Earnhardt Jr. third on dad's birthday

By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
April 30, 2001
9:39 AM EDT (1339 GMT)

FONTANA, Calif. -- Most everyone in the NASCAR community woke up Sunday morning with Dale Earnhardt on their minds. It was race day, after all: Only this race day was special. This race day happened to be the late Earnhardt's 50th birthday.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third in Sunday's race.

Black flags emblazoned with Earnhardt's signature No. 3 flapped in the breeze throughout the infield. Homemade banners wished the seven-time champion a happy birthday. Seemingly every car donned decals proclaiming "The Intimidator's" greatness. Hats and shirts were everywhere.

Everyone was thinking of Dale. And while Earnhardt's namesake was certainly among that contingent, he wasn't focused solely on the issue.

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"I hadn't really thought about it much until they said something on the (public address system)," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., following his third-place finish in Sunday's NAPA 500 at California Speedway. "It's kinda cool. It's even more cool now that we had a good run.

"I didn't know how I'd feel when his birthday got here or when Father's Day got here. I'm OK. I'm gonna go home and celebrate, have a couple of beers. Maybe I'll even pour one of those beers out like they do on the rap videos."

By finishing third, Earnhardt Jr. earned his best finish since that fateful day his father was killed on the last lap of the Daytona 500. As his father battled Sterling Marlin, Kenny Schrader and Rusty Wallace for a top-five finish, Junior was crossing the line just behind teammate and race-winner Michael Waltrip.

Since then, it's been a long, emotional road for all involved at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Junior wrecked out of the event after one lap, a week later at Rockingham, and hadn't posted another top-five finish prior to Sunday.

However, having now posted three top-10s in the past four races, Dale Jr., positioned himself in the top 10 in points for the first time since Daytona and seems to have begun the process of solving the consistency issue that so direly plagued him a year ago. And with four of his strongest tracks ahead -- Richmond, Charlotte, Dover and Michigan -- he has his sights set on the top five.

"We just have to make sure we're consistent about being consistent," Earnhardt Jr. said. "You know, you have to have good racing cars to be good. You can't just come in with a good attitude and think that's gonna help you win. Being good does a lot of good for this team."

Earnhardt Jr's success Sunday was. He didn't qualify in the top five. Quite the contrary, actually.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. worked his way up from a 38th starting position.

Earnhardt Jr. totaled the primary car Friday morning during practice. Then after the crew pulled out the backup, they blew a motor. After replacing the motor, a hinge came loose on the hood. All of these mishaps forced them lose valuable practice time and therefore they were forced to take a provisional starting position.

"We only ended up with 45 minutes of practice when everybody else got an hour and a half," crew chief Tony Eury, Sr. said. "The car was pretty much ready to go whenever we got it out. Then we ended up losing that motor. Got that fixed and for those guys to get this thing running the way they did in just 45 minutes was really good."

True, but the frustration didn't end there.

After starting 38th, Earnhardt Jr. worked his way through the field to as high as eighth before running out of gas on lap 107. After pitting for fuel, Earnhardt Jr. returned to the track a lap down in 33rd position.

Then he caught a break when the caution flew on lap 146 for oil in Turn 3. He restarted in 29th position and by lap 189 had returned to the top 10.

From there, he battled into the top five and eventually moved past Tony Stewart into third position with 18 laps remaining.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (pictured with Ron Hornaday) had his best finish since Daytona.

"He's extraordinary," second-place finisher Jeff Gordon said of Earnhardt Jr. "I never count him out. A lot things he does remind me about his dad."

On the day when everyone was focused on his father's legacy, Earnhardt, Jr. reminded everyone of his father. He fought, scrapped and clawed his way past the obstacles to make a run at the checkers.

"We just had terrible luck this week," Earnhardt Jr. said. "All that stuff during practice, then when we ran out of gas, I was just about ready to give it up. But eventually I got back up on the lead lap there and something else went wrong, I don't remember. We had a race-winning car, we just didn't have enough luck.

"Still, it's pretty cool. I've been waiting on this day, my dad's birthday. It's time to celebrate."