Junior considers Gordon gesture a tribute to father

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Maybe it's time for Dale Earnhardt fans to quit hating on Jeff Gordon.

Maybe the next time someone wants to throw something onto a track to protest a Gordon victory, thinking perhaps they are somehow upholding the late Earnhardt's honor, they ought to think twice about it. Maybe they ought to think about what Earnhardt's son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., so carefully took the time to point out Tuesday during an appearance at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Missed perception

They were fierce competitors who shared a mutual respect for one another. They were popular champions who occasionally found themselves on opposite ends of an issue. But rivals? Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon were anything but, writes David Caraviello.

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• Weekend That Was: Phoenix

The elder Earnhardt and Gordon were always closer than the public perceived, said the younger Earnhardt.

"They were business partners, in properties and in companies. They worked together," Little E said of his father and Gordon. "When I first met Jeff Gordon, I was trying to qualify for a late-model race that I had no business being in. My dad walked up with this guy who a little mustache; he had his arm around him and said, 'I want to introduce you, son, to Jeff Gordon.' ... I had seen him doing some sprint-car stuff on TV, so I kind of knew who he was. But that was when I met him for the first time in person."

Earnhardt said he was recently doing a radio show with John Andretti when Andretti reminded him of how much Earnhardt's father attempted to nuture Gordon and Andretti during their rookie seasons in Cup racing.

"The second race they ran, I saw Dad walk John and Jeff through the garage," Earnhardt said. "He would walk through with his arm around one of them. He would spend six to eight months [that year], talking to them about the cars, the sport, the business, the people. ... I think Jeff would give Daddy a lot of credit for helping him out with that stuff.

"They raced hard against each other. Daddy didn't have to teach Jeff nothin' about how to drive; Jeff already knew how to drive. Daddy taught him about off-the-track stuff, how to handle the business end. I think Jeff appreciates that."

In turn, Earnhardt said he deeply appreciated Gordon's attempt to honor his father following Gordon's victory Saturday in the Subway 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. It was the 76th career win for Gordon, tying him with the elder Earnhardt for sixth place on the all-time list of winningest drivers.

Before making his way around the track for a victory lap, Gordon was handed a black flag bearing the No. 3 made famous by Earnhardt prior to his death following a tragic accident in the 2001 Daytona 500. Gordon then waved the flag out his driver's side window as he made the lap, which apparently -- somehow -- infuriated some Earnhardt fans who took offense.

"I don't understand people saying it was disrespectful. What's the angle there?" Earnhardt said. "Basically when you win a race, it's all about you at that moment. You won; you're happy; you're excited; you're the best of the best.

Give Gordon his due

If you judged Jeff Gordon's career by fan reaction, it seems like the guy can't do anything right. Anything, that is, except win. Gordon won at Phoenix, paraded around the track with a flag to salute Dale Earnhardt ... and people booed, or reacted in other childish ways. Not a lot of them, writes TNT's Bill Weber, just the ignorant ones.

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"And he decided to split that down the middle and give my dad some respect. ... I knew if they had any amount of class, which I knew they did, they would do something or say something. ...Jeff has been in the sport a long time and knows that acknowledgment and respect are a big deal."

Earnhardt was one of the first to greet Gordon and congratulate him in Victory Lane, an obvious stamp of approval for the flag-waving gesture.

"When I first saw Jeff doing that on the big screen, I just wanted to make sure that he knew that it was OK with me on this side of the fence," Earnhardt said. "It was really cool, and I appreciated it. My dad was a big deal in this sport ... and for him to continue to get recognized on down the road is a real big deal to me and pretty important to me."

At the same time, Earnhardt said he felt bad that some fans appeared to misinterpret what Gordon was trying to do.

"Jeff can't win for losing. Well, he did win a race. But with the fans, he has a hard time getting his point across -- which is unfortunate, because he was trying to make a good gesture. That was all that was," Earnhardt said. "I don't see how anybody in the world could find anything wrong with what he did. That's a shame if anyone did. I want to give him all the credit he deserves for it."

Humpy Wheeler, track president of Lowe's Motor Speedway, said that what many fans for years interpreted as a Earnhardt-Gordon "rivalry" never really existed in the true sense of that word.

"Well, I thought it would end up being one of the greatest rivalries we ever had -- and for gosh sakes, the guys ended up going into business together," Wheeler said. "As a promoter, I didn't like that. I wanted to see a rivalry -- because you had the new kid on the block [in Gordon] and the veteran, tough guy. They were opposites and I just thought a great rivalry would develop. And it didn't.

"We probably lost some of the drama of that because they seemed to get along too well."

Earnhardt added: "They had a lot of respect for each other. I think Daddy probably had more respect for Jeff as a driver and a person than I had seen him show for a lot of people he had driven against for years."

The younger Earnhardt did grin and concede that his father especially would have enjoyed one aspect of Gordon's flag-waving tribute in Phoenix. The Gordon race team snapped a 25-race winless streak with the victory, and obviously had been planning long in advance to honor Earnhardt, so ...

"So if you think about it, that flag rode around in that [Gordon team] truck for several months," Earnhardt said. "My dad would have really gotten a kick out of that."