Earnhardt Jr. blazes new marketing trails

By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
December 6, 2001
5:16 PM EST (2216 GMT)

CONCORD, N.C. -- If you don’t believe sponsorship dollars are hard to come by these days, consider this: Even Dale Earnhardt Jr. has concerns.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

As solid as Earnhardt has been over the past two seasons both on and off the track, he is busy this offseason in negotiations with Budweiser, attempting to sign a multi-year extension to keep the Bud label on his No. 8 Chevrolet for years to come.

Shouldn’t his credentials make this a no-brainer? Five points-paying victories. A $515,000 check for winning The Winston. An eighth-place finish in the point standings this season. There’s certainly nothing to worry about, right?

Earnhardt doesn’t exactly see it that way. He’s not one to rest on his laurels.

“I know that 2004 is still a couple years away, but I’m trying to do everything I can to entice them to sign an extension and things like that,” Earnhardt said. “I know if we keep on this course they’ll be happy with what we do on the track, but what we can give them off the track is pretty beneficial, too.

“They’re accustomed to big heavyweight division fights and stuff like that, where they get monstrous coverage. They get it here on this level, but we have opportunities to take it to other places and that’s pretty cool.”

Earnhardt’s success on the track has only bolstered his mass appeal off it. Women from all corners of the globe adore him, which is actually a testament to the various demographics he’s delved into that no other NASCAR driver ever has previously.

You’d never see Cale Yarborough in People Magazine. You wouldn’t see Benny Parsons at an awards show, either. Ernie Irvan in Playboy? Are you kidding? Earnhardt has done them all, and continues to take NASCAR to new arenas, seemingly daily.

He says he learned it from the old man.

“My father was in one of the largest spotlights in the sport through many of the years, so I felt real comfortable acknowledging those opportunities,” Earnhardt said. “We were asked to be on the Tonight Show (with Jay Leno) several months ago, and I just didn’t feel real comfortable about doing it.

“The timing for me wasn’t right. Actually, Mr. Leno called my house personally and was like, ‘Hey man, we didn’t want to make your feel uncomfortable or anything.’ I was really shocked and surprised by that.

"I told him that I’d try to win a couple races so I’d have something to talk about instead of talking about my Dad or anything like that.”

So all Earnhardt did was go out and win the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, the MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400 at Dover and the EA Sports 500 at Talladega.

Call Earnhardt “Bonnie Raitt,” because he certainly gave them something to talk about.

And he’ll continue to do so in an effort to further extend his already far-reaching audience -- and assure Budweiser stays for the long haul.

“When you’re in my position with a sponsor like Budweiser, when you can put yourself in front of that kind of audience, I think that does a lot for your sponsor,” Earnhardt said. “I feel pretty comfortable doing interviews for magazines and stuff like that, and I think they’re into it.”