Columnists
Email
Print
Focusing on the Future
Earnhardt ready to put 2008 season behind him
AP Photo
Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he’s only mildly interested in the goings-on at DEI.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: November 16, 2008
HOMESTEAD, Fla. - While Jimmie Johnson takes his championship victory laps this evening around Homestead-Miami Speedway, teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be closing his first season with car owner Rick Hendrick in probably a much more quiet fashion.
Now, all things considered, it hasn't been a bad first year for Earnhardt. He made the Chase, he became a more consistent driver, and his work ethic is even stronger. And Earnhardt has laid a good base for 2009.
But Hendrick is NASCAR's king of championships, with this one No. 8. Earnhardt, at 34, knows he needs to get cracking on winning a title. His father won seven. And Earnhardt is certainly with the right guy now to get it done. But if even Jeff Gordon can't match up against the awesome Johnson, well, Earnhardt has his work cut out next year.
In reflection, Earnhardt said he's satisfied with 2008: "I was super excited about the way the season was going to start. I couldn't wait to get to work.
"Then it was a long year; we worked really hard. It went good at times; sometimes it went poorly. I need to do a little bit better in the summer. There are a bunch of tracks in the summer we don't run good at.
"But for the most part I was real proud of just getting the season in the bank, getting it done and looking forward to next year."
But Earnhardt wasn't much of a headliner this season. He did win that gas-mileage run at Michigan in June, but otherwise he was usually out of the limelight. That's rather odd, considering he's the most popular driver in the sport. And his driving style clearly changed -- it's less confrontational, more efficient, less dramatic -- and considerably less exciting to watch.
The big Earnhardt story of the season, rather, has been over at DEI, where Teresa Earnhardt has struggled too keep her four-team operation up and running. And now there's a planned merger with Dodge's Chip Ganassi -- a deal which has a lot of still unanswered questions.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that the planned DEI-Ganassi merger is interesting to watch -- from the outside. But now, nearly eight years after his father's death, and after several not-so-comfortable seasons working with Teresa, Earnhardt said he's now watching it all as a rather dispassionate observer on the sideline.
Taking care of business
As far as DEI goes in general, "I just don't have much to say about it anymore," Dale Jr. said.
"I did. But I am past it; and a little farther removed from it.
"I don't have any knee-jerk reaction about it no more when things happen to them....
"I still have emotional connection with it, where I want it to work, I want it to do good.
"But a lot has changed, a lot has changed. And it is difficult to feel any real close connection."
And what would Big E have to say about this merger, and the way things have gone at DEI lately? "I don't know," Earnhardt said. "Your guess is as good as mine.
"But he would have had better luck at securing sponsorships.
"When my Daddy died, all of that changed. Everything about everything changed.
"If he was here, he would be sad. But he is not, and everybody has to go do their own thing and make their own way.
"Everybody has got to take care of themselves.
"He ain't here to take care of everybody. So you have to do your own thing, take care of yourself."
So when he considers the DEI-Ganassi merger, it's from a distance: The merger, Earnhardt said, "Is good for both teams, to try to do that.
"It gives those guys a good opportunity to try to get through the season financially.
"Chip Ganassi is a racer; they really need somebody like that....
"It is great, for Ganassi to give his company a boost.
"It is really good for both."
Well, unless you're one of the 100 or so crewmen getting laid off in the merger. And more layoffs are expected.
Earnhardt just had to pink-slip a number of his own Nationwide tour crewmen, when he couldn't land enough sponsorship: "It always is difficult to fire anybody, especially when you have to do it in a big chunk.
"It is tough; it is not easy.
"It was 20 percent of our shop force, maybe about 17 people."
But Earnhardt's gone through with all that now, and the end of the season is only hours away, and then it's time for a break, some hunting with the Eurys.
Then January looms, and the start of 2009. At least, Earnhardt said, NASCAR's decision to cancel Daytona testing should make January an easier month for him to deal with: "January is awesome now....
"Now we'll just go to Nashville and sign autographs, and go to Daytona probably and still have the FanFest deal -- without the testing going on, we can make those events more exciting for the fans, and more exciting for the drivers and everybody involved.
"It would be good to look at that opportunity to really turn that event into something special, like it used to be back when it was in Winston-Salem."
Ah, yes, the good ol' days…. when nearly every year there was an Earnhardt smack in the middle of the NASCAR championship battle.
And next year, finally maybe again….
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.
Email
Print
