NASCAR is blanketed in a tremendous amount of emotion.
It definitely has its ups; fame, if that is what you seek, fortune, and enough adrenaline to satiate any junkie. However, it also has its downside. It is admittedly, a dangerous way to spend one’s time. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has seen both the ups and the downs, up close and personal.
Yet, he maintains a ride with one of the top teams in the sport.
Today at Auto Club Speedway, he will make his 600th career NASCAR start. While he has built a career that anyone could take tremendous pride in, he says it didn’t start out with ideas of anything that dramatic.
“I just wanted to drive,” he reflects. “I wanted to race cars for a living. I wanted to do it well enough to be able to afford to make a living doing it. I didn’t have vision or assume that I was going to make all of the money and success that we have made, but all I really wanted to do was to do it long enough so I didn’t have to get a real job.”
It’s safe to say that he has realized that dream and much, much more. As the sport’s most popular driver, over a decade running, he realizes that he has achieved what most will only dream of.
“I’m real thrilled that I’ve had the opportunity to stay around and drive for some really great teams, “ he continues. “Some really awesome owners. Worked with a lot of amazing crew chiefs and crew members. We have a really great group of guys that we race with in this current situation, we are having so much fun at the race track and really enjoy working with Greg (Ives, crew chief), so I feel fortunate and lucky and hope to have good success this weekend.”
Growing up is hard enough by itself. Growing up in NASCAR puts most drivers under a microscope, open to public interpretation and scrutiny. Most of us take for granted the everyday things we do; going to the grocery store, out to dinner with friends, as part of what makes life enjoyable. That isn’t so for most NASCAR drivers.
As the years have passed, more and more they have been thrust into a spotlight that has prevented most of them from enjoying those little things.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows what it is like growing up under that microscope. As a young man he entered into the sport just wanting to drive, yet the demands were much more. Being thrust into the spotlight, with like-minded people all experiencing the same intensity, he found solace, even company. It was there, where friendships and families were formed.
“I have made so many good friends, he continues. “I think about … as you get older you start to understand how you prioritize the things that are most important to you about the sport. The camaraderie and the friendships that I’ve made kind of started down the list and as I’ve gotten older that has crept up the list and if it’s not number one, I don’t know what is. All the people in the garage, the industry, the press, the friends that you make. That probably is what you will miss the most once you are done driving is the people.
“You are going to miss being around all these folks. Driving cars and the adrenaline and all that is great and a lot of fun, but man the friends that you make here that is something we talk about too. Just people we all have in common and have friendships with.”
Over time, that lifestyle has to force a person to mature quickly. Privacy, taken for granted by most of us, doesn’t exist most times for these drivers. Fans of this sport are intensely loyal to their drivers, and as a result, have very vivid memories about their drivers that they love to share. Seeing Earnhardt Jr. win, for a fan, represents a tremendous sense of excitement, one that they enjoy sharing with the driver, given the opportunity.
“Yeah, they talk about wins,” he said. ‘I was at Daytona when you won in ’04, I was at Daytona when you won in ’14, I was at the All-Star race when you won or I’ve watched every race you’ve ran.’ You know you hear… really, they remember the moments on the track more than anything. And I do the same thing. I think back about the wins and maybe not even the wins, some races are really fun and satisfactory, but you are the only one that will remember then because you ran third or fifth or something like that and they are kind of obscure in most people’s minds. I think about winning the All-Star races as a rookie just how fortunate we were to do that. Winning the Daytona 500 twice. I didn’t know that I would even win it once and everything that has happened. The list goes on and on.”
Listening to him reflect, it is clear how far the young man that began in the sport just to drive, has come from the man sitting in the Media Center at Auto Club Speedway Friday. In fact, he discussed what he would tell himself then, knowing what he knows now.
“Oh, well, my first Cup race? Well, we ran… well yeah, I don’t know you know. I was really nervous,” he added. “I remember sitting on the starting grid or sitting in qualifying for the race and telling (then crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr. that I would switch with him for a million dollars so he could do this instead of me because I was scared to death. Just they had made such a big deal about that whole thing. I don’t even remember what the… they had some kind of a … they called it something Countdown to E Day or some mess. I forget what it was, but Budweiser made this big promotion about it and it was so much pressure and I was so nervous.”
It’s hard to imagine the man you see in front of you today, being nervous, but apparently, he was. He managed to pull it together, get out on the track and do what he loves to do, race.
“We did okay in the race I think we finished 16th or something like that. I was overwhelmed with the weight of the situation and how much attention it was getting and it made it really hard to soak in and enjoy it I guess, but we just wanted to do so well and not fail. I don’t know what I could tell myself that would have made much of a difference in how I felt. I don’t think I could have calmed myself anymore with any kind of advice.
“It would have been difficult to make any difference, I guess, it was so crazy. It was fun. It was a wild time.”
Little did he know just how much that day would change his life.
Fast forward to this weekend, and he is focusing on the task at hand. Today, as he fires his engine, he will mark that milestone 600th start, at a track he seems to like, Auto Club Speedway.
“I really like Fontana and I wish that we could have a good weekend is all. We have kind of been struggling a little bit to put together a good race this year and we qualified well last week, but didn’t run as well as we wanted to. We had a little issue with the brakes and stuff like that, but those things are going to happen. We will keep processing what we are learning and keep showing up every week and put it together eventually. I really, really like this race track. Obviously, you are running all over the race track, a lot of different grooves. That makes it a lot of fun as a driver. Looking forward to some fun this weekend and hopefully, a good result.”
Email Lori Tyler at [email protected]
