Drivers have learned to stay out of Dale Earnhardt's way the week after Daytona by Bruce Newman Dale Earnhardt returned to his intimidating ways, putting Bobby Hamilton into the wall and edging out Dale Jarrett under caution to win his first race of the year. (Margin of victory: under caution) Dale Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 393 laps at 113.959 mph Dale Jarrett, Ford, 393 laps Ricky Craven, Chevrolet, 393 laps Ricky Rudd, Ford, 393 laps Steve Grissom, Chevrolet, 393 laps 3 hours, 30 minutes, 26 seconds; 10 flags, 66 laps run under caution Terry Labonte 156.870 mph with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Dale Jarrett 355 (175) 2 Dale Earnhardt 355 (180) 3 Ricky Rudd 303 (165) 4 Ricky Craven 294 (165) 5 Jeff Burton 279 (124) The week following the Daytona 500 is never the best of times for Dale Earnhardt. No matter how many times he loses NASCAR's biggest race—and he has lost it all 18 times he has started it—Earnhardt invariably spends the next week flattening everything that gets in his way. This year, in the Goodwrench 400 at the North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, it meant running a buzz saw under Bobby Hamilton's Pontiac Grand Prix. As the two battled for the lead with 50 miles to go, Earnhardt nudged Hamilton into the wall and eventually out of the race. The victory was the official kickoff of Earnhardt's campaign for a record eighth Winston Cup title. "Dale Earnhardt was set on kill the whole weekend," said David Smith, Earnhardt's crew chief. "He came to the track Friday morning just bouncing and ready to go. He said he'd been out chopping wood. He cut down all these big old poplar trees on his farm with a chain saw, then took an ax and chopped them up." Hamilton, who was driving the blue-and-red number 43 car of NASCAR legend turned team owner Richard Petty, may have had the strongest car on the track. But Earnhardt made kindling out of him in Turn 4. The two drivers had been playing a game of aerodynamic cat and mouse, with Earnhardt, running behind Hamilton and just inches from his rear bumper, destabilizing Hamilton's car by moving out of the drafting slipstream—"taking the air off" him, as the drivers say. Earnhardt then passed Hamilton, who fell in behind and returned the favor before jumping back in front. But not for long. "I think then he [Earnhardt] just said, 'Whoa! This car is the only one here that's going to run with me,'" Hamilton said later. "So he loosened me up, then he gassed it and he plain hit me. It wasn't close at all. He just pushed us out of the way. It's all I could do to save it." Hamilton's right rear end brushed the wall. He finished the day in 24th place. Set on kill, Earnhardt (in front) banked on tough tactics to notch his first win in '96. photograph by David Chobat Hamilton also thought he detected in that bullying move a return to the hard-driving tactics that had earned Earnhardt his nickname, the Intimidator. By crumpling some sheet metal, Earnhardt was announcing that he was "going to race people tougher this year," Hamilton said. If so, it would no doubt reassure his legions of black-shirted fans, who watched as Earnhardt's 1995 late-season charge (top-seven finishes in nine of the last 10 races, including two wins and three seconds) couldn't overcome Jeff Gordon's brilliant midseason effort. It was different at Rockingham, though, and the Richard Childress team was glad of it. "We like being there at the end, racing for the win," crew chief Smith said. "Our strategy is to race all year long with a top-five car every week. If you do that, the wins will come."