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Satisfaction Earnhardt Jr. content with findings of crash report
Updated: Thursday August 23, 2001 8:25 PM
By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. is among professional sports' rarest commodities -- a straight shooter. To his credit, Junior is a young man who not only listens to the questions asked of him, nodding his head to demonstrate that, yes, he understands what you're driving at, but he is a decent sort who actually deigns to answer the question. Though that fact alone is enough to separate him from the mass of professional athletes, many of whom are difficult at best, unceasingly dull at worst, there is the additional, impressive fact that Earnhardt Jr. has continued to be his usual, candid self throughout a period of his life which could only charitably be described as hellish. If Junior has made any concessions whatsoever to his sadness since Feb. 18, he has done so only by avoiding the media on a few occasions. At that, though he would clearly have been entitled to a great deal more latitude in choosing how to deal with his grief, Earnhardt Jr. has requested space only a handful of times. More often than not, he can be found at his hauler or in the garage, going about his business in his normally stooped-shouldered, head-bowed way; though he has occasionally been brief in interview sessions, he has never simply refused to answer any of the many, sometimes difficult questions put to him. "It hasn't been a big problem," Earnhardt said in response to a question about how he's conducted himself in public since his father's death. "I don't really know how you're supposed to grieve. Is there some kind of a guideline you're supposed to follow? The press has been really good, no one has really asked me anything that makes me really uncomfortable. I've been handling it however you handle it." Though by now we shouldn't be surprised, that Wednesday was no different simply underscored the uncommon decency and incomparable strength of this 26-year-old. Less than one day removed from what most hope and all presume will be NASCAR's final word on Dale Earnhardt's death, Junior fulfilled an obligation to appear at a news conference at Darlington Raceway that he had committed to long before NASCAR announced that it would release the findings of its investigation Aug. 21. And he did so even though he had been offered the chance to back out. "Well, first off, I'm real satisfied with the way NASCAR handled it," he said of the investigation into the fatal crash. "I think they did a great job. They were really scrutinized for being secretive about everything, but I think they handled it really professionally and I think that when it was released, people could understand why [they handled it the way they did]. Everything that they believe and they have found is real consistent with my beliefs and understandings. We're really content, the family is content." If Tuesday's proceedings answered many of the questions left unanswered about Earnhardt's death, they also left a few important ones hanging -- namely, what of the fact that his father reportedly installed his seatbelt in a way that did not conform to the manufacturer's standards? A non-issue, according to Earnhardt Jr. "I've changed my seat belt mountings a few times," he said. "For some reason, you can mount a seat the same in every car and the seat belt will still not really feel the same across your hip and across your body. At Chicago, the belts were digging into my hips a little bit, so we changed the location of the seatbelts, just to get 'em more comfortable. If I'd a hit anything, I felt like I would have shattered my hip bone the way it was digging into me. "I don't think it's uncommon [to change the seat belt mounting] and I don't think it's anything I worry too much about." Earnhardt Jr. also addressed his recent decision to use a head-and-neck restraint device, something he'd resisted in the wake of his father's death. "I didn't feel pressure [to wear it]," he said, "but a bunch of drivers had asked me to wear it. Terry Labonte was probably the first guy that really said he wanted me to be around for a long time and wanted me to wear it. Also, a friend of mine, a state trooper, he said to me: 'It's like this vest -- you don't have to wear it, you can be a bad ass, but why not wear it while you can?' So, I thought I'd try it, see if I was comfortable with it. "It was kind of uncomfortable," Earnhardt Jr. continued, "kind of too tight. Luckily we had the rain delay to adjust it. It's probably something I am going to use more often, possibly get to where I'm using it every week." Lastly, while NASCAR's official report on the matter raised yet more questions about his father's seat belt and its manufacturer, Simpson Performance Products, Earnhardt Jr. is no more uncomfortable with the belts than he's ever been. "I'm not worried about seat belts, not concerned with Simpson products," he said. "Simpson is the only seat belt I've ever used and I'm comfortable with it. The only thing that upsets me is that my uniforms shrink up. I can't get a uniform that doesn't last more than three months." If it goes without saying that anyone who drives a race car for a living is made of stout material, then so too does it go without saying that Earnhardt Jr. is even more stout than most. Indeed, if yet another recitation of the very specific events and the manner in which his father died had reawakened any hard feelings or sad thoughts, he didn't let on. In addition to giving direct answers to numerous questions about his thoughts and impressions of the report, Earnhardt was not only forthright and funny, but he was, if anything, even more revealing than he has been previously about himself and what has motivated his candor. "Last week," Earnhardt said, "a young girl came up and asked me, 'Why are you so open with your life? Why aren't you private with your thoughts and everything?' I thought that was an interesting question and I believe it really made me look at myself and say, 'Why am I like that?' Teresa [Earnhardt, his dad's widow] said to me the other day, 'Every question everybody asks you, you just answer right away.' "That's just the way I've been all year and even in years past. I believe it's because I want to try to let people know more about me just so they know who I am and who [my father] was -- two different people. There will be days when someone will say, 'You're just like your dad' or 'Boy, you look like your dad.' But, we'll always be two different people, and I believe that's why I am so open about everything, so that people can see that." For some reason -- likely the result of the closely regulated environment in which he lives and works -- Earnhardt is of the opinion that his style might rub certain people the wrong way. "I guess I'm a better representative for Budweiser [his sponsor] than I am for NASCAR," he says, addressing his willingness to appear in Rolling Stone and Playboy and on MTV. "Everywhere you go as a driver, you represent your sponsor, you represent yourself," he said. "A lot of times you can let your guard down, let the person you really are inside come out a little too often. "If you went back three years ago and asked [NASCAR chairman] Mr. France or [president] Mike Helton, they might not have been very favorable toward having someone do those things or say those things. But I think it's really turned out for the better." For all of us, no doubt.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
