Driver #8: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

(Page 7: Don't Mess with Dad)

Rookie Lesson Number Two: Don't mess with Dad.

As we pass three hundred miles, I struggle a little bit and drop as low as fourteenth position. I'm fighting with a race car that doesn't want to turn into the corners. When a car is "tight," the front end of the car resists turning into the corner, so I have to let off the throttle earlier than usual in order to get the front tires to turn. We need to make a change to the air pressure in the tires during the next pit stop to help correct the situation.

In addition to an ill-handling car, my aggressive style is no longer working as well as the race gets close to the final one hundred miles. Superspeedway racing requires teamwork of sorts, as cars work best when running with two or three cars nose-to-tail to better slice through the wind. It begins to look like I'm running out of dancing partners. It seems no one wants to race with a rookie.

The key moment comes on Lap 156 (of 200) when a yellow flag flies, slowing the action and sending all of the teams to pit lane. My crew chief, Tony Eury, who happens to be my uncle and the man in charge of our pit strategy, makes a bold decision.

"Two tires! Two tires only, guys!" he screams into the radio as I roll down pit lane. He hopes that the two new tires will correct the tight-handling race car.

However, it's a gamble because even though we make our pit stop much quicker and gain a few positions, cars with four fresh tires are almost always faster than cars with just two new tires.

We restart the race in second place. In our first Daytona 500, we have victory in sight with less than one hundred miles to go. Could it be this easy? I take a deep breath and tighten the shoulder harnesses.

When the green flag falls, I am right behind the leader, Johnny Benson (who is in a strange-looking all-white car with sponsor decals that look like they were put on just this morning. It turns out that they had signed a new sponsor the night before the race). Before we are even back at top speed, Mark Martin dives inside of me, making it three-wide, and I'm shuffled backwards like a stone through water.

Shit.

From that moment on, I feel more like a pinball than a race driver. I can't find drafting help from anyone in the final laps, even from my dad! He and I bump and bang and it's like we're both trying too hard to beat the other. It doesn't work for anyone except the guys passing me. I am shuffled, bumped, and pushed around. I drop spot by spot helplessly until settling into thirteenth place on the final lap. Despite running among the leaders all day, many spots ahead of all the other rookies, the final laps drop-kick us behind Kenseth, who gets a late-race push to finish tenth. He is the top rookie finisher. Score round one for Matt.

Dale Jarrett, who won the Bud Pole and the Bud Shootout last weekend, grabs the clean sweep by taking his third Daytona 500 victory. Jeff Burton is second, followed by Bill Elliott in third.

Dad was shuffled back after contact with the wall late in the race, falling all the way to twenty-first. It is the first time that I've finished a Winston Cup race ahead of him, and he is not happy with his finish or with his son. And he tells the media. Loudly.

"He didn't work with anybody," he grumbles about me as soon as he is out of the car. "He wanted to pass. That's all he wanted to do, so that's why he finished where he did."

I pull into the garage and hop out to find a huge crush of media pushing to talk about my scrapes and bumps with the Intimidator.

"I had some fun racing with everyone, and with my dad," I say. "He was damn tough on me—tougher than anybody—no help at all! I was hoping we could work together in the draft more, but I had to fight for everything when he was racing with me. My car has some dents on it, and I tell ya it wasn't my preference to have been near some of those dicey moves near the end of the race. Everyone just got real antsy there and it got insane with people crashing and goin' everywhere.

"When the 88 car [eventual winner Jarrett] came up through there [with less than forty laps to go], he was a lot faster than me, but I would have appreciated it if he would have helped me out a little bit," I say naively. "My dad too. I thought he would be the first one to help me, but he was the last person who wanted to stay behind me. I wanted to stay with him and behind him. Everybody got to racing behind me, and it was either pass or be passed."

I guess my frustration and impatience cost us some positions on the track. All day I tried to be patient, but I just kept thinking, Get outta the way! Get outta the way! I wanted to pass those guys, but it just doesn't work like that. I wanted to get to the front so bad, but on a track like Daytona, you just can't do it on your own, you need someone to help you.

I'm pretty happy overall but of course I'm not going to be truly happy unless I win. I'm not happy to finish thirteenth, but I have to say I had a good week and the team met some high expectations. We finished on the lead lap and ran with the lead draft for most of the day. And despite my disappointment at falling behind Matt Kenseth at the finish, I'm glad he got a top-ten finish.

The Daytona Speedweeks are now over, and the adrenaline rush that has sustained me is now gone. It feels like a hangover as all of the drivers, crews, and thousands of fans head back home. Next week, the normal, week-after-week-after- week NASCAR Winston Cup grind continues. Thirty-four events in the next thirty-nine weeks lie ahead like some sort of endless marathon.

Copyright © 2002 by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. All rights reserved. Posted with permission of http://www.twbookmark.com. Click here for ordering information for "Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Driver #8" at Amazon.com.