Story and photos by Dwight Drum
Web work by Gary Larsen

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“The first thing I did was buy my mama a house and a car.”

Whenever Dale Earnhardt Jr. slows down to show up for a media gathering the media shows up in big numbers, TV , radio, and print, as they did at the new track at Homestead-Miami Speedway recently. The media day also included his visit with children at the Betty Jane France Pediatric center, Speediatrics, .at Homestead Hospital and a VIP evening gathering where Earnhardt Jr was honored with the presentation of the key to the City of Miami Beach.

Earnhardt Jr’s name carries a racing legacy, but the right combination of genes, determination and skills not only drives him over the finish line but also into the spotlight too. He answered many questions in a media hour at HMS and even had time for a few Zoomster questions also. We thank the staff at HMS and Earnhardt Jr for their time and consideration.

“It’s almost as if this is a brand new facility from the ground up.”

Zoomster questions from Dwight:

“Yeah. I feel like it is. Looking at this racetrack and how they built it. The computer technology they used. That was impressive. I didn’t expect that. A lot of people don’t realize how important a tool that can be. I’m impressed with what they did.“

Some of the (computer) games that are technologically advanced enough that I can actually use them to advance some of my skills or have knowledge about certain things, learn certain things, learn certain tracks. Some people don’t take advantage of that. I feel like it’s out there.

“As far as race cars, NASCAR doesn’t allow us to use onboard computer stuff in racing, but in testing we can. So what that extra day before the race there (in Homestead) will be a lot of guys with cables and wires running all over the cars trying to get all the information they need. It’s really intimidating because it phases out a lot of the old school drivers and old-school mechanics. It phases out a lot of guys. If you’re not up on it and learning about it, you’re not much use over a few years.

Could you tell when driving this new track that it was computer-generated?

“Not really. You can look at it and see that they were very diligent in doing what they did. A lot of tracks aren’t built (that way) like when they remodeled Atlanta. They kind a laid it out, paved it and there’s a few parts there that didn’t quite match up. And it’s like…can’t go back and fix that. Here (at Homestead) they were very smart in not doing that. What’s important is the transition from the old track to the new banking…it’s smooth and that’s where a lot the tracks make mistakes…in adding doglegs and things like that to straight-aways. They don’t improve and they don’t match up to the style of the corners. Here they were very good at making transitions. It’s almost as if this is a brand new facility from the ground up.”

“I guess being able to take care of your family and I think the best thing is probably the first thing I did was buy my mama a house and a car. That was the highlight of my career."