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DEI? There are a lot of questions about this race team
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Published: August 24, 2008
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Give Richard Childress two thumbs up and give Bobby Hutchens a pat on the back for taking the charge. And now it's time for Aric Almirola and Regan Smith to step to the plate and show what they can do with the wheels.
There are no guarantees this DEI rescue plan will work. But when Childress puts his shoulder to the task, good things usually happen.
Almirola has been polishing himself for just this moment for more than four years now, for a shot to become an "overnight" sensation. And at just 24 he could be ready to make it as one of NASCAR's next big home-run hitters.
Yes, NASCAR does have half a dozen contenders vying for that headline spot. But among the top newcomers DEI has two of the candidates, Smith and Almirola.
DEI?
Yes, that's been the way to describe Dale Earnhardt Inc. lately, with a question mark.
DEI has, to hear the rumbling throughout the garage, been on a downward spiral this season, after the loss of Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Rick Hendrick, a rival Chevy team owner.
But Childress, a veteran Winston-Salem car owner who is angling for a seventh NASCAR Cup championship this season with his own RCR operation, has been working quietly behind the scenes to help get things back on track at DEI.
Childress has been determined to keep Dale Earnhardt's "Garage Mahal" from becoming just a ghostly museum to the legend. He has beefed up the DEI engine operation, with a joint R&D program. Now he's sent his top-of-the-line managing engineer, Hutchens, over to DEI to help John Story and Max Siegel fill in the holes.
Almirola, of Cuban descent (his father escaped Fidel Castro during one of the 1960s' Freedom Flights), is perhaps the top Sprint Cup prospect to emerge so far from NASCAR's long-running diversity program, although last night's race was only his 11th career tour start.
He might be even further along in his NASCAR career -- even in the very spot where Joey Logano sits today (announcement is expected Monday that Logano, at 18, will replace Tony Stewart next season) -- if not for a rare mistake by Joe and J.D. Gibbs last summer. The Gibbs made headlines, and controversy, by pulling Almirola out of their Busch (now Nationwide) car while he was leading at Milwaukee and putting more star-powered Denny Hamlin in the car in order to placate a sponsor.
The Gibbs got criticism for that decision. Almirola fumed, and split. But Almirola now said he understands the deal -- sponsorship money is hard to come by, and when a sponsor speaks, car owners listen.
Almirola got his first break when the Gibbs discovered him running the Florida short tracks and put him in Reggie White's diversity program in 2004, racing Late Models at Ace Speedway over in Burlington (a NASCAR short track that has been living up to Daytona's weekly series marketing campaign).
It's been a slow, ragged road from there to here, where last night the Tampa, Fla., racer got his seventh Sprint Cup start of the year. He got his first Sprint Cup start in last season's tire-disaster 400 at Las Vegas, with the Gibbs. After the Milwaukee incident, Almirola wound up at DEI after getting a ride-sharing offer from Martin, during the tumultuous days following Bobby Ginn's withdrawal.
Patience is important
Almirola had only to peek outside his hauler Friday afternoon -- at David Ragan's spinning, crashing car -- to see the downside of the theory of rising NASCAR expectations hitting the glare of the headlights.
But, like Jeff Burton said, a team -- from owner to crew chief to sponsor -- has to have patience with new drivers such as Almirola, Smith and David Ragan:
"It's like having a 3-year-old and being mad because that 3-year-old acts like a 3-year-old -- you can't have a young driver and then give up on him because he acts like a young driver. Because he is a young driver," Burton said. "Once you make that commitment, you've got to be willing to see it through and help him mature."
"I agree with that … and any time Jeff Burton says something, you listen," Almirola said.
"He's exactly right. I'm young, and I'm dumb, and I'm going to make mistakes.
"But even though I'm not running all the races this year, I'm at every race, sitting up on the pit box, and watching, trying to learn from other's mistakes, and put that in my memory banks.
"So even when I'm not in the car, I'm trying to learn.
"Yes, David Ragan has to get right up on the wheel now, because he's trying to make the chase. You have to go for everything. And yes, you're going to make mistakes.
"But that's what I like about my race team and my crew chief Tony Gibson: They know I'm young and I'm going to make mistakes, and they're behind me. We went to Watkins Glen, had a decent car, but I wheel-hopped in turn one and flat-spotted the tires, and we had to pit under green. But that was OK; we knew what we were there for, to get me laps, so next season Sonoma and Watkins Glen won't be an Achilles' heel."
DEI has four drivers
There are three parts to this story: DEI, struggling to rebound. Almirola and Smith, newcomers hoping to stick in the big league. And sponsorship.
At the moment the bottom line is DEI has four drivers, good ones all, but only two full sponsors. The Paul Menard-John Menard part of the picture is still iffy, with strong reports that the Menards may be moving to the Jack Roush-Doug Yates Ford camp for 2009. But Childress and Earnhardt did finally resolve the Martin Truex Jr. debate, and he will be back with DEI for another season, after negotiating for months to get out of the option year of his contract and move elsewhere, either to Childress' team or to Roger Penske's. That means sponsor Bass Pro Shops will keep writing checks to DEI.
However, the U.S. Army sponsorship that Almirola and Martin have been sharing this year is still up for grabs, and it's likely that could move to the Red Bull Toyota camp to back Scott Speed, unless Almirola and Martin can make something happen fast to persuade otherwise.
Of course Childress has proven adept at securing sponsors, adding Caterpillar and General Mills (and an obvious possibility for a female driver-diversity sponsorship hook, if Childress so decides) for next year.
So the next question is how well Childress can work his board-room magic for DEI. To pull out some rabbits this late in the sponsor-hunting season, Childress will certainly need some hefty support from Smith and Almirola -- they've got to produce. And that's not easy, even when you're Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart, both still winless heading into last night's race.
Add the pressure of running for DEI.
"A lot of the media has brought that on DEI, and for whatever reason a lot of the stories about DEI are negative," Almirola said. "One thing leads to another, and we get a lot of negative press, which may be understandable, because there have been a lot of ups and downs at DEI over the last few years.
"But if we build good cars and go out and run good, all that will take care of itself. The sponsors -- it all goes back to on the track you have to perform. And I think DEI is doing that.
"Except for Martin not making the chase this year after making it last year, he's getting back on track. He's been running good the last couple of weeks, had a good run at Watkins Glen.
"Paul is further up in points than he was last year.
"We've got fast race cars...."
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com .
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