10 Questions: Dale Jr. (cont'd)

5. If you could have any one you wanted, which vintage Chevrolet would you most want to own -- and would it be more stock, or hopped up?

Earnhardt: Vintage, eh? It'd be a Nomad. About a '55 Nomad, chrome from one end to the other underneath everything, orange and white.

I like the Nomad because of the room inside. The Nomad can look real good if you paint it up right -- orange and white, with chrome from the front to the back, underneath the hood and the under-carriage and everything -- all chrome-plated.

It doesn't have to have a whole lot of power. That's not important. And the less noisy the better, because you're going to ride in it, and have your buddies riding in it, with a good stereo.

It sure would look good on a South Carolina beach.

6. If you were the mad scientist, which technological marvel would you most like to invent?

Earnhardt: I think somehow or another I'd want to speed travel up, so if it was travel in a plane, I could make it twice as fast -- or not even need the plane at all.

Yeah, like, 'Beam me up, Scotty' -- sort of like a teleport to get from one place to another. I want to go to Australia, all right?

And to take my buddies first class is $12,000 a person. Now, we can get there, probably way cheaper than that in the coach, but if we're going to go for 10 days and have a good ol' time, I'm going to have to save up some money.

Twelve grand a person is ridiculous! So obviously faster, cheaper air travel is what I'd go for.

7. Which home improvement project would you un-do, if you could?

Earnhardt: I've got the concrete go-kart track I put in, and I should have asphalted it. It would have to be that, because it's so rough it's ridiculous -- totally useless.

That was 60 grand down the drain, literally, because it's useless right now. I want to asphalt it, and I've just got to get somebody to come out there and do it.

It's not something that somebody particularly wants to do. Even if you owned an asphalt company, you'd come out there and look at it, and go, 'I've got some other work I could be doing on some flat ground.'

It's like Bristol, but 14 or 16 degrees of banking.

8. What makes the biggest first impression for you: A smile, a handshake or the first words spoken?

Earnhardt: Well obviously, you see 'em before you hear 'em. So I think the first impression's probably gonna be their smile.

But I think the one that [has] the most impact is probably what they first say. A lot of people, even if their smile says 'trust me, I'm cool,' and then what they say is totally the opposite -- then you're having a little trouble, there.

But I really listen a lot, because it's real important to listen.

9. A number of your Hendrick teammates-to-be, in order to remain low-key, have homes outside the Carolinas. Is staying under the radar pretty important to you, and at any point do you plan to go the same route, and having a getaway place?

Earnhardt: Staying under the radar definitely becomes a way of life as you get older, and I'm not quite there, yet.

But I think the older you get, the less attention you want to call to yourself -- at least, unnecessary attention.

So yeah, a lot of these guys find ways to have the same amount of fun, in another place where nobody knows, or nobody can say or nobody can form an opinion -- and they can just live their life.

I haven't really got there yet, but I think eventually I will. I've thought long and hard, 'Man, I want to get a house there,' and, 'I want to get a house there.'

But I think, since I'm still a little bit undecided on where that's going to be, I have yet to buy one. Because I know I'll try to get rid of it and then get another one somewhere else.

But I think it's going to be a few years before I really settle on 'this is going to be my getaway.' I really don't know where that is, but it'll probably be closer to home than I think -- or that a lot of other people might think.

Probably somewhere like that house in Charleston that I was talking about.

It'd be somewhere quiet and somewhere where the weather is about the same, and where the people are about the same. I don't want to get too far away from home, yet at the same time some solitude every once in a while is nice.

10. You got anything that people might consider atypical on your portable music player?

Earnhardt: Surprises? Well, I've always tried to come across as down to earth with everything I've done -- but sometimes things surprise you, like you got a Barry Manilow song on your iPod, or something.

Well, I do. Weekend in New England is one of my favorites. He's awesome. I think a lot of people listen to him that wouldn't admit it.

You can blame my sister for that. When our mom lived up in Virginia we'd take some long rides up there and [Kelley] got me hooked.