“I can’t believe this is even the same place.”

Story and photos by Dwight Drum
Web work by Gary Larsen

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a popular NASCAR driver even when he is hundreds of miles away from your local TV station. He is just as popular a few hundred feet away if you are in the stands when he races around a NASCAR track. He seems closer although still distant during a media teleconference, but here too his popularity stands out when answering questions by phone.

Earnhardt Jr. may be popular at any distance, but I believe he is at his best about two feet away where his personality matches and augments his notoriety. Sometimes the speed of TV coverage misses the whole character of those in the camera lens. It seems to skip Earnhardt Jr’s frequent display of a subtle sense of humor and an open congeniality that being up close for more than thirty seconds provides. A more complete and friendly character emerges during an hour or more.

After a few laps in an SUV around the new track at Homestead Miami Speedway Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently he had much to say with many media members ready to hear it.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“I feel there will be a great possibility for side-by-side racing and a lot more opportunities for passing. I can’t believe this is even the same place. It will quickly become one of the favorite tracks. A lot of guys were as excited as I was to come down here and check it out. I expect my phone to be ringing off the hook when I get back to the house.”

“These turns remind me a lot of turn three and turn four in Atlanta, the only corners on the whole circuit I think where you can drive four wide through there…potentially!

Curtis Gray, President of Homestead-Miami Speedway

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

About Team Personnel:

“I’m the kind of guy that I have to be friends with you. I have to like you to be able to work with you. If I can’t build a friendship. If I can’t get along with you, then I don’t want to work with you. I don’t care how good you are. I have to be able to have common ground. I get that with everybody on the team at this point. The closer and stronger your friendship and your relationship can be with the people, the better opportunity you have to race and do well. They know what you expect and they can just about guess on every move you make, if you know those people better. A lot of teams, drivers, and mechanics, I’m not sure take the time to make connections with each other and where you can almost guess on each other’s instincts.“

“I go the extra mile to make that happen and to make them feel like they are a friend. We work together and we’re buddies so we can joke around with each other. I feel like that’s an extra edge on the competition.

About Being a Racer and a Manager:

“It’s been kind of tough. It’s been hard. I haven’t had a huge role in management. I’ve helped on most decisions. I’ve tried to be a big voice and an opinion, offering another opinion in all the decisions that are made. The hardest part I find most difficult is trying to rally all the employees together, trying to keep their morale up. You can’t always answer everybody’s questions. Can’t always keep your lines of communication flowing one hundred per cent. Some guy in the corner doesn’t know exactly what’s going on. It’s hard to keep everybody focused and all of us having the same goal. It’s tough. You try to get the right insurance package and benefits that everybody likes. Maybe one guy likes it and another doesn’t. That’s something I didn’t know much about and didn’t realize that it was that important to everybody.. I thought everybody raced because they loved it. A lot of people seriously depend on that to pay their bills. ”

“It’s an old joke. It’s always been said about a fast rookie…he hasn’t hit nothing hard yet. I think they’ve always said that about everybody through out the years. When you’re slammed into a wall at 150 miles per hour, you learn to respect it. You don’t want to do it again and you’ll take extra precautions not to, but your competitiveness, determination and drive. I think that’s all within who you are, your personality. As long as banging into a wall doesn’t change your personality, I think you always drive as hard as you always have, even though you know how hard the wall is. “

“Definitely when you’re at the back…racing and trying to pass everybody if you have a competitive car. Racing among a group is a lot more fun than being out front, having to look in the mirror wondering who is about to catch you and who could be stronger than you. I guess that’s what you always do when you’re leading the race and wonder who has their car better and who has improved on their car over the last pit stop and might be coming. When you’re in the back you can keep tabs on everybody and see what everybody’s car is doing and take advantage of weaknesses. “