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 Inside Motor Sports
Posted: Tuesday March 23, 1999 06:37 PM All Wet and Happy about It Are too many Winston Cup drivers double-dipping in feeder series? By Ed Hinton
The downside to competing in the Busch races for Gordon and other big-name drivers is the risk of an injury that could hamper or ruin their Winston Cup title prospects. Last Friday, Bobby Labonte broke his right collarbone while qualifying for the Busch race and had to shorten his time behind the wheel in Sunday's Winston Cup race. In Gordon's case the marquee name for all NASCAR racing could be knocked out of action. "They're making [an extra] half-million dollars a year each, that's what they're doing," LaJoie says of the stars. "What might put an end to it is if one of them does get hurt on a Saturday." Tennis and golf don't allow Pete Sampras and Tiger Woods, respectively, to enter satellite tour events. "This is the only sport that allows such a thing," says LaJoie. "Let us have our series back."
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Dale Earnhardt's life as the most-heralded, best-financed Winston Cup prospect in the history of NASCAR has become, he says, "an overwhelming pain in the ass." Earnhardt, 24, is the reigning Busch Series champion, where he won seven races last year, but heading into Saturday's Coca-Cola 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, site of his inaugural victory last April, he's winless through five races this season. "A lot of people say, 'You ought to be grateful, man. You've got the opportunity of a lifetime, blah, blah,'" Earnhardt says, "but they don't have to walk in these shoes. You can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't do anything without thinking about it -- and dreading that life will never be like it was. A lot of advantages and rewards come with this [situation], but hell, you're so busy you don't have time to enjoy it. So sometimes you wonder, what the hell good is it?" On May 30, in the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, Earnhardt will make his Winston Cup debut under an eight-year, $80 million sponsorship from Budweiser. A huge publicity campaign -- "Countdown to E-Day" -- is planned. "Hell week" is what he says he's anticipating. "I'm not as good as I was last year," says Earnhardt, who has finished 14th, 35th, sixth, third and 11th this season. "I'm not as focused. Once the race gets going, I come around. But right off the bat it's hard to go at it like I did last year. I'm not burned out -- just thinking about everything." Little E, as the son of NASCAR driving legend Dale Earnhardt is known, says the relentless travel and flesh-pressing appearances, usually on behalf of sponsors, have left his head spinning. "I'm carrying two loads," he says. "I'm doing Busch sponsors and Cup sponsors. So I'm doing 60 to 70 appearances this year." The younger Earnhardt also has his schedule of 32 Busch races and five Cup events. "As soon as I get home from a race, I'm packing to go somewhere else," he says. "There's no damn way I can remember all the people I'm meeting. It clouds my mind, and I forget half of what I've learned about driving race cars. Every time I get in a car to qualify, it's like I'm doing it for the first time." When asked if he talks to Big E about all this, Dale Jr. replies, "If I try to talk to my dad about it, his answer to that is probably that I'm not half as busy as he is, so I better keep my mouth shut. He says I've got it easy. "This is just a tough part of my life right now. Maybe it will ease up next year," Dale Jr. says and then pauses, pondering 2000, his first full year on the Winston Cup circuit and all that will be expected of the son of a seven-time Cup champion. "Maybe next year might not be the time [when things ease up]," he says, "but the year after that, maybe the vise will loosen somewhat."
TranSouth 400: Another Jeff -- Burton, not Gordon -- is the hottest driver on the Winston Cup tour. With Sunday's victory in the rain-shortened TranSouth 400 at Darlington, Burton now has won two of the last three races and sits atop the point standings heading into this week's Primestar 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. His teammate and kindred dour spirit, Mark Martin, won last year's Texas race. Martin treats every visit to victory lane as if it were his last, and Burton, who has never won back-to-back Winston Cup races, likewise tends to expect the worst. "We're always pessimistic," says Burton. "I'm this way by nature. The better you get, the more you expect of yourself and therefore the more you're open for disappointment. It's a miserable way to live sometimes. My poor wife [Kim] wants to go out and celebrate every time we win, and I won't let her. It's just the way I feel I have to be." So imagine Burton's reaction on Sunday when, with rain clouds moving in and threatening to shorten the scheduled 293-lap race, his front-running Ford Taurus got caught in a five-car pileup. The right side of his car suffered extensive damage when it smacked the wall, but he kept the car under control long enough to stay in the lead after the caution flag came out. He then steered to the track's apron, climbed out and began gesticulating and fuming at himself. He knew that if the race resumed, he'd fall off the pace. But then he felt the raindrops and began gesturing skyward, pleading for the clouds to burst. They did. "Hell, yes, I was waving for the rain to come on," he said. "I was mad because I was afraid it wasn't going to rain very long. I knew we'd had the best car [he led for the most laps, 59 of the 164 completed], and we'd done the best job in the pits. We would have finished last if it hadn't rained. So I was mad at myself." Even in victory, Burton didn't get overly optimistic. "We had this car [the one he'd just wrecked at Darlington] slated to take to Texas," he said. "Now it's torn up badly. We're very disappointed that we can't take it." He drove his backup car to a fourth-place finish at Atlanta on March 14. "We're on a roll right now," Burton conceded, "but things can still go wrong. They can go the other way even quicker than they came this way." Issue date: March 29, 1999
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