Earnhardt Refuses to Look Back
By VIV BERNSTEIN
CONCORD, N.C. — A glass-encased wall of trophies greets visitors to the museum at Hendrick Motorsports, from the old Winston Cup and Nextel Cup championships to the many prizes for individual race wins over the 24-year history of the team. Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet that clinched the 2007 Cup championship is prominently displayed on the floor nearby.
But you have to search to find Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s presence here. His racecar, mostly empty trophy shelf and all-important merchandise station, complete with No. 88 T-shirts, jackets, mementos and even dog bowls, are all the way at the back of the museum and gift shop behind the more senior members of his new team. The driver Jeff Gordon’s gear is up front, followed by that of Johnson, Casey Mears and finally Earnhardt, based on tenure.
“That’s cool,” Earnhardt said after practice at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Thursday in advance of Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup race. “They need to get them to walk all the way through it, don’t they?”
And besides, he is just happy to be there after all that he has gone through in the last year. Earnhardt has found a new home, a fast racecar in his garage stall each weekend and a precious peace of mind since leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. and joining Hendrick this year.
“I sat at home last night and talked to a friend of mine and he’s like: ‘Man, you’re such a happier person and you’re a whole lot nicer to everybody. Just, you’re different and it’s better. You’ve got less things on your mind,’ ” Earnhardt said. “And I feel that. I go home and I don’t have the worries I used to have. I know that when we show up to the racetrack I’m going to have a great chance to run good.
“The struggles at D.E.I. were such a heavy burden, and I feel a whole lot more calm and relaxed.”
It is a stark contrast to Earnhardt’s life one year ago. Last May, Earnhardt gave up on his bid to take control of Dale Earnhardt Inc., the race team started by his late father and now run by his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt. He announced he would leave the team after the 2007 season. But before he could get out, Earnhardt had a series of engine failures that doomed his season. He finished 16th in points, the second time in three years he missed the cutoff to qualify for Nascar’s 10-race playoff at the end of the season.
Making the playoff again was the priority when Earnhardt joined Hendrick Motorsports this season. Even though a period of transition was expected, the goal was to make sure Earnhardt was back in the hunt for championships.
What Hendrick Motorsports could not have expected was that Earnhardt would be its standard bearer so far this year. On a team that features the two-time defending champion Johnson and Gordon, a four-time Cup winner, it is Earnhardt who has been the most consistent performer at Hendrick.
“They’ve brought a little to the table for us to learn from and try to adapt,” Johnson said of Earnhardt and his crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., who also went over from D.E.I.
Through the first 11 races, Earnhardt is third in the points race behind Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton and ahead of Johnson (6th), Gordon (10th) and Mears (27th).
“I guess I’m a little surprised about how well we’ve done this year,” Earnhardt said. “We’re to the point now where we’re trying to capitalize on it, trying to improve on it, but I can’t complain one bit about the equipment I’ve got, the motors I’ve got, the team I’ve got and how great of an opportunity I’ve been given.”
Perhaps not coincidentally, Nascar has had more television viewers for many of its races this season. It would be a perfect world for Earnhardt and that legion of fans known as Junior Nation if not for his noticeable absence from victory lane. Although Earnhardt won Nascar’s season-opening exhibition race, the Budweiser Shootout, as well as a qualifying event at Daytona International Speedway in February, he has not won a Cup points race in more than two years.
Earnhardt came closest this season at Richmond International Raceway on May 3, taking over the lead in the final laps of the Dan Lowry 400. But Busch, the driver who was dropped by Hendrick Motorsports to make room for Earnhardt after last season, gave chase and the two racecars bumped with three laps to go. Earnhardt spun into the wall, and his chance for a victory slipped away.
“You know, I had this nauseating feeling that something like that was going to happen,” the team owner Rick Hendrick said during a telephone interview Thursday.
Asked how Earnhardt was after the race, Hendrick said, “Since I’ve known him, that’s the most disappointed I’ve ever ... I mean, he was really tore up after that race. I could tell.”
But there is a consolation prize. The Hendrick general manager Marshall Carlson said merchandise sales at the gift shop and on the Internet had doubled since Earnhardt, considered the most popular driver in Nascar, moved in and Busch moved out.
“We look at the performance of the team and the sponsorship and all that as a package, and right now, that team is performing extremely well,” Hendrick said. “They’re carrying the banner right now.”
Race fans are sure to find that banner at the back of the shop.
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