Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "People are pretty surprised at how shy I am, once they get to meet me and be around me." Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Junior

In Part II of Marty Smith's Conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Earnhardt discusses television personalities, future initiatives and the best meal on the NASCAR circuit.

Are there any particular initiatives that you think should be sought in the sport as far as marketing, competition, anything? Are there areas yet to be sought -- and not necessarily geographically -- but overall?

OK, example: you have to compare yourself to other sports to really realize where your place is, what you're doing, how successful you are.

NASCAR tries to separate itself, and at the same time say it's better than those sports, and more popular, yet separate itself at the same time. But you know how they always have in the USA Today, what the favorite commercials for the Super Bowl are; have the top-10 list, stuff like that.

	Credit: Autostock
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I think when we get there with the Daytona 500, when companies are spending the bulk of their marketing on a commercial for the Daytona 500, rather than the Super Bowl, I think you've hit the f------ peak.

And you don't sense that as a fan, or even as a driver while the race is going on. When they cut to commercial, people are pretty much just waiting around on the race to come back on.

You're not sitting there waiting like, "What the hell are they gonna show now? Who's gonna be on next? This is gonna be cool!" So those are the types of things, marketing-wise, a few mountains I think we've got to climb.

But we got into Rolling Stone magazine a lot earlier than I thought we would, with that article we did. As a rookie, I never expected to have that much clout, to be able to get there. I've been in People Magazine more than I ever dreamed I would be.

We've done things like that that have really surprised me, and way surpassed anything I expected out of it. So in those areas we're doing more, and we get opportunities and requests to do (Jay) Leno or, I've been asked to do Saturday Night Live a couple times.

Personally, those are things where I don't have the type of personality to go out there and do that type of thing. I'm a little bit more subdued than that. What's the word?

Reserved?

Reserved. I'm a little bit more reserved. I don't think that's in conflict with the kind of personality we've sold to the fans.

It's pretty much the same. But people are pretty surprised at how shy I am, once they get to meet me and be around me. But, with the (Super Bowl) commercial thing, that's just an example of how much further we have to go to get to that type of level.

There's still a lot of room to grow in that area. You can't deny how many people are showing up to the racetrack, and how many people are watching. We still lack a little bit in our telecasts of the races. They lack a lot of ...

Personality?

	Credit: Autostock
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Yeah, hate to say it. I like Benny Parsons. I think he does a great job. He was born to do what he does. I think Wally is really, really good at what he does and really enjoy listening to him when I watch a race.

But the rest of the crew, from either network, doesn't do anything for me. Everybody's going to have their favorites, obviously, but there's just a lot of egos in there, and it's something that ... I don't know. I don't know what you do.

It's kind of like you've got to get lucky. Who'd have ever thought John Madden would be so successful? He's good at what he does, but who'd have thought he'd be that successful at it?

You don't have Monday Night Football without him now. You can't. That'll be a day the world changes, when he's not there. It won't be just a sad day, it'll be huge for a lot of football fans. So we lack a little bit there.

You know how when the NFL started their own filming network -- well, they started their own network now, but they did NFL Films for years and years and years. We got the NASCAR deal, whatever that is. What's it called?

Images?

Yeah, NASCAR Images. That's what we need. I guess NFL wasn't awesome at one point. They learned as they went. But they need to get some people in there every once in awhile making shows that are film makers and producers from the West coast.

You're going to have guys in there that know, "OK, you'd never have a racecar sitting there." Or "You'd never have a toolbox looking that." You've got to have a guy there that knows what looks realistic and what's right.

But it wouldn't hurt to get some people in there to film and edit, and put some things together that looked a little more theatrical than just a person at a podium talking about the past week's event. That gets boring after a while.

I don't really even watch racing shows anymore because somebody standing at a podium blabbering on about yadda, yadda, yadda and Lord knows what.

Man, I went to Joe Whitlock's house one time when I was little and he had these two tapes. Each tape had 25 races from the '70s on it. They were like 20-minute short-cut, this is how it finished. They were awesome, man. It was awesome.

I watched each one of them, like, 40 times, over and over and over for a couple years. Then I lost them when I loaned them to Chocolate Myers. I should've never done that. I've never forgiven him for that. Those are the types of things I wanna see on the SPEED Channel.

That's the type of s--- that enriches the new fans and gives the core fans the s--- they miss, educates the new ones. But anyway, have I answered that question? (laughing)

Yeah, man. I think that's good. Was there any particular moment when you knew you'd arrived? What was your 'Man, I'm here' moment?

I guess if I ever felt like that it was when I won my first Busch race. To pass him -- Joe, Joe Nemechek -- he was one of those guys that would show up and just win, like Mark (Martin) used to.

To pass him there at the end and win that race felt good, that I didn't have it handed to me, that I really had to work with Joe. But I felt really powerful right after that win, felt some power, I guess.

Credit: Autostock

It felt like I'd dug my hands in a little bit and got a good hold of the sport to where I could be in it for a while.

What do you say to people that don't view you guys as athletes?

I really don't say much to them. What you need to do is take guys from the (Carolina) Panthers team, or if you want to go for my favorite (Washington) Redskins, take them over to Charlotte and put them in them school cars and let them go around.

I saw some clips on the news about some of those guys from UNC, before their bowl game, they went to Charlotte and rode around in cars and were like, "I don't understand how they do it." So they were pretty amazed.

That's a compliment, when another athlete can get an idea of what your experience is like at the racetrack. That's pretty cool, because I know what their reaction's going to be. That's awesome.

Best meal on the NASCAR circuit?

Best meal?

I know everything's brought to you in your motor home, but...

No, no, I cook it, now, I got me a grill. I think the best is a half a steak, two brats and a piece of chicken. And you can add a salad. With Italian dressing.

Do you know where it's from, or did you make it?

We make it, grill it. Me and Mike, my bus driver.

I'm coming over there, dude!

That's what we eat just about every night. Steak, two brats and chicken.

You an iPod snob yet?

What?

Do you have an iPod?

Is that what you said the first time? I'm not gonna tell you what I thought you said. Uh, no. I've got a couple of them, really.

When I went to New York there was one laying in our rooms. All the guys in the top 10 got 'em for free, I guess. We had those little gift baskets, and it was pretty kick ass.

Man, all I got was an invite to a party or something under my door.

Yeah, heh, heh. NASCAR does cool s--- like that, and that's when you go, 'Man, hell yeah. Finally some pat on the back for busting balls all year.' So I got a couple.

I got iTunes on my computer, and I got 480 songs downloaded. But I'm just lazy about it. You know what, I did use my iPod for about two weeks, but I'm so disappointed in the battery.

It dies?

Hell yeah! It don't make a plane ride to the West Coast. That's pathetic. That thing should at least work two days straight. I ain't got time to worry about plugging s--- in.

I've got to take care of my cell phone like it's a damn newborn, keeping it charged up. That's it! I can't handle any more charging of technology or any kind of entertainment appliance.

• Part I of the Conversation