Oil and water: Junior and Darlington
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
August 27, 2001
4:02 PM EDT (2002 GMT)
CONCORD, N.C. - Dale Earnhardt Jr., recently voiced his distaste for Darlington Raceway via the "anything goes" pages of Playboy Magazine, saying, among other things, "It's old. It's egg-shaped. It's full of seashells. Go out on that track and rub your hand on it - it'll actually cut you."
Therefore, when Junior rolled into town last week for a NASCAR winner's circle appearance, newly-appointed Darlington track president Andrew Gurtis bestowed upon him the first-ever "Shellie," -- a wood-based trophy with a conch shell on top of it -- to equally commemorate his visit and bust his chops for the aforementioned comments.
Laughing heartily, Dale Jr. accepted the "award," then proceeded to give due props to NASCAR's oldest venue.
"This is probably the toughest track on the circuit," said Junior, who finished 14th Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. "I like running here. I just think it'd be fun. It's a great track, the oldest on the circuit. It's got a lot of history. I think that it's one that'll be around for a long time."
After pausing for a brief moment, he ribbed Gurtis with, "I can't wait 'til they pave it."
Junior's dismay towards Darlington is warranted - he hasn't had the best of luck at the tire-consuming venue. In three-career NASCAR Winston Cup Series visits there, he has finished 40th, 11th and 34th, respectively, and has qualified in the top-10 just once.
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Dale Jr. is eyeing a top-five finish in the points standings.
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However, that may well change this weekend, as Junior joins Jeff Gordon as the hottest driver in the series at present.
Heading into Sunday's Mountain Dew Southern 500, Junior is on a tear, having posted four top-10s in the past eight races, including an epic and emotional victory at Daytona and a near-miss second-place run at Pocono
During that time, he has finished no worse than 12th, giving the team the consistency that so direly plagued them a year ago and allowing them to surge from ninth to sixth in the championship points race.
"We really haven't done anything different from last year," Junior said. "We can't pinpoint anything that has made us a better team. We have stepped it up a notch. I've noticed it. We got wrecked and fell out of the first six races for different reasons.
"We had the fastest car at Rockingham and got wrecked on the first lap so who knows what would have happened? I think we've been that good of a team from the get-go.
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Dale Jr. has not finished worse than 20th in nearly three months.
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"So the difference from this year to last year is when I get to the racetrack the car drives good, handles good, feels good, where last we would not have a good car and really have to work hard to just get the car competitive, where we were even in the top-20."
Such inconsistency weighed heavily on the team, resulting in a heated relationship between Junior and Tony Eury, Jr. -- his cousin and car chief - that nearly split the team's loyalty. Now, everyone shares a like focus, and the results reflect it.
"Sometimes we did get the car good (last year), but most of the time we didn't and me and Tony Jr would get real frustrated with it," Junior said. "This year me and him are getting along really good.
"We'd never been in a position like that where we really had to count on each other. So I think we realized a lot of stuff from last year, but I don't know why we're better.
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Dale Jr. finished 34th in the Darlington spring race.
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"We're faster right off the trailer, and if you don't qualify well it's no big let down to the team. We come from the back in several races to finish in the top 10.
"So we feel like we can do what we need to do. We're real committed to finishing in the top 10 (in points). I know that sounds foolish when we're sixth right now -- why wouldn't you finish in the top-10 -- but there is like 100 points separating sixth to 10th, so one bad race and you're out. I'd just like to get on stage in New York. That seems like that'd be cool. That's our goal."
And an attainable one, no doubt. However, December's banquet is an issue for the long term. At present, Junior & Co. are focused on what lies directly ahead - the Lady in Black. Darlington could play a major role in the outcome of Junior's season. If he can finally master the ornery oval, that long-term goal will seem much more feasible.
"The surface here makes it tougher for everybody really," Junior said of Darlington. "Driver-wise, it eats tires up, so it's really a driver's racetracks. It throws a lot more options out there for the driver. You can go hard and try to make up some spots on some guys that might be taking it easy to save their tires, but then you've got to drive the car on worse tires than anybody else.
"Or you can take it easy and try to save your tires and manage your tires and race the track instead of everybody else.
"We've run good here and we've run bad here. Every time we run bad it sparks my crew chief's interest to come back here and test. So we come back here and test, think we test good then come back and race, and don't race good. It's just a track that has a mind of it's own. It does what it wants. It's its own little world and we're just hanging out in it."
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