Dale Jr.: Increasing fame tough to deal with

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Few things are more rare at a Winston Cup racetrack than finding Dale Earnhardt Jr. in solitude.

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Say, seeing Elvis perform the National Anthem.

Earnhardt Jr. knows he's NASCAR's biggest draw, knows fans flock in droves to catch even the slightest glimpse of him. The crowds are always there, bustling about behind him as if he were the Pied piper in a fire retardant kilt.

That's how it's always been, how it always will be, too. It is a way of life for him, though one he may never be fully comfortable with.

"We go to all these appearances and all these people show up and I never get used to it. It's never like something you expect," Earnhardt said.

"It's good, it's fun, the excitement is great. But sometimes it kind of makes you nervous. It makes me a little nervous because I never get used to it. I wonder whether I ever will."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Born: Oct. 10, 1974 Hometown: Kannapolis, N.C. Height: 6'0 Weight: 165 pounds Marital Status: Single Winston Cup Victories: 6

Many of his competitors, though public figures themselves, often ponder how he copes with incessant inquiries for his time.

"It's a lot for most of us to handle, but you have to develop a thick skin," said Kevin Harvick. "Dale Jr. is at a whole different level though. The celebrity he has can't be easy.

"Being famous because you're a NASCAR Winston Cup driver is hard, let alone his name recognition and all the other stuff. I'm at a level that if I have the full intent of not getting noticed, some of the time I don't.

"Like going to hospitality, if I lay low and everyone who comes with me lays low -- we're good. But Junior can't do that. It's got to be hard."

Harvick's teammate, Robby Gordon, agrees wholeheartedly.

"That's a tough deal, I could only imagine," said Gordon. "He's on the right side of the fence right now. I'm on the other side. He's got all the people hootin' and hollerin' for him, all on his side.

"It changes quick. Look at Jeff Gordon. He's done a great job of coming in and being a Winston Cup champion, but they boo and boo.

Junior's on his way to the championship. He hasn't done as well as he'd have liked this year, but he's still the most popular guy out there."

Since his whirlwind career began in 1998, Earnhardt Jr., has enjoyed a mass fan following. His appeal to the younger generation has enticed hoards of new fans to the sport. Hence, he has been a major player in changing its national perception. Redneck pastime no more.

"It's tough not being able to go out anymore," Harvick said. "Like going out to eat isn't usually an option, or seeing a movie. You appreciate each and every fan you have, but you also just want to be able to live, you know?

"That's why it's important to surround yourself with people that don't care who you are. People that would treat you the same if you were racing late models and working 9-5 everyday."

For Junior, that's a virtual impossibility. But he tries, anyway. He hangs with the DMP -- a group of buddies from high school that refer to themselves as the Dirty Mo' (Mooresville, N.C.) Posse.

But he can't go anywhere without drawing a crowd. Since his ascension to Winston Cup, he has reached unparalleled celebrity, more suiting a rock star than an athlete. And when his father died at Daytona last year, he bequeathed legions of fans to his namesake.

That doesn't mean Junior was ready.

"My Dad used to be able to walk through here -- a lot of drivers can do that; walk through here and blurt everything out and shut it all down and not be bothered by it," Junior said.

"Their focus seems to be able to stay 100 percent on the car and stuff. If I walk from the car to the bus and back, I've done forgot everything I just did because there are so many people hollering your name."

Some think Junior's name hasn't been mentioned enough this year, that his season hasn't been up to snuff. USA Today called him the biggest disappointment in the season's first half. Despite five top-fives, eight top-10s and a win at Talladega, fans nationwide yearn to know why he hasn't performed better.

He feels much the same. Frustrated and confused, he seeks an answer.

"Every driver in the garage gets to that point some time in the season," Junior said. "But we just got into a slump. We were fifth in the points, won Talladega, looked like we were going to have a shot at putting ourselves up there all year.

"(We've) been in the top-five, top-10, and had that real bad crash, real hard hit in California. It took me, as a driver, about two or three weeks to get out from under that. And the team never kind of recovered.

	Earnhardt Jr. has qualified in the top three in three of the last four races. Credit: Autostock

"And I'm not pointing fingers. That doesn't do us any favors. Didn't last year; didn't the year before. You get to a point where you run seven, eight races with not a good finish, not a good thing happening to you, you get to a point where you either get up and work harder or you give up. I ain't giving up."

The past two weeks are proof-positive. After finishing 10th from the pole two weeks back at Michigan, Junior posted a third-place run Saturday at Bristol -- his best effort since winning Talladega in April. He 140 led laps, then posted his best career effort at the high-banked half-mile.

"We've had a real disappointing middle part of the season, it's good to come back and run good, of course it is," he said. "We've got, let's see, two top-10s in the last two weeks; that's maybe eight for the year.

"I'm pretty happy. Hey, it's hard work. We had to kind of bear down a little harder and try to do better and it's taken a lot out of me. And taken a lot out of my team."

These days, Junior is meshing better with his guys. His once-volatile relationship with car chief/first cousin Tony Eury, Jr., has improved dramatically. That helps remedy the unrelenting pressure that stems from being a team under the microscope like none other.

"If you walk up and down this garage and look behind everybody's pit you won't see too many people standing anywhere but behind our pit," said Junior, 27.

"There's 30, 40 people always around our garage stall. There's reporters, there's press, there's fans. We're just really kind of under a lot of pressure to perform."

Still yet, whether he's the points leader or mired in 15th position, it seems his fan-base grows exponentially with each passing race. So it goes as cologne poster boy, as best-selling author, as one of People's Sexiest Men Alive.

"It really puts a bind on your relationship with your team when you've got to kind of hide underneath something all day long just to be able to concentrate on the car," he said.

The more his celebrity grows, the more Junior scratches his head.

And the more directions he gets yanked in, the more it becomes all about the racing.

"I feel kind of so undeserving sometimes because we run like crap on the race track and we still get all this attention; being the focal point of the sport and we're going to lead the sport into the new millennium, whatever," Junior said.

"We can't do any of that if we can't run good on the racetrack. You just get so frustrated sometimes because you don't do what you want to do and what you think you can do."

Junior thinks he can win it all. He thinks he can become one of NASCAR's greatest victors. Unless he does that, he may never be truly fulfilled professionally.

"I feel like I can win five championships in a row if my car drives great every week; I think anybody can," he said. "You get to where you feel like you're wasting time sometimes. I just want to win, I want to win championships, and nothing else really matters."