Dale Earnhardt Jr
News Archive Part 3

Earnhardt and Waltrip surging after slow start

And that doesn't just apply to Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Michael Waltrip also is running well in recent weeks.

Junior finished fifth in the points last year after contending for the title until the final day of the season. He started off 2005 with a second-place finish in the Daytona 500, but then slipped as far back in the points as 27th with a string of three races in which he failed to finish better than 24th.

Earnhardt has since rebounded, though, with finishes of fourth, 13th, ninth and, last Saturday night in Phoenix, fourth. Heading into Aaron's 499 NASCAR Nextel Cup race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway - a race where both he and Waltrip will be among the favourites - Earnhardt has climbed all the way back to 12th in the standings.

Waltrip is considered by many to be little more than a journeyman driver who becomes a superstar at Daytona and Talladega, the two tracks at which NASCAR requires horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates to slow the cars.

Most of the attention in recent years at DEI has been directed at fan favourite Earnhardt. But Waltrip, in a pivotal year at DEI after struggling to a 20th-place points finish in 2004 and nearly losing his ride, is working hard to give the team a solid 1-2 punch.

Coming off a second-place finish in Phoenix, Waltrip has climbed 12 spots in the points in the last three races and heads into Talladega 18th. He has three top-10 finishes in his last five starts. The younger brother of three-time Cup champion Darrell Waltrip only had nine top-10s all of last season.

The slow starts by both drivers probably can be attributed to the surprising off-season shakeup in which the drivers essentially swapped teams.

Earnhardt's crew, including car chief Tony Eury Jr., took all of his No. 8 Chevrolets and moved to Waltrip's No. 15 shop, while Pete Rondeau, who finished 2004 as Waltrip's crew chief, took his crew and cars and went to Earnhardt's shop.

The idea was to raise everyone's game. The first few races - other than Earnhardt's strong Daytona run - made it look like a failed experiment.

"I've stepped up my commitment," Earnhardt said. "I started out the year relaxed and allowing those guys to get used to the change first and with me in there. I didn't want to push them hard at the start.

"But we're starting to get into the season. Me and Pete, we're starting to work a little harder and demand a little more from ourselves around the racetrack. We're driving real, real hard to get good finishes for the team and keep them going."

Earnhardt's resurgence was a necessity for a team with high expectations. Waltrip's recent showing has been a somewhat unexpected bonus.

But it's no surprise to Waltrip, who was sure both teams would prosper from the crew swap.

"Pete and the boys that work on the No. 8 car are smart, talented individuals," Waltrip said. "I knew that when you put Dale Jr. with them, they would have success. And I saw what Tony Jr. and those guys did with Dale Jr."

Still, it took a while to get it all together.

"If you can picture this," Waltrip said, "When we would run last year with the No. 15 and the race would be over and we'd finish 16th or 17th, they'd look at me like, 'What's wrong with you?' and I'd look at them like, 'What makes you sure y'all didn't mess up?' And nobody knows the answer.

"But, when I got in my car this year, I look at my crew and said, 'I'm yours. Take me and mould me. Make me one of you.' I wanted those guys to pour their knowledge on me and let me suck it up and be one of them."

Waltrip said he also was sure his former team would work well with Earnhardt.

"I know Pete and those boys looked at Dale Jr. and said, 'Take us to the promised land. We can do it, and you can lead us there.' So it was two different situations with the same basic scenario," he said. "I believe it will lead to the same results."

A top-10 finish in the standings would go a long way toward helping Waltrip prove he is more than just a guy the late Dale Earnhardt put in one of his cars because of friendship.

While the 30-year-old Earnhardt is one of NASCAR's biggest stars - nearly an Elvis-like icon to many - Waltrip, who will turn 42 on Saturday, is often an afterthought. That's a perception Waltrip would love to change before his career ends.

Asked if criticism of his ability has been fair, Waltrip bristled.

"Your opinions are yours and you write them down on a piece of paper and share it with thousands of people," he said. "I've been criticized enough where y'all can't hurt me.

"You can't write anything that's going to make my day any worse, and you can't all of a sudden tell me I'm smart and great and make me feel any better," he said. "I'm just going to keep on being me."

Waltrip threatens to win; Dale Jr. gets top five

He also ran out of racetrack, which guaranteed that he wouldn't catch Kurt Busch for the victory.

But his second-place effort -- coupled with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s fourth -- gave DEI its best finish of the season.

"I was trying to concentrate myself and watch Michael at the same time to see if he was going to get the win," Junior said. "It was a good day for DEI and definitely a good finish for this company and team. We worked really hard to get what we got tonight."

Waltrip was one of the few drivers who ran the high line all evening, which allowed him to move to the front.

However, running just a few car-lengths behind Busch with a handful of laps remaining, Waltrip slid up the track and bounced the right side of his No. 15 Chevrolet off the wall a couple of times.

"Yes, I hit it several times and I don't know if it affected it or not," Waltrip said when asked if he made contact with the barrier. "I continued to catch him and then hit it again. It wasn't pretty."

Waltrip posted his first top-five finish since last year's road course race at Infineon, but wanted more, like his first Nextel Cup victory in a non-restrictor plate race.

"I just wanted to win really bad," Waltrip said. "I felt that when Kurt caught me from so far back, I knew there wasn't any reason for me to work on messing my car up trying to hold him off, so I let him go.

"When he got out there, I could match his lap times and was eating into his lead, so I was patient until I couldn't hardly be patient anymore.

"I'd rather mess up trying than wonder. I did everything I could do. That's all I can ask of myself."

Busch said he wasn't surprised that Waltrip was willing to run where others couldn't.

"He's a tough competitor and he branches out and does the high line first, and sometimes that'll bite you," Busch said. "Once we got to the lead, I backed it down just a little bit in case there were some late yellows so we'd have tires to pull away.

"When I did that, he started to catch us.

"So I had to pick up the pace a little bit, change my line. He was running strong and he was going to drive as hard as he can to get that W -- bouncing off that wall and trying to keep it straight.

"My hat's off to DEI. They did a phenomenal job today."

Third-place Jeff Burton echoed those thoughts.

"Michael does that a lot. He runs the high line," Burton said. "From what I saw, he was the highest. That's sometimes what you have to do."

Waltrip certainly had history on his side Saturday night. The chassis was the same one Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove to victory in the last two Phoenix races.

"I can't confirm that but I strongly believe that," Waltrip said. "When you say the same car, it's the same chassis, but it's got a new body on it. It definitely has four different springs, a different swaybar and a different gear."

He also had Tony Eury and Tony Eury Jr. in his pits.

"DEI put two groups of people, two cars and two teams that just believe in their drivers," Waltrip said. "And when you have that, you almost feel like you can't be beat. You have a lot of confidence and you know everybody has faith in you."

Waltrip admitted that he did have doubts at the end of last season.

"Last fall, I don't know that I was going to be happy about if I ran into 2005 like I was doing in 2004," Waltrip said. "Those boys that worked on my car, I just don't think they thought I was their guy. So that's hard and you can't be successful like that.

"But when I got in my car this year, I looked at my crew and said, 'I'm yours. Take me. Mold me. Make me one of you.' I wanted those guys to pour their knowledge on me and let me suck it up and be one of them."

Earnhardt said his car went quicker the easier he drove it.

"I got to running it on in there in the first 50 laps and the car wasn't working," Junior said. "I just stepped back and slowed down a little bit. Man, that's when it started working and that's when I started passing people.

"I'm just really proud of everyone wearing a DEI uniform tonight."

PIR comes at opportune time for Earnhardt Jr.

It's even more rare when it happens twice at the same track in consecutive years.

But three times? Dale Earnhardt Jr. hopes the third time is even more of a charm in Saturday night's Subway Fresh 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

A victory would end a winless streak that started after his victory at Phoenix in November -- and would continue a surge that has allowed him to gain 12 positions in the point standings since leaving Las Vegas with a wrecked car.

"When I first started going out (to Phoenix) I had a hard time being competitive, but the last two times we were out there we were absolutely hooked up," Earnhardt said.

That might be an understatement. Earnhardt appeared to be toying with the field before running away with the victories.

In 2003, he passed Jimmie Johnson for the lead with 51 laps to go and fended off all challengers during a series of restarts, then blasted past Jeff Gordon with 11 laps remaining last season, this time staying out front in a green-white-checker finish.

So what's the secret?

"There's no secret. It's all about getting your car to handle through the middle of the corners," Earnhardt said. "Since the corners are so different, you almost need a balance between the two. That's where we were able to put a lot of distance on cars last year."

Earnhardt must smile every time he thinks about one-mile tracks. In addition to three straight top-five finishes at Phoenix, he has five top-10s in his last six visits to tracks one mile in length, and three of his 15 career wins have come at Phoenix and Dover.

"(Phoenix is) one of my favorite tracks, because it's got short-track tendencies, yet there's a lot of room to race," Earnhardt said. "You can pass and be passed without too much trouble."

Junior hopes he's seen the last of his trouble this season. After a third in the Daytona 500, Earnhardt never found the handle at California, crashed out early at Las Vegas and struggled at Atlanta, typically one of his better tracks.

Earnhardt said he may have let his intensity slip while getting accustomed to new crew chief Pete Rondeau.

"I started out the year trying to be cool and let everyone on the team get acclimated to me and me to them," he said. "But Pete (Rondeau) and myself are starting to work harder and demand a little more from each other."

In addition, Earnhardt said he's still struggling to get a handle on the new spoiler rule.

"We're still not where we want to be," he said. "(We've) still got to find a way to make our cars go faster, and find the grip we lost with the new spoiler."

The team is making progress. Earnhardt was fourth at Bristol, 13th at Martinsville and ninth last week at Texas despite losing several positions late in the race with an ill-handling car.

"We're working hard," Earnhardt said. "I'm driving real, real hard to get good finishes for this team, to keep them motivated. And slowly but surely, we're gaining a position or two each week, and there is still a lot of racing left."

Another perfect car Saturday night -- and another trip to Phoenix's Victory Lane -- might be all the motivation Earnhardt and the No. 8 Chevrolet team needs.

It's not just the cars that lack power at DEI

What's wrong with the No. 8 car?

Is Martin Truex staying with the organization?

Who will drive the No. 15 in 2006?

How long before Busch driver Paul Menard is replaced?

C'mon, Richie. Inquiring minds want to know. "I feel like Rocky against the ropes," says Gilmore, DEI's vice president of motorsports. "I don't know how this stuff gets started."

As reclusive owner Teresa Earnhardt's first mate on a ship that some in the garage insist is sinking, Gilmore is the only conduit to her. Gilmore has Earnhardt's ear, but he lacks the power to pull the trigger when major decisions need to be made.

Like others in that position before him, his hands are tied. Giving Gilmore -- or anyone else -- the ability to resolve issues on the competition side would allow the organization to grow in a more effective manner.

And grow it must to battle against such powerhouses as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing, which house teams together to allow a continuous flow of information. Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8, has been very vocal regarding the need to expand the current base of operation and step up the engine program.

Certain steps have been executed. Tony Eury Sr. has taken the lead of research and development, and DEI has tested and nearly perfected its new chassis, which is expected to be available to the Cup teams in mid-May.

Resurrecting the third Cup team, with defending Busch Series champ Truex as the driver, is on the drawing board, but reports last week had Truex offering his services elsewhere. If Truex is an integral part of this organization's future, why isn't he under contract for next season? Gilmore expects the contract to be signed this week.

"We have a huge investment with Martin," Gilmore says. "We're the ones that took a chance on him. We've been patient. It's just a matter of getting all the parties together."

The same could be said for Tony Eury Jr.'s contract -- he doesn't have one, despite doing an admirable job as a rookie crew chief with Michael Waltrip's No. 15. Gilmore says the chemistry on the No. 15 team "is the best it's ever been."

Eury says Teresa Earnhardt has offered him whatever he needs to rebuild the team. His immediate goals are to increase the team's top 10s and win somewhere other than a restrictor-plate track.

Sponsor NAPA, which is in a renegotiation year after a nine-year association with DEI, should have a plan in place -- including a driver -- by June 1. Keeping Michael Waltrip in the ride is a possibility, but Gilmore says Greg Biffle is on his "very short list" as a possible replacement.

It's premature to tell whether the offseason swap of the Nos. 8 and 15 crews and cars will pay off. But the longevity of the entire organization depends on what happens at the top. Just don't expect Gilmore to solve all the problems as he walks from his motor coach to the haulers.

DEI shows progress

Sunday's race outcome was a welcome change from the up-one-week, down-the-next scenario that has characterized the team's season thus far.

For the second time this year (including the first Gatorade Duel at Daytona) both Waltrip (sixth) and teammate Earnhardt Jr. (ninth) finished in the top 10 in a Cup race.

Earnhardt's postrace comments may have offered an insight as to why his team has struggled this season.

"I was real loose going into Turn 3," Earnhardt said. "Once you got into the center you were OK. If you really want to get technical, we do need a little bit of spoiler back on the car. They ain't going to do it, but that's just the way it is. You've got to get the car to work with what you've got."

NASCAR's rules changes, which this year include the introduction of a new softer tire and a lowered rear spoiler, have caused some teams to fall behind the curve, and Earnhardt's may very well be one of them.

Earnhardt does admit that aero push isn't new.

"You're not going to get rid of that, no matter what you do," he said. "They got the aero push just as bad as when they had no spoiler on it, so I don't know why they wouldn't put it back on."

He added that at the fast, non-restrictor plate tracks like Atlanta and Michigan, where the cars are entering the turns at speeds approaching 195 miles per hour, the smaller spoiler becomes a critical element.

"It just costs a lot of tests and a lot of guys spend a lot of money at the race track," Earnhardt added. "We were hiring a lot of engineers trying to get the bodies and everything handling like it was with the old package."

Earnhardt now has three top-10s this season. But with seven races already in the record books and 19 remaining to the start of the Chase, Earnhardt acknowledged that the rest of the field might be leaving his team in its wake.

But that doesn't mean there isn't time for the team to make a run.

"Well, we're working hard," said Earnhardt, who is 15th in points. "I've stepped up my commitment. I started out the year relaxed, and allowing those guys to get used to the change first and with me coming in there, I didn't really want to push them hard at the start.

"But we're starting to get into the season. Me and Pete [Rondeau, crew chief], we're starting to work a little harder and demand a little more from ourselves around the race track. We're driving real, real hard to get good finishes for this team and keep them going."

Still, not all is right in the DEI world.

In a nationally-televised interview during FOX's broadcast of the race on Sunday, Earnhardt complained that DEI's facilities weren't adequate, saying "if you're going to do something, you need to do it right" and signaling that things may still be a bit tense at the team's Mooresville, N.C., home.

Waltrip, on the other hand, who is said to be in his final year with the organization, was pleased with his result on Sunday. It was a welcome change in a season that has been marked by bad luck.

He had a good car in Daytona and California, but mechanical problems took him out early. At the back-to-back short tracks at Bristol and Martinsville, he was caught up in other people's problems.

Waltrip's crew chief Tony Eury Jr. shouldered some of the blame for not giving Waltrip an even better car Sunday – a car that Waltrip perhaps could have driven into victory lane.

"I got scared there at one point, over-adjusted and made Michael too loose," Eury Jr. said. "It's my fault that I didn't have the car the way he needed it two-thirds of the way through the race."

Waltrip, who is 24th in points, says that this past weekend's result is just another step in the right direction for his team and that the goal is still to make the Chase. He is confident that his team's program for the all-important 1½-mile circuits like Texas, Charlotte and Atlanta is on the right track.

"I'd have to say we're not far off," he said. "I love Charlotte. We ran second there in the 600. My team [with Earnhardt driving] won the last two Phoenix races and I finished fifth there in '03. I'm still pretty confident about the things we've got going on and the things we've got coming up."

After Phoenix this weekend comes the 2.66-mile superspeedway at Talladega, a track where the DEI cars have done extremely well. The team has won the spring race there each of the last four years (Earnhardt three times, Waltrip once). In all, DEI cars have won six of the last seven races at the track.

That's not to say that DEI will have a cakewalk in two weeks, especially since the Hendrick cars have shown tremendous gains on the restrictor plate tracks while the Roush drivers – especially Greg Biffle – have been close to dominant this season.

But the Talladega race should provide DEI a strong opportunity to continue gaining ground.

DEI bounces back with top-10 finishes at TMS

The "drought" had provoked speculation inside and outside the garage area, and relief and optimism were much in evidence after the race.

Waltrip steered his No. 15 Chevrolet into sixth, his best of the season and only his second top-10 in seven races; while Earnhardt's tight No. 8 Chevy ended up ninth, his third top-10 that's been offset by three other finishes of 24th or worse.

"It was a great day for DEI -- we've just got to keep working [because] we've still got some work to do figuring out these tires," DEI director of motorsports Richie Gilmore said. "Michael struggled on new tires and Junior struggled on old tires.

"We've just got to keep working, figuring them out, but it's a good day and it's some momentum to build, going to Phoenix. We've got to keep working [because] top-10s are great, but we've still got to get better -- but it's a start."

Gilmore said more than anything, he hoped the two good finishes might quiet some of the talk about the incipient demise of DEI, only seven races into a season that began with a radical change of teams between the two full-time drivers.

"I hope so, a little bit," Gilmore said. "Because after a while, you just get sick of hearing it. The guys are working really hard and we've been beat up, definitely, the last couple weeks pretty badly."

Afterward, DEI's drivers sang the praises of their respective crews and forecast more of the same coming soon -- after Earnhardt bumped from 16th to 15th and Waltrip jumped from 30th to 24th.

"We think we can [quiet the rumors], as time goes forward," Waltrip said. "I just wish you could write down how happy I am to have Tony [Eury] Jr. and all these boys I have building my cars working for me and helping me out.

"They look at me as one of them and I look at me as part of their team. It's neat [because] nobody thinks they're smarter than the other -- we just all do it together."

"We're working hard," Earnhardt agreed. "I've stepped up my commitment. I started out the year relaxed, and allowing those guys to get used to the change first and with me coming in there I didn't really want to push them hard at the start.

"But, we're starting to get into the season. Me and Pete [Rondeau, crew chief], we're starting to work a little harder and demand a little more from ourselves around the racetrack. We're driving real, real hard to get good finishes for this team and keep them going.

"I'm just trying to run hard and work hard and get kind of semi-close to that top 10 for when it counts there."

On Sunday, Earnhardt was bemused by the last set of tires his team put on, which knocked what he felt was a sure top-five back to ninth. It wasn't his only question for Goodyear.

"We're coming around a little bit, but we had a top five going there -- I was trying to get a good run for all my fans here in Texas, but we just couldn't get it done," Earnhardt said. "We changed tires on the car and it changed the way the car drove every time -- that's real frustrating [because] it was like they were putting a different set of tires from a different track every time.

"I just wish the engineers from Goodyear would get with us and show us how to keep that from happening. But, as long as tires aren't blowing out and people hitting the fence, you don't see them.

"Hopefully we can get it figured out before the end of the season, because we had a good top five car at the end and we struggled all day -- but we got it good right there at the end."

Waltrip, in particular, cited a test a year ago in which he said he was "on suicide watch" after running terribly; to a recent session that enabled Sunday's performance.

"We've only had one bad race, basically, where we didn't perform, and that was Las Vegas," Waltrip said. "We were terrible at Vegas, but we put that behind us right quick, went to Atlanta and really, really ran good and finished seventh.

"[Sunday] was very encouraging because we drove up there and chased 'em for the lead and we were up front all day. Like I said earlier, I thought I could win. So that was a great feeling."

Waltrip said the finish, coupled with the similar result on the similar racetrack at Atlanta, boded well for his team -- but also personally after debacles at Daytona, California, Bristol and Martinsville.

"It's great for me," Waltrip said. "I was thinking when we were running second and really doing good that we were running well -- but if you don't finish the deal off and finish well, people will forget how well you ran.

"So you've got to post the finishes and it was great to put one up [Sunday]."

"We ran up front -- it was a successful day for us," Eury Jr. said. "We had a good test out here and I think we have these one-and-a-half milers figured out. Now we just have to make sure we have the same package that we did in Phoenix."

Short tracks are salve to Junior's early-season ailments

On the heels of a fourth-place run at Thunder Valley, Junior heads to a track on which he's has five top-fives in his past six starts.

Still, despite leading 452 laps at Martinsville, Junior is still searching for his first win there. He knows a strong run on the tight turns of Nextel Cup racing's smallest track is anything but a foregone conclusion.

"Short-track racing is like walking through a minefield. You have to watch every move and be completely aware of what's going on around you," he said. "You can get bit by a lot of things you didn't have anything to do with starting."

A successful test at Martinsville last week has given Junior confidence -- and a choice to make.

"You can choose to run fast through the middle of the corner and then not get as strong an exit off the turns, or you can choose to hustle it into the turns, slow up in the middle and then try to get a straight run off the corners," he said.

Earnhardt is leaning toward the former.

"I like to think it's better on a long run to work on making the car turn in the middle, but you risk having guys trying to be aggressive and dive-bomb you going into the corners."

Fortunately for him and his fans, Junior expects more than a few similarties between this weekend and last.

"It seems like there's usually a few long green-flag runs at Martinsville, and I've always been lucky enough to take advantage of having a car that is better on the long runs," he said.

"We even saw that at Bristol -- we were better after 40 laps or so of green-flag racing. We really needed the last 100 laps to stay green to close in on those boys at the front."

Speaking of closing in, Earnhardt Jr. suddenly finds himself back in contention for the season championship. His second top-five of the season has moved him to 17th in the series standings, 84 points behind 10th-place Mark Martin.

Still, if Junior is to continue his climb back to the top 10, his crew will have to be on top of its game Sunday.

"The flat corners make it essential for the crew to make the right changes all day long," he said. "You can't rely on high-banked corners to catch the car."

But it's not all bad.

"I like it because the driver can have more impact, knowing when to hustle the car or to take care of your equipment," Junior said.

He's taken care of being solid at Martinsville, but he's expecting more Sunday.

"We've been good here the last few years, but I want to improve that string of top-five finishes and get a win at this place," he said.

Earnhardt Jr., Petty look for edge in Kentucky testing

Earnhardt, who was second in the series standings after the fifth race of 2004, used a fourth-place finish at Bristol to move to 17th in the current standings. After generating an average finish of 21st through the first five series races this season, the No. 8 team is intent on building stronger racecars.

"We weren't that good at intermediate tracks last year and we haven't really been that strong this year," Earnhardt said. "That's why we're here testing. Hopefully, we can learn something. We're working on a lot of different things all across the board with our engineering department, trying to build a better racecar for the rest of the season.

"This track has a similar configuration to California or Vegas. You can learn a little bit about corners, what helps the cars turn and what gives them grip in the rear. I think we have to work on the bodies a little bit and get a little more grip.

"We have good down force numbers, but the car isn't providing us with enough grip. It's all numbers and figures, but you have to get out on the racetrack to see what does what, what feels this way and what feels that way to improve the car.

"This boils down to what kind of racecar we're taking to the racetrack. If we improve the car we're building at the shop, we'll have a faster, more competitive team."

Truex used his time on the track to gain knowledge for his remaining Nextel Cup Series starts this season and to mentally regroup from a tough start to his NASCAR Busch Series season.

"This is a good mile-and-a-half track to test because aerodynamics come into play real big here," Truex said. "With the new Cup spoiler rule, the Cup and Busch cars are a good bit different. The Cup cars feel a bit different getting into the corners, that's the biggest part. We're trying to get both cars to feel the same. If we do that, we'll have some good stuff.

"We have six more races in the Cup series this year and we're looking forward to it. We're real excited about it and trying to learn as much as we can."

The defending Busch Series champion will enter the next week's race at Texas Motor Speedway fifth in the series standings, but has not cracked the top 10 in his last four starts. He owns a win and a total of two top-five finishes this season.

"It's been a tough season so far to be honest. We had a good run at Daytona and obviously the win in Mexico was big for us, but we've had some bad luck and tough races since then," he said. "I'm kind of glad to have a week off to regroup as a team before we get back after it at Texas."

Improving competition levels also was on the mind of Petty Enterprises. Petty was all smiles following his eighth-place performance at Bristol. It was his first top-10 Cup Series finish since April 21, 2002 at Talladega Superspeedway.

"Last weekend was really good for Petty Enterprises," Petty said. "We kind of stuck it out all day long, stayed out of trouble, stayed out of everybody's way and when everything happened towards the end, we knew we had a good shot at moving up. We started like 12th or 13th, passed a few guys and got in the top 10. It was a good run for us.

"Jeff Green and the Cheerios Dodge qualified sixth and had some bad luck in the race, but he was going to have a good top-five, top-10 car."

Petty owns an average finish of 20.8 through the first five races of the season and is motivated by the results of his team's new engine alliance with Evernham Motorsports.

"Our engine program has been the motivator," he added. "We were looking at the No. 9 and No. 19 and saying, 'these guys can run up front and win races.' If we use their engines, we ought to be able to. If we can't we have to look at our cars and all the other aspects of Petty Enterprises. We're trying to improve on our car and our chassis stuff because we know what we're comparing ourselves to. They build some good stuff at Evernham Motorpsorts."

'American Chopper' Auction to Support GIs

The auction will be conducted by Guernsey's auction house May 6 at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. Proceeds will be donated to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and the Fisher House Foundation.

"I guess it's just something that I wanted to do because I see all these young guys missing limbs, head damage and that kind of thing, and we're in a position where we can help out different organizations and people," Teutul Sr. told The Associated Press Monday.

Built from scratch, the motorcycles are proclaimed "truly customized to some of the baddest steel that's ever roared down the road on two wheels." Teutul expects the bikes and other items to raise a "substantial amount of money" for the families.

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno and pro golfer Davis Love III will also participate, Teutul said.

Construction of the two bikes will be shown in upcoming episodes of "American Chopper," now in its second season.

A much-needed Bristol boost

After finishing third in the season-opener at Daytona, Junior had struggled in the past three races: 32nd at Fontana, 42nd at Las Vegas and 24th at Atlanta. More importantly, the No. 8 team was 26th in points, 315 behind Nextel Cup point standings leader Jimmie Johnson.

But Bristol seems to bring out the best in Earnhardt. Entering Sunday's Food City 500, his average finish in the past seven races on the .533-mile concrete track was 8.2 -- including a win in the Fall 2004 race. And while he did not lead a lap Sunday, Junior's fourth-place finish catapulted him seven spots to 17th in points, just 84 points out of 10th place.

Earnhardt now has finished fourth or better in five of his past six short-track races, and he has finished in the top-10 in three of his last four events at Bristol.

"Man that was some hard driving," he said after the race. "There at the end, I kind of felt like I was arm-wrestling Sylvester Stallone.

"I had a great car, a top-five car all day. But being faster and passing those guys are two different things. We took advantage of everybody else's mistakes, had a pretty clean run, and stayed up there in the top 10 all day."

Starting 19th, it took only 78 laps for Junior to make his way into the top 10, as he used early cautions and a slightly different pit strategy than the leaders to make his biggest gains. Earnhardt would not fall out of the top 10 for the rest of the day.

And as he told his crew over the radio, "Yeah, well my daddy told me how to get around this place. As long as I remember what he said, I should have this place down pat, pretty much."

However, there was an anxious moment on Lap 323 when Earnhardt, running in fifth place, had to slam on the brakes to avoid the spinning car of Matt Kenseth. Thinking he may have flat-spotted his left-front tire, Junior summoned a team member to Turn 2 where the Budweiser car was parked during a red-flag period to make sure the tire was in good shape. With no evident damage, Earnhardt continued his top-10 run.

"There at the end," he said, "the car was really sliding a lot, really loose. But other than that, we had a really good car through the middle, and I was happy with the way the team got through the day."

Dale Jr. not crazy about changes at Martinsville

Johnson: Earnhardt's team needs time

"I think anytime you restructure a team, it's going to take some time to get things going -- I definitely believe they'll have some troubles getting going," Johnson said. "Once they get going I think everything will be fine, but you've got to go through everything and start all over again with the words you use to describe the car."

Johnson said his organization led by crew chief Chad Knaus is a perfect example of team growth.

"Chad and I communicate now better than in our rookie season," Johnson said. "We were good then, but nothing like we are now.

"Junior's got to start over. He's had so many years with the Eurys (Tony and Tony Jr.) and that group of guys, it's going to take some time to get going."

DEI doing fine, Truex says

Some are pushing the panic button because, after finishing third in the season opening Daytona 500, Earnhardt has spiraled down to 26th in the standings. Truex says outsiders haven't taken into account the complete team swap the Dale Earnhardt Incorporated organization executed in the off-season.

Earnhardt switched teams -- and cars -- with Nextel Cup teammate Michael Waltrip. For better or worse, Waltrip has done little better, as he's 27th in the standings, also with a single top-10 finish.

"They're doing well -- I mean, their spirits are staying high," Truex said. "You know, they realize that it's going to take a little bit of time to get their stuff straightened out (because) they just started working together.

"Junior's actually been pretty happy the way his cars have been running. They just haven't seemed to be good at the start of the races (but) he's pretty happy with the way things are going."

If Earnhardt is "pretty happy" with the way his Pete Rondeau-led crew has been so far this season, Bristol and Sunday afternoon's Food City 500 may be just the tonic he needs.

For each of the last three seasons, Earnhardt has accumulated more points than any other driver on the circuit's six short track races: Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond. And he's the most recent Nextel Cup winner at Bristol.

"It's a love-hate relationship," Earnhardt says of Bristol. "I remember sitting there last year with about 100 laps to go (in August's Sharpie 500), thinking how much I hated the place.

"Then we won, and it was my favorite track on the circuit."

Truex figures this season -- with a new tire, aerodynamic and gear rule package on top of DEI's team changes -- won't keep Earnhardt down for long.

"You know, I guess he realizes it was going to take a little time to get things on track," Truex said. "He feels like they're gaining. You know, his spirits are always up (and) he knows it (momentum) goes up and down."

Beyond Junior and Mikey

Yes, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip have gotten off to slow starts. But on the other side of the building, the DEI Busch Series program with Martin Truex Jr. and Paul Menard is doing just fine, thank you.

Truex, the defending Busch champ, and Menard both are having decent seasons. Truex is fifth in points and already has scored a victory (Mexico City) while Menard has four top-11 starts in five races.

It wouldn't be unusual this early in the year for most of the attention to be focused on the reigning champion. But Carl Edwards has hogged the spotlight lately, and that's just fine with Truex.

"It's a real comfortable position to not always be, you know, under everybody's microscope," Truex said. "So far everything's been going OK. We've had some good races, we've had some bad. That's to be expected. Carl is absolutely doing a great job right now and deserves to be talked about.

"You know, we don't mind being under the radar. We like to do our thing."

The common perception these days is that for the larger and better-financed teams like DEI, their Busch programs are more or less development departments for Nextel Cup teams. But right now, the Busch side of the equation is showing the way, as Truex has qualified well and has scored two top-five finishes heading into Nashville this weekend.

Still, the 24-year-old feels the team could be doing a lot better.

"There are a lot of different things going on right now that we haven't picked up on quite as quick as other people," he said. "The new tire and the new impound rules and the tire rule for the races, for the whole race weekend, is a little bit different for us."

The new rules have forced teams to adjust, while also making notes taken in the past not as relevant.

"The [setups] we were running last year aren't working quite as well as they did," Truex said. "We're not getting much practice to get them sorted out. At the same time, we're not able to use any tires in practice. So it's been tough to get a handle on it really quick."

Menard joined DEI last July and made an immediate impression with a series of inspiring runs in the latter half of 2004. The 24-year-old from Eau Claire, Wis., gives a lot of credit to his crew chief and fellow Wisconsin native Dan Stillman.

"It's been really great working with Dan so far," said Menard, who is 20th in Busch points. "He's very technically oriented. We definitely see eye to eye on a lot of things, and we seem to speak the same language ... Dan thinks more like an engineer in a methodical way that I really like. He's more of a numbers guy."

Despite the success Truex and Menard have experienced this season, the struggles of the DEI Cup teams aren't lost on the Busch programs.

"Obviously, DEI is one of the best organizations out there," Menard said. "DEI is such a tight-knit family. If one team is struggling, all of the crew chiefs get together to try and help that team.

Truex Jr. agrees. He's good friends with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and says that despite having to watch Junior and his team struggle, they seem to be taking things in stride.

"He's pretty happy with the way things are going," Truex said. "I guess he realizes it was going to take a little time to get things on track. He feels like they're gaining. You know his spirits are always up. He knows it goes up and down."

As for Truex's own prospects, he believes another season in the Busch Series defending his championship will better prepare him for when he makes the move next season to a full-time ride in the Cup Series. Running Busch races also provides an edge to current Cup drivers.

"I think the Busch cars and the Cup cars are getting closer together," Truex said. "I mean, you can kind of see that. Look at Carl Edwards, what he did in Atlanta. If anybody says the Busch race didn't help him, I think they're crazy.

"I think everything's pretty relative. You know, they've got short practices and not much time before qualifying. A lot of things can help, especially running at the same tracks the same weekends."

Truex's next Cup race is Talladega in May. The original plan was to have him run all four restrictor plate races, but that idea has been modified somewhat, as the team might compete at tracks like Bristol, Dover, Atlanta and Homestead.

"We're kind of starting to lean towards doing some other tracks because we feel like we can run good at the plate tracks," he said. "We need to work on our other stuff a little bit."

For Menard, he'd like to follow his teammate's footsteps and win the Busch title, but he understands the competition is tough.

"Everything we did the latter half of last season was in preparation for a full-scale assault on the championship this year," Menard said. "Maybe there are 20 or 30 other teams out there who feel the same way, but for us it's very realistic."

The sky isn't falling

But while there is both sympathy from fans and laughter at his misfortune from critics, no one can seem to answer the one question that almost everyone in NASCAR is asking.

What's wrong with Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

Has the son of The Intimidator suddenly become The Intimidated? I wouldn't go that far, but there certainly is cause for concern regarding Junior's performance this year.

Sure, he finished third last month in the season-opening Daytona 500. Given DEI's long-time supremacy in restrictor plate racing, that was not a surprise.

But Earnhardt's last three races have been nothing short of abominations, finishing 32nd at Fontana, crashing out after just 11 laps and winding up 42nd at Las Vegas and hardly making a peep en route to a 24th-place finish at Atlanta on Sunday.

Theories abound on why Junior is lagging.

The most prominent: the wholesale trade of teams after last season, sending all of Earnhardt's crew members to work on the car of teammate Michael Waltrip in exchange for Waltrip's entire crew, either isn't working or is taking too long to gel.

One of the main reasons for the change was to give Junior more consistent race cars and better pit stops. But Junior still is having many of the same problems he had last year.

Other theories run the gamut from logical to outlandish. In the last few weeks I've heard people say:

It's just going to take more time for Junior and his new team to click.

Junior isn't his typical focused self. He's uncharacteristically apologized several times for mistakes he's made in recent races, including running into the back end of Brian Vickers at Las Vegas and for pit-road speeding at Atlanta.

Junior and new crew chief Pete Rondeau just aren't on the same page, with some even saying they're not even reading the same book.

After finishing fifth despite being a popular pick to win the championship last season, and then failing to be picked by many as potential champion for this season, Junior has lost much of his desire in 2005.

There's even the conspiracy theory that Junior is intentionally having a bad season so that he can leave DEI to either form his own team or sign with another, most notably his father's old employer, Richard Childress Racing.

Forget the theories and look at the facts. Junior has had several similar slumps in his career.

In his rookie season in 2000, everyone seems to remember his emotional first win at Texas, but they seem to conveniently forget his performances sandwiched around that first visit to victory lane. In the three races prior to Texas, he finished 29th, 40th and 38th. And in the two races immediately after Texas, he returned to mediocrity with finishes of 26th and 42nd, twice dropping him to 23rd in the standings.

In his sophomore season of 2001, Earnhardt finished second in the season-opening Daytona 500, the same race that tragically claimed the life of his father. Then he went on to finishes of 43rd, 23rd, 15th, 34th and 31st in the next five races, dropping him to 26th in the standings. Still, he managed to finish the season eighth in the points.

In 2002, he had 13 finishes of 22nd or worse in the first 22 races – much of which could be blamed on suffering a concussion at California early in the season and the resulting aftereffects. Even so, he managed to finish 11th in the standings.

And then there was last season. After his fiery crash during a sports car event at Sonoma, Calif., Junior's promising season tanked for several races immediately afterward. In addition to finishing 22nd at Chicago the week before his scary wreck, Junior returned to the Cup circuit to finish 31st, 25th, 27th, fifth, 21st, first (at Bristol) and 34th in his next seven starts. And he still wound up fifth in the final standings at season's end.

As for this year, even some of Junior's biggest rivals aren't overly concerned that he's nowhere near the top 10 right now.

"Anytime you restructure a team, it's going to take some time to get things going," current points leader Jimmie Johnson said after Sunday's race at Atlanta. "You've got to go through everything and start all over again. Once they get going, I think everything will be fine."

Earnhardt isn't the only Cup driver struggling. Kasey Kahne, Joe Nemechek, Matt Kenseth and Bobby Labonte also are off to tough starts.

Alas, the sky is not falling at DEI or onto the hood of the No. 8 Chevrolet. Earnhardt is not done for the year, just four races into the season. He's going to rebound. Look at Waltrip, who has also had a rough start. He had a strong seventh-place finish at Atlanta, jumping eight places in the standings to 27th, right behind his teammate.

Just one win – perhaps at next week's race in Bristol, Tenn., where Junior won last summer – could put as much as 190 points into Earnhardt's wallet, potentially helping to erase his current 315-point deficit.

Even Junior doesn't seem too concerned about his recent problems.

"I can sleep well at night knowing we gave it everything we had," he said after Atlanta. "I'm going to drive just as hard every time as long as my team's busting their ass like they're doing right now."

Speeding penalty costs Earnhardt Jr.

Junior, Vickers collide in early going at Vegas

On Lap 12 of the UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400, Earnhardt was racing Brian Vickers when Earnhardt hit Vickers' rear, sending both cars into a spin. The accident also collected the cars of Ricky Rudd and Bobby Labonte.

All four cars went to the garage. Earnhardt's car was immediately retired from the race. For Rudd, it was his third week in a row that he'd been caught up in an accident.

The wreck will send Earnhardt to a position in the points he hasn't seen since 2003, when he started the season with two consecutive finishes of 30th or worse.

Earnhardt took the blame for the accident, saying he was surprised when he suddenly caught Vickers in Turn 2.

"He'd been on my ass for about three laps, so I was going to let him go, I just got into him," Earnhardt said. "I don't know what the hell happened over there.

"I went into the corner like I thought I should and he got into there a little easier than I expected. I got all over him. I apologized to him."

Vickers was frustrated, but calm.

"You know, we just got wrecked," said Vickers. "It's a shame. Junior apologized, which is good. Stuff happens and guys make mistakes."

Earnhardt's record at Las Vegas has been abysmal the past two years. He was 35th last year after his car had a severe handling problem, but he bounced back to win the next week at Atlanta.

"I have had harder times than this," Earnhardt said. "I mean, we'll just try to turn it around. I've had a pretty good car the last couple of weeks -- just ain't made the best of it."

Earnhardt Jr. faces crucial weekend at Las Vegas

After a solid third-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500, fan favorite Earnhardt had a terrible day two weeks ago at California Speedway, blowing three tires and hanging on for a 32nd-place finish.

That dropped Junior to 14th in the standings, 103 points behind series leader and reigning Cup champion Kurt Busch. Not so bad with 34 races to go, but the 1.5-mile Las Vegas oval was one of Earnhardt's worst venues last year. He started 26th and fought an ill-handling car all the way to a 35th-place finish.

Earnhardt, working well with new crew chief Pete Rondeau, said he is not feeling any extra pressure heading into Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400.

"It wasn't much fun driving around with tires blowing out all day (at California), but that's what happened and it's behind us," Earnhardt said. "Nobody said it was going to be a cakewalk, but we're going to get better because of what happened.

"I was real happy the way Pete and all the guys handled the situation. Pete had me calm and chilled out at a time when I probably would've lost focus and been all over the place. I like that about him."

Earnhardt, who finished fifth in the points last year after being in contention for the title until the final race, started 2005 with a big question mark after he and Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Michael Waltrip swapped teams.

Earnhardt got the unproven Rondeau, the rest of Waltrip's No. 15 crew from last year and all of his teammate's cars, while Waltrip got Junior's cousin and former car chief Tony Eury Jr. as his crew chief, the rest of Earnhardt's crew from last year and what had been the No. 8 Chevrolets.

Earnhardt and Eury grew up together and are great friends, but they often clashed during races when things were not going well.

So far, Earnhardt and Rondeau, who took over as Waltrip's crew chief late last season after veteran Slugger Labbe left the team, have melded nicely.

But, looking to bounce back after California, the tough Vegas track will be a big test for them and the entire No. 8 team.

"I'm actually looking forward to it," Earnhardt said. "We tested at Las Vegas (in January) and we learned a lot of stuff in the last half of the California race that should help us there.

"Once we blew those tires, we turned the rest of the race into a test session. We're taking the same car we used at California."

Earnhardt said that bringing the same car with which he struggled at California is not as strange as it sounds.

"It was a good car when the tires stayed on it," he said. "Once we fixed that problem, it was pretty fast. But nobody noticed because we were more than 10 laps down.

"We tried a lot of things, the car got better and we learned a lot about the car that should be good for us at Vegas. The car was never a hassle to drive at any point during the race and it was by far one of the better cars I've driven at the big, flat tracks."

Flat tires leave Earnhardt frustrated at Fontana

After starting 40th, his worst qualifying position since the final race of the 2000, Junior climbed into the top 25 before his left flat tire went flat on Lap 36.

He got back out and was getting into a good rhythm when the left front tire went again on Lap 58. Before it was over, Earnhardt had to make four stops for repairs, including replacing the fender braces which were damaged when the first flat tire shredded.

Earnhardt wound up 32nd, 13 laps behind winner Greg Biffle. That dropped Earnhardt to 14th in the Nextel Cup points, the first time he has been out of the top 10 in 71 races.

"I know it's a cliche when you don't run good, but we really did test some things there in the second half of the race," said Junior, running only his second race with new crew chief Pete Rondeau. "I think both Pete and I learned a lot. I think we learned some things that will help us down the race.

"It's a long season and we'll only get better."

Junior struggles

SPARK PLUGS

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Crew Chief Fined

Recommendation: In DEI's quest for more horsepower during Speed Weeks, it appears that Pete Rondeau may have gotten a little creative. NASCAR busted the #8 team's crew chief. Earnhardt was fortunate that this penalty had no championship points attached to it.

Close quarters

On Lap 62, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton touched on pit road, sending Earnhardt Jr. into his pit with the nose of his Chevrolet towards the pit wall.

Despite the strange angle, his crew performed a normal stop, although Earnhardt Jr. lost a lot of time when he had to back up the car to exit.

"I tried to avoid (Burton)," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It was my fault."

The biggest pit road incident of the day involved Kasey Kahne and Jason Leffler, who collided during the round of stops on Lap 161. Both lost a lot of track position, and each were later swept up in accidents, although Kahne managed to finish on the lead lap.

We got in that deal on pit road, and that kind of set us back," Kahne said. "We had a much better car than where we finished. Its just circumstances."

Earnhardt Jr. nearly repeats, finishes third

Even so, his rivals kept glancing nervously in their rearview mirrors, figuring Junior would show up sooner or later.

They were right.

Coming from as far back as 30th, Earnhardt sent the massive crowd into a frenzy when he surged to the lead late in Sunday's race.

At the end, he couldn't hold off Jeff Gordon, who stormed past the No. 8 car and held on for his third Daytona 500 victory. Earnhardt settled for third -- just short of a Daytona Double but OK with the outcome.

"I'm not too disappointed," he said. "I know I can't win them all."

That Earnhardt even had a chance to become a back-to-back 500 champion was a testament to the dogged perseverance he inherited from his father, a seven-time NASCAR Cup champion who died at this track in 2001.

"We struggled all day with the car," Junior said. "We tried to get it to handle, but it wouldn't turn. We were terrible."

But his crew stuck with it, finally working out the problems by putting on a new set of tires and making some adjustments to the No. 8 car.

Suddenly, Earnhardt was a force to be reckoned with, roaring past all those cars in front of him. Up ahead, Gordon wondered where Junior had been all day.

"When the cautions came out, I would look in my mirror or look on the board to see how far back he was," Gordon said. "I thought maybe Junior was having engine problems or handling problems. Then he flipped a switch there at the end. I was like, 'Oh, here he is.' "

Earnhardt took his first lead of the race just five laps from the scheduled finish, slipping by Tony Stewart. In a bit of gamesmanship that would have made his father proud, Junior told his crew to pass along a message to Stewart's people: Stay on the inside and they could team up.

Instead, Earnhardt saw his chance to pass on the outside -- and he took it.

"Once I got a run going, it was time for me to think about winning the race," he said. "I had a chance to be a back-to-back Daytona 500 champion. That would have been awesome."

Stewart reclaimed the top spot on the next lap, then Earnhardt got by him again. With another victory in sight, Junior couldn't keep his car in front. Gordon found a burst of speed going down the long backstretch, clearing Earnhardt as they barreled into turn three.

"He went by so fast, I couldn't even scratch the side of his car," Earnhardt said. "At that point, I felt lucky just to be in second."

Even though a late caution added three laps to the scheduled 200-lap distance, Junior never made another serious challenge for the lead. In fact, he couldn't hold off Kurt Busch for the runner-up spot.

That's OK. Considering how far he'd just come, Earnhardt had no complaints about where he finished.

"It was a real exciting race today," he said. "I saw a lot of it out of my front windshield. It looked like a lot of fun. And it was fun for me at the end when I was able to get up there."

Quotable

Earnhardt Jr., on the procedure for determining the Daytona 500 lineup: "It's the most confusingest thing."

DEI still the team to beat at Daytona

Forget it.

After struggling last week in qualifying, the DEI duo of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip suddenly jumped back into the role of favorites for Sunday's Daytona 500 with an electrifying performance in their 150-mile qualifying race.

After coming from the rear of the pack in the Thursday qualifier, two-time 500 winner Waltrip shot past defending race champion Earnhardt on the final straightaway to win by half a car length.

"Dale Jr. said that everything would be clear after Thursday and I think he's right," Waltrip said, grinning. "We've got fast cars."

Even after losing Thursday, Earnhardt was sounding just as confident.

"It never was that we were falling off," Earnhardt explained. "It's just that other people have been catching up. Nobody should be surprised if me and Michael are still running good at Daytona."

How true.

Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway _ NASCAR's longest and fastest ovals -- are the only tracks where the cars are slowed for safety reasons by horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates.

The slower speeds tend to bunch up the field, with a lot of two- and three-wide racing.

Over the past four years, DEI has been the team able to get the most out of its plate engines and give Earnhardt and Waltrip a real advantage.

They have turned that edge into 11 victories in the last 16 races at the plate tracks. That includes wins in three of the last four Daytona 500s.

But there is evidence that other teams, particularly Hendrick Motorsports with two-time 500 winner Jeff Gordon and Nextel Cup championship favorite Jimmie Johnson, have made serious inroads.

"It cycles," Earnhardt said. "There was a time when Dale Jarrett was dominanant at Daytona for four or five years. We had our run and we've all known that they've been closing the gap over the past couple of years.

"It's been more of a challenge to win these races. Yet we're still competitive. We ain't fallen off to the point where we can't compete. We just peaked."

Earnhardt noted that nobody keeps an advantage for long in NASCAR.

"When you're out front and leading the pack in any category, everybody else is working hard to catch you, and eventually they will."

Gordon, who split the four plate races with Earnhardt last year, agrees.

"I don't think there's much doubt that the Hendrick cars and a few others have closed the gap on those DEI cars," Gordon said.

"They're not done, though. They kind of lulled everybody last week with their qualifying, but those guys are always good in the draft.

"In these plate races, it's all about positioning, and Junior and Michael always seems to be in the right spot when the race gets down toward the end."

Still, everyone is expecting a wide-open race on Sunday.

Besides Gordon and Johnson, whose first plate race victory came here Feb. 12 in the non-points Budweiser Shootout, the Hendricks entry of second-year Cup driver Brian Vickers could be a threat, as well as Joe Gibbs Racing's Tony Stewart, who won Thursday's second qualifying race.

Alos strong have been MB2/MBV teammates Joe Nemechek and Scott Riggs, three-time Daytona 500 winner Dale Jarrett and his Robert Yates Racing teammate Elliott Sadler and the Roush Racing trio of reigning Cup champion Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Mark Martin.

Martin and Rusty Wallace, both starting their final seasons in NASCAR's top stock car series, saw their chances in the 500 lessen when they got caught up in a wild crash during their 150-miler and heavily damaged their primary cars.

Wallace will have to use his backup Sunday.

There will also be a lot of attention on Kevin Harvick, whose bump on Johnson's rear bumper ignited the multicar crash and infuriated Johnson and other drivers.

Harvick and Johnson were summoned to the NASCAR hauler in an effort to defuse a dangerous situation. Some drivers were still upset, though, including Nemechek, who also was involved in the crash.

"He cost a bunch of people good race cars, hard work, a lot of money, and they ought to make him pay for it," Nemechek said.

If everyone can stay out of trouble Sunday, nobody will be surprised if Earnhardt's No. 8 Chevrolet and Waltrip's No. 15 Monte Carlo are at the front of the pack heading toward the checkered flag -- least of all the DEI drivers.

"We just have to get a little bit better," Junior said. "We're going to work on the chassis a little bit and the motor shop has been working day and night since qualifying, so we've got some extra steam coming. So we're just looking forward to the start of the 500.

Earnhart Jr.'s worries all in rear-view mirror heading into Daytona 500

Through his teens and into his early 20s, Junior considered himself mediocre. "I didn't know if I was going to amount to a whole lot because I didn't have a lot of things that I enjoyed," he said. "I didn't want to have to work a job that I didn't like."

Those worries are all in the rear-view mirror for the most popular driver in NASCAR as he goes into Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500 as the defending champion and, after winning a career-high six races last year, a solid threat to win the Nextel Cup title.

It hasn't been an easy transition.

Expectations were high when the youngest son of Dale Earnhardt, a seven-time series champion and the most popular driver of his era, won consecutive Busch Series titles in 1998 and 1999 and moved up the next season to NASCAR's top series.

Junior, then 25 and considered by many a superstar in waiting, signed an unprecedented 10-year, $100 million sponsorship deal with Budweiser before he ever drove a Cup race.

Driving for the team his father founded, Little E was an instant celebrity, appealing to the MTV generation as well as many of the elder Earnhardt's fans. The demands on his time and his sudden loss of freedom to come and go as he pleased, thanks to his new celebrity, were overwhelming at times.

The situation only grew worse after his father was killed in a crash during the 2001 Daytona 500, putting the younger Earnhardt in the centre of the spotlight.

"I was pretty miserable the first couple of years in the Cup series," Earnhardt said. "It was very, very hard. It was a fight.

"I felt squeezed, you know, by everything going on."

Despite the pressure, Junior began winning races almost immediately. He won twice in his first Cup season, but was beaten out for rookie-of-the-year honours by Matt Kenseth.

He won a handful of races each of the next three seasons but was inconsistent, often battling with his own crew at the track and being criticized for partying too much off it.

A third-place finish in the points in 2003 went a long way toward establishing Junior as a legitimate contender. His victory in the 2004 Daytona 500 validated his elite status and, even better, eased the pressure.

"I've already done more than I thought I would," said Earnhardt, now 30. "I've already got more money and more victories and way more than I ever thought I would.

"To me, it's amusing sometimes to hear what people think you can do or should do or should accomplish because I'm way past what I thought I could do."

Richard Childress, the elder Earnhardt's longtime car owner and friend, has watched Junior grow up and has seen the change in the youngster.

"I've seen him get a lot more comfortable with his role," Childress said. "I think the thing he's come to realize is that not only do you love what you do, driving the race cars and all, but along with that comes some commitment.

"You've got to be committed to the fans and the sport, and he's really turned the corner. Seeing him mature out has been great. Seeing the success he's had really brings pleasure."

Little E certainly hasn't disappointed his fans, either.

"There's a sense of satisfaction that comes with everybody having all the expectations on you and you meeting at least a large percentage of it," Earnhardt said. "I know personally there's a lot of things people wish would come true that are almost impossible, to meet everybody's goal and standards.

"In the end, when it's over with, there'll be a lot of things that I will have accomplished that I never expected to."

One legend takes on three

Ralph: "Ralph would knock you off the track. He did me a number of times. We were friends, good friends, but he would not hesitate for a moment to put that bumper to you. Ralph would wait until the last lap or two. He would follow you, and you would think you had him whipped tonight or today or whatever the case would be, but here would come that bumper on the white flag lap or the next-to-the-last lap and knock you out of the way to get by, and it would be too late for you to retaliate. Then he would come up to you afterward, put his arm around you and say, 'Buddy, I didn't mean to do that; my brakes gave way,' or something like that, and it would be hard to stay mad at him."

Dale Sr.: "I've said many times if ever there was a natural-born racer, it was Dale Earnhardt. We hear chip off the old block, and I thought that Dale was a true chip off the old block as far as his dad was concerned."

Dale Jr.: "Dale Jr. has some qualities of both, but I haven't seen him be as aggressive -- certainly not as (much as) his dad and not even as aggressive as his granddad.

"He's smoother in his early years than Dale Sr. was in his early years. He has enough of the qualities, the killer instinct to want to go out there and win and beat everybody, but I also think he wants to do it in a fair way, and I personally appreciate that trait because he does have the talent, he does have the equipment to do it, and he doesn't have to do those things to win.

Counterpoints: Who will win the Daytona 500?

Tony Stewart and his evil cackle will fill victory lane

If the Daytona 500 is the biggest race of the season -- the NASCAR Super Bowl, the Great American Race, a spectacle unlike any other spectacle -- then why was Tony Stewart a no-show for testing? I'll tell you why. He's pure evil -- an evil genius if you will -- and it's all part of his diabolical scheme to rule the world. Or at the very least, to win the 500.

Wicked one that he is, Stewart stayed away from Daytona in January while others flocked in masses to the house that Big Bill France built. His No. 20 Chevy was there all right, but someone named Mike or Buddy or Steve was driving it. Stewart was nowhere to be found.

The reaction was typical in racing circles -- just another example of the self-centered jerk putting himself above his team. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was a brilliant stroke of strategy.

Stewart, in an interview posted on the team's website, said what so many drivers who trekked to Daytona and stood around with their hands in their pockets for three days were thinking: "Daytona testing is kind of like watching paint dry."

So he took a few vacation days instead.

Good for him. He'll be rested, and he'll win.

Stewart led the most laps in the 500 last year and finished in the top five in both Daytona races, so he knows how to get around the track. All he needed was an evil plan. -- Jim Gilstrap

Best car plus best driver equals two straight for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

All you teary-eyed No. 8 fans can come in off the ledge. A revamped team doesn't mean Earnhardt's season is over before it starts. The departure of all of Earnhardt's cousins and uncles and arrival of Pete Rondeau as crew chief won't be followed by the Four Horsemen. Even if they were to show up, Junior'd outrun 'em.

And he'd do it all by his lonesome. From preseason speculation, you'd think Rondeau doesn't know power steering fluid from wiper fluid. Who knows, maybe Rondeau will turn out to be as sharp as a ball bearing. But at Daytona, it won't matter. At Daytona, you, dear reader, could sit atop the pit box and guide Earnhardt to victory lane. Pit calls at Daytona are simple: Junior, go that way, really fast. When you're almost out of gas, come get more. Be in front at the very end.

Anyway, Earnhardt will win the Daytona 500 because Dale Earnhardt Inc. builds the best restrictor-plate cars in NASCAR and he drives brilliantly at plate tracks.

His victory in the most recent plate race is a sterling example. He drove with steel fists in velvet driving gloves, cramming his bad self through openings most drivers wouldn't have realized were openings. That convergence of guts, talent and speed was doomed to footnotedness when he said, on live TV, that the win didn't mean #@%!. Maybe it didn't. But when Earnhardt wins his second straight 500, it certainly will. -- Matt Crossman

Johnson the media pick to win Nextel Cup

The defending Nextel Cup Series champion Kurt Busch won the 2004 title by eight points over Jimmie Johnson -- the closest finish in Cup history. And while both drivers remain title candidates, Johnson has been selected as the media favorite in the 2005 NASCAR Preseason Top 10.

Media's Crystal Ball Balloting for the Cup top 10
(first-place votes in parenthesis)

No. Driver Pts.
1. J. Johnson 1,765 (87)
2. J. Gordon 1,740 (65)
3. D. Earnhardt Jr. 1,355 (25)
4. T. Stewart 1,030 (7)
5. Ku. Busch 1,022 (5)
6. R. Newman 844 (9)
7. K. Kahne 707 (1)
8. M. Kenseth 657 (0)
9. J. McMurray 546 (2)
10. M. Martin 453 (4)

A total of 213 votes were cast in the balloting. Drivers received 10 points for first place, nine points for second place, eight points for third place, seven points for fourth place, six points for fifth place, five points for sixth place, four points for seventh place, three points for eighth place, two points for ninth place and one point for 10th place. Eight drivers in the preseason Top 10 competed in the inaugural Chase for the Cup.

Johnson received 1,765 points and 87 first-place votes. Trailing him by only 25 points in second is Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, who received 1,740 points and 65 first-place votes. Third place in the preseason top 10 belongs to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who received 1,355 points and 25 first-place votes. Only eight points separate Tony Stewart and Busch for fourth and fifth places. Stewart received 1,030 points and seven first-place votes while Busch received 1,022 points and five first-place votes.

As for the rest of the preseason top 10, sixth-place Ryan Newman received 844 points and nine first-place votes. In seventh place is Kasey Kahne, the 2004 rookie of the year. Kahne, who received 707 points and one first-place vote.

In eighth place is 2003 series champion Matt Kenseth, who received 657 points and no first-place votes. Behind Kenseth, in ninth place, is Jamie McMurray, who has 546 points and two first-place votes.

Tenth in the preseason top 10 media voting is Mark Martin, who's beginning his final full-time season. He received 453 points and four first-place votes.

Where he's wisest

"I'm pretty pumped up," he says. "After I won that race ... it was pure relief because I watched Dad come so close so many times, living out every heartache.

"When I crossed the finish line, it was all relief, and I was like 'Man, I got that over with. I don't have to worry about this every time I come back here.' Now I go there and enjoy the total experience. You know what I mean? I've gone there in the past, and it's been fun. But it's going to be a whole lot more fun knowing that I already won it."

2005 NASCAR preview: Wiser, Bud

The scene was appropriate. In the City of Angels, the second- largest city in the United States, the ways to occupy your time and money are as diverse as its denizens.

So when NASCAR needed a driver to sell the Southern California market on spending disposable income on stock car racing, a regular A-lister wouldn't do. Even a fairly big gun wouldn't get a ripple in the press. No, NASCAR had to unleash Junior, its weapon of mass seduction.

Once the reporters realized sipping French onion soup with Earnhardt was more like shooting the bull with their buddies in a bar, the room began to thaw. Earnhardt was self-assured and confident but not arrogant. The sports world needs guys like him.

The kid, now 30, is fitting into his role as the heir apparent to the Dale Earnhardt Inc. throne as easily as he would pull on a pair of well-worn Wranglers. But after all the changes he has endured over the last three months -- a new car, a new crew chief (Pete Rondeau) and a new crew, principal among them -- Earnhardt is being expected to carry his bravado to the racetrack every week.

"I guess this is a real good (way) to find out whether DEI is the magic or Junior is the magic," NBC analyst and former Cup champion Benny Parsons says of the changes. "I think we're going to find out that Junior is the magic."

In other words, now is not the time for a disappearing act.

For the past seven years, crew chief Tony Eury Sr. and car chief Tony Eury Jr. created a comfort zone for Earnhardt. The Eurys were family, and after Earnhardt's father died in 2001 at Daytona, they became his primary support group. While Junior chased the legend and expectations his father had created, the Eurys were there, standing behind him.

In December, that changed, suddenly and dramatically. After a complete shakeup of Earnhardt's No. 8 and Michael Waltrip's No. 15 teams, Earnhardt found himself surrounded by relatively unfamiliar faces. Sure, he'd worked with Rondeau in the past, winning the Busch Series race in August at Bristol. Yes, he had seen the No. 15 crew in the shop and at the track with Waltrip. But that wasn't the same as working with them.

The Nos. 8 and 15 cars were built at DEI, but questions remain as to how Waltrip's former cars will perform with a red Budweiser paint job. And how will NASCAR's rock star mesh with his new backup band?

"Working with Pete is a bit refreshing because he has a lot of respect for me," Earnhardt says. "We don't have a past history, no family ties. There's a lot of respect that goes back and forth that I never exercised with Tony Jr. or the other team. I can still walk over to Tony Jr. and say, 'Hey man, what are you doing with your car? How did you get the car to pick up there?' And we talk.

"Everybody is looking at each other differently, which I like. I like the position I'm in now in the company. I feel like a grown-up instead of a nephew."

Eury Sr., Earnhardt's uncle, says Junior is adjusting "just fine."

"I think he's real serious about it," adds Eury Sr., now DEI's competition director. "We made a lot of changes trying to fix what our company thought were problems."

Initially, Earnhardt was uncomfortable when the changes were proposed in July, but his increasing maturity has made the changes easier to accept. Ultimately, he knows it's time for him to step up and make a name for himself.

"I turned 30 last year, and it was like, overnight, I got into a mentality that I'm going to make some decisions for myself, and I'm not going to worry about the things I used to worry about as much and take more control of things," Earnhardt says. "I'm going to say no when I want to say no and not feel obligated to do everything all the time. The burden of obligation was pretty heavy on me after Dad died to do this and that, to handle this deal and that deal, to do this for the company and that for the company."

With the added responsibility he's taken at the shop comes added responsibility on the track, and Earnhardt is up for the challenge. In the past few years, Earnhardt has proved he's more than a restrictor-plate wonder, picking up wins at such brutal tracks as Bristol, Richmond, Atlanta and Phoenix.

Preseason testing at Las Vegas and California, which loom second and third on the schedule and are tracks that Earnhardt has been miserable at in the past, should make him more comfortable. If he gets to stop No. 4, Atlanta, without any problems, it will be a tremendous boost for the Brew Crew and will launch Earnhardt into the title run everyone seems to want for him. If he doesn't, it will launch him into a long, grueling season.

2005 NASCAR preview: Driver reports

4. DALE EARNHARDT JR.: If anything, this team learned it needed a complete overhaul. Much of this team's success will be determined by how quickly Earnhardt, the new crew and new crew chief Pete Rondeau learn to adapt to one another. Using the repainted No. 15 cars, Rondeau must develop a comfortable feel for Earnhardt early, or there will be trouble. "I can see that this will go either way," Earnhardt says. "If it starts out stumbling, we'll just have to work hard to get it right. I'm prepared for that." Qualifying is a particular weakness; Earnhardt's six victories in 2004 were second to Jimmie Johnson's eight, but Junior failed to win a pole. Earnhardt also needs to be more consistent. If he is, it will be because he learned from last season's struggles at big, flat tracks, such as California, Michigan and Pocono.

DEI down on engine power, Dale Jr. says

The best of the DEI cars was Martin Truex Jr., who is running a part-time effort this season.

Truex Jr. was 31st fastest Sunday, more than seven-tenths of a second off Dale Jarrett's pole-winning time.

Truex Jr., in fact, is in danger of missing the race next weekend. He was the sixth-fastest car among non top-35 teams, meaning he'll have to race his way into the 500 field through the Gatorade Duel qualifying race.

Meanwhile, full-time drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip were further down the qualifying chart.

Michael Waltrip, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, was 33rd, with defending 500 champion Earnhardt Jr. way back in 39th place.

Worse, among teams in the top 35 in owners' points, Earnhardt Jr. was able to beat only Matt Kenseth, who blew an engine on his second, faster qualifying lap, rookie Travis Kvapil, Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Jeff Green -- who didn't finish his lap.

"We're way, way down on horsepower," Earnhardt Jr. said. "And that's just the simple fact of it. The car races really well in the draft. If everything works fine, we'll have a good race on Thursday and get up front sooner or later.

"But to run by ourselves, we need more steam underneath the hood. I've kind of seen it coming, and the test wasn't that good.

"We've been real slow since we've been here. We were slow in the test. So our expectations have been pretty low as far as qualifying. We picked up a little bit so that made the team happy.

But 39th? The worst either DEI car started last year was 14th, by Waltrip at the second Talladega race.

Still, optimism runs high in the DEI camp.

"They've put me with a bunch of guys that have won races and won championships," Waltrip said. "It makes me want to jump up and down. So I'm ready to race and looking forward to it."

DEI's competitors certainly aren't ready to dismiss Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip.

"You can't take away the fact of what DEI has done here over the last few years," Jarrett said. "I'm sure when we get into drafting situations, Junior and Michael are both very good in those situations, but I'm not sure the dominance that they've showed is going to be there."

Jarrett, in fact, pointed to another team as the favorites. And that hasn't happened for a long time on superspeedways.

"I think you have to look more at the Hendrick stable that seems to be on top of their game in all aspects, but certainly for here," Jarrett said. "Jeff Gordon is a past champion of this race, and Jimmie Johnson has shown that he can win anywhere and everywhere, and I think they'll be the team that we're going to have to contend with if we're going have a chance at winning this."

Johnson, though, isn't ready to proclaim Hendrick as the new restrictor-plate kings.

Johnson and Gordon are close, and DEI has slipped, but Johnson said Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip are not to be discounted.

"I think our team really stepped up and we were able to close that gap," Johnson said. "Jeff won 50 percent of the plate races and we finished in the top five a few times, so I really felt that we closed the gap. Jeff was able to get it done, and it's up to me to learn a few more tricks.

"The DEI cars are a little off as a whole. They are all mid-pack, but there is so much that falls into the drivers' hands during the race that I would expect to see the No. 8 and No. 15 back up during the race.

"They might not have the straight-line speed that they want, but those guys are too smart in the draft to at least be able to get a top five in the race."

Are Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip that good in the draft? Can drafting knowledge and ability make up for a slower car?

Time will tell.

"Yeah, the car's good in race trim," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We you don't have as fast a car, it makes it a little tougher. But I think I can get it up front. We're just going to have to work a little harder."

Don't worry, DEI fans, Jarrett said.

"I still would not count Dale Jr. and Michael Waltrip out of this by any stretch," Jarrett said. "I don't even know where they qualified, but I know they're both very good racers when it comes down to drafting and using their abilities and their cars there, so I would look for them to still be a part of the mix come Sunday."

Daytona 500 champ Earnhardt Jr. 39th in qualifying

"It's hard to do it by myself," he said. "We're way, way down on horsepower and that's just the simple fact of it ... we've been real slow since we've been here."

Earnhardt ended up 39th on the speed chart following Sunday's first round of qualifying. Except for first and second -- won by Dale Jarrett and Jimmie Johnson -- the rest of the starting positions for next week's Daytona 500 aren't determined until after a pair of qualifying races Thursday.

Earnhardt had a brilliant Speed Weeks last year, winning one of the qualifying races to earn the third starting spot for the 500. He went on to win the 500, as well as the Busch Series event, and finished second in the Budweiser Shootout.

This year hasn't started as well. An electrical problem led his team to overhaul the car during a break in Saturday night's Shootout and he never challenged for the win. He finished seventh.

But Earnhardt said he's confident the No. 8 Chevrolet is good in race mode, and that the team knew qualifying was going to be a challenge.

"Our expectations have been low," he said. "But the car is good in race trim. When you don't have as fast a car, it makes it a little tougher. But I think I can get it up front. We're just going to have to work a little harder."

All of Dale Earnhardt Inc. has ground to make up: Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip qualified 33rd and Martin Truex Jr. was 31st.

Robby Gordon, who borrowed a motor from DEI to replace the illegal one he had confiscated by NASCAR, also struggled and was 38th.

Earnhardt Jr. bounces back after problems

He says not to, says doing so would be an inaccurate gauge of his team's ability.

Earnhardt struggled in the 70-lap affair, dropping to 19th in the 20-car field at one point during the first segment, and struggling early in the second segment before mounting a to surge into the top five.

He would eventually finish seventh. Not terrible, but not up to the lofty standards expected of a guy who has dominated restrictor plate racing to the tune of seven career victories at Daytona and Talladega.

Right?

"I thought we run pretty good," Earnhardt said. "There was some real good cars that got shuffled (back). That (Shootout) car was the worst car here in the test, so I think we came a long way with it.

"I know the (Daytona) 500 car is better, and I was pretty happy. I had a lot of fun."

After changing the transmission in the Budweiser Chevrolet prior to the race, Earnhardt was forced to start the all-star event at the rear of the field.

His car was off the pace nearly from the get-go, an issue Earhardt attributed to a faulty ignition box.

Once he switched boxes, he shot through the field with the precision his competitors are accustomed to seeing in plate races.

"There were times after his engine was fixed that he was fast," said third-place finisher Jeff Gordon. "It didn't seem like he was as strong as I've seen him before, but I'll guarantee you if he'd gotten out front nobody would have passed him."

Under the current aerodynamic package, passing the leader is virtually impossible.

Key word: virtually.

Earnhardt said it could be done, but competitors would have to be willing to work together.

"It's a revolving door," Earnhardt said. "It isn't that hard to pass the leader, but second, third and fourth have to work together well. It's tough. You have to have a lot of friends out there, and everyone is tired of losing, I guess.

"The tolerance from first to last is a lot slimmer than it used to be, so, yeah, it's like an IROC race.

"So they'll have to put a bunch of blades on the cars to make it where you can blow each other away and keep passing each other."

Despite the setback, the new Bud crew didn't get discouraged. In fact, Junior said Saturday's effort was quite encouraging.

"They're laid back," Earnhardt said of his crew. "Pete (Rondeau) was worried about the issue, but he did a good job keeping his cool and we changed what we were allowed to change.

"We went back out there and if it was still having a problem we were probably going to have to park it. But, it was fixed.

"When we unloaded that that car in that test, and even in drafting practice, I couldn't even hang on to anybody. We got in an eight-car pack and I was just tagging on the rear. It was terrible.

"So they've done a lot of good work to that car. Our 500 car was the best car in the draft, I thought, so we're not really running that good by ourselves with it, but when they put them all out there, I'll be the strongest."

Jimmie Johnson, Saturday's Bud Shootout winner, agreed.

"I expect to see him up front in the 500," Johnson said.

Bad Parts

Championship contenders

Earnhardt Jr. could start the year off with a repeat win in the Daytona 500 – a race his father won just once. Also, expect Junior to choose his words carefully when the cameras are on him this year. Last year's 25-point fine for "offensive language" hurt this team more than it will ever admit.

Shop Talk with ... Pete Rondeau

Pete Rondeau: Yeah, I guess it is for me because I haven't been in it yet. This is the first time I've been in it. Of course, Dale Jr.'s been in it quite a few times. As far as me, preparation-wise, yeah, we're treating it as another Twin race, another prep to the 500.

Q: You're using a different car than the 500 car?

Yes.

Q: How much time do you actually spend on the Shootout car for this race, in comparison to the 500 car?

Probably as much as time. They're equally prepared, because that will be our backup car for the 500. If something did happen in practice to our 500, we'd want this car here. We're going to do whatever it takes after the Shootout to get things fixed to keep it as a backup car. We'll spend about the same amount of time on both cars.

Q: What are some things you hope to learn from the Shootout? I know it's a shorter race.

Just spring-shock combinations, I guess, from whatever we use in the Shootout. You're probably going to be a little more aggressive, setup-wise, because it's not as long of a race. It's probably mid-way between a qualifying and race setup, so it's a little different. But whatever we use in the Shootout would certainly be a great starting point for the 500 practice.

Q: Is this a race you might try something out there, whereas in a points race you won't?

Yeah. For sure. We'll probably do a little bit of experimenting. Nothing real big, because it is, especially for us, a big deal, publicity-wise -- the Budweiser car. We do put a lot of effort into it. We'd venture off a little bit, but not too far.

Q: Do you alter the setup during the break to compensate for the longer run in the second segment? Or is it dependent on track conditions?

I guess track conditions constitute that. We did some decent-length runs with both cars down there in January. We basically wanted to make sure the cars maintain as long as we could with him. As far as the short run or long run, unless the weather does, I don't think it'll change too much for us.

Q: When do you pit in the second segment? Or is that dictated by circumstances?

Yeah, that'll be circumstance.

Q: Personally, this is your first real race with Junior. You're practicing for the 500 with the car itself, and you're practicing for the rest of the year with Junior. Have you thought about that at all?

A little bit. We've worked on our communication down in Daytona and out on the west coast swing. But of course, race-wise, that'll be the first. It's really only one (pit) stop, so as far race-long strategy, we won't have to worry about that.

Offseason capsule: Earnhardt Jr.

2004 recap: A preseason favorite to win the championship, Earnhardt started strong by winning the Daytona 500 in just his fifth try, something that took his father 20 years. The younger Earnhardt would go on to be a championship contender for much of the season, winning a career-high six races. But he struggled near the end of the season-ending 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup, tallying two DNFs in the last five races.

2005 OUTLOOK:
What's next: After finishing third the previous year, Earnhardt dropped to fifth in 2004 and considered the season less than successful, particularly with mediocre pit-crew performances. As a result, major changes occurred during the offseason, including switching entire crews with teammate Michael Waltrip. Earnhardt also has a new crew chief, as Tony Eury Sr. was replaced by Pete Rondeau. Eury became director of competition for Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Best case scenario: Everyone within DEI hopes that the wholesale trade of teams will make the entire operation perform better. If nothing else, it will show how deep the entire organization is – or isn't. While there's a question on how quickly Earnhardt's team will gel, the No. 8 could very well win the championship in 2005.

Likely scenario: If he fails to win his first championship, Earnhardt should at least finish in the top 10 – maybe. Until we see what his new team can do and how well he works with them – especially in the first eight to 10 races of the season – it's next to impossible to predict how Junior's season will play out.

Beware: There are so many questions revolving around the crew shakeups that Junior and Co. could easily fall short of their high expectations, leaving both he and his teammate struggling for much of the season. If that happens, don't be surprised to see even more personnel changes.

Preview: Earnhardt Jr.

But that's not to say there weren't roadblocks.

He won NASCAR's "Super Bowl" in February, then faced recuperation from burns five months later in a fiery sports car crash. In August, still ailing, he said he'd rather fail with his current team -- led by his uncle and cousin -- than win with another.

Come December, that would change. An offseason crew swap with teammate Michael Waltrip and mediocre testing speeds during Preseason Thunder mean Junior enters 2005 with more question marks than there were in "War and Peace".

"It's hard to tell where we're at in the grand scheme -- from one end of the garage to the other," Earnhardt said.

The first such unknown -- and the one by far garnering the most attention -- is the leadership capability of rookie crew chief Pete Rondeau, who becomes only the second crew chief for Earnhardt's Budweiser Chevrolet program.

"One of the things I like about Pete is that he gives me a lot of respect," Earnhardt said. "When we talk, we listen. He has a similar demeanor as I do in and around the car and at the shop, and away from the track."

Earnhardt's well-publicized squabbles with former car chief (and first cousin) Tony Eury Jr. are at the crux of the decision. Put simply, Junior was tired of bickering with his family, tired of professional opinions of one another turning personal.

"Tony Jr. and I have always been really competitive. The things that we enjoy and what we do and how we treat each other is totally different from what the media have seen during the year," Earnhardt said.

"The situation wasn't so bad where I said 'I have to get out of here.' But I wasn't necessarily the guy who spoke first."

Once someone mentioned the idea of change, it made sense. It became apparent that they were limiting one another's professional progression.

"The two of us kind of held each other up, which maybe made it easier to do this," Earnhardt said of the switch. "He had a lot of talent that wouldn't come to the surface because of our mentality and outlook towards each other."

Earnhardt places part of the blame on himself, saying he must mature as a driver and further respect others' opinions.

"I put myself in this situation so I could be a better person and little more of a professional," Earnhardt said. "I was a good race car driver, but I wasn't necessarily a professional about how I was on the radio. That will be a good situation for me."

Rondeau's arrival means the Eurys will transition to other positions within the DEI team structure. After seven years, 15 Cup victories and a pair of Busch Series championships with Dale Jr., Eury Sr. is now DEI competition director, while Tony Jr. has become crew chief of Waltrip's No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet.

"For (Tony Jr.) it's going to open up a lot of doors to try to be more of a people person," Earnhardt continued. "He's going to have to understand how to motivate people.

"He's going to have to learn now or never. It's good for him to learn those things now. He won't have that opportunity when he's older because he won't change then. It will benefit him.

"It was a difficult situation and I looked across there today and there are things I miss about him and I working together, but working with Pete (Rondeau) is what I need to do."

With the move comes much skepticism. Practically the only folks not questioning the decision are those involved in making it.

"It's going to be tough. People are going to talk one way or another," Earnhardt said. "If Tony Jr. and I had stayed together they would have said something anyway. When we'd get inconsistent last year people would talk and try to figure out who was at fault.

"Tony Eury Jr. is really enjoying himself now, too. He's getting it going on now. He's working with Michael and they're really clicking now. He's able to do things that maybe we couldn't do together before.

"The transition between the two teams was a lot smoother than I anticipated. The work that I see the guys doing on the car with (Rondeau) is really satisfying to see."

But can he handle the pressure? Until he experiences it, Rondeau can't begin to fathom the constant attention that will be paid to his performance.

"It's tough when you're walking around in that red uniform," Earnhardt said. "It was hard on Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. and that team because they just wanted to work and be in their little world. But when you're not in your own world, you can't be. It's going to be a different experience for them.

"Hopefully they'll handle it well. There is a lot of pressure but I can see that this will go either way. Eventually we'll do what it takes to do to get it right and win. If it starts out stumbling we'll just have to work hard to get it right. I'm prepared for that."

But is he prepared to vie for a championship? Last season, Earnhardt was on the cusp of his first title. He was in position to take the championship points lead late in the season, but as the laps would down at Atlanta, he misjudged his position while racing Carl Edwards and wrecked out while running third.

He finished 33rd in that event, and fifth overall in the standings. But he won six times, including the Daytona 500. Can he do it again, and this time carry that momentum throughout the season?

"As far as repeating the 500, we're not that fast right now," Earnhardt said. "We've got a brand new car and one of the cars they ran in the past with Michael.

"The new car was pretty decent and I was really happy with it. We finished practicing yesterday and shut the doors and went home. We jumped back and started and we lost about four-tenths of a second somewhere.

We'll figure it out. I'm not too worried about it. I think the cars draft well. If we have to start near the back we'll just cut up through the pack. I'm pretty happy.

"The craftsmanship is really good. I'll know what kind of team we have after we get done with this and then go to (testing) California and Las Vegas."

Conversation: Junior

The possibility of over-saturation in the media genuinely concerns him, but adoring fans demand as much Junior as Junior's willing to give.

Some hang on his every word. Many even follow his fashion sense. (Remember all those backwards hats? And rest assured, come Speedweeks there will be no shortage of 20-somethings donning trendy, made-for-Junior Wranglers and Spy sunglasses).

He has plenty to say, and candidly did so last week when he sat down with NASCAR.COM's Marty Smith during a commercial shoot in Charlotte.

In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Earnhardt discusses a surprisingly awesome Christmas present, how 30 has changed him, what he looks for in people and whether or not the sport can survive without him.

OK, man, the whole world knows you got a plane for Christmas. What else did you get?

Earnhardt: Well, I got the best gift I've gotten in five years. It's a pizza cooker. It's badass.

OK ... Have you made several pies to date?

Earnhardt: Hell yeah! It's a damn good cooker. It's way better than the oven. I like to eat frozen foodses, pizzas. I like to eat frozen pizzas, and this cooker cooks them like something else.

I thought 'big deal' when I saw it, and when I took it home I thought, 'Aw, what the hell, I'll throw a pizza in there.' And after I ate that pizza I was like, 'Son of a gun, man, everybody needs one of these.' It's awesome.

So you're buddies with Arturo Gotti, and a big boxing aficionado these days. What's your best punch? Ever knocked anybody out?

Earnhardt: No. I did hit my buddy Josh, PR guy for Martin (Truex), I hit him one time and his mouthpiece flew across the ring, which I thought was good. That's probably the best shot I've ever thrown. I've hit him in the gut a couple times.

Not to say he hasn't hit me and knocked me down several times, because he (outweighs) me by 40 pounds. We get into it pretty good. Most of the time we just have little sparring sessions that are a lot of fun.

(Professional Bull Rider) Ross Coleman hit me in the eye one time --- took a black eye to Kansas last year. That's about it.

That was your birthday extravaganza, correct?

Earnhardt: Yes.

Your thoughts on NASCAR's leadership?

Earnhardt: I'm pretty happy with it. I mean, to be a driver in the sport you've got to feel good. The situation could be the total opposite. We could all be pretty disappointed.

And the hard part about that would be we'd all be helpless. There's nothing we could do to help it or change it. So we've got to feel really lucky that we've got people making the right decisions and steering the sport in a productive way where we can all enjoy it and not feel helpless.

Everybody wants a piece of you these days --- what do you look for in people? It's got to be hard to trust people.

Earnhardt: Well, I don't like people that try to control what's happening. I don't like people to try to control what I do, what my schedule is, stuff like that.

I like people that look at me as the final decision on things like that. I feel like I've earned the right to make my own decisions. I want people to tell when they think they're not the best decisions that could be made and give me other alternatives, but I hate people making decisions for me without me ever knowing.

Like I was talking about earlier with the Busch car --- that just pisses me off. So those are the types of things that make you really mad and frustrate you, but for the most part I feel pretty comfortable. Me and J.R. (Rhodes, business manager) get along pretty good.

We have some highs and lows in working around each other all the time, but for the most part I think we understand each other. Mike (Davis, publicist) just started working for us recently -- he's awesome. We get along really good.

Jade (Gurss, publicist), I used to beat on Jade a lot about our schedule and stuff. I used to be pretty rough on him, but since he's gotten Mike he's backed off a little bit and now he's in a better, more comfortable position.

We get along a lot better than we did. We actually got to a point where either one of us could've walked away from one another, but we're a lot better off now.

To back up a moment, you were expressing to me some frustration about the Busch car you're going to race at Daytona?

Earnhardt: Yeah. I'm not real happy with the paint scheme on it. There's an approval process that has worked in the past, but it's not the same process used every time, I guess, because it skipped over me this time.

Define 'precedence' for me.

Earnhardt: Precedence is when you make a decision that has pretty large impact, and when the same situation occurs again you make the same decision out of consistency -- or what they call continuity. So that's what I would say precedence is.

Sounds like you've spent some time practicing that one.

Earnhardt: Well, they say 'continuity' out here at these photo shoots a lot, so it seemed like a good word to say. It does fall along the lines of precedence, consistency, continuity. It's all pretty much the same thing.

Very good. Obviously you're the biggest star in the sport at this point. Can the sport survive without Dale Earnhardt, Jr.?

Earnhardt: Absolutely. People wondered whether the sport would survive without Dad, and I would damn sure assume that's a far bigger loss than the loss of me to the sport.

I feel like I paved the way for a lot of different stuff, maybe not for everybody, but for people that are interested in the types of things I do driver-wise.

Say Mark Martin, he probably don't give a damn about being in Rolling Stone, but maybe Jamie McMurray does. Ya know? So I think I've opened some doors for people like Jamie, if that's what he's interested in. I like to feel like I could get some credit in those types of areas, and I made an impact in areas like that, and on the racetrack.

I feel pretty good about how I've been successful winning some races -- some big races. But yeah, there's guys in the sport now that would benefit greatly if I wasn't in the equation. There's guys that would step up. There's weeks now where I feel third, fourth, fifth in line. There's weeks when I feel like I'm leading the pack in a general sense. I think it goes back and forth.

Like Jimmie Johnson --- he has a good personality. He recently got married, so his appeal might be going in a different direction, toward a different type of fan. He seems to kind of be settling down a little bit.

I always thought Jimmie would be more like me, but he seems to have made a lot of huge decisions in his life that have changed how I expected him to go. Jamie McMurray --- me and him kind of remind each other of each other, I think.

He has a similar personality and a lot of the same interests away from the racetrack. So I think he could fill my role in the movie.

Has 30 changed you at all?

Earnhardt: Well, yeah, a little bit. I get a little more bossy, I guess. The older you get, the more demanding you get. I don't take as much s--- as I used to from people.

Like when my Mom tries to tell me how to do something, I'm a little more like, 'Well, I can handle it.' So, stuff like that. Not that I complain all the time, but if I had a complaint, maybe when I was 20, it'd get blown off pretty easily. Now I don't get blown off as easily, have a little more credibility wherever I go.

Welcome to the real Budweiser hot seat

Even after leading Dale Earnhardt Jr. to a Busch victory last August at Bristol and replacing Slugger Labbe as crew chief on Michael Waltrip's No. 15 car last fall, Rondeau could stroll the Nextel Cup garage with relative anonymity.

Not anymore. When Rondeau was appointed skipper of NASCAR's most popular driver's team after last season, he no longer could work in obscurity.

The search was on at Daytona testing to uncover the man behind the wrench. That was easier said than done. Navigating the Daytona International Speedway garage maze was not an easy task even with most of the construction mess cleared away.

Then there was no crew chief to be found inside Earnhardt's No. 8 garage stall. The crew looked relatively familiar, mostly because it is Waltrip's former squad, which was swapped with the No. 8 team's at the end of 2004. But where was Rondeau?

"He's under the car," said a mechanic who pointed to a pair of legs that looked suspiciously like the wicked witch's after Dorothy's house landed. Closer inspection revealed a crew member adjusting the rear end of a No. 8 car. As Rondeau looked up, his glare asked: What could you possibly want?

Simple. Who is Pete Rondeau? What makes him tick? Why did Dale Earnhardt Inc. deem him capable of leading the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet to the 2005 Nextel Cup title?

"I've been doing this all my life," Rondeau said after the second day of testing. "I just like racing and winning races. That's what we get paid to do. Years ago, I didn't get paid to do this, and now I do. My intensity is no different now than it was back then."

That pretty much sums it up. Rondeau is a man of few words. He is 39, a second-generation racer from Saco, Maine. He is a former owner-driver who raced for 18 years, most recently on the American-Canadian Tour and in Busch North in 1998.

Rondeau moved to North Carolina and started at Jasper Motorsports before the 1999 Cup season, and within six months he was promoted to car chief. In 2001, he took a position with DEI on the No. 15 car with Waltrip and Labbe, who also is from Maine, and soon became the car chief.

Waltrip offers an overwhelming vote of confidence.

"Pete will elevate the team," he says. "Those guys need to feel like winners. When they walk out to the starting line, he's going to walk out there with them, and the guys will feel like winners. Pete's very knowledgeable. What he lacks, which is just the experience of being successful, Dale Jr. will feed to him."

Rondeau also lacks the familial baggage that former crew chief Tony Eury Sr. and car chief Tony Eury Jr. had with Earnhardt. That's a good thing. Rondeau says that as a former driver his communication with Earnhardt will improve over time. He feels his greatest attribute from a mechanical standpoint is his chassis savvy -- an area in which Earnhardt lacks knowledge.

Rondeau's short-term goals are simple: "Junior and I want to leave on Sunday nights knowing that we ran well all weekend and let the rest fall into place."

And how will outsiders know the relationship is working?

"The results," Rondeau says.

With Earnhardt, only one result is acceptable.

Rondeau walks softly, carries big driver

And how do you pronounce his last name anyway?

That's Rondeau, as in cookie dough. Making cookies would be an easier job than being Dale Earnhardt's crew chief, that's for sure.

But here Rondeau is, ready to start 2005 in one of the most pressure-packed positions in NASCAR.

Rondeau was born in Maine, and drove stock cars himself for 18 years. He built his own cars and had his own chassis business before moving South about six years ago.

Rondeau started with Jasper Motorsports, serving as car chief for the No. 77 team before moving to DEI in 2002 to work as Michael Waltrip's crew chief.

Last October, in a shakeup with Waltrip's team, Rondeau replaced Slugger Labbe as crew chief. But more shakeups were on the way when the No. 8 and No. 15 teams essentially swapped crews.

And now comes the hard part.

In many ways, Rondeau is the antithesis of Earnhardt Jr. While the driver can be vocal and boisterous, the crew chief is subdued and quiet.

While Earnhardt Jr. is prone to profanity, Rondeau has the vocabulary of a schoolteacher. While Junior is excitable and fiery, Rondeau is calm and cool.

While Earnhardt Jr. is the new public face of NASCAR, Rondeau is the old one. While Junior is Hollywood, Rondeau is middle America.

How the pairing works will be one of the most watched subjects of 2005, as the popular Earnhardt Jr. enters a new phase of his career: post-Eurys. Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Eury Jr. have worked with Earnhardt Jr. since the Busch Series days, when Dale Earnhardt paired the father and son with his own son.

But changes were afoot in the offseason, as DEI switched Earnhardt Jr.'s crew with Waltrip. Gone were the Eurys, with Rondeau taking over as crew chief for the No. 8 team.

Rondeau has come a long way in a short time, from DEI engineer to crew chief for NASCAR's poster boy.

"I knew there would be a lot of outside pressure," Rondeau said. "But as a rule, I'm not willing to put a lot of pressure on myself to do this kind of stuff. I'll just get off course if I do that. I don't want to get off course."

That's about as in-depth as Rondeau likes to get. Few words, few sentences.

But don't make him repeat anything. That's about the only thing that gets to Rondeau.

"Yeah, I don't scream and yell too much," Rondeau said.

What makes him scream?

Rondeau thought for several seconds before answering.

"Doing things twice when you don't need to," Rondeau said. "We've surrounded ourselves with good people, and that very seldom happens. And even then, I'm not going to scream at someone for that. We're just going to make sure we learn from it."

So when you listen to Junior and Rondeau talk on the radio, they'll actually be talking. The respect level goes both ways when family isn't involved, as was the case with Earnhardt Jr. and the Eurys. Not that Junior didn't respect them, but sometimes you treat your family worse than you treat other people.

"I think I have a lot of maturing to do as far as working with someone else that I was forced to respect, forced to talk to in a certain manner," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I could talk to Tony. Jr. however the hell I want. I could say anything to him because I knew the next day we were still cousins.

"I put myself in this situation to try to be a better person and little more of a professional. I was a good race car driver but I wasn't necessarily a professional on the radio all the time. That will be a good situation for me."

And perhaps a level of professionalism, a business-like approach, will serve to enhance performance.

"One of the things I like about Pete is that he gives me a lot of respect," Earnhardt Jr. said. "When we talk, we listen. He has a similar demeanor as I do in and around the car and at the shop and away from the track.

"It's been a really nice offseason. With the change we made it took a lot of stress away from me. It's kind of difficult to explain it. I don't want to give the opinion that I got more than I had before or that I got away from problems.

"I think we'll do OK. I think Pete's got a lot. He doesn't talk much, and it's hard to see how much depth he has, but he's really been paying attention a lot from last year. There's a lot more going on in his head than he let's on."

One would hope so, for what comes out of Rondeau's mouth isn't much. A few examples:

On his biggest challenge as crew chief: "Giving Dale Jr. what he needs." On why he quit driving: "When I started taking money off the table at the race."

On dealing with the attention that surrounds Earnhardt Jr.: "It's intense with the fans and the media. I'm just trying to keep that separate from my job."

On the pressure of defending the Daytona 500: "Yeah, that's OK. It's not like we're expected to, but if we do, we do, and that's going to be great. But if we don't, there are 37 more races."

On what happens if the No. 8 team gets off to a bad start and the critics get vocal: "I'm plenty prepared for that. It's going to take awhile. If we hit it right off the bat, then we do. If we don't, that's not going to be a big thing for me. This is going to be a long-term relationship, and we're going to build toward it."

Whoa, that's almost a mouthful.

But perhaps that's just what Earnhardt Jr. needs. With all the attention and all that's said and written about him, maybe he needs someone to look him in the eye and tell him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear.

Expect Rondeau not to mince any words. Or many words, for that matter. "He just expects me to be straight-forward with him and he'll be straight-forward with me," Rondeau said. "And that's going to be a big thing for us. I've worked real hard at doing that also with the guys. I've told them to be real straight-forward with him and let him know everything he wants to know.

"Our relationship is going to be better if we're straight up with each other."

Earnhardt Jr. due for good draw in Budweiser Shootout

In four Shootout starts, Earnhardt's average starting position is 16th, and he has never taken the green flag higher than 10th.

All the while he has never finished worse than sixth, with two runner-up finishes (2002 and 2004) and a win in 2003.

His victory was a lot like his runner-up finish last year to Dale Jarrett in that he started dead last (19th) both times.

Drivers earn their eligibility into this season-opening race by winning a Bud Pole Award the previous year or -- as in Junior's case -- being a past Shootout champion.

However, the starting grid is determined somewhat unconventionally -- drawing numbers out of a box.

"I don't know, I guess I'm a better qualifier when I'm pulling on a steering wheel than when I'm pulling out a number," Earnhardt joked.

No driver has ever won from as far back as Dale Jr. did in 2003, and he became only the third driver ever to win the Shootout after starting in last place.

The others were Dale Jarrett, who drove from 15th to first in 2000, and Dale Earnhardt Sr., who came from 14th in 1991 and 13th in 1993 to earn two of his record six Shootout titles.

"I've pretty much warmed up to the fact that whatever I pull out is probably going to have double digits on it," Dale Jr. said. "But with only 19 or 20 cars in the race, it's more fun than it is difficult to start in the back.

"I'm not saying I'd prefer it, but if I end up drawing the last position for the third year in a row, it'll probably be good for a few laughs at the Draw Party, and then we'll just hope the car is good enough to cut through traffic on race day."

Sixteen of the 20 drivers eligible for the 27th running of the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona have past Shootout experience, but nobody has an average finish quite like Earnhardt's. In four starts his average finish is 2.75.

Only Tony Stewart, who has two victories in five starts, comes close with an average of 5.6.

Earnhardt's secret to Shootout success is really no secret at all -- it's at Daytona, by far his most prominent racing venue.

Non-points and 24-hour races included, Junior has nine victories in 28 career starts at the speedway, most recently winning the Twin-125 qualifying heat race, the Busch Series Hershey Kisses 300, and the Daytona 500 during Speedweeks in 2004.

Combined with his father, the Earnhardts have a combined 43 victories at Daytona.

"As much as I enjoy going to Daytona, I think this time will be even better because I won't have as much pressure on me," he said. "I won't have to answer the questions on if I can win the Daytona 500. I can just go there and race like hell, which is what you're supposed to do.

"I expect a lot of the same in the Budweiser Shootout -- a lot of pushing, shoving, blocking and weaving.

"Last year some of the guys ended up in the fence, and some of the others crashed their cars up s a little bit. I guess it's my job to make sure we're not one of them, so maybe we can go out there and win this thing again."

Earnhardt Jr. prepares to defend Daytona title

But Earnhardt, who also has a new crew chief this year, is filled with confidence.

"We've got a brand new car," he said Wednesday during a break in NASCAR's preseason testing session at Daytona International Speedway. "The new car was pretty decent, and I was really happy with it.

"I think the cars draft well. If we have to start near the back we'll just cut up through the pack."

He has reason to be optimistic about such a move. He and Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Michael Waltrip have won five of the last eight races on the 2.5-mile oval.

The two days of on-track testing also are the first trial of the relationship between Earnhardt and crew chief Pete Rondeau, who switched to the No. 8 Chevrolet from Waltrip's No. 15 team.

It's the first time since Earnhardt began racing full-time in NASCAR in 1998 that he has not worked with longtime crew chief Tony Eury and car chief Tony Eury Jr. The elder Eury is now DEI's director of competition and Eury Jr. has taken over as Waltrip's crew chief.

"One of the things I like about Pete is that he gives me a lot of respect," Earnhardt said. "When we talk, we listen. He has a similar demeanor as I do in and around the car and at the shop and away from the track. It's been a really nice offseason."

The relationship with the Eurys, Earnhardt's uncle and cousin, was not always smooth, particularly between the two younger men.

"With the change we made, it took a lot of stress away from me," Earnhardt said. "Tony Jr. is really enjoying himself now, too. ... He's working with Michael and they're really clicking now. He's able to do things that maybe we couldn't do together before."

Earnhardt finished fifth in points in 2004 by winning six times and being in contention throughout the 10-race, 10-man Chase for the Nextel Cup that ended the season. Still, he has modest goals for this season -- two or three wins.

"I never expected in a million years to win six races in one season," he explained. "I thought that was really incredible. Just to win races is fun. I want to contend for wins and be in the top 10. I want to be a competitor and consistently up front all day."

The Daytona 500, the first of 36 Nextel Cup races, is scheduled for Feb. 20. The winner of the race will be without that car for the remainder of the season under terms of a contract with Daytona USA, which will display it until after the 2006 Daytona 500.

Junior embraces DEI moves

But then it hits him. Working with crew chief Pete Rondeau and the former No. 15 crew was the right thing to do.

"Working with Pete is what I need," Earnhardt Jr. said Wednesday during a break in NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway. "It's what I need to do. Working in that environment with those guys is what I need to be to turn that corner. I don't think anything I was doing in the past kept me from the championship but that's the kind of corner I need to turn to get there.

"Hopefully I'm right. I ain't always been right, but hopefully this time I am."

Earnhardt Jr., far and away NASCAR's most popular driver, has been on the verge of becoming a championship driver since he joined its top series in 2000. Earnhardt has won 15 times over that span, including last year's Daytona 500.

He's won over a legion of fans as large as any in NASCAR's storied history and many point to Earnhardt Jr. as the driver to lead the sport well into the 21st century.

But there's one thing missing: a championship. Despite a solid season in 2004 that got him in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Earnhardt Jr. slipped in the final 10 races to finish fifth in points. That was a two-position drop over 2003, perhaps causing the powers that be at Dale Earnhardt Inc. to look at its two Nextel Cup teams.

So Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip essentially swapped teams, with Rondeau coming from the No. 15 team and Tony Eury Jr. going to Waltrip's bunch.

There has been much speculation over why the switch was made, especially when Earnhardt Jr. said last year he'd rather lose with the Eurys than win with someone else.

Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday the alleged friction between he and the Eurys wasn't as bad as many thought.

"Tony Jr. and I have always been really competitive," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The things that we enjoy and the things we do and how we treat each other away from the racetrack is totally different than what you may have seen during the year. I could easily go back.

"The situation wasn't that bad where I said, 'Man, I've got to get out of here.' I wasn't necessarily the guy who spoke first. I came into the office at the shop (after the season), and they presented me with a couple with a few scenarios. We got a few people from each team and discussed it for about two or three weeks. I walked in one day, and they had it all figured out. I said 'All right, I'm fine with that. Sounds OK. We'll do this.'"

The move hasn't paid instant dividends during testing, but Earnhardt Jr. isn't too worried about his slow speed thus far.

His top speed so far was 183.329 mph set Wednesday morning. After the afternoon session, that slots Earnhardt Jr. in 20th of the 26 drivers taking laps at Daytona this week.

Earnhardt Jr.'s afternoon speed was 183.206, 20th during the session.

"We're not really that fast right now," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We're kind of struggling real bad. We were pretty decent (Tuesday). We've got a brand-new car that they built, and one of the cars that they ran in the past with Mike. The new car was pretty decent. I was pretty happy with it.

"We got done practicing, shut the doors, came back this morning and jumped right in there again, and we've lost about four-tenths somewhere."

Big deal, Earnhardt Jr. said.

"I ain't really too worried about it," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think the car will draft, good. If we have to start in the back, we'll just cut right up through there, I think."

Dale Jarrett was quickest of everyone Wednesday afternoon, going 186.455 mph in his Robert Yates Racing Ford. That's the top time of 2005 testing. Jarrett, a three-time Daytona 500 winner, edged Jeff Gordon's 185.736 mph lap Wednesday.

Greg Biffle was third Wednesday afternoon at 185.094, with Jeremy Mayfield fourth at 184.972 and Jarrett teammate Elliott Sadler fifth at 184.926.

Should Earnhardt Jr. struggle once the 2005 season opens, he knows the fingers will be pointed at Rondeau.

"It's going to be tough," Earnhardt Jr. "People are going to talk one way or another. If we had stayed together, people would say we should have changed. There's always talk about that. When we'd get inconsistent (last year) or have a bad day -- who was at fault?

"I never really came out and said anything to these guys I'm working with now, but it's tough when you're walking around in that red uniform. It was hard on Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. and that team because they just wanted to work and be in their little world. But when you're not in your own world, you can't be. It's going to be a different experience for them. Hopefully they'll handle it pretty good.

"There is a lot of pressure but I can totally see where this thing will go either way. Eventually we'll do what it takes to do to get it right. If it starts out stumbling we'll just have to work hard to get it right. I'm prepared for any of that."

DEI promotes Eury, reassigns Eury Jr., Rondeau

During his tenure as crew chief, Eury Sr. led Dale Earnhardt Jr. to two Busch Series championships and 15 Cup victories, including the 2004 Daytona 500.

Pete Rondeau has been named crew chief of the No. 8 team. He took over as crew chief on the No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet late in the 2004 Cup season. Rondeau led Earnhardt Jr. to a Busch Series win at Bristol this year and Ron Fellows to a second-place finish at Watkins Glen.

Tony Eury Jr. will now be crew chief of the No. 15 of Michael Waltrip. Eury Jr. was car chief of the No. 8 team the past five seasons and was also instrumental in Earnhardt Jr's two Busch championships.

The core members of the Nos. 8 and No. 15 teams will collectively transfer intact with the promotions of Eury Jr. and Rondeau.

Richie Gilmore, vice president of motorsports for DEI, said the moves come on the heels of a successful season and the teams wanted to improve and achieve even greater success.

"We all sat down and talked because we want all of our teams to produce even better results," Gilmore said. "Everyone is excited about this and we're already getting ready for Daytona testing. We think the results will show up immediately."

Junior's future

You're immortalized because of your famous father, who you watched crash and die in your rearview mirror. It seems all of his fans have now become your fans, with many more newcomers that have jumped on the bandwagon.

On the other hand, you're criticized for still not having won a Cup championship, for being handed a successful race team and car by your late father's largesse rather than your own hard work and toil, that you'll never be the kind of or as successful a driver as your father, or that you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth while many of your racing peers had to come up the hard way.

Such is the convoluted life of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Without being fined by NASCAR for swearing, if you ever needed a perfect example of being damned if you do and damned if you don't, Junior is it. No matter the number of races he wins or the feel-good stories his life generates, there's going to be just as much criticism that he's nothing more than a spoiled rich kid whose father bought him the best of everything – and that includes wins.

But is there any alternative? If you recall, the younger Earnhardt had made several veiled threats about possibly leaving DEI after the end of the 2002 season. In fact, he did not agree to contract terms until Jan. 15, 2003, a month before the start of the season.

Some called it a ploy for a guy who had raced since 1998 under only a handshake agreement with his father. If that was the case, it worked, as DEI's board of directors rewarded their primary meal ticket with a new long-term deal through 2006 or 2007, depending on which report you believe.

Others perceived Junior's threats as a sign he sought more influence and power over his father's company, which had been and continues to be primarily controlled by Earnhardt's stepmother and the late Dale Sr.'s widow, Teresa Earnhardt. That, too, seemed to work as Junior helped engineer DEI's decision to sponsor what has become the very successful Junior-owned Chance2 team, which Martin Truex Jr. led to the Busch Series championship in 2004.

Further, Junior may have played a key role in the recent personnel reorganizations of the Nos. 8 and 15 teams – though whether it was Junior or Teresa who was truly behind the upheaval remains a matter of contention.

Even with all that has transpired, one can't help but wonder what is in Junior's future. Will he re-up again with DEI when the current contract expires?

If not, then what? There are rumors ...

One hypothetical has Earnhardt leaving DEI and filling his late father's shoes at Richard Childress Racing, with the added potential of being united with older stepbrother Kerry. Some sub-rumors have Junior switching his car number from No. 8 to his late father's fabled No. 3.

Another rumor has the young Earnhardt deciding to form his own Nextel Cup team once his contract runs out. If that was the case, he'd likely take primary sponsor Budweiser and most of his other associate sponsors along with, which could potentially be financially devastating to DEI.

Then again, he might just snub naysayers and critics and choose to stick around.

After all, there are many who'd say Junior would be crazy to leave DEI. He has a lifetime job any way he looks at it, first as a driver and then as co-owner of the team once his driving days are over ... or does he? What if Teresa, as astute a businesswoman as you'll find in NASCAR, isn't willing to give Junior added control down the road?

Others might commend Earnhardt if he leaves the DEI fold. He would prove once and for all whether his own natural talent or the backing of the company his father founded have been the key elements in his success. He also would have total control over both his and his team's respective destinies.

If Earnhardt ever does decide to leave DEI, he need only look at fellow competitor Kyle Petty for guidance and direction. For it was Petty who ultimately decided at the end of the 1984 season to leave his legendary father's own organization, and didn't return until 13 years later.

Kyle Petty won eight races during his years away from the Petty camp, but he still has yet to win a race or even a pole for Petty Enterprises, the family business for which father Richard won 200 NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup races and grandfather Lee earned 54 wins. The last time a driver with the Petty surname won a race for the organization was Richard's last triumph more than 21 years ago, in 1983.

Would Junior be more successful with or without DEI? Would he be able to carve out his own identity? If Junior was able to call his own shots, could he become the one thing his father never was during his illustrious career: a Cup championship-winning owner as well as driver?

So many questions and no immediate answers. Keep a close eye on Junior over the next few seasons to see if he'll be able to answer the same question posed by one of his favorite bands, The Clash: "Should I stay or should I go?"

Earnhardt Jr.'s goal: Dad's five straight Daytona Busch wins

The driver the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series will moonlight once again in the Busch Series' richest and most prestigious event as he shoots for his fourth straight victory.

Earnhardt Jr. is chasing the record of five straight victories set by his late father Dale Earnhardt between 1990-94.

In last year's race, Earnhardt Jr. had to dig deep to pull off the victory.

The 120-lap, 300-mile race held on the Saturday before the Daytona 500 was red flagged at Lap 31 due to rain. The race couldn't be restarted and was postponed until Monday.

Earnhardt Jr., who captured the 2004 Daytona 500 the next day, participated in the traditional car induction ceremonies at DAYTONA USA on early Monday morning and then went inside the Speedway to prepare for the finish of the Busch Series event.

Earnhardt Jr., who led five different times for 47 laps, took the lead for the final time on Lap 109 and held off the pack of furious challengers to earn his third win of Speedweeks 2004.

"It's a pretty good alarm clock putting your car in DAYTONA USA," Earnhardt Jr. said after the victory.

Despite a late night of celebrating, Earnhardt Jr. said he had no problems getting focused for Monday's competitive race.

"It's kinda like pick up where you left off," Earnhardt Jr. said.

In this year's edition of the Hershey's Take 5 300, Earnhardt Jr. will once again get plenty of competition from both the stars of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the NASCAR Busch Series. Among the other NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers expected join Earnhardt Jr. in the Hershey's Take 5 300 include Kevin Harvick, Joe Nemechek, Kasey Kahne, Michael Waltrip and Greg Biffle.

Among the Busch Series regulars expected to return include Earnhardt Jr.'s Chance 2 Racing teammate and 2004 NASCAR Busch Series champion Martin Truex Jr., David Green, Ashton Lewis, David Stremme, Kenny Wallace, Clint Bowyer and Jason Keller.

Green, who will wheel a Ford for Brewco Motorsports, is the 1994 Busch Series champion but has never won at Daytona. He says a good finish in the season opener can spark some momentum for the year.

"I don't want to say it paints a picture of your season, but it sure leaves a good foundation," said Green, who sat on the pole in his first start in 1991. "It's almost like a footer on a house. As you build upon that nice expensive house, you want a nice steady foundation. I know as you go into each year, you never know what's around the next corner throughout the season, but at the same time, you're first priority is to get through Daytona and have it sound.

"I've been through Daytona and had unfortunately a 30th place finish but our performance and teamwork was sound and it really catapulted our year. I've also come out with solid top-10 finishes and it relayed the same momentum. I've yet to come away with a win. I can only imagine what that would seem like."

Lewis will be among the many drivers making debuts with new teams. After driving for his family-owned team, the Virginia native takes over the driving duties at Team Rensi Motorsports. Like Green, Lewis is just looking for a solid run.

"Everybody's goal is to go there and win but if you can just go there and get the season off to a great start and you don't feel like you're digging yourself out of a hole from the get-go," Lewis said. "You build up all winter to go to Daytona and you know what kind of race it is. You know how prestigious it is and you put a lot of emphasis on it and to go there and run well would mean a lot to this team."

In Review: Earnhardt Jr.

Where does one even begin to outline it?

With the most infamous four-letter word in the sport's history? With one of the most visually horrific in-car fires in recent memory and the resulting second-degree burns that removed him from the car for the first time in his career? With the purposeful self-spinout?

Or do you go with the rousing Daytona 500 victory? The Busch/Cup sweep at Bristol? Or maybe his second straight most-popular driver award?

Impossible call. And how does one guy pack that much drama into 40 weeks, anyway?

For all the drama, the most impressive part of Earnhardt's season came in the form of something he's not had in four previous Cup Series seasons - consistency.

For the first time in his five-year Cup career, Earnhardt was a threat to win nearly every weekend. Just twice, at Las Vegas -- when Earnhardt may have had the worst car of his career -- and at Pocono in August, was the No. 8 Budweiser team simply incapable of competing from the get-go.

The Budweiser team led 19 races during the 36-week season, and also won a Gatorade Twin-125 qualifying race at Daytona during Speedweeks 2004. Aside from the Daytona 500 victory, Junior's first, he went to Victory Lane in the spring races at Atlanta and Richmond, and the fall shows at Bristol, Talladega and Phoenix.

Junior swept both the Busch and Nextel Cup Series races twice during 2004, first at Daytona in February and then again at Bristol in August.

A career-high six victories runs Earnhardt's streak of multi-win seasons to five and he has been a staple of the NASCAR Top 10 for 69 consecutive weeks despite being docked 25 points on two separate occasions.

The first came at Bristol in March, when he purposely spun himself out to bring out the caution flag (then freely admitted it to the media following the race). The second, of course, came after Junior's victory in the EA Sports 500 at Talladega.

When asked what it meant to have won at the 2.66-mile track for the fifth time, Junior said, "It don't mean s--- right now. Daddy won here 10 times."

The verbal slip obviously did nothing to jeopardize Earnhardt's popularity. He still ran away with the most popular driver voting. True to form, he donated the $10,000 prize to two North Carolina animal organizations, The Animal Adoption League and Lake Norman Lucky Cats.

Due to injuries suffered in a sports car crash at Infineon Raceway in June, Junior was forced to use a relief driver for the first time in his Cup career.

Martin Truex Jr. became the second driver to ever compete in the No. 8 Bud car when he relieved Junior at New Hampshire International Speedway in July, and John Andretti became the third Bud Chevy driver for DEI the following week at Pocono.

Earnhardt's recovery was rapid, however, and he was back in the saddle fulltime for the Brickyard 400 at Indy. And in good form, too. In the 16 races from Indy to Homestead, Earnhardt tallied seven top-five finishes, including victories at Bristol, Talladega and Phoenix.

All said, he had a legitimate shot at winning the inaugural Nextel Cup.

An ill-timed move in the late stages of the Bass Pro Shops/MBNA 500 at Atlanta -- while running third, he moved up in front of Carl Edwards and crashed, resulting in a crushing 33rd-place finish and a broken rear end gear at Martinsville that also relegated him to a 33rd-place finish, ultimately decided his fate in the Chase.

"Frustrating day, but the year was great," Earnhardt said following a 23rd-place finish in the season finale at Homestead. "Our expectations coming into this race were just to have fun, because we pretty much knew (winning the championship) was a long shot.

"The 97 (Busch), 24 (Gordon) and 48 (Johnson), those three teams are nearly bulletproof, especially at a track like this. But I'm not worried about it. I'm proud of my team. We had good days, and we had bad days, but we battled and put together our best season ever."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. voted most popular driver for second straight year

For the second straight year, Earnhardt drew the most votes in online balloting for the National Motorsports Press Association's Most Popular Driver Award.

"It was fun to win it last year, but to get two in a row really means a lot to me," said Earnhardt, who won a career-high six races in 2004 and finished fifth in the season standings. "I've learned this year about how loyal and supportive my fans are. My team had our best season ever, but we also had a lot of trouble along the way, including my injuries."

Earnhardt was burned in a crash during a sports car event in California and had to use a relief driver in two races. Junior also faced adversity when he was docked 25 points by NASCAR after uttering a vulgarity during a live TV interview in October after winning a race in Talladega.

"I used to worry about losing my fans after a bad race or two, but I found out this year the fans really got behind me when I needed it the most," he said. "It's a big compliment to have that many fans voting for me and letting me know they're supportive and loyal, no matter what."

Earnhardt led from the start of the season and wound up with 1,487,512 of the record 3.8 million votes cast. Jeff Gordon was next with 496,362, followed by Kevin Harvick with 249,228.

Junior joins Bobby Allison, Richard Petty, Bill Elliott and Darrell Waltrip as the only drivers to win the award at least two consecutive years since it began in 1956. Earnhardt and his late father, a seven-time NASCAR champion, are the only father-son combination to have won NASCAR's oldest off-track honor.

The award is sponsored by Pillsbury's Grands Biscuits.

Fans Voice Awards

Best Quote
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
on what it meant to win five races at Talladega
"Well, it don't mean s--t right now. Daddy still won here 10 times so I gotta do a little bit more winning."

Driver you'd most prefer your daughter to marry
Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Owner for whom you'd most like to drive
Teresa Earnhardt

Most creative display of emotion
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The No. 8 team swarms Earnhardt Jr. at the start-finish line after winning the Daytona 500.

Most popular driver
Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Junior jive

Earnhardt was a popular preseason choice to win the inaugural Nextel Cup title this past season but finished fifth. While most drivers and fans would consider that an accomplishment, Earnhardt saw it as a disappointment. He knew he and his team could have done better, though Junior also claims he "got a lot more out of my team than I anticipated."

Still, what had been an ongoing problem throughout the season – the inconsistency and oftentimes ineffectiveness of Earnhardt's crew to come up with the right setup for particular races or racetracks – continued to be a very visible and frustrating thorn in Earnhardt's side, particularly during the 10-race Chase.

Following numerous events, Earnhardt repeatedly complained at how much his team had missed the setup or had given him a car that was just too difficult to drive.

That's part of the reason why Earnhardt's veteran crew chief and uncle Tony Eury Sr. was shifted to car chief for the No. 8 Chevrolet. While Eury will still be overseeing construction and preparation of Earnhardt's cars, he will no longer be making race strategy calls atop the pit box.

At the same time, Eury's son and Earnhardt's cousin, Tony Eury Jr., also had his job title changed. Formerly assistant crew chief on Earnhardt's car, Eury was promoted earlier this week to replace Slugger Labbe as crew chief on Michael Waltrip's No. 15 Chevy for the 2005 season.

Earnhardt was on hand for the annual Media Day luncheon Thursday, held as a precursor to Friday evening's annual NASCAR awards banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Yahoo! Sports spent a few minutes with Earnhardt and what follows are excerpts from that conversation.

Question: How are the changes of Tony Sr. and Jr. going to change the complexion of the organization, particularly with your team?

Answer: "It remains to be seen. We made changes to try and make it better, so hopefully everything will be better."

Q: Is it going to be different for you?

A: "Absolutely it's going to be different. When I went from my old shop to the new shop, it was like moving to a new and different country. It was a totally different atmosphere."

Q: How will it be driving for other guys who will be making the calls now?

A: "I'm not worried about that. That should be no problem at all. There'll be a higher level of respect, both ways, coming and going."

Q: Was this a decision you had a lot of input into?

A: "Yeah, I had a lot of input. I wanted to make sure everything was fair."

Q: What will it be like for Tony Jr. moving away from you and his father and running his own team?

A: "I think it's going to allow him to mature a lot. It's going to show him a different side. He's always worked for family and always answered to family. Me and him both agreed that each of us needed to work with other people to learn that maturity and respect side of it that we didn't have for each other. We could really talk to each other however we wanted to, however we particularly felt that day. With the moves we made, I think it'll be better for both of us as people and hopefully he'll have more success. I think, personally, he can have more success if he's with somebody else, and me with somebody else, too."

Q: Do you think you and the Eurys were just too close?

A: "I think so. I mean, I'd always heard hard-working families' but I never experienced that, you know? It's always been great. He knows me absolutely better than anybody around the racetrack. He knows exactly what I'm thinking at the racetrack at all times. But that was a little bit of a downfall at times for both of us. We probably expected too much out of each other."

Q: What about your new crew chief, Pete Rondeau?

A: "He's all right. He'll be able to handle it. He's a pretty quiet guy, really mellow and mature. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's a big, big relief to work with somebody who's as calm and relaxed and is not putting any pressure on me. If I tell him I think there's a problem with the car, he's going to look all over to find it. That's kind of what I've missed."

Q: Now that the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship is over, could you evaluate it?

A: "I'd give it an A. I thought it was pretty awesome. It was really exciting all the way down to the end. I don't think they need to make any changes. I was really proud of how it worked itself out."

Q: What was it like for you to be part of the inaugural Chase?

A: "Everybody was up on their game. We ran better than I anticipated and I think you saw that out of a lot of teams. Some guys, I was surprised to see stumble, but in the end, I got a lot more out of my team than I anticipated."

Q: Mark Martin said the Chase was the most difficult format he had ever been a part of. What are your thoughts on that?

A: "I haven't been around as long as Mark, but I'd agree with what he says. To win it now is a bigger challenge than with the older system."

Q: How challenging was the Chase for you?

A: "It was a lot of fun, really. To be honest with you, I did not feel burned out. I felt fresh every week. It was frustrating right there at the end, the last race or two, because we were so far out of it realistically. But it was awesome, it was really, really cool. We did a lot of appearances, all 10 of us together driver-wise, and that was fun. I got to be better friends with some of these guys and spent time with some of them I was already friends with. It was cool, it was really, really neat."

Q: Would you like to see any changes to the Chase format?

A: "I wouldn't make any changes. I'd leave it alone. I think it's alright."

Q: If you had last season to do over differently, what would you do?

A: "I wouldn't take those first 26 races so seriously. We were like 'Oh, God,' every race. I'm going to have a little more fun with it. I think you can still have more fun and still be successful and not take it so seriously. Finishing 10th or second really doesn't seem to make a difference. You just have to get there."

Q: With that said, how much respect do you have for what Kurt Busch accomplished by becoming champion?

A: "A lot. I mean, he was face-up against nine of the best guys in the series at that point and came out on top. I feel like me and him are pretty comparable competitors, but he also beat some other guys that are a lot better race teams than me and him included, and he beat them this year. It was pretty exciting."

Q: Are there any changes or adjustments you'd like to see made to the Chase format for next season?

A: "Nothing really springs to mind, maybe give some points to the pole winner. As much effort as goes into pole qualifying, there should be some sort of reward."

Q: Even though the Chase for the Nextel Cup was stressful overall, it seemed like the last five races were even more stressful. What was it like to be in the thick of that pack, knowing each race would be critical?

A: "It wasn't too bad, really. We were in a position where we were having to chase after Kurt, so we just ran as hard as we could. That's what we did and all we could do. I think when it was a little bit closer, when the points were a lot closer, it was a lot more nerve-wracking. To be that close to it was really nerve-wracking. It really let you exactly how big a deal it is, because you never know until you win it. But I have to hand it to Kurt for those last two or three weeks."

Q: What does it mean for you to stand on the stage at Friday's awards banquet?

A: "It means that I just have to put together another speech. I just started working on mine last night."

Q: Do you have any excerpts to share with us?

A: "'Thank you.' That's what I'm going to say to the guy when I walk up."

Earnhardt Jr.'s spotter suspended for weekend

POPULAR GUY

Earnhardt has led since the voting began in February, with more than 3.7 million votes cast at www.mostpopulardriver.com. The voting will continue through 11:59 p.m., Monday, the day after the final race of the Nextel Cup season at Homestead, Fla.

Four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon was second in the voting, followed by Kevin Harvick, Michael Waltrip and Tony Stewart. Rounding out the top 10 going into the final week were Kasey Kahne, Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin, Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte.

The award is presented by the National Motorsports Press Association and sponsored by Pillsbury Grands Biscuits.

Quotebook: Darlington

"We've had better cars here and we've had worse. It's not necessarily the team's fault. We, as a group, just can't really communicate about this track and I can't tell them exactly what I need.

"The whole place just needs new asphalt and believe me, I'd pay for it myself. I'd buy the whole damn thing if I could. Anyway, it was a good finish for us. I'm happy about Jimmie Johnson winning.

"Those guys have been on a tear and that's been good to see. It wasn't a great race, but it wasn't a bad one."

Junior not the Lady's man

And once the transaction was complete, he'd at the very least pave the track's surface. But given an especially bad day, he might just be enticed to detonate the joint.

As usual, Darlington's gritty asphalt gave Earnhardt fits Sunday night in the 55th and final Mountain Dew Southern 500. But he fought it, and battled into the top 10 in the race's late stages before a dead battery halted his momentum.

He battled back to finish 11th overall, but dropped to fourth in the championship point standings with one race left to decide the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"Ol' place just needs some new asphalt," laughed Earnhardt after sliding out of the Budweiser Chevy. "Believe me, I'll pay it myself. I'll buy the whole damn thing if I could.

"But anyway, good finish for us. It wasn't a great race, wasn't a bad one. I can go home and not lose a bit of sleep over how we ran. We don't traditionally run good at Darlington."

True. Entering the weekend his average finish at "The Lady in Black" was 18th, so Sunday's 11th-place effort was well above the norm. He's content with that. It's the consecutive 33rd-place finishes at Martinsville and Atlanta that have him bummed.

"I was disappointed at the two 33rd-place finishes. That was big," Earnhardt said. "We'd still be in great shape (without them)."

He's not in dire shape as is. But his 72-point deficit to leader Kurt Busch heading into the season finale at Homestead will be quite difficult to overcome.

"That's too many, too many points," Junior said. "We'll go to Homestead and, damn, try our best. But that's a lot of points for one race. Especially the way Jimmie (Johnson) and Jeff (Gordon) ran at the test at Homestead, the way they always run, and the way they've run lately. We'll have to be lucky. Need to be good, too. It's hard to be both at the same time."

That's not to say he's completely given up hope, mind you.

"As long as we're mathematically in it, at least we can go in there with confidence that we're still in this Chase," Earnhardt said. "A lot of guys are way out of it.

"We've fought tooth and nail throughout the whole thing. Doesn't look like it's in our favor right now, but I'm proud of my team still. I'm real proud of my team, real proud of my result."

Early on Earnhardt struggled with an ill handling car. The team continued to adjust on it throughout the day, but could never truly dial it in.

"We got lucky. The caution came out, allowed us to change the battery or we were going to be in bad shape," Junior said. "Not a good car. We've had better racecars here. We've had worse ones, too.

"It's not necessarily the team's fault. We, as a group ... I can't really communicate the way I want to about this track and tell them exactly what I need.

"We'd adjust on the car. We were decent and we'd adjust on it, it'd get worse. We could come back to where, at its best it was a 10th-place car -- at its best. And we could always get back to that but couldn't improve on it. Everything we tried to do made it worse."

Dale Jr.'s new title: Championship owner

It was a part-time effort, intended as a development program for Dale Earnhardt Inc. employees.

Boy, did that work out well.

Martin Truex Jr., son of NASCAR Modified driver Martin Truex, gave Chance 2 its big chance at a NASCAR Busch Series title this season, and on Saturday, he sealed the deal.

It really wasn't one of the team's better days. Truex ran around the back half of the top 10 all day and wound up fourth at the finish.

But since Kyle Busch caught part of an early crash and then spun and crashed all by himself 40 laps from the finish, Truex goes to Homestead next week as the series champion.

To continue the trend, another team owned by a Nextel Cup star ended up in Victory Lane on Saturday. Rusty Wallace earned his first career victory as a Busch car owner when Jamie McMurray held off Ashton Lewis Jr. for the victory.

On winning his first Busch Series title as a car owner, Earnhardt was somewhat giddy.

"I won the Busch Series title in my first full year and I won the Busch Series title as an owner my first full year," he said. "I feel like a real dominant force in this series."

Earnhardt said that what started out as a 22-race program for 2004 with Truex turned into a full-out run for the title based on enthusiasm and performance.

"I never anticipated coming full-circle this fast," Earnhardt said. "I never anticipated running a full schedule this quickly. We just kept on working with Martin and that became more promising and more promising.

"It was almost as if his acceleration and learning curve was faster than how we wanted to build the team."

Wrangler, in fact, was on the car when Truex clinched the title, and that meant a lot to Earnhardt, who convinced the company to back the team in several races.

The paint scheme of the car was one Earnhardt favored and it was the early 1980s look his father ran for Richard Childress and Bud Moore.

"We had an association with Wrangler, and we didn't have enough sponsors for all the races, so I carved into the personal agreement some money that shoved over to the Busch team and put them on the car for a couple of races, which they were really excited about.

" I asked Martin if he could do anything possible for me this weekend it would be to wrap up the championship in this car. It was just kind of a special scheme for me, and one that I enjoyed for many years," Earnhardt said.

Chance 2 was formed 18 months ago as a way for DEI employees to broaden their horizons. Truex was chosen as its driver, and the team went to work from the DEI shops.

The employees who chose to go with the new team are one of the prime reasons the team won its championship the first time out, said Earnhardt.

"The team itself, 90 percent of them were employees of DEI for many years," he explained. "They saw this as an opportunity and that's really the reason we began this team in the first place.

"It was to get a few more avenues for some of the guys in the fab shop or wherever to be a fabricator or a race-day guy or a traveling man, if that's what they wanted to be.

"A lot of the guys jumped right on it, and I guess that's why it works so well because they really want to be a part of it."

Adding to the fact that Chance 2 gave him his first car-owner title is the possibility that Earnhardt himself could win a Nextel Cup title.

"That'd be really cool," Earnhardt said. "We just kind of take it one day at a time, do the best we can. I just want to come out with a fighting chance into Homestead."

For his part, Truex said that Earnhardt was a big factor in the championship run.

Asked how much his car owner meant to the effort, Truex said, "A lot more than people know and a lot more than he'll get credit for, too. Everything I ever needed to know, all I had to do was ask, and it was there for me."

Earnhardt Jr. OK after destroying primary car

And this was no love tap, either. Earnhardt hit hard enough hard enough to knock the roll cage loose in the No. 8 Chevrolet and knock the breath from his lungs.

"At Darlington, due to fact that we hit the wall here a lot in the race, every car puts a 4x4 square piece of lumber in the side," Junior explained. "I hit the wall really hard.

"It knocked breath out of me, moved that lumber, knocked the cage out of the car.

"That's the main part of the chassis. We might have to make a show car out of this one. I don't know really what happened other than I ran out of racetrack. I got up out of the groove, hit the fence. It happens."

True, but it tends to occur at Darlington Raceway more than at most venues.

"Junior proved that this morning," chuckled Jeff Gordon. "I went out my first lap and I about got in the wall, too."

Apparently it's not cause for much concern in the DEI camp. After 49 minutes spent prepping the backup, Junior promptly went out and ran his fastest laps of the day.

"Any time we tear up our primary car, I feel pretty good about the car we have on the trailer," he said. "I got a couple laps, so we have a good idea what to put under the car (for the race) if we get rained out tomorrow."

The backup car is one Earnhardt has run multiple times in the past, but has yet to race in 2004. Due to a qualifying rainout, he'll start third Sunday.

"I didn't really have a lot of high expectations going into qualifying, regardless," Earnhardt said. "It's nice to have a good starting spot (and) clean air, but you're car's got to be good."

It does mean (bleep) now

After all, Junior was 125 points behind Kurt Busch after Martinsville and 98 points out after Atlanta. The penalty had become somewhat irrelevant in analyzing his chances in the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship.

But with Earnhardt's victory Sunday in the Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix, suddenly the penalty's impact has been rekindled from the smoldering ember it had become.

Now, only 47 points separate the third-place Earnhardt from first-place Busch. Had it not been for the penalty, Earnhardt would be in second place today, just 22 points out.

"But we would still have the advantage," Busch was quick to point out after Sunday's race. "Obviously, they've got to catch us. ... They have to reach out and gain positions and take advantage of other people sliding around on the track and put their cars in awkward positions."

With two races remaining in the season – Sunday at Darlington, S.C., and the season finale at Homestead, Fla. – those 25 points could indeed spell the difference between Junior winning and losing the championship.

"Well, being in second still ain't first, so it doesn't really matter," Earnhardt said. "I'm not going to dwell on that. I'd love to win the championship, but it's going to be really hard to beat those guys. We've got to be realistic."

But the more he spoke in Sunday's post-race press conference, the more it became apparent that indeed the 25-point takeaway truly does matter to Earnhardt. He even joked about it, taking pleasure in giving a slight dig to NASCAR in the process.

"It would be great exposure for my team and my sponsor if we do lose the championship," he laughed. "We're trying our best to lose it by less than 25 points. That will give us all kinds of exposure, I guess, all throughout the winter, probably more so than winning the championship. We all have our secret agendas."

In an effort to avoid a repeat performance, Junior had to be cautioned by crew chief Tony Eury Sr. to keep his mouth and vocabulary in check in victory lane.

"I was really scared that I might slip up because I have a lot of bad words in my vocabulary and so I will always from here on out be nervous about that," Earnhardt said. "Tony Sr. came up to me before I got out [of the car] and said, 'Now, don't cuss.' I was glad he reminded me because you get excited."

Yet even with all the downplaying and the caution he's exercising, Earnhardt knows that the penalty will be hanging around his neck until the championship is decided.

"It's not my place to tell anybody to let it go," Earnhardt said. "People are going to talk about it. What are you going to do? I should consider myself so lucky that people are concerned about it.

"But really, I don't worry about it too much. I don't feel any pressure going into these last two races. We've already had things like the penalty and the mistake I made last week [at Atlanta when he crashed while racing Carl Edwards]. We've got our reasons for why, in the end, we lost the championship. All we can do is just race."

Earnhardt isn't alone in being aware of the role the 25-point penalty could play. If Jeff Gordon had his druthers, the championship would not be tarnished by the potential impact of the penalty.

"If he loses it by less than 25 points, than you guys [the media] are going to have lots to talk about," Jeff Gordon said with a laugh after Sunday's race. "Until then, I think it's got to be a forgotten issue, we've got to move on and he's got to move on. It doesn't mean we agree with it or disagree with it.

"But, I hope that one of us wins it by more than 25 points so that it's a non-issue, or if he wins it. I don't think it needs to draw too much attention and hopefully it won't."

The Chase now heads to tracks where Junior admittedly hasn't excelled. But he also knows that he's better off now than he was heading into Phoenix. Now he just has to hope for a little help.

"Being 47 points back sounds a lot better than 90-something," Earnhardt said. "We were really looking bad there when we were 125 points out after Martinsville. We've got an opportunity but I'm not going to get all worked up over it.

"We're just going to try to race smart and finish good."

Earnhardt closing in on Busch without lost points

Junior came up with a big victory Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, leaping from fifth to third in the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings. With only two races left, he trails series leader Kurt Busch by 47 points and second-place Jeff Gordon by six.

Restore the points that Earnhardt was docked for his slip of the tongue after his previous win, Oct. 3 at Talladega, and he would be only 22 points off the pace.

Although he admits he watched his language after his latest victory -- the 15th of his career -- Junior really hasn't given much thought to the lost points. After all, he points out, even with those 25 points, Earnhardt would still be behind Busch.

``Well, being in second still ain't first, so it really doesn't matter,'' Earnhardt said after outdueling Gordon at the end Sunday. ``I'm not going to dwell on that.''

In fact, Earnhardt figures those missing points could be a PR plus if he doesn't go on to win the championship.

``We all have our secret agendas,'' he said, grinning. ``It would be great exposure for my team and my sponsor if we do lose the championship by less than 25 points. ... That will give us all kinds of exposure, I guess, through the winter -- probably more than winning the championship.''

Joking aside, though, Earnhardt -- who trailed Busch by 98 points before Sunday -- figured he would need to win at least two of the last three races to have any shot at taking his first Cup title.

So far, so good.

``All we can do is race,'' Earnhardt said. ``We came here and tried to win. We win. That's great. We go on to the next race and do the same.

``But I don't worry about it too much. I don't feel any pressure going into these last two races. We've already had things like the penalty and the mistake I made last week,'' he added, referring to crashing late in the Atlanta race and turning what looked like a sure top-five finish into 33rd place.

This was Earnhardt's second straight victory on the one-mile Phoenix oval, but he has never won at Darlington or Homestead, sites of the final two events.

``We've got an opportunity, but I'm not going to get all worked up about it,'' Junior said. ``We're just going to try to race smart and finish good. There is too much going on. So we'll just race each lap at Darlington next Sunday and get out of there. We'll know after Darlington what kind of opportunity we've got at Homestead.''

Reminded how much closer Earnhardt would be if not for the 25-point penalty, Busch said, ``We would still have the advantage. It really isn't of much relevance right now and I hope that after Homestead we still have that advantage.

``Obviously, they've got to catch us,'' Busch added. ``We're in the best position to continue to move forward. They have to reach out and gain positions and take advantage of other people sliding around on the track and put their car in awkward positions.''

Meanwhile, Earnhardt expects the questions about those lost points to continue.

``It's not my place to tell anybody to let it go,'' Junior said. ``People are going to talk about it. I should consider myself lucky that people are so concerned about it. I shouldn't really complain.''

Follow the bouncing Junior

This season Dale Earnhardt Jr. has driven his rollercoaster tendency to an extreme. He began the year with his first victory in his sport's biggest event, the Daytona 500, and he has won five other races. But adversity has chased nearly every success, including a 25-point penalty for cussing and one frightening, painful setback that left many wondering if he was expecting too much from his customary resilience.

Yet there he sits, 47 points back of leader Kurt Busch with two races left in the inaugural Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup. Heck, he made up 51 in just one race at Phoenix.

"Last week will still bother me," Earnhardt said after the Phoenix race. "I made a personal error that cost us a lot of points. It's not a habit I want to continue."

Comeback Kid indeed.

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Earnhardt prospered early this season despite erratic results. He won, for instance, in the spring at Atlanta and Richmond after miserable runs at Las Vegas and California. But in July -- when he was second in the points standings, 105 behind Jimmie Johnson -- Earnhardt suffered second-degree burns in a crash during practice for a sports car race at Sonoma.

This was different. This time there was no overnight remedy. This time his body ached for a month. He hobbled gingerly from a golf cart to his No. 8 Chevrolet. Every step brought a pained grimace.

The three races after the accident tested Earnhardt's mettle as it never has been tested before. A week after he was burned, he was lifted out of the car during the race on July 25 at New Hampshire. "It's pain I never felt before," he said, sitting in his pit stall after Martin Truex, his Busch Series driver, took over. Truex finished 31st, and Earnhardt's team scored just 70 points.

The next week at Pocono wasn't much better. About a quarter of the way into the race, Earnhardt complained of cramps and numbness in his feet and legs, a condition exacerbated by an ill-handling car. "I could have run the rest of the way, but the car was so bad there really wasn't no use of me being in there wasting my time," he said. John Andretti subbed this time and finished 25th, despite being black-flagged because the No. 8 was not up to track speed after losing a sway bar bolt.

In the next race, at Indianapolis, Earnhardt's luck rivaled his condition. Despite qualifying fifth, he said, "It's hard for me to get aggressive as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest." Even though he went the distance and was running in the top 10, he cut a tire on the last lap and finished 27th.

The season appeared to be slipping away.

But two races later, at Bristol, Earnhardt staged a turnaround. He led 295 laps and took the victory. Although he was third in the standings, he had closed the gap to 75 points on leader Jeff Gordon.

It was definitely game-on for Earnhardt ... until the very next race, when he was sidelined by a crash at California, and dropped 116 points behind Johnson, the new leader.

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So what's behind this consistent inconsistency? Part is the bad racing luck everyone has; most recently, Earnhardt crashed in Chase races No. 6 and 7, Martinsville and Atlanta, after posting top 10s in each of the first five. Part, though, is subpar communication. Since Earnhardt entered the Cup series full time in 2000, the communication between Earnhardt and crew chiefs Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Eury Jr. has not been as precise as communication seems to be on other teams in the Chase.

That's the main difference between the No. 8 team and another top-drawer team such as Johnson's, whose crew always seems to be on the same page.

That's a big reason Johnson's No. 48 team is better than the No. 8 at making adjustments throughout the race that make the car a contender at the end. That was never more evident than in Johnson's recent win at Atlanta, a race dominated by Mark Martin. But it was won by Johnson because of adjustments crew chief Chad Knaus made late in the race.

"Junior's had some mechanical troubles," Johnson says. "At Martinsville, he had some issues going on. As a driver, I've made plenty of mistakes, and I know every driver can look and wonder if he made a different decision here or there. I'm sure Junior is saying that after (Atlanta).

"When you make mistakes, you've got to admit it. When something happens that's out of your control, you've got to support the guy who maybe was responsible and stay together as a team. If you start pointing fingers, the team falls apart. The driver is the glue in there to keep the whole thing together."

As Earnhardt has matured, he has realized the importance of the driver taking a leadership role.

"We're learning," Earnhardt says. "One of the things that we never did learn -- me and Tony Jr. struggled with -- was when I say the car is loose, he doesn't exactly know how much or how bad it is. A lot of guys, like Elliott Sadler, use a scale of 1 to 10. I don't know; I kind of thought about that.

"Tony Jr. and those guys are old school. They probably won't know that, but sometimes we have a hard time. I guess by the tone of my voice is the only way he can tell or how many times I repeat it loudly."

Richie Gilmore, Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s director of motorsports, says Earnhardt is looking forward to being a leader at DEI in the future. Gilmore's job is to help ease the transition.

First, Earnhardt must feel more comfortable in his cars, and one way to reassure him will be giving Eury Jr. added responsibility. Adding Truex to the Cup roster for seven races next season will help, too. In the past, Earnhardt has not been able to gain much from the feedback of teammate Michael Waltrip.

"Martin Truex Jr. is the kind of guy we can rely on," Earnhardt says. "We've driven each other's cars, and we normally end up with about the same setup. We say the same things about our cars. Tony Jr. has worked with him in the past and says we just repeat each other over and over about how the cars drive at the same track. That's good to know and good to have when you're looking for an answer."

Having turned 30 last month, Earnhardt says his focus is "growing up and getting tougher."

He adds: "This sport changes so much you can't say that this is what I need to learn. ... We're good at superspeedways, then we're good at short tracks, then we're good at Charlotte. Then we struggle at superspeedways, struggle at short tracks and struggle at Charlotte."

Which should provide ample opportunity for more comebacks.

No. 8 is Mr. Clutch

But with the chips on the line to remain a viable contender in the inaugural Chase for the Nextel Cup, Dale Earnhardt Jr. picked up a new nickname in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500: Mr. Clutch.

After dropping from third to fifth place in points at Atlanta, Earnhardt said last week that the only way he still would be able to win the championship was to go for the checkered flag in each of the remaining three races.

One down, two to go.

Earnhardt took the lead for good with 12 laps left at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday to claim his sixth win this season and his 15th career Cup triumph.

In the process, Earnhardt, who also won at Phoenix last season, dramatically closed the gap between himself and points leader Kurt Busch. Entering Sunday's race, Earnhardt was 98 points behind Busch. Now heading into next Sunday's Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Busch maintains just a 48-point edge over Earnhardt, who climbs from fifth to third in the standings.

Sunday's win has Junior confident that he can carry momentum into the final two races of the season.

"I feel like we can go into [Darlington and the season finale in Homestead, Fla.] and have a [better] weekend than we've ever had at either one of those tracks," Earnhardt said. "We want to put ourselves back in a position to win."

Even though he led the most laps of all drivers at Phoenix – 118 of the 312-lap event – victory was not all that easy for Earnhardt. He rallied from as far back as 25th with less than 100 laps to go to beat runner-up Ryan Newman by 1.43 seconds, driving away from Newman and Jeff Gordon after a late restart.

Earnhardt's sixth victory of 2004 moves him ahead of Jeff Gordon for second-most wins this season. Jimmie Johnson, who came into Phoenix with a three-race winning streak but finished sixth Sunday, leads the series with seven triumphs.

While the 25-point penalty Earnhardt received for swearing after winning at Talladega a month ago had been all but forgotten, Sunday's win refocused attention on how it may affect his bid for the championship. Had Earnhardt not had points deducted, he would currently be in second place, 22 points behind Busch.

As it stands now, Busch continues to lead the pack, while the second- through fourth-place drivers are separated by just seven points, with Gordon 41 points behind Busch, Earnhardt 47 back and Johnson 48 back.

And Earnhardt knows the championship isn't quite his for the taking.

"We've got a lot to gain, but these guys aren't going to be easy to beat, either," he said.

Further back but still mathematically in it are fifth-place Mark Martin (102 behind teammate Busch), 2002 champion Tony Stewart (142 back) and Newman (150 back). The remaining three drivers have been eliminated, assuming all Chase contenders make each of the remaining two starts: Elliott Sadler (322 back), defending Cup champ Matt Kenseth (336 back) and Jeremy Mayfield (355 back).

The contenders that remain in the hunt had to negotiate a race which was atypical by Phoenix standards. Sunday marked only the second time in 16 years that rain has interrupted the event. But even more important, several of the top finishers had to overcome hardships throughout the race to come away with strong finishes.

Newman had a flat tire and was involved in a seven-car wreck on lap 128 but managed to finish second from the pole. Johnson was forced to pit under green on lap 134 due to a loose wheel – just two laps after an earlier caution period ended – and plummeted from ninth to 35th five laps later. He was able to come back and ultimately close the gap between himself and Busch's No. 97 team.

Busch, meanwhile, ran out of gas earlier in the race, got out of sequence in his pit stops, stalled on pit road during one stop and was involved in the same seven-car wreck as Newman. But he still came out relatively unscathed with a 10th-place finish – good enough to maintain the points lead.

"These were two tough races for us, with the motor failure [at Atlanta] last week and then today, just not being able to reach our potential with track position and struggling with a couple of circumstances on the track," Busch said. "It's a great way to breathe in some fresh air, move forward and focus on what the big picture is."

The big picture shows that Busch still leads the points race and that Earnhardt still has some ground to make up.

"We've just got to do this the rest of the year so we can gain on Kurt [Busch] because we know he's going to run strong," Earnhardt said. "We've got to get this title for these fans here."

Junior weathers the storm

With 15 laps to go, Earnhardt passed Casey Mears for second-place and launched his attack on Jeff Gordon, as Jamie McMurray tangled and turned after colliding with Dale Jarrett to bring out the 10th caution of the day. When the race restarted with 13 laps to go, Earnhardt needed only two circuits to work his way underneath the No. 24 car. Though Casey Mears' crash on lap 307 delayed Earnhardt's charge to the finish, the No. 8 car would not be denied.

"It just gives you chills to have a car that capable of winning and that fast," Earnhardt said. "I was just getting ground on those guys in the center of the corner. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe them guys couldn't get their cars to drive as good as mine. Mine was perfect."

The big wreck came on lap 129 when the No. 42 spun and Chasers Kurt Busch, Mark Martin and Ryan Newman were three of six cars caught up in the melee. But when Terry Labonte spun on lap 224 to avoid an altercation ahead of him, the caution fell while Jeff Gordon was still in the pits. The No. 24 car's pit selection — one spot from the exit of pit road — locked Gordon into the top position on the restart on lap 133. Gordon led 100 laps and finished third behind Ryan Newman. Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne battled to round out the top five.

Earnhardt picked up 190 points for winning and leading the most laps. He gained two positions in points and moved to third, 47 points behind leader Kurt Busch.

Post-race interview G-rated this time

Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, as he climbed his No.8 Chevrolet, Earnhardt Jr. was reminded to keep things clean.

Tony Eury Sr., Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief, told his driver to watch what he said.

"Now, don't cuss," Eury Sr. said.

"I'm glad he reminded me," Earnhardt Jr. said.

Nothing profane came out of Earnhardt Jr.'s mouth during his post-race interview with NBC, and he was thankful.

"I was really scared I was going to slip up because I have a lot of bad words in my vocabulary," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I will always from here on out be nervous about that. I made that mistake. It was a mistake. I'm human."

The 25-point penalty cost Earnhardt Jr. the points lead after Talladega, but his victory in the Checker Auto Parts 500 at PIR moved him to within 47 points of Kurt Busch.

That's outside the 25-point window created by the penalty, but Earnhardt Jr. isn't too worried.

"Being in (third) still ain't first," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It doesn't really matter. I'm not going to dwell over that."

He was able to joke about the penalty, saying he'd get more attention if he finished 25 points or fewer behind than if he won.

"It would be great exposure for me and my team and my sponsor, and if we do lose the championship, we're trying our best to lose it by 25 points," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That'll get us all kinds of exposure, probably moreso than winning the championship.

"We all have our secret agendas. I mean, really, I don't worry about it too much. I don't feel any pressure going into the last two races. We've already had reasons -- like the penalty and the mistake I made last week -- why, in the end, we lost this championship. All we can do now is race."

And not curse.

Quotebook: Phoenix

"It's just great to win here. The team did a great job. We had a great race car all day. I was really surprised at how good a race car it really was. There at the end, to get by those guys was effortless. "We haven't dominated those racetracks, Darlington or Homestead, but with the team we've got now, I feel like we can go in there and have a weekend like we've never had at those tracks. We've got a lot to gain. These guys ain't going to be easy to beat."

Junior's desert storm

Kurt Busch overcame a couple of mistakes to finish 10th and held on to the series lead. But the top four drivers are separated by just 48 points heading into next Sunday's event at Darlington with Busch leading Gordon by 41.

The victory came a week after Earnhardt lost ground in the title chase by crashing through his own carelessness late in the race at Atlanta Motorspeedway. This time, he was steady when it mattered most.

Earnhardt, who had a dominant car through most of the Checker Auto Parts 500, was in third place, trailing Gordon and Casey Mears when a caution came out on lap 282 of the race scheduled to go 312. Junior argued with crew chief Tony Eury over the radio, lobbying to pit for tires, but Eury made him stay on the track and maintain his position.

Eury, known as Tony Sr., said he insisted Earnhardt stay out because it was so hard to get past lapped cars on the 1-mile oval and "it was just better to keep track position."

Earnhardt was a bit sheepish when asked about the argument.

"Yeah, I was just getting worried man," he said, grinning. "I cannot control myself inside a race car. I want tires, this that and the other. I didn't want to lose.

"I told Tony Sr., 'The car's covering the field the best we ever did.' We've had good race cars and won races but nobody could run with this car today and I didn't want to lose this race."

Junior had a top-five finish all but wrapped up in Atlanta the previous Sunday when he collided with rookie Carl Edwards and wound up 33rd there to fall to fifth -- 98 points out -- in the 10-race championship chase.

He was determined there would be no repeat of that.

"I told my guys I was going to try to make up for that this week," Earnhardt said. "I've been feeling bad about it all week and really wanted to come back and do something for these guys today."

After staying out during the caution, Earnhardt wound up passing Mears for second place on lap 298, moments before another caution came out for Jamie McMurray's wreck.

On the restart on lap 303, Earnhardt swung his No. 8 Chevrolet to the inside of Gordon's car, pulled alongside and shot into the lead.

"Gordon was a sitting duck there at the end," Earnhardt said. "His car was terrible. He was lucky just to get what he got."

Gordon agreed.

"Junior had a dominant car all day long and we needed it to go green the whole way to have any chance," he said.

Earnhardt began to pull away when Mears, with a tire going flat, spun into the wall, bringing out yet another yellow flag on lap 307.

Moments later, Robby Gordon's engine blew. NASCAR stopped the cars on track on lap 310 as safety workers cleaned up the debris from Mears' crash and the oil from Gordon's engine failure.

Once the race resumed, NASCAR ordered one extra lap of caution, then finished with only the second green-white-checker overtime since the rule was adopted earlier this year to assure fans of seeing a racing finish.

Earnhardt easily pulled away once the green flag waved, running off to his sixth win of the season and second straight Phoenix victory. Ryan Newman, who struggled most of the day after starting from the pole, came on to grab second place from Jeff Gordon.

Kevin Harvick finished fourth, followed by rookie Kasey Kahne, Jimmie Johnson, Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte and Busch.

Earnhardt is now third in the standings, 47 points behind. Johnson, whose string of three straight victories ended, is 48 back.

Most of the title contenders struggled during the race. Newman and Johnson lost laps when they pitted for what they thought were flat tires. Busch, who rebounded from an engine failure that left him 42nd at Atlanta, also had to bounce back Sunday after a spinout and crew error.

"I made a mistake early on with traffic and then the crew made a mistake running us out of fuel," he said. "Then, at the end, there were lapped cars running side-by-side on this tight oval. It's not what we expected, but it was a good day."

Harvick and Kahne bumped several times after the last restart and Kahne ran into Harvick's car on pit lane as they drove toward the garage after the race. Harvick got out of his car and said something to Kahne before being shooed back into his car.

"He pushed me all over the track," Kahne said. "I didn't even get close to him. I don't know why he was mad."

Lap By Lap: Checker Auto Parts 500

Lap 315: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the checkered flag for his second victory during the 10-race playoff. Little E's finishes in the Chase: two wins, two third-place finishes, two ninth-place showings and two 33rd-place tallies.

• Kasey Kahne and Kevin Harvick have a pit-road fender bender and exchange words.

Lap 314: White flag waves as Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman battle for second place -- with Newman claiming the spot.

Lap 313: Green flag flies -- and Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes an insurmountable lead.

Lap 310: Yellow-flag caution resumes with 24 cars on the lead lap.

Lap 309: Race is red-flagged to clean debris on the track. Restart will be single-file ... and it's beginning to rain again.

• Six Chase for the Cup contenders are in the top 10: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1), Jeff Gordon (2), Ryan Newman (3), Jimmie Johnson (8), Tony Stewart (9) and Kurt Busch (10).

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. clinches the five-point bonus for leading the most laps.

• Three drivers -- Elliott Sadler, Matt Kenseth and Jeremy Mayfield -- are virtually eliminated from the inaugural Chase for the Nextel Cup. Sadler trails Kurt Busch by 322 points, while Kenseth is 336 back and Mayfield is 355 behind.

• Eight drivers are in the garage: Todd Bodine, Randy LaJoie, Morgan Shepherd, Ward Burton, Johnny Sauter, Matt Kenseth, Robby Gordon and Casey Mears.

Lap 307: After blowing a left-rear tire, Casey Mears slams into the wall to bring out the 11th caution of the race.

Lap 303: Jeff Gordon holds off Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the line, but Little E makes the pass to assume the lead. ... And he's checking out.

Lap 302: The restart is key for front-runners Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., but the battle for fifth place is between Penske South teammates Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman. ... Who's up for a Martinsville redux?

Lap 298: Jamie McMurray spins, slides up the track and crashes into the wall to bring out the 10th caution of the race.

Lap 294: Race restarts cleanly with Jeff Gordon, Casey Mears, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Robby Gordon in the top five.

• Eight Chase for the Cup drivers are in the top 20: Jeff Gordon (1), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (3), Ryan Newman (7), Kurt Busch (8), Tony Stewart (15), Jeremy Mayfield (16), Mark Martin (18) and Jimmie Johnson (19).

Lap 282: Yellow flag waves -- the ninth caution -- with 30 laps remaining because of concern for possibly oil on the track from Matt Kenseth's car. This is the second consecutive DNF for the No. 17 car.

Lap 280: Dale Earnhardt Jr. passes Kevin Harvick for third place -- and more rain is reportedly falling.

Lap 279: Kevin Harvick is battling to hold off Casey Mears' challenge for second place. Both are more than 3 seconds behind first-place Jeff Gordon.

Lap 276: Matt Kenseth has smoke plumes coming from underneath his car.

Lap 273: Robby Gordon, currently running second, has dropped a cylinder.

Lap 270: Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to run fifth, but he remains about 6 seconds off Jeff Gordon's race-leading pace.

Lap 267: Light rain is reportedly dusting some parts of the track.

Lap 263: Six Cup contenders are running in the top 15: Jeff Gordon (1), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (5), Ryan Newman (7), Jimmie Johnson (11), Tony Stewart (12) and Matt Kenseth (14).

Lap 256: Robby Gordon is shadowing front-runner Jeff Gordon, trailing the first-place car by only 0.423 seconds, while Kevin Harvick, Casey Mears and Rusty Wallace round out the top five.

• Points standings right now: Jeff Gordon (6,165), Kurt Busch (6,157), Jimmie Johnson (6,120), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (6,110), Mark Martin (6,065), Tony Stewart (6,028), Ryan Newman (6,013), Matt Kenseth (5,915), Elliott Sadler (5,863) and Jeremy Mayfield (5,833).

Lap 249: Three Chase for the Cup hopefuls -- Jeff Gordon (1), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (7) and Ryan Newman (8) -- are in the top 10.

Lap 244: Jeff Gordon leads the restart, the best of nine Cup contenders in the top 23.

Lap 239: Johnny Sauter gets bumped, slides down the track and into the infield to bring out the eighth caution of the day.

Lap 232: Green-flag restart with Jeff Gordon leading Robby Gordon and Casey Mears. Kevin Harvick and Rusty Wallace are fourth and fifth, respectively.

Lap 230: Only two drivers in the Chase for the Cup -- Jeff Gordon (1) and Ryan Newman (10) -- are in the top 10. However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is 11th. Only two other Cup contenders are in the top 20: Mark Martin (16) and Jimmie Johnson (18).

Lap 227: The race leader is Bobby Labonte, the seventh different driver to be on the point.

Lap 224: Jeff Gordon makes his green-flag stop ... and while he's on pit road Hendrick teammate Terry Labonte crashes to bring out the caution on Lap 226.

Lap 222: Race leader Kurt Busch heads to pit road for a green-flag stop. Car stalls but re-fires after a few sputters.

Lap 220: Four drivers are in the garage: Todd Bodine, Randy LaJoie, Morgan Shepherd and Ward Burton.

Lap 216: Elliott Sadler returns to the track, 62 laps down.

Lap 215: Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon are running 1-2-3. Jeremy Mayfield and Robby Gordon round out the top five.

Lap 209: There have been six race leaders -- all of whom are in the Chase for the Cup: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (106 laps), Ryan Newman (59), Jeff Gordon (21), Elliott Sadler (16), Matt Kenseth (4), Kurt Busch (3).

Lap 203: Race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes his pit stop -- and will have to make one more before the finish.

Lap 200: Green-flag pit stops begin with second-place Kasey Kahne.

Lap 197: Pole-sitter Ryan Newman is running in 20th place, but his lap speed is about a half-mile an hour faster than race leader Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Lap 193: Brian Vickers, who started third on the last restart, is falling back through the pack. He's currently 18th.

Lap 190: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne are 1-2, followed by teammates Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch in the top five. Nos. 6-10: Jeremy Mayfield, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and Bobby Labonte.

Lap 185: After starting in 16th place, Matt Kenseth has worked his way into the top three, passing Greg Biffle.

Lap 183: Matt Kenseth is challenging third-place Greg Biffle.

Lap 180: Only two drivers -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne -- have been in the top 10 for every lap so far.

Lap 176: Four drivers in the Chase for the Cup are outside the top 15: Mark Martin (17), Ryan Newman (22), Jimmie Johnson (30) and Elliott Sadler (38).

Lap 173: Six drivers in the Chase for the Cup are in the top 10: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1), Matt Kenseth (4), Tony Stewart (5), Jeremy Mayfield (6), Kurt Busch (7) and Jeff Gordon (8).

Lap 168: Utilizing the low line, Kasey Kahne closes on leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., trailing by only 0.275 seconds.

Lap 160: Race restarts with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on point.

• Points standings right now: Kurt Busch (6,198), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (6,144), Jeff Gordon (6,127), Mark Martin (6,083), Tony Stewart (6,067), Jimmie Johnson (6,066), Ryan Newman (5,959), Matt Kenseth (5,950), Jeremy Mayfield (5,886) and Elliott Sadler (5,863).

Lap 154: Elliott Sadler cuts a right-front tire and slams the wall to bring out the sixth caution of the race. Ryan Newman picks up the "Lucky Dog" pass.

• Race reaches halfway -- Lap 156 -- under during caution period with Dale Earnhardt Jr. leading, followed by Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth.

Lap 150: Green flag flies with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth composing the top five.

Lap 144: Scott Riggs spins out for the fifth caution of the race. Dale Jarrett gets back on the lead lap via the "Lucky Dog" pass.

• Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler pit; Dale Earnhardt Jr. remains on the track. Greg Biffle now runs third -- up 20 spots from his 23rd-place starting position.

• Carl Edwards drives to the garage for a new radiator.

Lap 140: Jeff Gordon, Elliott Sadler and Brian Vickers continue running 1-2-3 followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne.

Lap 135: Ninth-place Jimmie Johnson takes an unscheduled pit stop of right-side tires and fuel.

Lap 133: Green-flag racing with Jeff Gordon showing the way.

Lap 128: Crash involving Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Joe Nemechek and Kevin Harvick among others. Caution flies for fourth time. Points leader Kurt Busch in for tires; he flat-spotted them avoiding the fray.

• Points standings right now: Jeff Gordon (6,165), Jimmie Johnson (6,131), Kurt Busch (6,128), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (6,114) and Mark Martin (6,062).

Lap 124: Green flag displayed as Elliott Sadler continues to show the way -- but Jeff Gordon challenges at the line and takes the lead.

Lap 120: Caution flag flies as John Andretti strafes the wall. It is the third yellow of the day.

Lap 117: Ryan Newman is off the pace with a flat tire. Of note, Newman has 27 career poles, but has won only three of those races.

Lap 115: Racing resumes after a delay of 21 minutes, 27 seconds.

Lap 112: Drivers have returned to the track under yellow.

Lap 111: Red flag flies -- rain -- 45 laps from halfway. There have been three race leaders: Ryan Newman (59 laps), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (48) and Elliott Sadler (3).

• Moving up: Greg Biffle is eighth, started 23rd. Kurt Busch is 11th, started 28th.

• Moving down: Kevin Harvick is 28th, started fifth. Joe Nemechek is 18th, started third.

Lap 110: Dale Earnhardt Jr. is sixth with Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray and Jimmie Johnson rounding out the top 10.

Lap 107: Pit road opens, leaders enter for tires, fuel. Benefiting from a two-tire stop, Elliott Sadler assumes lead, followed by Jeff Gordon, Brian Vickers, Ryan Newman and Robby Gordon. Randy LaJoie is in the garage.

Lap 105: Light rain falling. Yellow flag -- race's second caution -- for debris on track as Matt Kenseth lost a left-rear tire.

Lap 101: Chase drivers' running position -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1), Ryan Newman (2), Kurt Busch (3), Matt Kenseth (5), Jimmie Johnson (6), Tony Stewart (8), Elliott Sadler (11), Mark Martin (12), Jeff Gordon (14) and Jeremy Mayfield (23).

Lap 98: Top five -- Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth.

Lap 95: Kurt Busch overtakes Kasey Kahne for third place. Early front-runner Brian Vickers has fallen into 13th place, while Jeff Gordon is 14th.

Lap 91: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and sixth-place Tony Stewart are the only cars to run in the top 10 all 90 laps.

Lap 88: Ryan Newman continues to hold off the challenge from Kasey Kahne for second place.

Lap 85: Chase contenders Elliott Sadler and Mark Martin run 11th and 12th, respectively.

Lap 80: Green flag drops. Top 10 -- Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, Greg Biffle and Casey Mears.

Lap 77: First round of pit stops. Leaders take four tires and fuel as Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads the pack back on the track with Ryan Newman second and Kasey Kahne third.

Lap 75: Hermie Sadler runs out of gas. First caution of the race. Michel Waltrip gets the "Lucky Dog" pass.

Lap 73: Kevin Harvick, 27th overall, falls a lap down to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has almost a 2-second lead over Ryan Newman.

Lap 70: 42 cars remain on the track (Todd Bodine went to the garage on Lap 13).

Lap 68: Kurt Busch runs eighth behind teammate Matt Kenseth.

Lap 65: Ryan Newman and Dale Earnhardt Jr. battle through traffic with Little E remaining in front.

Lap 63: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne are running 1-2-3, but Jimmie Johnson is moving up, taking fifth place with a pass of Brian Vickers.

Lap 60: With Ryan Newman closing in on traffic, Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulls within 0.280 seconds of the lead -- and then overtakes Newman for first place.

Lap 58: Matt Kenseth is running ninth.

Lap 55: Ryan Newman, who has led every lap, continues to lead Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers.

Lap 52: Mark Martin runs in 13th place, while Jeff Gordon falls into 15th.

Lap 50: Tony Stewart climbs past Brian Vickers into fourth place.

Lap 48: Chase for the Cup contenders Jimmie Johnson and Elliott Sadler continue running seventh and eighth, respectively. Points leader Kurt Busch is 11th.

Lap 45: Dale Earnhardt Jr. trails race leader Ryan Newman, while Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Tony Stewart round out the top five.

Lap 40: Kevin Harvick continues to fall back, dropping to 23rd. Third-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns the fastest lap at 125.5710.

Lap 35: Mark Martin, who started 22nd, moves into 17th. Roush Racing teammate Greg Biffle is on the cusp of the top 10, racing in 11th.

Lap 32: Dale Earnhardt Jr. moves past Brian Vickers into third place behind Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne.

Lap 28: Kevin Harvick drifts to 11th as Matt Kenseth closes to 12th and Jimmie Johnson is seventh.

Lap 25: Kurt Busch moves into the 17th position, while Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers remain 1-2-3.

Lap 22: Elliott Sadler and Jeff Gordon make contact -- no damage to either car.

Lap 20: Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. enter the top five.

Lap 16: Joe Nemechek has drifted from third to ninth, while Jeff Gordon has moved into seventh place.

Lap 13: Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers continue to show the way. Todd Bodine enters the garage.

Lap 10: Dale Earnhardt Jr. charges from 14th to eighth, while Kurt Busch advances from 28th to 21st in the first 10 laps.

Lap 6: Joe Nemechek falls from third on the starting grid to fifth, while Kevin Harvick advances from fifth to fourth.

Lap 3: Ryan Newman, Brian Vickers and Kasey Kasey Kahne running 1-2-3 after three laps.

Lap 1: Ryan Newman starts from the pole for the fourth consecutive race and leads Brian Vickers after the first lap on the one-mile oval.

Earnhardt Jr. can earn it

Take the case of Dale Earnhardt Jr. There seems to be a continuous debate – which has also played out in reader emails on Yahoo! Sports – as to whether Junior is NASCAR's biggest star.

The anti-Earnhardt forces scoff in derision at the idea that the driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet is NASCAR's numero uno. They quickly point out that Junior has yet to win a single Cup championship while Jeff Gordon had earned two championships within his first five years on the Cup circuit – the same amount of time Earnhardt has now logged.

The anti-Earnhardts also point out that more than half of Junior's Cup wins have come in restrictor plate races – which some consider not to be true races. They take glee at derisively calling him things like "Burnfart" or the spoiled rich kid who was handed a championship-caliber team without having to earn it.

They even go so far as to proclaim that Junior will never be the same racer or achieve the same level of success as his late father, seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.

But those same Earnhardt Jr. bashers are failing to see clearly what is right in front of them.

Take a look through the stands of a typical Cup race. They're awash in bright red – the same red that graces Junior's Budweiser Chevy.

Go into the midway outside racetracks, and which souvenir trailer typically has the longest lines? No contest, it's Junior's. Not surprising, considering Junior has been voted as NASCAR's most popular driver.

Who is the one person constantly cited when talk turns to the so-called "face of NASCAR" or NASCAR's "favorite son?" It's not Brian France, that's for sure. It's Junior, in a runaway, as evidenced by "60 Minutes" earlier this season.

Who did the CBS news magazine choose to do an in-depth story on to typify NASCAR's popularity? Yes, Junior. In fact, the feature was essentially about Earnhardt and his aura, leaving NASCAR's rising popularity as nothing more than a simple lead-in.

From a performance standpoint, sure, Junior has lagged behind some of his contemporaries. He has 14 wins in five seasons; at the same time in his career, Gordon already had 29 wins to go with his two championships. Tony Stewart, who has been in Cup racing just a hair longer than Junior, has 19 wins and one championship. Even Jimmie Johnson, on a per capita basis, is ahead of Earnhardt in overall career performance with 13 wins in just three seasons.

That ammunition fuels the anti-Earnhardt contingent, who argue his performance has yet to justify his popularity. So how can Junior overcome all the criticism and bashing about how little he's really accomplished?

The answer is simple: go out and win the championship this season.

As actor Wesley Snipes said in the movie, "U.S. Marshals," it would make Junior "righteous" among even his most ardent non-supporters. No longer could they claim he's "only been riding on his daddy's coattails." When Junior fans assert that their driver is the best in the business, they would have a championship to back that claim.

Of course, some of the lingering naysayers might then claim that NASCAR fixed or scripted the championship to allow Junior to win it WWE-style. Indeed, a Junior title likely would have a big impact on NASCAR, drawing even greater attention and exposure to the nation's No. 2 spectator sport.

So how does Earnhardt, who is currently in fifth-place, 98 points behind points leader Kurt Busch, rally back in the season's final three races to win the championship?

"For us to win or have an opportunity to win ... we need to win one or two of these races convincingly," said Earnhardt, who won last season at Phoenix International Raceway, site of Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500. "We need to lead a lot of laps, lead in all three of them. ... If I can finish in the top three in these last three races, I would consider that the best we could have put forth."

For Junior, focusing on going after wins is far more enjoyable than worrying about how the points shake out.

"Shoot, I watched Daddy deal with championships and I've counted points a million times for him. That just wears you out; it's not much fun. What's fun is getting out there and giving her hell, you know, just going at it. That's what we're going to do."

And if that doesn't work?

"When I'm competitive every year, like we have been the past two or three years, we'll win championships and we'll get us a championship," Earnhardt said. "If not this year, it will be next year or whatever. We'll just keep on running as hard as we can."

Hear that, naysayers? The championship(s) will come. And who knows, maybe just like his father, once the younger Earnhardt gets his first championship out of the way, the others will start to fall in line.

Tony Eury has been with Dale Earnhardt Jr. every step of the way

Into that breach stepped his uncle, Tony Eury, who also happens to be his crew chief. "There's a kinship," Earnhardt said. "We don't always see eye to eye on everything, but I know he cares about me as a person and I know he isn't going to send me out there in something that isn't safe or isn't right.

"We have a connection that not every driver has with his crew chief, because he's family."

Eury, whose own son, Tony Jr., is Dale Jr.'s car chief and one of his best friends, has been a fixture in Earnhardt's life.

Eury was also crew chief for the elder Earnhardt's Busch teams, then took over as crew chief for Little E when he arrived in the Busch Series, helping him win championships in 1998 and 1999. When Junior moved up to Cup in 2000, Eury came with him.

Dale Sr. was not a warm, cuddly guy. He had not always been close to his children, but Earnhardt left no doubt he was proud of his youngest son and was trying to help him in his career.

Eury did everything he could to fill the void left by the death of the driver known as The Intimidator.

"It wasn't always easy," said Eury, known as Tony Sr. "Sometimes, he didn't want to hear what I had to say and sometimes he just had to do something to see if he could do it. There was times we didn't like each other very much, but that's the way families are sometimes. You get through it."

As Earnhardt has turned into a legitimate championship contender, Eury has gained respect in the Nextel Cup garage, as well as earning considerable credibility with the fans. They recently voted the quiet stocky man with the snow white beard the 2004 crew chief of the year.

Junior said it's about time everybody else figured out what he already knew.

"Tony Sr. is one heck of a crew chief," he said. "He has been around this sport for a long time. He's kind of old timey, but he understands how things work and how to get the job done.

"He paid his dues like everybody else without getting a lot of credit. He's worked hard to get his credibility and talent to a higher level and I'm proud of him."

Heading into Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, Earnhardt is fifth, trailing leader Kurt Busch by 98 points with three races remaining in the championship Chase.

Two weeks ago in Martinsville, Earnhardt had severe handling problems and wound up finishing 33rd when the rear end broke in his No. 8 Chevrolet.

Last Sunday at Atlanta, Earnhardt appeared headed for at least a top-five finish when he collided late in the race with rookie Carl Edwards. He wound up 33rd again, but still gained ground on Busch, whose blown engine relegated him to a 42nd-place finish.

"My job at the shop is to keep the people we have happy and pumped up," Eury said. "The hardest part of the job is the people. Right now we've got a good group of people and, hopefully, we can keep them all together.

"We had a blow last week, but we've been pumping them all week (and telling them) that we can still do this and that nobody should get down. Hopefully we can pull it off."

Eury expects Junior and the whole Dale Earnhardt Inc. team to bounce back in Phoenix, where Earnhardt won last fall.

"We thought last year would be our year and we kind of got disappointed," he said. "This year, we kind of slumped in the center and then we kind of got back going again. So when we got back into these last 10, we started performing good every week and got on racetracks that Dale Jr. liked and had a lot of hopes of us pulling it off.

"These last couple of races put us under a lot of heat, but we're determined to win a Nextel Cup. We've got our work cut out for us because our goal now is to lead as many laps as we can and win every race we can, because that's the only way we've got a chance."

Earnhardt Jr. not playing the numbers game

Well, sure, he's going to be a little busy racing at Phoenix International Raceway this weekend, but that's not the real reason.

Earnhardt Jr., fifth in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, has been through these championship battles before. His father won seven titles and contended for several more.

Back then, Earnhardt Jr. counted points and ran the scenarios through his head. He did it so many times his head hurt.

So now that he's 98 points out of the Nextel Cup points lead, he refuses to do it again.

"I can't really focus on where things are and who's where, how many points I need here and there, whatever," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I mean, that gets old anyways. I've been around. Shoot, I watched Daddy deal with championships and I've counted points a million times for him. That just wears you out. It's not much fun.

"What's fun is getting out there and giving her hell, you know, just going at it. That's what we're going to do."

That means Earnhardt Jr. and his team will let the points fall where they may. And he'll surely let someone else count them.

"I'll just go into each one of these races and take it one lap at a time," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I know, No. 1, if anybody on my team is listening, I think they'll agree that we have to run each lap in practice one at a time, find out what the car's doing and have the best car we can have each day.

"For us to win or have an opportunity to win, we can't get a top-10 any more, we can't get a top-five, we need to win one or two of these races convincingly. We need to lead a lot of laps, lead in all three of them. We need to be in front. If I can finish in the top three in these last three races, I would consider that the best we could have put forth and best effort we could have put forth."

The effort has been pretty solid in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, even if the results haven't lately. The first five races were good, as Earnhardt Jr. finished in the top 10 each time, putting him second behind Kurt Busch.

But Martinsville and Atlanta were disasters, with Junior failing to finish either race and posting a 33rd-place result in both events.

"I was racing for points when we first came into the Chase and we got good finishes and stuff," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We were doing good. Then we went to Martinsville, and the car wasn't any good. We couldn't do anything right. We had a lot of problems. It was pretty much worthless to race for points, you know, after that, when you get back to 125 behind.

"We had a bad weekend again, yet we gained ground. It wasn't a disaster, you know. But I'm 98 points out and I'm racing four or five guys instead of one or two. You know, really, we've got to race hard."

That's what he was doing in last Sunday's Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway while racing Carl Edwards for third place. But Earnhardt Jr. admitted he was racing a little too hard when he tried to move in front of Edwards off Turn 2.

The result? The two made contact, with Earnhardt Jr. moving up the track into Edwards, sending Junior spinning into the inside wall.

"I was pretty disappointed with the way things went Sunday," Earnhardt Jr. said. "You know, just racing harder than -- I don't know, I guess I raced harder than I should have. I ended up in the wall. But I was kind of having a hard time justifying to myself whether what I was doing was what I was supposed to be doing. It's an age-old question of, 'Well, you should have just got the points or you should have just chilled out.'

"But, man, I had an opportunity. I saw an opportunity to win. We just got my car really good right then. I thought we had a good enough car to challenge Jimmie (Johnson). I knew he was going to get up there and get clean air and I had to really run hard to get there as soon as I could.

"I don't know, just got to racing too hard. Didn't cut Carl any slack. He didn't cut me any slack. You know, that's what you're both doing at that time. Every once in a while, you'll get wrecked.

"But if it happened any other time in my career, I guess it wouldn't be such a big deal. But being where we are in the points chase, it's a pretty big deal to a lot of people."

Quotebook: Atlanta

Late wreck costs Dale Jr. prime opportunity

Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked to be in a good position to gain ground in the Chase for the Nextel Cup late in the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 -- and perhaps take over the points lead.

Leader Kurt Busch had blown an engine on lap 52, and second-place Jeff Gordon was many laps down after breaking a rear-end gear. With Earnhardt Jr. racing for third place, he would have been in position to climb back atop the points standings.

But with 15 laps to go, Earnhardt Jr. tried to squeeze into a hole in front of fourth-place Carl Edwards coming off Atlanta Motor Speedway's Turn 2. What happened next was up to interpretation.

Did Earnhardt Jr. come up too soon? Did Edwards give Earnhardt Jr. enough room?

Whatever happened, the two made contact, sending the No. 8 Chevrolet spinning into the inside wall. The car made heavy contact and was all but done for the day.

Earnhardt Jr. ended up finishing 33rd and slipped to fifth in the Nextel Cup points standings, 98 points behind Busch. While Earnhardt Jr. actually made up ground on Busch (he was 125 points down coming into the race), he missed an opportunity to be even closer.

"I really ain't worried about it," Earnhardt Jr. said as cars piled into the Nextel Cup garage after the race. "We wanted to win today, and that's what we were trying to do. We could've gained a lot of points, and it would've been nice.

"It's hard to race like that. My car was really good there at the end, and I had good enough car to win, so I was trying to get up there and win it."

That's all that happened, Earnhardt Jr. said. He shouldered the blame.

"We were just trying to race for the win there," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think I come up on Carl and turned myself into the inside fence there. Tore my car up. We had a good car. It kind of sucks to lose all them points. But it wasn't Carl's fault. I think I come up on him."

That wasn't how Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief, Tony Eury Sr., saw it.

"We had him passed off the corner," Eury Sr. said. "On the TV, it looked like to me he tried to cut back to the inside and run right across the back bumper and stuffed him.

"I don't know what (Edwards) was thinking. He had two tires, (so) he sure wasn't going to run with cars with four tires. I don't know. I reckon that's the way they race in the truck series. I guess he thought he was still there."

Edwards was racing in his 10th Nextel Cup event after taking over the No. 99 Ford when Jeff Burton moved to Richard Childress Racing. Edwards is a full-time Craftsman Truck Series competitor, too.

But Edwards' version matched Earnhardt Jr.'s.

"Heck, we're racing," Edwards said. "You're driving racecars sideways off the corner at 180 mph. If I'd have crashed, I would have to say it's just racing. It's happened to me a lot. I've been on the other end of it, so, hopefully, he understands."

He does, all too well. In this race last year, the same thing happened, only Earnhardt Jr. was on the giving end to Ryan Newman.

Still, with three races remaining, 98 points and four positions will be tough to make up.

It don't mean bleep for Junior fans

Steve Robyor of Boca Raton, Fla., has made T-shirts displaying the same phrase Earnhardt used when he cursed in his Victory Lane interview at Talladega last month.

"It upset me when they took his points away," Robyor said. "I was watching the Talladega race and I heard him say it and it didn't bother me. It actually didn't bother anyone I know. You hear worse things on prime time TV."

Robyor is encouraging all Earnhardt fans to wear his T-shirts as a sign of support for their driver over the final four races of the season. He's also hopeful that the shirts might send a message to NASCAR to stop taking points for non-racing related infractions.

"Maybe we can let NASCAR know we don't mind accidental use of profanity," he said. "Maybe the shirts can get an amendment that if it is judged or deemed accidental, then a fine would be appropriate. Don't take the points."

Robyor's shirts can be found at www.itdontmeanbleep.com

Quotebook: Hendrick tragedy

Quotebook: Martinsville

Junior says failed appeal left him feeling foolish

"I was really frustrated by the appeal," Earnhardt said Friday of his appeal of the point-docking and $10,000 fine, enforced after he swore on NBC television during a Victory Lane interview at Talladega Superspeedway.

NASCAR turned down the appeal this week.

"I wouldn't have went down there all the way to Daytona if I didn't feel like it was worth the trip," Earnhardt said. "They made you feel like they were listening to you while you were there, but I think the decision was already made before the wheels hit the ground, you know."

Earnhardt's penalty, similar to two others handed down by NASCAR during this season, cost him the top spot in the series' 10-race championship playoff. He trails leader Kurt Busch by just 24 points.

"I tried to state my case and I thought exactly what I said (and) anybody would have turned it over on the drop of the hat," Earnhardt said after qualifying third for Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway.

"But I guess I felt more strongly about it than anyone else."

The hearing, he said, left him feeling foolish for trying because "I felt like I was getting a fair trial but it was not quite as fair, I guess. It would be like NASCAR losing their appeal that we held at DEI."

In making its ruling, NASCAR said it upheld the penalties because it had issued repeated warnings to drivers about swearing on television.

The National Stock Car Racing Commission that heard the appeal "is there for drivers to use," NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said. "He's certainly entitled to his feelings about the commission and anything else in NASCAR. We respect his opinion. It doesn't change anything."

For Earnhardt, there is a bright side.

"It just kinda pushed the team to race harder," he said.

TV watchdog group files complaint with FCC

The PTC and its nearly one million members nationwide have asked the FCC to levy a Notice of Apparent Liability against each NBC affiliate that aired the program.

The program that contained the indecent material was broadcast live around 5 p.m. ET and was seen in homes across the country on NBC network affiliates.

"NBC knows that NASCAR has a huge family audience. NBC and its affiliates should be fined for airing the S-word at a time when millions of children were likely to be in the viewing audience," said L. Brent Bozell, president of the PTC.

"After the fact, NBC announced they would be putting all future NASCAR race coverage on a 5-second tape delay. But frankly, NBC should have taken this action long before the Earnhardt incident, especially given NBC's past problems with indecent language during live broadcasts, including Bono's utterance of the F-word during the 2003 Golden Globe awards.

"This is precisely why Congress needs to increase indecency fines. Television networks need to get serious about halting the flow of indecent material over the broadcast airwaves, but that won't happen when the financial penalties can be absorbed as a reasonable cost of doing business.

"We are demanding that the FCC impose the maximum fine allowable under the law against every NBC affiliate that aired this offense. We further demand that the FCC consider license revocation as a real option given the repetitive nature of these offenses," said Bozell.

Earnhardt's penalty upheld

The Appeal concerned penalties issued by NASCAR under Section 12-4-A of the NASCAR Rule Book:

Actions detrimental to stock car racing; use of improper language.

The penalties stemmed from the live broadcast of a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event at Talladega Superspeedway on October 3, 2004.

The penalties assessed were:

Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. - $10,000 fine; loss of 25 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Championship Driver Points.

Car Owner Teresa Earnhardt - loss of 25 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Championship Car Owner Points.

In considering the Appeal, the Commission recognized that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is an important ambassador of the sport and a role model for young people.

With the rewards and accolades afforded top-tier NASCAR drivers, also goes responsibility. During the hearing, Mr. Earnhardt acknowledged that his choice of language was not appropriate and expressed his regrets.

The Commission noted that NASCAR had issued repeated warnings to contestants regarding the use of inappropriate language during live event broadcasts.

The infraction occurred on-air at the racetrack during the live broadcast of a NASCAR event, not in a casual private conversation or off-site activity.

The Appellants argued against the concept of assessing points penalties for non-competition related infractions. The Commission finds that NASCAR has been consistent in assessing similar penalties for other recent, top-tier, "language" infractions.

It is therefore the unanimous decision of the National Stock Car Racing Commission to uphold the original penalties issued by NASCAR.

The Appellants have the right under Section 15 of the Rule Book to appeal this decision to the National Stock Car Racing Commissioner.

Brad Daugherty
David Hall
George Silbermann, Chairman

Quotebook: Charlotte

""I just have to keep finishing ahead of them. Aside from that, that's all you can do. Kurt brought his A game, we have our A game going on right now. We just have to keep having the same kind of weekend.

"Every race, I just focus on a top-10 finish. It's hard, but I try not to think about where Kurt is or Jeff is on the track or any of the other guys that are close enough. You just try to get what you can get. There were a couple of times tonight where I had to kind of pull the reins back a little bit because I got to racing too hard. There's a point where you don't want to make any mistakes too early in the race.

"We had a pretty good car, probably a second-place car to the 9 [Kasey Kahne]. We got to trying some things and I wouldn't let them free the car up enough. I kept telling them I was a little tight, but don't get me too loose. That timid attitude toward loosening the car up didn't keep up with the track, because it tightened way up at the end. We had a good car when it counted and we got a great pit stop there with 20 to go and we were able to get a top-five."

Calm, cool and collected

Take Saturday night's UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, for example. Earnhardt fought a tight race car most of the race and finished third, but despite a plethora of miscues, bad luck and outright misery that befell his fellow Chasers, he only gained five points on leader Kurt Busch.

"I just have to keep finishing ahead of them," Earnhardt said following the race. "Aside from that, that's all you can do.

"Kurt brought his A game, we have our A game going on right now. We just have to keep having the same kind of weekend.

"Every race, I just focus on a top-10 finish. It's hard, but I try not to think about where Kurt is or Jeff is on the track or any of the other guys that are close enough. You just try to get what you can get."

With Busch and second-place finisher Jeff Gordon caught up in a first-lap crash and behind from the get-go, it was all Earnhardt could do to keep himself in check, he said.

"There were a couple of times tonight where I had to kind of pull the reins back a little bit because I got to racing too hard. There's a point where you don't want to make any mistakes too early in the race."

As Gordon and Busch recovered from the early trouble -- both drivers were involved in at least one more altercation before picking up the pieces and moving on -- Earnhardt was plowing along in the top 10 all night long. From Lap 40 to the end of the race, he was never worse than seventh.

By contrast, Gordon didn't get back on the lead lap until Lap 210, and didn't make it to the top 10 until Lap 240.

Busch got his lap back earlier, but still didn't crack the top 10 until Lap 180.

Perhaps the restraint Earnhardt showed early on cost him later on, because he refused to allow his team to loosen the car up for the final segment.

"We had a pretty good car, probably a second-place car to the 9 [Kasey Kahne]," he said. "We got to trying some things and I wouldn't let them free the car up enough. I kept telling them I was a little tight, but don't get me too loose.

"That timid attitude toward loosening the car up didn't keep up with the track, because it tightened way up at the end. We had a good car when it counted and we got a great pit stop there with 20 to go and we were able to get a top-five.

"This is the kind of track we've struggled on, we've been going backwards here, and we've improved."

Earnhardt has finished third, ninth, first, ninth and third in the five Chase races run thus far, and he is 24 points behind Busch with five races left. Had he not run afoul of NASCAR's policy on profanity after winning at Talladega, he would be the leader by a single point heading to Martinsville.

Looking ahead

Most of the drivers still breathing in the Chase for the Nextel Cup have done well at Martinsville, and Earnhardt was third there in the spring. Gordon, however, swept the 2003 races there and Busch won there in 2002, so it looks like another close battle ahead.

The fact that Martinsville has been repaved since the spring race because the surface collapsed -- costing Gordon a possible victory and relegating him to sixth place at the end -- is another factor facing the Chasers.

"We've run well there in the past, but it's going to be a tough race there this time," Earnhardt said. "We all run pretty good there, and with this new surface, one of us might struggle. But we tested there and I hope we got it right."

Craving home cooking

He won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 the following week, and had a good run going in the race.

But somehow, even after that initial success, Earnhardt Jr. hasn't visited Victory Lane at his home track since.

Even though he's led laps and run well at the 1.5-mile track, Earnhardt Jr. has yet to win a Nextel Cup race there. His best finish was fourth, and he did that back in 2000 and 2001.

"Charlotte's tough whether you run good or not," Earnhardt Jr. said, using the popular "Charlotte" reference, even though the track has been renamed. "It will wear you out. It's a rough track that bounces you and the car around each lap.

"We ran really well there a few years back, and then we seemed to lose that advantage. Slowly we've made our way back to a setup that works well under the lights."

Earnhardt Jr. has two consecutive top-10 finishes, including a sixth in the 600 here in May. He could use another good run as the Chase for the Nextel Cup nears its halfway point.

Kurt Busch leads the standings by 29 over Earnhardt Jr. and by 79 over Jeff Gordon. Busch has looked good in four races, but so has Earnhardt Jr.

"I have really no idea how to approach the shootout, other than one race at a time," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We're just focusing really, really hard on the next race. I won't think about any other one until we get to them. You just try to gain as many points as you can each week, drive smart but drive as hard as you can."

That sounds like a contradiction, but Earnhardt Jr. knows he can't push his No. 8 Chevrolet too hard for fear of crashing and tumbling down the standings.

And like he said, Lowe's Motor Speedway can be a tough place. It's as temperature-sensitive as any on the Nextel Cup schedule, even though that will be minimized by the Saturday night start time.

Still, practices are held during the day and twilight, so getting a handle on Lowe's will be difficult.

"The track gets really fast when the sun goes down," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It gets a lot of grip. Tires grip a cooler racetrack better. When the sun's on the track all day, it sweats a little bit. All the grease and oil, it gets slick a little bit.

"It's very hard. The track can change three or four times throughout the day. Early morning, it's got a lot of grip. Once the sun beats on it for a while, it's really slick. Around 10 o'clock at night, it's really fast, it's got a lot of speed."

Harnessing that speed is the trick, and if a driver and team get a handle on LMS, they can run away. Witness Jimmie Johnson's dominant performance here in May, when he led 334 of 400 laps in a runaway victory.

But Earnhardt Jr. would likely take a solid top-five finish, especially if Busch and Gordon were behind him. Junior's team appears to be peaking at the right time, as Earnhardt Jr. has scored five consecutive top-10 finishes, tying a personal best set in 2002 and 2003.

"The top-10 at Kansas was huge for us," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That was one of our problem tracks, one that could have ultimately been our doom had we not tested real hard there and put so much emphasis on it.

"I really like the focus of our team. I'm really proud of the way we've handled adversity all year. Whether or not we win the championship, I know this is a championship-caliber team."

Junior says the future looks bright.

"We've got some good tracks coming up. We're pretty decent at Charlotte, real good at Martinsville, won at Atlanta and Phoenix, so we have the potential to keep stacking on top-fives and top-10s in the coming weeks. We've got a test at Homestead coming up in a few weeks that's really important. I think the championship will be decided there."

Earnhardt Jr. certainly hopes he's part of that decision.

Anheuser-Busch honours Dale Earnhardt Jr,. with eight-pack of beer

Junior's racing to a different beat

I won the biggest race
Spoke with Mike Wallace, face to face
Done got burned in a car
But that's OK, I'm still a star
It hurt, real bad
Made my fans real sad
After a while, I was fit
Then I got busted for saying ...

The final verses will be written in the next six races. Whether it becomes an upbeat rocker or a sorrowful ballad depends on whether Junior keeps up his surprising performance. The surprise is not the successes -- or the failures. Junior's Nextel Cup career has been full of both. The surprise has been Junior following failures with successes. Until this season, Junior and his No. 8 crew were known for letting bad outcomes distract them. Not this season. The first sign of this newfound ability to bounce back came in March, when Junior won in Atlanta one week after a pitiful race at Las Vegas.

He even has been strong since recovering from the burns, including a dominating win at Bristol and a steady, determined victory at Talladega. And despite the distraction of losing 25 points after swearing on TV, he was strong most of the weekend at Kansas, finishing ninth. "It means a lot," he says. "We can really concentrate on Homestead now."

Strike up the band.

What is it going to take for these teams to win the inaugural Chase?

This team front-loaded its tests for the Chase but retained two dates, Martinsville and Homestead, which should help Earnhardt adapt to those tracks. "It's hard to know what to do," he says. "You take one race at a time, but it's hard to strategize and know what will work, (so) go at it with an open mind."

Earnhardt has won at Atlanta and Phoenix, and he finished in the top 10 at Darlington, Charlotte and Martinsville earlier this year. But his best finish at Homestead, where the Chase is certain to be decided, is 13th in four tries, and he placed 24th there last season. And the swearing penalty took away 25 points.

Sunoco Pit Move of the Week: Kansas

The call didn't get him a win like it did at Talladega, but it did help Earnhardt Jr. score a top-10 finish at Kansas.

He was running 12th with just 25 laps to go when Kasey Kahne spun on the backstretch, allowing Earnhardt to duck onto pit road. He took on two right-side tires and gained three spots in the closing laps.

Junior nearly caught Dale Jarrett for eighth.

"We got closer and closer to the front, but just never could get all the way there," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It was real fun racing (Dale) Jarrett at the end."

Junior had a scare on Lap 77 when Ward Burton spun in front of his Chevrolet while entering pit road. NASCAR does not allow passing on pit road until a car has reached its stall, so he lost a lot of track position waiting for Burton to get to his pit box.

"NASCAR says you can't pass on pit lane, and I thought he was out of gas, so I pushed him down the pit lane," Earnhardt said. "They told me he had lost his brakes, so I apologized, but I think his team was OK with the push.

"It really slowed us down and we lost a lot of spots that we never seemed to be able to regain."

The finish was Earnhardt Jr's fifth top-10 in a row and kept Kurt Busch, who finished sixth, from gaining significant ground in the standings.

Busch left Kansas with a 29-point lead.

Quotes: Banquet 400 Kansas Speedway

Stewart angered by severity of Earnhardt Jr. penalty

Instead of leading by 13 points, Earnhardt enters Sunday's Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway trailing Kurt Busch by 12 points after the third of 10 races in NASCAR's new playoff-style championship format. Junior was fined $10,000 and docked 25 points for using inappropriate language during the interview in Victory Lane at Talladega.

Stewart, long NASCAR's bad boy, is no stranger to penalties. Most recently, he was fined $50,000, had 25 points taken away and was placed on probation for allegedly hitting Brian Vickers during a postrace confrontation in June at Sonoma.

But the severity of Earnhardt's penalty irritated the 2002 series champion.

"I think we're starting to nitpick and scrutinize way too much in this series," the often outspoken Stewart said. "Since when does something that somebody says have an effect on winning the championship?

"What he said didn't cheat anybody on the racetrack. It didn't have any effect on how the race was run. That (penalty) can have an effect on millions of dollars and how their sponsors have to handle this now, and the pressure it has put on their team. It's been totally unfair to him and his race team."

Stewart also wondered what other missteps might result in a penalty from NASCAR.

"What's going to be the next thing?" he asked. "If we don't show up to the car for practice on time are we going to lose 25 points for that next? Where is it realistically going to end?"

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said he talked with Stewart about his objections to the Earnhardt penalty.

"I appreciate Tony's candor, and I think everybody else in NASCAR management appreciates that candor," Hunter said. "This is another case that there is some strong disagreement."

Earnhardt suggested on Friday that NASCAR consider changing its policy on non-competition penalties and simply raising the fines to $100,000 or $200,000 for slips of the tongue like his.

"The reason we got into penalizing points as opposed to just money was because penalizing money was not getting the job done," Hunter said. "Whether you agree or disagree, we promote this sport as a family sport. As a result of that, to get their attention, we use the loss of points."

Hunter also pointed to the precedent that was set earlier this year when Busch Series drivers Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday Jr. were both docked 25 points for cursing during live radio interviews.

"In this particular instance, with the precedent having been set, we think this was the right decision," Hunter said. "At the end of this season, as we do every year, I'm sure we'll review the whole season.

Meanwhile, the championship battle goes on with the top nine drivers bunched within 159 points of the lead.

Jeff Gordon, who has won two of the three previous Kansas races, is third in the points, followed by Mark Martin, defending series champion Matt Kenseth, Stewart, Ryan Newman, Elliott Sadler, Jimmie Johnson and Jeremy Mayfield.

Newman, 146 points behind Busch, is the defending race winner and is hopeful of getting back into the championship hunt.

"I think the rest of the season is all about racetracks and not what you might get caught up in and what you might not get caught up in," Newman said. "It's just racing.

"I think we've got top-fives at every track in the next seven, so I hope we'll be good. That has usually been our strong part of the season the past two years."

Stewart, who trails the leader by 139 points, came from far behind in the second half of his championship season and remains confident he can still compete for another title with seven races remaining.

"We're close enough right now in the points that, theoretically, we could even be leading or be second in the points at the end of the day tomorrow," Stewart said. "Seven weeks is a long time and it's not out of my reach by any means.

"Everybody in the chase is still in it. Anything can happen in this series from week to week and nobody is mathematically eliminated, yet."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. complains that NASCAR's penalty too severe

The sanctioning organization hit Junior hard, fining him $10,000 US and, more important, docking him 25 points. The latter left him 12 points behind new leader Kurt Busch entering Sunday's Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway.

"I understand that it was a mistake," Earnhardt said after qualifying eighth for Sunday's race. "It wasn't anything that I intentionally planned to say. It just think the punishment was a little bit more severe than the crime.

"But that's only my opinion. I don't think what I believe is always correct. Obviously, if that was the case, I'd never have found myself in this situation. But I felt a little bit thrown under the bus and know I'm getting a little bit dragged out and everybody wants to know how I feel about it and I don't know."

Viewers in nearly seven million homes were able to hear Earnhardt use a vulgarity when he was asked about the significance of his fifth victory at Talladega.

His team has appealed the points portion of the penalty, but Earnhardt, racing for his first championship, said the penalty has taught him a lesson.

"I just learned to control myself better," he said. "It's kind of difficult in those situations. It's really hard, actually - especially when you win a race like that. But that's the rules and, unfortunately, we've got to play by every one of them, not just a few."

NASCAR had little choice in hitting Earnhardt with the same penalty it meted out earlier this year to Busch Series drivers Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday. But Earnhardt hopes that will change in the future.

"I told NASCAR that in my opinion, if not this time but the next time for the next guy, change the penalty," he said. "Make it $100,000, $200,000. Taking points off the scoreboard, whether it's fair or not, is not something I believe in."

In reaction to Earnhardt's slip of the tongue and in light of the FCC cracking down on objectionable content on radio and TV, both NBC and the Motor Racing Network, which airs most of the Cup races on radio, will now use delays on their live broadcasts.

Earnhardt, tied with four-time champion Jeff Gordon for the series lead with five victories this season, said he needs to focus on racing now.

"We'll concentrate real hard and we want to do the best job we can for our fans," he said. "I want to apologize to my fans that they had to see me lose 25 points and we have to work harder. I'm sure it didn't make their day any easier when they went to work and their buddies who pull for Jeff Gordon got to enjoy that a little bit."

Earnhardt Jr. surviving a difficult week

After winning a race and taking the NASCAR Nextel Cup points lead, Earnhardt cursed in victory lane and was fined $10,000 and penalized 25 points by NASCAR - dropping him into second place in the standings.

Add to that the decision by NBC Sports and MRN (Motor Racing Network) to institute a five-second delay on its broadcast because of Earnhardt's colorful language and the driver could not be blamed for feeling down.

Instead, Earnhardt climbed out of his Chevrolet Monte Carlo on Friday after qualifying eighth for Sunday's Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway with a big smile on his face.

"We're just concentrating on the race car and getting it right for Sunday," Earnhardt said. "I can't wait until practice starts in the morning and getting after it and getting it right."

What Earnhardt needs to concentrate on getting right is his vocabulary, which may have drawn a few laughs from fans of Howard Stern but sent NASCAR officials scurrying into punishment mode.

With the Federal Communications Commission cracking down on inappropriate language and acts following Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during halftime of the Super Bowl, NASCAR does not want to be next in line.

"I understand it was a mistake," Earnhardt said. "It wasn't anything that I intentionally planned to say. I just think the punishment was a little bit more severe than the crime. But that's only my opinion. I don't think what I believe is always correct.

"Obviously if that was the case, I'd have never found myself in this situation. But I felt a little bit thrown under the bus. And now I'm getting a little bit dragged out and everybody wants to know how I feel about it, and I don't know."

Earnhardt accepted the fine without argument but is very upset about losing the 25 points in the battle for the 2004 Nextel Cup. With NASCAR's gimmicky "Chase for the Championship" concept, it's quite likely those 25 points could be the difference between winning the title and finishing second.

"The points thing is what bothers me the most," Earnhardt said. "It's taking the points away. I feel like taking the points off the scoreboard is very tough to deal with and it's hard to understand. That's the only part that I have a problem with. I'm just trying to understand where you can take points off the scoreboard after how hard we worked all day. We earned every one of them."

Earnhardt gladly would increase the amount of his fine to get back his points. After all, money is not an issue to the most popular driver in the sport right now. Late in the season, points are far more valuable to any driver in the series because the money can be made back with merchandise sales.

"I feel like under the circumstances, NASCAR didn't have any other route to take. They kind of pointed themselves in that direction by what they did with Jim Sauter and Ron Hornaday earlier this year," Earnhardt said, referring to two Busch drivers who were penalized for foul language during a radio interview.

"I told NASCAR that in my opinion - if not this time, but the next time for the next guy - change the penalty. (A fine of) $100,000, $200,000 - taking points off the scoreboard, whether it's fair or not, is not something I believe in."

Todd Parrott, the crew chief for Elliott Sadler, may have been the first NASCAR member to be fined for using foul language over the air when he was wearing a live microphone during a race at Talladega in 1999. Dale Jarrett's crew chief at the time, Parrott's vulgarity made it on the air during a telecast.

NASCAR fined Parrott $5,000 for the infraction and began a precedent that nailed Earnhardt on Sunday.

"You have to look at the big picture there are more kids watching our races on television and involved in our sport, Parrott said. "With everything that has happened on television in the last year, with body parts and profanity, you have to be more careful. It's unfortunate because you want to show your emotion, but you have to control that. That small little four-letter word is awfully expensive."

Parrott said he was told there would be a five-second delay on the telecast, but the curse still made it on the air. What made him more upset was the fact the vulgarity still had not been edited when the race was replayed later that night.

Parrott believes a 10-second delay would be more effective in avoiding potential problems.

"Our sport gets bigger and bigger every year," Parrott said. "People have to watch what they say now. We need to get a dictionary and learn more words."

Racing fans sent in money to help pay Parrott's fine. Earnhardt contends he hasn't collected any money from his fans but has asked them to voice their opinion in another way.

"Nobody has chipped in," Earnhardt said. "What I want my fans to do is just to speak for me toward NASCAR in a sensible manner, just try to show what their opinions are. Everybody needs to voice his opinion on things like this. And I hope my fans will speak up for me because my hands are tied up just a little bit with the situation."

Last month, Robby Gordon was placed on probation by NASCAR team owner Richard Childress when he raised his middle finger to a crowd of reporters after he was involved in a crash with Jeremy Mayfield and Tony Stewart in the "Chase for the Championship."

Gordon was not fined by NASCAR but has been involved in a few disciplinary meetings with the sanctioning body in the past. He thinks NBC's decision to institute a five-second delay is long overdue.

"Why hasn't the five-second delay been here all year?" Gordon asked. "I don't think the five-second delay makes any difference to the people at home. Dale Jr. is a friend of mine, but NASCAR showed consistency across the board. A lot of people think Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets away with more than everybody else, but this is a state that he doesn't - he wants a level playing field."

Rookie Kasey Kahne is one of NASCAR's more quiet competitors. Curse words are not regularly in his vocabulary, although he does admit to saying them in private when he is upset.

"I hope I don't on TV, that's for sure," Kahne said. "You have to make sure you don't do it on TV or radio anymore. It's too bad something like that may cost Dale Earnhardt Jr. the championship. I would say fine him but don't take away the points because that's also the team and the sponsor and what you have worked for all year. Fine him more money and then tell him not to do it again."

Earnhardt, meanwhile, plans to appeal the penalty but doesn't expect it to change. He knows what he did was wrong and has no excuse for it. He just wants the points back.

"I want to express firmly that I expected to be penalized," Earnhardt said. "I believe what I did wasn't right. It wasn't correct. But I don't believe in taking points off the scoreboard. I think it's fair enough for me to appeal. So we'll see what the decision is with that.

"But aside from that, I don't disagree with the wrongness of it. I disagree with how the penalty was laid out. If they don't change it now, change it in the future for the next guy because points on the scoreboard belong on the scoreboard."

Earnhardt promised he won't back off his level of honesty. He just might use different words to express it.

"It's hard changing who you are, Earnhardt said. "It's something that everybody should work on, and I should as well. I've got a lot of friends who tell me all the time that I should clean it up a little bit. But being 30 years old, it's hard to change in the middle of the road here."

NBC adds 5-second delay to NASCAR coverage after Earnhardt profanity

``We're disappointed for our viewers to have to do this, but the delay provides a level of protection against anything inappropriate going out over the air,'' NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said Thursday.

Earnhardt was docked 25 points in the Nextel Cup standings and fined $10,000 for his slip of the tongue in an NBC interview after his victory at Talladega Superspeedway, dropping him to second place with seven races left in the season. He will appeal the point penalty.

Federal regulators have cracked down on objectionable content on TV and radio since Janet Jackson's ``wardrobe malfunction'' during her halftime performance at the Super Bowl. CBS was fined a record $550,000 by the FCC for Jackson's breast-baring incident.

Networks have installed delays of up to 10 seconds for some programming, and ABC's ``Monday Night Football'' is using a 5-second delay this season. But, until now, NBC had decided not to give itself a chance to censor its NASCAR telecasts.

Junior wants respect off the track, too, as he nears 30th birthday

Already the sport's biggest star despite his lack of a championship, Junior is adored by millions of fans, is wealthy beyond the dreams of most and has shown he inherited a considerable amount of talent from his late father.

In five years in NASCAR's top stock car series, Junior has won 14 times and has finally become a legitimate title contender, going into Kansas Speedway this week second in points with only seven races remaining.

But he wants more - and not just on the racetrack.

"I'm kind of like the guy who has some old valuable baseball card in his collection that he's looked at for years and doesn't know it," Earnhardt said.

"Everybody is always telling me about my position in the sport and how far I reach and my impact here and there. I can't grasp it. I don't know if I walk into a room who is listening and who isn't."

The elder Earnhardt, a seven-time champion and the biggest star of his generation, died in a crash during the 2001 Daytona 500. At the time of his death, he was the biggest name and the most powerful influence in NASCAR, often visiting the NASCAR hauler to let the sport's officials know his opinion of every crisis or proposed change.

More important, as far as Junior is concerned, the NASCAR officials more often than not listened to his father. That's what the younger Earnhardt wants.

"I know it was pretty commonplace with my dad to be up in that trailer every weekend," he said. "All the drivers have said that was something they really liked about dad was that he could go up in there and get something done for the drivers.

"I'd love to be that guy. Who wouldn't? Hopefully, I can just get smarter and every time I talk I'll know what I'm talking about and everybody will think it was awesome and they'll do it."

It may be a while, though.

Little E's remarks came a day before he raced away with his latest win at Talladega Superspeedway, then let his mouth race away with him in Victory Lane, uttering a vulgarity during a post-race TV interview on NBC Sports.

The curse brought a $10,000 US fine from NASCAR and, far more important, the loss of 25 points, turning a 13-point lead over Kurt Busch into a 12-point deficit.

His team immediately appealed the points portion of the penalty. The appeal is pending.

Meanwhile, Junior will celebrate his birthday Sunday in Kansas as he tries to overcome the loss of points with another strong performance in the Banquet 400.

Earnhardt didn't let the disappointment over the NASCAR penalty spoil his sister Kelley's surprise birthday party for him Tuesday night. There were gifts and plenty of laughs, the biggest one coming when crew chief Tony Eury Sr. gave him a beautifully wrapped box.

Junior ripped the wrapping off and pulled out the gift, looking puzzled.

"A muzzle for my dog?" he asked. "No, no," replied Eury. "That ain't for your dog!"

Earnhardt and the guests, including NASCAR president Mike Helton and garage boss John Darby roared with laughter.

As for turning 30, Junior, who professes a love for rap and MTV and prefers jeans and baseball caps to suits and ties, isn't outwardly concerned.

"It's really cool," he said. "I'm looking forward to it because I don't feel 30 and I don't act 30, so it don't bother me to turn 30.

"Obviously, the older you get, the more credibility you attain from people and the more sensible your actions and thoughts and words are. I would really like the day to come when I can walk into the NASCAR hauler and say something or ask them to consider something and it truly gets considered."

One driver who can understand Earnhardt's situation is Kyle Petty, whose father, Richard, is the other seven-time Cup champion and the biggest star of his generation.

"He came into the sport with a big last name,"' Petty said. "I think a lot of people just focused on that at first. They knew who he was because of the Earnhardt name, but maybe didn't know who he was as a person.

"It has been impressive to watch him grow into his own person. Kyle Petty is different than Richard Petty. Brian France is different than Bill France Jr. I think that's the way you need to look at Dale Earnhardt Jr. He's a different person than his father and he's done a good job of becoming his own person."

Other fined drivers say Earnhardt Jr. got correct punishment

Earnhardt, who has led the Chase for the Nextel Cup point standings on two occasions since the 10-race playoff began three weeks ago, was fined $10,000 and had 25 points deducted from his total for using "inappropriate language" last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

In similar circumstances, drivers Brendan Gaughan, Ted Musgrave, Mike Wallace, Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday have been hit with monetary and/or point penalties since last season for "actions detrimental to stock car racing, for use of inappropriate language."

None of them have much sympathy for Earnhardt, to date the only driver penalized for a language infraction at a Cup event in the last two seasons.

Brendan Gaughan

"Dale Jr. was excited and said something he shouldn't have said (but) it's his own fault (because) we're in a day and age now where we're no longer (unmonitored)," said Gaughan, who moved up from the Craftsman Truck Series to Nextel Cup this season, driving the No. 77 Dodge. "He made a comment about when his father raced and (he) was very pumped up.

"We've got to be able to be that way, but it's a corporate-sponsored world now. I represent Kodak. What if I came out and said something like that? I think I would get a bigger fine from my sponsor than NASCAR."

Wallace, who drives the No. 4 Ford in the Busch Series, received a $3,000 fine for his remark, in February 2003. Gaughan was hit with a $10,000 fine for an expletive directed at another Truck Series team owner, while at the same 2003 Truck Series finale No. 1 Dodge pilot Musgrave was fined $2,500 for an expletive he applied to himself.

After the NFL's Super Bowl in February 2004, the Federal Communications Commission levied fines of more than $500,000 against CBS Sports and its affiliates when Janet Jackson's outfit was torn open, exposing her breast on live TV during the halftime show.

Three weeks later, prior to the second race weekend of the season, at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, NASCAR president Mike Helton addressed competitors at both the Busch Series and Nextel Cup drivers' meetings, citing a need to control their language in interviews with the electronic media to keep the FCC from further scrutinizing NASCAR and its broadcast partners.

Within the next four months, NASCAR issued two $10,000 fines and a pair of 25-point driver and owner point deductions when Sauter and Hornaday uttered the same expletive used Sunday by Earnhardt.

Some competitors laud NASCAR for its consistency, while others questioned if they ever should have got to this point.

"They told us in the drivers' meeting (at Rockingham) that there's words (you can't say) and if you want to know the words, we have a list," Hornaday said. "If you do get caught saying it, there will be a severe fine and penalty, (so) I don't care who you are -- it had to be done.

"(NASCAR) can't take back what they've done to the other drivers, so what they did to Junior, I don't know if it's fair, but it had to be done."

Gaughan concurred.

"The best thing about it, NASCAR is being consistent," Gaughan said. "They applied the exact same penalty to myself last year (minus the point deductions), to Johnny Sauter earlier this year."

Wallace said the decision restored his faith in the sanctioning body.

"Honestly, I was glad to see there wasn't a set of Junior rules and (different) rules for everybody else," Wallace said. "NASCAR has backed themselves into a corner when they didn't need to, with what they did with Ron and Sauter both. None of that was ever an issue until the Janet Jackson deal.

"They forced themselves to do it (fine Earnhardt), but (I wonder) most of all, is the FCC really involved in it, or did (NASCAR) over-react to the Janet Jackson episode?"

A NASCAR spokesman was unable to confirm or deny whether the FCC had actually communicated with the sanctioning body regarding language issues.

Mike Wallace

Wallace's case was the first involving questionable language. A live TV microphone picked up a curse Wallace uttered to another driver after they were involved in an accident. Wallace was professional on-camera.

"(NASCAR) is in a tough situation," Wallace said. "Is the FCC that crucial? Are these really the words you can't hear? What is the real standard and are they over-reacting to the whole situation?

"I think that's the biggest thing, but (NASCAR) has set the standard so we've all got to live by it. You basically know if you use any (curse) word other than hell and damn, you can expect a $10,000 fine and 25 points -- they kind of wrote the rule in stone."

Wallace said he was urged by at least one high ranking NASCAR official to file a $200 appeal to the National Stock Car Racing Commission. In the end, he and Sauter appealed their penalties and lost.

Dale Earnhardt Incorporated is appealing Earnhardt's penalty, partly citing the circumstances of the current Chase for the Cup, which presents a narrower window to erase a point penalty than penalties issued earlier in the season; and also the "point" that Earnhardt raised in interviews immediately after his Victory Lane gaffe.

DEI's lead driver said his remark was made in celebration, while Sauter and Hornaday's were made, Earnhardt said, "in anger."

"I don't think there's any validity to that," Sauter said. "If you say a cuss word, it doesn't matter what your intention is -- it's still a cuss word (and) it's still heard by millions of people.

"If you let a word slip when you're happy, or you say something you shouldn't when you're upset, it's still the same word (and) if someone's going to be offended by it, they won't care why you said it."

"You can't say it, no matter what, and that was explained to us -- no matter if it's happiness, anger -- whatever," Hornaday said. "I still remember Mike Wallace getting fined for what, lip reading? The camera was on him when Shane Hmiel and him got in a little hassle and he got fined for that.

"So where does it stop?"

For his part, Hornaday wanted to clarify the circumstances surrounding his remark.

Ron Hornaday

"I've been with NASCAR 23 years racing every kind of division, and I've never been fined, never did anything (wrong)," Hornaday said. "What I want to do set the story straight is that I didn't say mine in anger, either -- I was repeating what Greg Biffle told me.

"I didn't even appeal mine. It's the first fine I've ever got. I understand where they're coming from. I could've appealed, but I wouldn't have won -- but I would have got my point across.

"The FCC didn't say nothing about it when I said it. Did they say (anything) when Junior said it? No. But (NASCAR) has got to be prepared so when the FCC does come in, is it going to be a $5,000 fine (or) is it going to be a $100,000 fine?

"You never know, because NASCAR has never had a penalty from the FCC. So maybe they're handling it right, and maybe they got everybody's attention on this one."

The necessity of clamping down on rough language -- and more importantly how to do it -- troubles some competitors.

"I think NASCAR is going to create 43 vanilla drivers if they start over-regulating how we express our emotions," Sauter said. "The personalities are what make this sport so exciting.

"If NASCAR starts curbing the excitement and enthusiasm of what we say, it's going to hurt the sport. No one wants to watch 43 identical drivers each week."

In the past, some teams reportedly have issued pre-race disclaimers on their radio channels warning radio-scanning fans of what they might hear. Some radio and TV networks employ a "delay" of a certain number of seconds to allow expletives to be "beeped" out.

NBC Sports, on Sunday, obviously did not do that. Booth anchor Bill Weber quickly apologized for Earnhardt's remark. Gaughan also issued an apology last fall for his remark -- one day before he was penalized.

In these cases, NASCAR's openness appears to be both a blessing and a curse.

Johnny Sauter

"One of the great things about NASCAR is the access that it gives its fans," Sauter said. "Fans get to hear from the drivers right after they won a race -- they get to hear from drivers right after they crashed their car.

"Those are emotional times, and the fans get to be part of that. It's like putting a microphone in (Green Bay Packers' quarterback) Brett Favre's face just after he got sacked on the field.

"Sure, there are times when someone will say something they shouldn't, but it's the emotion and excitement that the fans get to see that keeps them coming back for more, and I'd hate to see that limited."

Wallace agreed.

"NASCAR has set a standard," Wallace said, "but I think, personally they're carrying it to the extremes because we're in a very volatile, emotional sport that I don't think you can instantly keep all your emotions in check, on a micro-moment.

"It's very bad that it's come down to this."

Hornaday provided a counterpoint.

"All I know is, NASCAR has made great decisions no matter what they've done," Hornaday said. "We all make a good living at this and enjoy what we like, so it is their playing field and we've got to do what they say.

"There's other places you can go to if you want to be a rock star and swear and do all that other stuff, you can go do that. I knew I was wrong because I didn't appeal it, but if my grandkids come out of everyday pre-school and say worse words than that, I don't know where it stops.

"What's right and what's wrong? Nobody knows. I hate to say it, but if people don't like to watch it or hear it on TV, maybe they shouldn't watch. But, it's too late (because) we're into this sport, it's a family sport and we've got to do it."

Q&A: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

That was obvious Sunday, for after winning the EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Earnhardt Jr. let an expletive slip out during a post-race interview on NBC. That cost him $10,000 and 25 Nextel Cup points, causing him to lose the points lead he had earned on the track.

Earnhardt Jr. spoke with the media twice at Talladega, once in a pre-race press conference and again in the press box after winning.

The following are excerpts of both interview sessions.

Q: Can you recap the story you told on "60 Minutes" about the Corvette fire at Infineon Raceway?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: It's kind of embarrassing to tell it. There was something really weird that happened that day. I think everybody here saw the piece or heard it from someone else or read the quotes. But Steve Crisp went with me as kind of my PR guy. After everything happened, and I got back to the hospital, I'd forgotten that I had asked Steve something in the Infield Care Center.

So I asked him again because I was really messed up on Morphine and stuff like that for a long time. And it took me about nine to 10 hours to get to where I could even talk. But I was like, "Man did you ever find that guy that helped pull me out of the car?" I hadn't seen any of the footage or anything.

"He was like man, 'I told you, man, there was nobody who pulled you out.' I remember being in the Infield Care Center and screaming at him about it because it was as real as the day is long.

When I unbuckled the seat belt -- it has a twist latch instead of what we normally use in our racecars. When I reached to undo that, and I reached up into the rollbar to pull myself out, somebody grabbed me underneath the arms, I thought, and pulled me out of the car.

And I heard screaming and people hollering and carrying on about getting out of the car and stuff. But in the footage, there was nobody around. But it was as real as (it could be). It was no dream or whatever. Call me crazy. I don't care. That was an experience that only I know and only I can tell it.

I told it to "60 Minutes." Maybe it was something I should have kept to myself because I'm going to have to talk about it a lot now. But it was just something that happened and I didn't have an explanation for it, and I still really don't."

Q: Looking back, do you think the older you get the smarter your dad was?

Earnhardt Jr.: Yeah, I know what you mean. He wasn't a man of many words. There wasn't a lot of advice. You just had to watch and if you were smart enough to pay attention, you got it. If you didn't pay attention, he didn't tell you twice.

I think I went on observation more than recalling certain things he might have told me. I go to autograph sessions or appearances and something happens that I saw happen in a Wrangler deal he did in '87 or something like that. So yeah, I feed off a lot of that type of stuff. We have had a lot of similar experiences due to the size of the fan base and the type of sponsors we work with."

Q: As the Chase unfolds, do you think you'll find things that your dad did that will help you better your chances?

Earnhardt Jr.: He either went to Atlanta and had to win to win the championship, or he already had the thing sewn up at Rockingham. So for me to have to say I'm going to have to go to this race and I'm going to have to win it, you only hope for that to happen. He seemed like he could do it every time.

I think we can go to Atlanta and win, but I don't know about Homestead. We've got to really test really hard. We did test at Kansas, and it went really well and I was really happy with the car. Matt (Kenseth) was there and a bunch of other guys. Nobody said his car was really handling great. We were all kind of struggling with things about our cars. They didn't seem to want to turn, or they were too loose. But we were happy at the end of two days.

On the possible protest by a minority group and whether there is racism in this sport.

Earnhardt Jr.: I obviously don't agree. No matter who you are or where you go, you're always going to see differences in opinions. Not everybody is going to like you -- no matter who you are. I feel like out of all the places they could have chosen to come to that Talladega (where) it's really crazy and it's really wild, and I think that'll get misconstrued as an assumption of what a southern redneck's opinion is or what everybody's actions are.

I think it'll get misconstrued and misrepresented on a huge scale. And it's unfortunate. Many years ago there was probably a lot of that around. I'm not going to sit up here an sugar coat the fact that yeah, there probably were 300 percent more rebel flags in the infield than there are today. I think the sport is changing. Its willingness to change should be noted and appreciated. I think it's just as we kind of turned the corner and started to become more mainstream and more accepted by the wider audience that this type of thing is going to put a sour note on that.

Q: What do you have to do to win the championship and what have you learned in the first part of the year that can help with your strategy?

Earnhardt Jr.: The thing about the Chase is, is that it's hard to really know what to do. You take one race at a time and see where you are and where you stand in the points. You can probably think what your plan is but it's probably going to change every week because everybody is freaking out.

All the teams, whether they act like it or admit it or not, are really on pins and needles about not having any engine failures and not having any mistakes on pit road. Four or five of them have already gotten 30th-place finishes somewhere, and (there are) four or five of us that don't. You think that can separate you from the pack -- don't have that happen. Everybody is really tense and really nervous about it.

It's hard to strategize and say this is what will work. You've just got to go from one race to another with an optimistic mind. When I say that, I mean that if we go to Atlanta with the setup that we used to run and that we ran earlier this year and it's off a little bit, we need to work on it. We need to try to work on it.

There are two things you can do. You can freeze up and say this is what won, we'll run this and fail or succeed. Or, you can freak out and start slinging everything you have at it. I don't think either one of those approaches are very good. I pick on Tony Jr., telling him he's playing darts instead of trying to set my car up because he slings so much stuff at it sometimes, and we get in the mode where we're not thinking about it.

We just try this or that because we only have 15 minutes left. So it's difficult. It's impossible for even some of the best in the business to know what their strategy is going to be over a period of eight races. I think it's just one week at a time."

On his relationship with Michael Waltrip this year.

Earnhardt Jr.: My relationship with Michael is never going to get bad. I don't think we're ever going to have serious problems with each other. The thing about Michael and me is that he was my dad's friend. So when I do some things, he looks at me and says, 'What the hell did you do that for?' And then sometimes he's proud of me.

We're not on the same level as far as age or generation. He's more like an uncle in a way. That's the only thing I can think of that fits. We don't pal around and buddy around. He was my dad's friend, and at times he kind of looks after me and makes sure things are cool there. Other times he's had enough of me."

Q: You have a 30th birthday approaching next week. How important is that and how do you reflect back on your life so far?

Earnhardt Jr.: It's really cool. I'm looking forward to it because I don't feel 30 and I don't act 30 so it don't bother me to turn 30. Obviously, the older you get the more credibility you attain from people and the more sensible your actions and thoughts and words are. With turning 30, I look forward to garnering more respect like I did this year and last year.

I would really like the day to come to when I can walk into the NASCAR hauler and say something or ask them to consider something, and it truly gets considered. They listen to what you have to say, but there are guys in the sport now like Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace who are way up the ladder and that get the considerations and come in there with their opinions and those are the ones they listen to. I'm looking forward to being that guy one day and hopefully the older I get the better they'll listen.

Other than that, it's just really cool turning 30. I was talking to Matt (Kenseth), and he was freaking out when he was turning 30. And I said, "Man, you're married and settled, and I'm the one who should be freaking out." It was just the opposite I guess.

I have to change the bars and clubs I go to I guess, and try to hang out with the more adult crowd. I'm looking forward to it. My sister apparently has a surprise birthday planned for me. I'm looking forward to finding out where it's going to be and who is going to be there."

Q: The director of "60 Minutes" commented on how well-rounded and educated you are. Is that another side of you that people don't see?

Earnhardt Jr.: I read the paper a lot and watch a lot of news. What's going on every day interests me. I want to know the situation as far as what we're getting ourselves into every day. When somebody asks me or I ask somebody about it, I can talk about it intelligently. I've always read the paper since I was about 15 or so. I started reading the sports and went on from there.

I still like to go out on the town. Me and Elliott and Jamie McMurray -- I like to call him "Mac-Murray" -- went downtown. I hadn't been downtown Charlotte for two or three years if that tells you anything. They go more often than I do so I just hung out with them. Normally we just keep it close to home and go to a bar real close.

I'm still single and don't have anything serious going on so I can kind of do my own thing and it's nice. But I like to know what's happening. My grades in school weren't that great. But I think if you can keep aware of what's going on, you're way better off than walking around without a clue.

Q: Do you think your language while being interviewed in victory circle might affect your point standings?

Earnhardt Jr.: Johnny Sauter said it in a fit of anger. I said it in Victory Lane. Do you want the commercial of Matt (Kenseth) being a robot to come to fruition? If anybody was offended by the four-letter word I said - which, in my book, I think (George) Carlin said it was one of the ones you could say - I can't imagine why they would have tuned into a race in the first place.

But there were a lot of hand gestures going on during the race, and that was pretty weak compared to what we're doing on the racetrack. I hope they understand that it was in jubilation, and I know me and those other guys that got fined let it slip, but it's two different circumstances.

I think that when you're happy and joyous about something and it happens, I think it's different than being angry and cursing in anger. Of course we don't want to promote that. But if a guy is in Victory Lane jumping up and down and let's a "s---" slip out, I don't think that's something we need go hammering down on."

Q: Do you feel like people are always going to react to you and what you're doing to stay in the game?

Earnhardt Jr.: No, actually every time I come here I have fewer friends and a harder challenge. I bet it boils Jeff Gordon's blood that I won here today -- or Jimmie Johnson's too. I think all those guys at Hendrick's are just boiling right now. And we are the same way in return, when they win. We try not to laugh in anybody's face when it's over.

When we ran around the top, it wasn't like everybody was my friend. It wasn't like 12 guys were lined up being my buddy. The bottom was slow and bogged down. That was a smart way to go around the track. When we run here, it seems like there's a good 200 miles where everybody just rides. It's pretty hectic for the most part at the start, and everybody just calms down. That was just part of the race.

Q: Are you preoccupied with the points rather than being able to celebrate this win?

Earnhardt Jr.: No, I was standing down there in Victory Lane, and they said you were all tore up about what I said on TV and that bothered me a little bit. I'm not joking. I'm worried about losing points. If you guys push the issue in the next three or four days, it could be a big problem for me. I just hope everybody understands. I don't know if everybody sees it the way I see it.

I think it's definitely two different things when a guy is cussing in anger and a guy says s--- in jubilation in Victory Lane. I was pretty happy about winning the race. If it came out, it was a mistake. But I don't think it's the same.

But we've won five races this year, and I'm pretty thrilled. It's been a great year for me. And I think at the end of the season whether we win the championship or not, I can say we're better. Even though we had that slump in the middle of the season, I think when I read the papers or magazines during the off-season, we'll be toward the top of the list for a championship next year.

I just hope we can be strong for the next several weeks. In a way, yes, some of the stuff in the championship does tone down the celebration mood. It's kind of like winning the 125 before the 500. You're happy about it, but you know there's a bigger race on the line down the road. And that's the way it is now, I guess.

Q: Were you excited that Talladega was in the last 10 races?

Earnhardt Jr.: Yeah, a little too excited for some, I guess. I was looking forward to it but I was nervous because it would come at a time when you really need it. My whole life has been, man, when I really need this it never f---ing happens. I just let that slip out. I need to go to some class or something. Dale Carnegie or something, to get it right.

I just was really nervous that we would get in a crash or blow a motor or something. I was never sure we could win this race until about one lap to go. When I got pushed out in front and saw that Kevin was pretty close and wasn't making runs. When you get pushed out, your car dies and they come back to you. He was just kind of sitting there pushing me the whole time. He never fell back to make a run. But I was worried the whole time that something crazy would happen."

Words get in the way

The precedent had already been set for punishing drivers who cursed during broadcast interviews -- a sizable fine, plus the deduction of championship points, which have a far greater value than any cash amount.

But docking points from Junior for using the word "@*&$" in Victory Lane last week at Talladega had severe implications: He'd drop from first to second in the points lead, giving up the top spot in the race for the Nextel Cup title.

Knocking Earnhardt out of the lead would guarantee a nasty backlash from the army of Earnhardt loyalists.

Not taking the points would be even worse, indicating favouritism to a driver many believe already gets preferential treatment from NASCAR.

In the end, it was not a difficult decision at all.

NASCAR took 25 points from Earnhardt and fined him $10,000 US on Tuesday, a penalty that dropped him behind Kurt Busch for the points lead with seven events to go in the 10-race playoff system.

"It was really a no-brainer," said NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter. "Are we getting angry e-mails from fans? Of course. But when we announced the Chase for the Championship, everyone asked us how we were going to police it. The answer was `The same way we police everything else.'

"Just because he was the points leader, just because it changed his position in the standings, changed nothing. The rules are the rules and he broke them."

In upholding the law -- which, by the way, only went into effect in February when NASCAR president Mike Helton ordered all teams to quit cussing on TV and radio -- the sanctioning body created the possibility that the championship could be decided not on the race track, but off of it for a non-racing violation.

Busch, who now holds a 12-point lead over Earnhardt, is hoping it doesn't happen.

Earnhardt is overwhelmingly NASCAR's most popular driver. Busch, well, is not.

Busch has been booed in Victory Lane numerous times, and realizes that if Earnhardt loses the title by 25-points or less, the winner will be vilified.

"I want to go into the last race with a 155-point edge and that way we won't have to worry about anything," Busch said.

With seven races to go, anything can happen. Earnhardt could race his way back into the lead, or he could wreck his way out of contention.

"This is just a quick point difference that was 13 in his favour and now it's 12 in our favour, but we've got seven races to go," Busch said. "Hopefully, these 25 points won't come into the final factor because we want to beat him on the race track.".

Earnhardt and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team are appealing the penalty, but the three-person panel selected from the National Stock Car Racing Commission rarely ever overturns a NASCAR decision.

DEI certainly realizes its chances at having the points restored are slim, at best, but is arguing a much larger point.

"We're facing a setback from a competition standpoint for something that should be considered a personal foul," said Richie Gilmore, DEI's director of competition. "I think we're the only sport that takes points off of the board after they've been scored."

And that's where it gets murky.

NASCAR can, and should, take points for illegal parts, blatant cheating, even rough driving. All those offences are racing-related.

But swearing? That's got nothing to do with competition.

What's next? Losing points for wearing an ugly firesuit?

Not quite, NASCAR says. But the sanctioning body defends its policy against swearing, pointing to its image as a family sport. And in dealing with drivers who make tons of money -- Earnhardt earned $4,923,500 US last season -- fines just weren't getting the message across.

"We hadn't been able to find a monetary value that was effective in sending our message for violations we were finding," said Nextel Cup series director John Darby. "Taking points isn't something we're happy about doing. I've been lobbied very hard by crew chiefs to `Make the fines as high as you like but don't take our points.'

"It's a shame that it can effect the championship, but it's something we feel is working."

Don't count Earnhardt out just yet.

The field of 10 drivers racing for the title has more or less been cut in half.

Jeremy Mayfield is out of it, a wreck at Talladega knocking him 267 points behind the leader. Jimmie Johnson is in ninth place, a failed engine dropping him to ninth place, 159 points out.

Johnson can still climb out of his hole, and so can drivers Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Elliott Sadler and Ryan Newman.

But for any of the bottom drivers to win the title, they'll need the front four to falter -- and soon.

Busch has shown no signs of doing so, becoming the only driver to score a top-five finish in all three of the Chase races. And the rest of the schedule fits him well: He won at three of the final five tracks on the schedule to end the 2002 season and has been preparing for a similar run with an aggressive testing schedule.

"We're making so many laps that we're trying to keep up with all of our notes," he said.

Swearing by Junior

NASCAR fined Dale Earnhardt Jr. $10,000 and docked him 25 points in the Nextel Cup standings for uttering one swear word on national television after Sunday's EA Sports 500 in Talladega, Ala.

NASCAR's reaction is, well, pretty crappy.

But what else would you expect from the corporate headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla.? If it looks like (bleep), tastes like (bleep) and feels like (bleep), it usually is (bleep) – and that's exactly what NASCAR's punishment of Earnhardt is.

NASCAR has shot itself in the foot for seemingly the 4,678th time, once again choosing political correctness over common sense. It could have simply fined Junior for his slip of the tongue.

But taking points away from one of the favorites to win the championship – in the heat of the Chase for the Nextel Cup title, no less – is asinine. If those 25 points cost Earnhardt the championship, the Chase will be a farce.

Taking 25 points away from Earnhardt – dropping him from a 13-point edge over Kurt Busch to 12-point deficit – is ludicrous at the very least, and hypocritical at worst.

I publicly challenge any of NASCAR's top executives, from chairman Brian France to president Mike Helton, to try to tell me they have never uttered a cuss word in their life. Tell me they've never said, "Oh [bleep]" when they made a mistake. Tell me they didn't hit their thumb with a hammer or slam it with a car door and shout out &#$@! in pain.

I wouldn't be surprised if France or Helton, when they heard Earnhardt's slip, said "Oh [bleep], did you hear what he just said?"

Find me just one person within the sanctioning body worthy of nothing short of sainthood for never muttering an expletive, and I'll stand at the start/finish line at Daytona International Speedway in full makeup, stiletto heels and a pink dress.

I'm not saying Earnhardt was right in what he said, especially with young viewers hanging on their hero's every word. But the world is not going to come to a screeching halt just because Junior said something he probably shouldn't have – and NASCAR should try to understand that.

NASCAR wants its drivers to be colorful. It encourages drivers to learn how to be better speakers in front of the fans and press, to present a more down-home, folksy persona that makes it appear they're just like us ... the only difference being that they can wheel the hell out of a race car. Oops, I just uttered a bad word.

I'm sure that NASCAR's defenders will say the sanctioning body had no choice but to bang Junior with the fine and points loss just like it did to Johnny Sauter and Ron Hornaday earlier this year, when they each uttered expletives on national broadcasts. Some might say that NASCAR would have been criticized even more if it didn't do anything at all; that ignoring Earnhardt's faux pas would have been favoritism.

But there's a huge difference: Sauter and Hornaday expressed themselves in fits of anger. Junior's was steeped in joy. He had just won one of the biggest races of the year, and potentially what may wind up being the biggest race in the Chase. I say he was entitled to be a little loose with his verbiage.

I've covered professional sports for more than three decades and it's hard to recall a situation bent out of shape as much as this one. I once covered a tennis match where John McEnroe used the "f-word" so many times that I thought the lead official's name was "f***ing referee." I challenge France or Helton to stand on the sidelines of a typical NFL game; almost every other word is an expletive.

But do you see referees throw a penalty flag? No. It's part of the human emotion of the game, just like it was Junior's human emotion that got the best of him Sunday.

DEI will appeal penalty

DEI Director of Competition Richie Gilmore cites that the 25- point penalty under the new 10-race "Chase for the Nextel Cup" format could be devastating with only seven races remaining.

"This is a huge setback for the entire company. We're in a sport that focuses its primary attention on the final 10 races of the season and we're racing against formidable teams for a championship.

"We're facing a setback from a competition standpoint for something that should be considered a personal foul. We have no choice but to appeal the points portion of the penalty," Gilmore stated.

He added: " I think we're the only sport that takes points off of the board after they've been scored.

"The popularity of this sport is based on colorful personalities and the fact that everyone can relate to these drivers and their emotions. Now, it seems like that's a detriment.

"Dale Jr.'s comment was made in the excitement of the moment, seconds after he climbed out of the car. It wasn't made in anger or hostility directed at anyone.

"This whole incident is going to force everyone in the sport to rethink showing any excitement in what should be a jubilant moment. We've had hundreds of calls from fans that support us.

"Our sponsors have vowed their support as well. If nothing else, we can look back at this race and always remember it as one where we were reminded of the loyalty everyone has toward Dale Jr., the No. 8 team and our company."

Dale Jr. docked 25 points

Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet, was in violation of Section 12-4-A (Actions detrimental to stock car racing) of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Rule Book for using inappropriate language.

The penalty also will extend to the team as Dale Earnhardt Inc. will lose 25 championship owner points for the actions of its driver.

Earnhardt Jr.'s championship points total will be adjusted from 5,543 points to 5,518 as a result of the penalty, and will drop him from first to second in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.

Kurt Busch and Roush Racing will assume the lead with 5,530 points, 12 ahead of Earnhardt Jr. and DEI, respectively.

Could post-race curse cost Earnhardt Jr. points?

During the interview in Victory Lane with NBC's Matt Yocum, Earnhardt Jr. was asked what it meant to win for the fifth time at Talladega. Earnhardt Jr. replied, "It don't mean s--- right now. Daddy's won here 10 times."

NBC later issued an apology for the inappropriate language. After several media requests, NASCAR is reviewing the post-race videotape, according to spokesman Mike Zizzo. Any penalty would be handed down Tuesday at the earliest, Zizzo said.

There is precedence for Earnhardt Jr. being fined and/or docked points. Two Busch Series drivers were penalized for inappropriate language earlier this season.

Ron Hornaday was fined $10,000 and docked 25 points for "use of inappropriate language" during a live radio interview during a Busch race at Dover in June. Also, Johnny Sauter was penalized the same amount of money and points for the same infraction after a Busch race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.

Earnhardt Jr. pleaded his case in the Talladega press box later Sunday.

"I hope they understand it was in jubilation," Earnhardt Jr. "I know that me and those other guys that got fined let it slip, but it's two different circumstances.

"When you're happy and joyous about something and it happens, it's different than being angry and cursing in anger. Of course, we don't want to promote that.

"But if a guy's in Victory Lane, jumping up and down and lets a 's---' slip out, I don't think that's something we need to go hammering down on."

Earnhardt Jr. leads Kurt Busch by 13 points after Sunday's race, with Jeff Gordon third, 61 points behind.

NASCAR president Mike Helton warned drivers at Daytona in February to watch their manners after the Federal Communications Commission began a crackdown of profane behavior resulting from the Super Bowl halftime show, where singer Janet Jackson had her breast exposed on live television.

The FCC hit CBS with more than $500,000 in fines for the incident.

Junior takes the fifth

Although he was at or near the front virtually the entire EA Sports 500, leading a race-high 78 of the 188 laps, Earnhardt fell behind when crew chief Tony Eury Sr. decided to gamble on two fresh right-side tires on his final pit stop.

Other drivers got ahead of Earnhardt by staying on the track or taking only fuel on their final stops during the last of five caution periods in the race. But it made little difference once the green flag waved for Lap 184.

"Those brand new rights just drove around the corners so much better than those other guys with old tires out there," Earnhardt said. "I wasn't worried. They make the calls in the pits and I just drive the car."

Earnhardt had a streak of four consecutive Talladega wins stopped by Michael Waltrip one year ago. In April, he finished second to Jeff Gordon in a somewhat controversial finish, with NASCAR determining that Gordon was leading when a yellow flag waved and froze the field. The race finished that way under caution to the displeasure of the spectators.

"I'm just glad to get back on top at Talladega," Earnhardt said. He drew a roar from the partisan crowd when he added, "This is my place."

His 14th career victory and fifth of the season also moved Earnhardt from third in the standings to a 13-point lead over Kurt Busch, who finished fifth. Gordon, who came into the race with a one-point lead over Busch, finished 19th and fell to third, 61 points behind after three of the 10 races in NASCAR's new 10-man playoff-style championship.

It was a far different atmosphere than in April when the disappointed fans booed and threw beer cans and trash onto the track as Gordon took the checkered flag.

After the green flag waved for the final restart, Earnhardt's red No. 8 Chevrolet shot forward, moving up and down the steeply banked track, passing cars on the outside and inside seemingly at will before finally moving past Kevin Harvick for the lead on Lap 186.

Earnhardt then held off Harvick's Chevrolet, driving across the finish line 0.117 seconds -- about two car-lengths -- ahead.

"I knew they were coming," said Harvick, whose finish was a season best. "There wasn't anybody else in the field that was going to get by me. They can just do it when they want to at this place."

Dale Jarrett finished third, followed by rookie Brendan Gaughan, Busch, title contender Tony Stewart and pole-starter Joe Nemechek.

The last lap turned out to be the wildest of the race, with Greg Biffle hitting the wall and crashing into Kasey Kahne in turn two, far behind the leaders.

NASCAR kept the green flag out and Elliott Sadler, who had a spectacular flip on the back straightaway in this race last year, did it again, sliding backward into the grass and doing a flip before landing on his wheels as he crossed the finish line. He wound up 22nd and fell to eighth in the standings, 166 points behind Earnhardt. Sadler was not injured.

Among the other contenders in NASCAR's playoff, defending series champion Matt Kenseth finished 14th, followed by Mark Martin and Ryan Newman. Jimmie Johnson had an engine failure and finished 37th, while Jeremy Mayfield was taken out in a four-car wreck on Lap 148.

The results widened the gap among the contenders, with Martin now 111 points behind in fourth and Mayfield in 10th, 172 back.

Lap by Lap: EA Sports 500

Lap 188: Checkered flag. Dale Earnhardt Jr.wins the EA Sports 500.

Elliott Sadler flips and tumbles on the last lap.

Lap 187: Wreck involving Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle. Stays green.

Lap 186: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the lead again.

Lap 184: Kevin Harvick takes the lead.

Lap 183: Green flag. Brendan Gaughan leads.

Lap 180: Pit road opens. Most of the field come in. Brendan Gaughan decides to stay out and is the leader.

Lap 178: Tony Stewart scored as the leader.

Lap 177: Leaders come in to pit. Sterling Marlin gets turned around in the rush and collects Bobby Labonte.

Lap 175: Dale Earnhardt Jr. regains the lead.

Lap 173: Kevin Harvick leads.

Lap 158: Jimmie Johnson pits for overheating. His crew pushes his car behind the wall.

Lap 150: Kenny Wallace off the pace. Black-flagged.

Lap 148: Green flag. Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads.

Lap 143: Yellow-flag pit stops. Dale Earnhardt Jr. beats the leaders off pit road.

Lap 142: Caution. Multi-car wreck. Jeremy Mayfield, Jimmy Spencer, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Jeff Green. All four have heavy damage.

Lap 139: Jeff Burton takes the lead. Getting racy at the front of the field.

Lap 130: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the lead.

Lap 129: Green flag. Kasey Kahne has fender damage and heads to pit road.

Lap 126: Mike Wallace is the race leader.

Lap 123: Pit stops begin. Jamie McMurray spins into the grass on pit road. Jimmie Johnson hits Kasey Kahne coming out of his stall. Johnson has damage to the nose of his car.

Lap 122: Caution is out for Carl Edwards. Edwards loses his engine.

Lap 118: Jeff Gordon has taken the race lead.

Lap 111: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes back the lead.

Lap 110: Kurt Busch takes the lead from Dale Earnhardt Jr.. Bobby Hamilton Jr. heads to the garage.

Lap 98: Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads the race after pit stops cycle through.

Lap 94: Green-flag pit stops begin.

Lap 80: Jimmie Johnson regains the lead.

Lap 75: A lot of quick lead changes up front. Michael Waltrip scored as the leader.

Lap 71: Jimmie Johnson is in the lead.

Lap 67: Rusty Wallace has taken the race lead.

Lap 65: Jeff Gordon races to the front with teammate Jimmie Johnson. Gordon leads the race. Tony Stewart is having a vibration problem with his car.

Lap 63: Green flag. Michael Waltrip is the leader on the re-start.

Lap 61: Pit stops under caution.

Lap 59: Caution is out. Someone is losing fluids from his car. Elliott Sadler is having problems.

Lap 57: Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon now shuffling the lead back and forth. Gordon retains the lead.

Lap 55: Jimmie Johnson and Rusty Wallace are running side-by-side at the front.

Lap 48: Jimmie Johnson leads th efield once again.

Lap 41: Rusty Wallace sneaks up to take the lead.

Lap 36: Jimmie Johnson reclaims race the lead.

Lap 35: Green flag.

Lap 33: Casey Mears is the leader after pit stops.

Lap 30: First cylce of pit stops. Kevin Harvick overshoots his pit stall and strikes his own jackman. He loses a lot of time on pit road. Crew member is OK.

Lap 29: Mike Wallace blew a tire and spins out. No other cars involved. Caution is out.

Lap 24: Jimmie Johnson has taken the lead. Dale Earnhardt Jr. slips to fifth.

Lap 16: Kyle Petty has a tire going down. He pits without incident. No caution.

Lap 15: Jimmie Johnson putting pressure on Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Lap 12: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Elliott Sadler still lead the field. No cautions so far.

Lap 4: Dale Earnhardt Jr. has gained the lead. Elliott Sadler is close behind him.

Lap 3: Kurt Busch now leads.

Lap 2: Scott Riggs leads, passing Joe Nemechek on the high side.

Lap 1: Green flag. Pole-sitter Joe Nemechek leads the first lap.

Earnhardt wonders if late dad helped save him

"I don't want to put some weird, you know, psycho twist on it like he was pulling me out or anything, but he had a lot to do with me getting out of that car," the NASCAR star said. "From the movement I made to unbuckle my belt to lying on the stretcher, I have no idea what happened."

Earnhardt recalled that perilous July day in Sonoma, Calif., during an interview with correspondent Mike Wallace for 60 Minutes that will be broadcast Wednesday on CBS.

Earnhardt's father was killed three years ago in a wreck during the final lap of the Daytona 500 race. The son insists he felt his father's presence on the day when he scrambled out of his flaming car and was left with second-degree burns on his legs, neck and chin. In fact, he said, when he reached safety, he began inquiring about the "person" who helped him from the car.

Earnhardt told 60 Minutes he grabbed one of his representatives by the collar, "screaming at him to find the guy that pulled me out of the car. He was like, 'Nobody helped you get out,' and I was like, 'That's strange because I swear somebody . . . had me underneath . . . my arms and was carrying me out of the car."'

Wallace asks if that was his father.

"Yeah, I don't know," Earnhardt said. "You tell me. It . . . freaks me out today just talking about it. It just gives me chills."

EARNHARDT JUNIOR PROFILED ON 60 MINUTES

Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most popular driver on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit, sits down with Mike Wallace to talk about the fiery crash that could have ended his life on 60 MINUTES, Wednesday, September 29 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Earnhardt Jr. crashed while practicing for a road race during a NASCAR off week in July. He suffered second-degree burns on his neck and legs when his car was engulfed in flames—inside and out. In the 14 seconds it took him to get out of the car, it occurred to him that he might not make it out. “At that moment, you think of everything. This could be how I go. This would really suck if it’s the way I’m going out.

At 29, Junior, son of the late stock car legend Dale Earnhardt, knows that danger and death are occupational hazards. In fact, he witnessed his father’s 2001 life-ending crash through the rearview mirror of his own racecar on the track at Daytona. His father’s legacy, something he will always carry, has at times been a burden, but more often a blessing and sometimes downright spooky. Junior even thinks it’s possible his dad had something to do with him getting out of that fiery car. “I don’t want to put some weird psycho twist on it like he was pulling me out or anything, but he had a lot to do with me getting out of that car.

Josh Howard is the executive producer of 60 MINUTES II and John Hamlin is the producer of this report.

Quotebook: Dover

"We had a really good racecar today, and it just went to junk on the last two sets of tires. We made no other changes, and it just became a totally different car. Usually if the car starts off loose (on new tires), it will gradually tighten up as the air pressures change. But, at the end, there were no moments where it was even close to handling the way it had been during the first half of the race.

"It was runnin' good, and then it was so rough, with the way we sit in these seats, it almost beat the armpits offa me."

"Ninth? We finished ninth? Well, I'll take that. It keeps us close in the chase and I think it's going to take a steady run of top-10s and top-fives to win this thing. It was a frustrating way to finish the day, but we'll be OK..."

Junior's pace

"That would be a perfect analogy; I would agree with it," Earnhardt said after finishing third in Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. He and race winner Kurt Busch now share the points lead, each driver with 5,210 points.

One of the top preseason picks to win this season's inaugural Nextel Cup championship, Earnhardt has had to overcome the typical problems a driver faces, including mechanical failures and stark inconsistency from race to race.

But he's also survived something no other Cup driver has had to deal with: severe burns on his legs suffered in a crash while practicing for a sports car race on a Cup off-weekend in mid-July, and the excruciating pain and lengthy recovery that has gone with it.

In fact, the last time Earnhardt came to NHIS prior to this past weekend was for his first Cup race since being burned in the crash at Sonoma, Calif. In that event, he had to turn the car over to relief driver Martin Truex Jr., who finished a dismal 31st. Things weren't much better the next two weeks at Pocono (25th, relieved by John Andretti) and Indianapolis (27th).

"I had this amazing determination and drive at the start of the year. I was just focusing and we were getting the results and finishes and leading the points," Earnhardt said. "And then we went to Pocono and a couple places like that, and those places really drained the drive and determination right out of you."

Even though still suffering from his healing burns, Earnhardt finished a strong fifth at Watkins Glen but bounced back down to 21st the following week at Michigan.

That's where the story changes dramatically, starting with an inspiring and emotional win at Bristol. Junior also won the Busch Series event at BMS, marking the first time in NASCAR history that any driver has ever won both ends of the same race weekend at that track.

"My confidence started to grow right after the Bristol win," he said. "Back when my legs weren't feeling too good, I really didn't want to be in a race car. That kind of worried me a little bit. We got through the summer, went to Bristol and had such a good weekend winning the Busch race and the Cup race, it was instantly like a huge jump in confidence."

And while he expected a poor performance at California (he finished 34th) he's been red-hot in his last two races, finishing second at Richmond and third Sunday.

"I've gotten that drive back, that fire that I had at the start of the year that I'm definitely going to have to have to win the championship," Earnhardt said. "I think we're in a streak where I think we're going to finish the season out pretty spectacularly and hopefully with a championship. I really feel like we can win it."

To say the least, it would appear that the driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet is hitting his stride at the right time, as the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup began this past weekend at New Hampshire.

"I was real worried about starting off the Chase with a poor finish," said Earnhardt, who had sat atop the standings two previous times this season. "I'm really happy to be able to say today that we started it off well, and hopefully it continues to catapult us week after week into a good finish."

The key to staving off the other nine contestants vying for the Chase is simple, Earnhardt said. It's a matter of fighting for the best possible finish you can get, even when your car is far from the best. But a driver needs to be careful, as well.

"You can't take risks or wreck it, and you can't get involved in crashes or cut tires," Earnhardt said. "You've really got to minimize mistakes on pit road; everything has to be minimal. You're going to be a lot more nervous, I think, now than you were before every lap. You're going to wonder is this the damn lap that the motor blows, or is this the lap that the tire comes apart."

Fortunately for Earnhardt, he emerged from Sunday's opening round of the Chase relatively unscathed, which is more than can be said for several other Chase competitors – particularly Jeremy Mayfield and Tony Stewart, who both had early exits due to reckless driving and a resulting crash between Robby Gordon and Greg Biffle.

"The people I was around today raced me with more respect than I normally get," Earnhardt said. "Some guys aren't going to change. You could paint these walls black, and some guys wouldn't know the difference. Some guys out there know what's going on and who's in the Chase, and they give you respect for that, I guess, and some guys don't."

All in all, Earnhardt got more than he had hoped for at Loudon.

"I expected to come here this weekend and get a top-10," he said. "I thought a top-five would be a real bonus, so I'm real happy."

And now potentially well on his way to that first career Cup championship, as well.

Back on top of the world

In July, Earnhardt was driving his No. 8 Chevrolet for the first time after getting burned in a sports car race. He drove only a few laps before handing the car over to Martin Truex Jr.

And if you know racecar drivers, you know they hate getting out of their car.

But this time around, Earnhardt was fully healed and fired up. Though he only led once for two laps, Earnhardt had one of the best cars on the track and ended up third in the Sylvania 300.

That gave him plenty of reason to joke and smile, but one thing bothered him.

Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Michael Waltrip had raced him a little too hard at one point. Waltrip had taken two tires on a pit stop, with Junior getting four. Earnhardt should have had a faster car at that point, and with Waltrip not in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, Junior expected a little more help.

"I was waving at him," Earnhardt said. "I was really upset about it. He got two tires, and we came off pit road side-by-side. He fetched the car all the way up to the yellow line as if I wasn't even there."

When the race went green, it appeared to Earnhardt that Waltrip would give him the position on the track.

"We'd get in the center of the corner and he'd still be there and I'd about to wreck into the side of him," Earnhardt said. "That happened three or four laps."

Earnhardt came out of the pits behind Matt Kenseth, but after battling Waltrip, he lost a straightaway to Kenseth.

"I'm sure Michael didn't mean anything by it," Earnhardt said. "I'm sure he was just trying to race and do what you do. His car was really loose it seemed, and he was just trying to go. But I needed a little help there, and I expected to get a little help, and I didn't get any."

Still, Junior managed to joke about it.

"I was trying to figure out where he's getting his team orders from because whoever he was getting them from needs a new check," Earnhardt said. "Somebody needs to give them a check and see who their working for, to see where they're getting their kickback from."

Asked if he gave Waltrip the one-finger salute, Earnhardt said, "He's older than me. I've got to respect my elders."

That good mood spilled over in his post-race press conference, joking with the moderator and with good buddy Kenseth.

On watching protégé Truex, Earnhardt said, "Matt came over to me and said Martin was really overdriving the car and he had no business being out there."

Kenseth's face turned bright red, but he managed to smile.

"I never said that," Kenseth said.

No, he didn't. But Earnhardt said plenty Sunday. When told that Kenseth needed to depart quickly because he had a flight to catch, Junior interrupted.

"He's got his own plane," Earnhardt said. "That's bull----. I'm the one who needs to catch a flight."

Later, after Junior rambled through an answer, Kenseth answered the question succinctly.

"That's way freakin' better than what I said," Earnhardt said.

Of course, Earnhardt had plenty of good things to say, as usual. Asked if the racing was any more intense Sunday now that the Chase for the Nextel Cup has started, he said it had. Sort of.

"In your brain it was more intense but the actual actions you were doing weren't more intense, if that makes any sense," Earnhardt said.

No, not really.

"I didn't see guys going into the corner with life-or-death intentions on making a pass," Earnhardt said. Everybody seemed to be smart."

Earnhardt has reason to be in a good mood. The fire at Infineon Raceway set him back, as did a mid-summer swoon.

But winning at Bristol in late August put Junior and the team back in the right direction.

"It started to grow right at the Bristol win," Earnhardt said. "When my legs weren't feeling too good, I really didn't want to be in the racecar. That kind of worried me a little bit. I had this amazing determination and drive at the start of the year. I was just focused and we were getting the results and the finishes and we were leading the points."

But some poor runs, like a 21st at Michigan, a 22nd at Chicago and a 25th at Pocono, took some of the life out of him.

"Those places really drain the determination and drive right out of you," Earnhardt said. "But we got through the summer and then went back to Bristol and won that race. We had such a good weekend winning the Busch race and then the Cup race, it was instantly a huge jump in confidence.

"We went to California and I expected us to run poorly there. But right in the middle of the race we found something to help the car. That helps. I haven't forgotten about that. Our run at Richmond last week was inspirational to the team and to everyone that we're trying hard."

Earnhardt crashed at California and finished 34th, but his place in the Chase for the Nextel Cup was already secured.

Now, after a second at Richmond and a third at New Hampshire, Earnhardt is tied with NHIS winner Kurt Busch atop the Nextel Cup standings.

"I've gotten that drive back -- that fire that I had at the start of the year that I'm definitely going to have to have to win the championship," Earnhardt said. "It's there when it's fun and when I get along with the people I'm working with. When they're a pain in the ass and making my life miserable, I get pissed off.

"So that's how things work. When things are good that's how it happens. And when things go bad, that's a result of it. But I think we're in a streak where we're going to finish this season out pretty spectacularly and hopefully with the championship. I really feel like we can win it."

Junior feeling better, running better as Chase debut looms

Things are a lot better for both Junior and his Dale Earnhardt Inc., team heading into Sunday's Sylvania 300, the first race of NASCAR's new 10-man, 10-race championship playoff.

He's completely healed and free from the pain he endured after being burned on the neck and legs on July 18 in a crash during a California sports car event. Plus, Earnhardt is one of the Cup title contenders and his team appears to be clicking on all cylinders just at the right time.

"As I got better, our runs got better and the team got better and our communications and morale and everything got better," Earnhardt said. "When I was unplugged from the situation because of the injuries, it really set a definite tone there within the shop and the team that something was missing and there was a void there.

"It showed in the way the cars drove. When I got back in the cars, I didn't even want to drive them they were so bad."

The worst weekends were here the week after the crash and the following week at Pocono.

At the New Hampshire event, the hurting Earnhardt chose to skip qualifying and let his Busch Series driver Martin Truex Jr. put the car in the field. Earnhardt started the race -- which he had to do to get the points -- but Truex took over after 60 laps and drove to a respectable 31st-place finish in his Cup debut.

At Pocono, it was John Andretti who relieved Earnhardt and brought the car home 25th, although Junior insisted it wasn't the pain that was the problem that day.

"I could have run the rest of the way, but the car was so bad, there was no use in me being in there wasting my time," Earnhardt said at the time.

Since then, Earnhardt has stayed in the car and has come up with a win at Bristol and two other top-five finishes in five starts.

"I still don't think we're as good as we were when the season starts, but we've got enough time to put it together and race by race we'll try to do that. ... Relatively, we're still a young team and making a lot of changes and having a lot of jelling and stuff to do. Hopefully, we'll perfect it one of these days."

Junior: rock star and rock solid

There are four middle-aged women donned in red, including one who's holding a Dale Jr. Blvd. street sign over her head and screaming "JUNIOR" in a Southern accent as if she were on the frontstretch at Talladega.

The race is 300 miles away in Richmond, but there's no escaping the multitude of Dale Earnhardt Jr. minions.

But can he live up to the hype?

In 173 starts, Earnhardt has 13 victories. That's an impressive number, but his father won the rookie award and series title in his first two full years on the circuit. Matt Kenseth, who has one more start than Junior, has nine wins but also a championship. However, a similar outpouring of adulation has yet to engulf him.

Jimmie Johnson, who started full-time Cup racing two years after Earnhardt and Kenseth did, has 10 career wins and hasn't finished worse than fifth in points, but he hardly receives the rock star treatment afforded Earnhardt. Even four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who travels in some high-scale circles, graciously has resigned himself to second in the NASCAR popularity contest.

So why the clamor over the young man whose family affectionately refers to him as "Junebug"?

There is the name. There is the persona. And then there is the resemblance to his father -- on the track and off. Certainly, he has his father's charisma. Part of Senior's popularity stemmed from the people in the stands relating to a former mill worker from Kannapolis, N.C. But Junior doesn't have his father's gruff exterior, opting more for a brooding, boyish demeanor even though he is just weeks from his 30th birthday.

Junior also has inherited his dad's talent. He easily assumed the restrictor-plate throne and methodically has attacked his weak spots throughout his Cup career. Although short tracks have been Junior's strong suit, he struggled on the high banks of Bristol until last month, when he wheeled his No. 8 Chevrolet to victory still smarting from the scars of a fiery crash in July. Fortunately for Earnhardt, Michigan and California aren't among the season's final 10 races. There's still work to do on the big, flat tracks.

For the Chase, Earnhardt's team will aggressively test at Kansas and Homestead, where he finished 18th and 24th last season, and at Dover, where the crew miscalculated the shocks package in June.

Awaiting my connecting flight in Washington, D.C., there are more Junior fans. But the demographic has changed. The three young men in khakis sitting across from me could just as easily have been going to the Florida State-Miami game, but the white 2004 Daytona 500 cap, the red Budweiser cap adorned with collectible pins from a half-dozen races and the 2004 Daytona 500 T-shirt commemorating Junior's win are giveaways. The four women in Charlotte probably held equal adoration for Dale Sr., but this is a different breed. These 20-something New Englanders don't remember the Intimidator in his heyday.

"I started following racing and Dale Jr. during his rookie year," says Mike Jenkinson, 28. "I pulled for him because he was my age and worked for the family company like I do.

"Everybody is a Junior fan, but there are two types of Junior fans, like there are two types of Yankees fans. There are Junior fans because it's the cool thing to do. He's the new, hipper-style driver. Then there are fans like us who can tell you his strengths and weaknesses and will stand behind him win or lose. Being a Red Sox fan is good training for that."

When Earnhardt took the checkered flag in the season opener at Daytona and led the points after nine of the races earlier in the year, it appeared that NASCAR had its It Boy on the road to the title. He fell back to third, but with the season practically starting from scratch this weekend, Earnhardt has to be one of the favorites to win the Chase. He has won at four of the final 10 racetracks but still has to get past the Hendrick boys and his buddy Kenseth to get his first Cup championship.

If Junior falls short, there's always next year and there's always fans such as Jenkinson, who will support him no matter what.

Chase Quotebook

"If I'm one of the guys (not in the top 10), it boils down to how much of an a-hole or how much of a friend that guy is. If I want to do him a favor and give him a spot, and I like him, then I'm gonna do it. But if he's a jerk, I'm going to make him work for it.

"You're not going to tell Kenny Schrader to chill out and get behind the top 10. You've got to race everybody."

Earnhardt Jr. continues to lead most popular vote

The award, sponsored by Grands biscuits and the National Motorsports Press Association, has generated record interest this season. More than 2.8 million votes have been cast, nearing the total of 3 million cast all last year.

"Race fans have always been passionate, not just about their sport but about the drivers and the teams they pull for," Richard Petty said. "With more and more race fans being developed because of television and the Cup series running in more of the larger markets, it just seems natural that the votes for Grands Biscuits NMPA NASCAR Most Popular Driver would grow too."

Jeff Gordon stands second in the balloting, followed by Kevin Harvick, Michael Waltrip, Tony Stewart, Dale Jarrett, Kasey Kahne, Johnson, Martin and Bobby Labonte.

Junior goes from bad to worse at Fontana

"I'm glad we're clinched because it was a nightmare," Earnhardt said. "It was just a real frustrating night."

Starting 12th, Earnhardt immediately began losing spots, dropping back to 29th by Lap 40. He got into the top 10 for the first time by Lap 200 but 18 laps later, he spun out in Turn 4, starting a series of events that turned his night from bad to worse.

"We pretty good at one point but the left rear tire went flat and I spun out on it," Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt was then assessed a time penalty when NASCAR ruled he passed several cars on his way into pit road. Then he had nowhere to go when Ken Schrader's engine dumped oil and water on the track directly in front of Earnhardt on Lap 233, leaving Junior with a wrecked car and a 34th-place finish.

"I got back there behind Kenny when he blew up and got in some oil and tore the car up," Earnhardt said. "It's not a real good finish for us, but I was really kind of pleased with the way the guys were working and how the car was getting better all night."

California Dreamin'

Earnhardt shook off a horrible drought – which featured finishes of 21st or worse in five of his previous six races – to capture a tiring but emotional win last Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

"You're reminded by the media of your performance and how bad it is. You can't run and hide from it," Earnhardt said. "When we do have slumps, winning at places like the Daytona 500 and like this, Bristol, it makes it so much more special. It's a bigger relief than just having an average consistent race team every week. I'd rather be more consistent every week, but man, when you run like crap, a big win is pretty meaningful."

Johnson, meanwhile, ended his own string of bad luck at Bristol, snapping a streak of three consecutive finishes of 36th or worse when he finished third behind Earnhardt and runner-up Ryan Newman.

Now it's on to sunny California, where the two-mile oval brings back a mixture of emotions from a race at the Fontana, Calif., track more than two years ago. It was in April 2002 at California Speedway that Johnson recorded his first Cup victory.

"Any time you go back to a track where you've won before, you've got a different approach and a different attitude," said Johnson, who will be making his 100th career Cup start Sunday. "There's nothing like feeling competitive and like you've got a shot at the win. I feel that when I come back to California every time."

On that same day in '02 at Fontana, Earnhardt was involved in a crash that resulted in a serious concussion, the aftereffects of which would last nearly five months – aftereffects which he hid not only from NASCAR officials and fellow competitors, but also from his own team.

"Looking back, we shouldn't have [covered up the seriousness of the injury], but it's in the past now," Earnhardt said. "I learned some lessons from it and I've moved on."

Johnson is just 24 points behind teammate and Nextel Cup points leader Jeff Gordon, while Earnhardt is close behind in third place, 49 points in back of Johnson and 75 points behind Gordon. Gordon and Johnson finished 1-2 in the California spring race in May of this year, while Earnhardt was a distant 19th.

A win and a second-place finish in three career starts at what Johnson calls his "home track" ain't too shabby for the La Jolla, Calif., native.

"I know I'm going to be working hard, but it's great to come back and be in my home state and also be at the track where I scored my first win," said Johnson, who leads all Nextel Cup drivers with 15 top-five finishes in the first 24 races this season.

The rare Sunday night race is California Speedway's second race of the season – an event the track got when it took the Labor Day weekend date away from Darlington.

"This race under the lights is going to be something new for the West Coast," said Johnson. "I know people have watched races under the lights before at the NASCAR Nextel Cup level on television, but to see one in person is a whole different deal and I think everyone is really going to enjoy it."

But racing at night could present problems. No. 48 crew chief Chad Knaus is concerned that what has become predictable at California during day races in the spring will become completely unpredictable when the Cup series takes to the same facility for the first time under the lights.

"It's going to be an interesting race," Knaus said. "... I don't know what's going to happen out there. When the smog rolls in a little bit at night, so what's that going to do? I don't know for sure. There are going to be some unique circumstances we're going to have to overcome."

Earnhardt, meanwhile, is hoping that both the performance problems that hampered his team since Chicago in mid-July, coupled with his recovery from burns suffered while practicing for a sports car race on July 18, are behind him once and for all. While he's still not quite 100 percent physically, his confidence and motivation are.

"We might not bounce back to full consistency right away, but we're gaining on it," Earnhardt said. "When everybody thinks we're down and out, we get it back, we figure it out and we keep going."

And with the Chase for the Nextel Cup ready to kick off in two weeks, Earnhardt wants nothing more than to forget about the pre-Bristol drought and focus on winning the inaugural Nextel Cup title.

"We can win the championship," he said. "We're not as good as I want to be, but I don't know if that will ever happen. I'd like to think I was No. 1. Jimmie is strong and Jeff is strong. Those two cats right there are tough. I think Tony's (Stewart) got a chance at winning. I hope I'm right up there.

"I don't want to say I rank behind anybody. It's pretty much anybody's championship."

Dale Jr on Rusty Wallace

"It is hard to believe that he will no longer meet me on the track, as the driver of the No.2 car, after 2005. He has been a leader for our sport and I hope that his involvement will continue for years to come."

Junior back on track

"I can count on my team," Earnhardt said after his fourth win of the season. "When everyone thinks we're down and out, we get it back, we figure it out and we keep going. That's what makes us tough. We're tough as nails, man. We just do what it takes. We can handle it, man. We'll get back to victory lane somehow, some way."

A trip back to victory lane is exactly what Earnhardt and the No. 8 Chevrolet team desperately needed, having struggled horribly since mid-July. Prior to Saturday's victory, Earnhardt had recorded finishes of 21st or worse in five of the six previous races. Things were exacerbated by the burns he suffered in a crash at Sonoma on July 18 and the lengthy recovery period he has been forced to endure since.

"The last two months, we've been awful," crew chief Tony Eury said. "We had this slump going, but it looks like it's over tonight, I hope."

As things played out, Saturday – and the entire weekend, for that matter – was Earnhardt at his best. He started with a win in Friday night's Busch Series race and capped that off with Saturday's triumph under the lights on the half-mile BMS bullring. In so doing, Earnhardt became the first driver in NASCAR history to sweep both ends of a Busch-Cup weekend at Bristol.

"Winning last night was cool, but winning tonight is almost too much to comprehend," said Earnhardt, who sits third in the standings, now 75 points behind first-place Jeff Gordon. "I wanted a win here so bad, but I never thought I'd win a Busch race and a Cup race on the same weekend."

Coincidentally, Junior's win came five years to the day after his late father's fifth and last career win at Bristol.

"My dad made this place magical to an Earnhardt fan," the younger Earnhardt said. "I may not have done it like he did, but it was pretty damn close. I'm just so glad to get one of these trophies. My dad's got five of them. I've been looking at them for a long time. I'm glad I got me one."

Earnhardt drove in commanding fashion throughout the night, leading 295 of the race's 500 laps. He paced the field six different times, at one point building as much as an 11-second lead over the rest of the field. He eventually wound up with a 4.39-second winning margin over runner-up Ryan Newman.

Earnhardt started the season with a win in the Daytona 500, then led the Nextel Cup standings for nine of the first 14 weeks of the season. As his mid-summer misfortune began to grow, Earnhardt slipped further behind the man who eventually overtook him in week 15, Jimmie Johnson, and then Gordon, who finished 14th on Saturday. But he is hopeful things are about to change.

"This is one of the biggest wins in my career – it's Bristol, baby," Earnhardt said. "You're going to have [tough days]. You can't be No. 1 all the time. This is a huge win for us. It's awesome."

What made the outcome even sweeter wasn't just how well Earnhardt did behind the wheel, but also how his team rose to the occasion to give him arguably the strongest car in the 43-car field. That was in direct contrast to several recent races, when his car's setup was so radically far off at times that rumors of massive changes at Dale Earnhardt Inc. were increasing with every poor performance.

"I told them, 'Give me a good car and I'll do you a good job,'" Earnhardt said. "I had a good car tonight and I could do the job. I like night races, I get a hold of the racetrack better when the sun isn't beating on it, and we took it to 'em."

There's no question the night belonged to Earnhardt, even though he admittedly had his own doubts at times.

"I was sitting there leading and leading, and you just think of all the ways you're going to get your [butt] beat," Earnhardt said. "I was sitting there with 100 [laps] to go and said, I hate this track.' It's a love-hate relationship. You come to this place, it sets you in awe and you want to win here so bad. ... [It will] dangle a win right in front of you and then deal you a nasty blow and make you wait it out. I'm just really, really glad I won tonight."

A Bristol win is great, but it's not the ultimate goal. That, of course, is a Cup championship.

"We're not as good as I want to be, but I don't know if we'll ever be that way. I want to win the championship. This race boosts your confidence in yourself and it's definitely been a shot in the arm for the team. We needed it."

Repeat performance

Earnhardt broke out of a six-week slump Saturday night with a convincing victory in the Sharpie 500, giving him a weekend sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway and momentum for the upcoming championship chase.

Almost completely healed from burns he suffered last month in a non-NASCAR wreck, Earnhardt led 295 of the 500 laps for his first Nextel Cup win at Bristol. He'll stick the trophy right next to the one he earned Friday night for winning his first Busch series race on the 0.533-mile bullring.

He beat Ryan Newman to the finish line in a race that didn't shake up the championship standings as much as predicted.

Newman, fighting to become eligible for NASCAR's 10-race championship chase, moved into contention by jumping three spots to the cutoff position of 10th. It came at the expense of rookie Kasey Kahne, who finished 21st and fell to 11th in standings.

It was the only major change in the standings as drivers scramble to make it into the top 10 with just two races to go before the playoffs begin.

Kahne is 26 points out of the top 10 and Jeremy Mayfield, his teammate, is right behind in 12th place in the standings. But time is running out on the Evernham Motorsports pair, and everyone else behind them, too.

The name of the game now is putting together solid runs and getting teams in sync right before the chase begins. Jimmie Johnson did it by ending his streak of three straight DNF's with a third-place finish.

But it was Junior who made the loudest statement by pulling off a win when almost everyone -- including himself -- had written the team off.

It was just four weeks ago that he declared: "We're not a championship team right now, and I think everyone knows that."

The No. 8 Chevrolet was struggling, and nothing the driver or crew tried could fix it.

It didn't help that his legs were so badly burned in a practice session for a sports car race in California that Earnhardt twice had to give way to a relief driver, too hurt and too frustrated to stay in his car.

Things started to get better two weeks ago with a fifth-place finish on the demanding road course at Watkins Glen.

Now comes this win, which had Earnhardt almost giddy in Victory Lane.

"This team is tough as nails!" he screamed. "Man, we needed this. This is one of the biggest wins of my career, we were struggling, and you're going to have that.

"You can't be No. 1 all the time. That's what makes it sweeter."

The win came on the fifth anniversary of the late Dale Earnhardt's final Bristol victory. He earned it by knocking Terry Labonte out of the lead on the final lap of the race, a move that earned the popular driver a chorus of boos in Victory Lane.

The crowd's reaction was much different for this Earnhardt, who delighted them with a series of burnouts and was treated to deafening cheers when he got out of his car.

Jeff Burton finished fourth in his new Richard Childress-owned ride. Elliott Sadler was fifth, followed by Sterling Marlin and Jamie McMurray.

Kurt Busch, who won the past three Bristol races, finished eighth -- one lap down. Matt Kenseth was ninth and Dale Jarrett 10th.

There was some drama for a few of the championship contenders.

Kevin Harvick ran into trouble during a long green-flag run, losing feeling in his left arm and calling for his team to find a backup driver.

They found Kyle Petty, who had been knocked out of the race earlier, but Petty needed time to get into his firesuit. The caution came out as Petty was getting ready, and Harvick used the time to treat himself.

"I can't drive it with one hand," he radioed.

"Just shake out your arms, man. Loosen your belts and shrug your shoulders some," his crew told him.

When Petty was finally ready to get into the car, Harvick decided he'd stay in and try to make it to the end of the race. He couldn't, and gave up his seat on lap 359.

Harvick's car finished in 24th, but he maintained the eighth spot in the standings.

Jarrett had trouble when, running in second place after a restart, the lapped car of Robby Gordon hit him, causing a multi-car accident.

It knocked Jarrett back in the field, and he was livid.

"You tell him I got him in my mind," he radioed.

So did NASCAR, which warned Gordon that he would be ordered off the track if he hit another competitor.

Jarrett is now 45 points out of the top 10.

Mark Martin messed up on a pit stop, using rules for stopping under caution to enter the service road instead of the green-flag format. It cost him one lap, he finished 13th and now 35 points out.

Nine-time Bristol winner Rusty Wallace, who is expected to announce Monday that the 2005 season will be his last, didn't get the sendoff he wanted by finishing 26th.

Bristol: Lap By Lap

Lap 500: Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Lap 499: White flag. Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads.

Lap 416: Dale Earnhardt Jr. passes Jeff Burton for the lead.

Lap 400: Green flag. Jeff Burton leads. Jeff Gordon being black-flagged for not going to the end of the line for the restart. Gordon gets a drive-through penalty.

Lap 391: Jeff Burton decides not to pit and is the new race leader.

Lap 391: Leaders make pit stops.

Lap 389: Caution. Rusty Wallace, Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte involved in a wreck after checking up behind Mark Martin and Brian Vickers.

Lap 376: Dale Earnhardt Jr. passes Jimmie Johnson for the lead.

Lap 374: Restart. Jimmie Johnson leads.

Lap 365: Caution. Dale Jarrett, in second place, spins after contact with Robby Gordon. Tony Stewart, Sterling Marlin and Jeff Green and others wreck in the aftermath.

Lap 364: Restart. Jimmie Johnson leads.

Lap 361: Kyle Petty takes over driving duties for No. 29 Kevin Harvick. Harvick was having numbness in his arms.

Lap 359: Many of the leaders pit.

Lap 358: Caution is out for debris.

Lap 356: Jimmie Johnson takes the lead from Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Lap 345: Jeremy Mayfield has a tire going down. He pits and returns to the track in 27th place.

Lap 338: Restart. Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads.

Lap 332: Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads after pitting.

Lap 331: The leaders begin to pit.

Lap 327: Caution is out for debris.

Lap 241: Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the lead after all pit stops are complete.

Lap 225: Jeff Gordon is the leader once again as pit stops cycle through.

Lap 216: Dale Earnhardt Jr. pits. Jamie McMurray inherits the lead.

Lap 204: Jeremy Mayfield pits. Rusty Wallace pits and stalls on pit road, nearly out of gas. Wallace loses a lot of time.

Lap 191: Dale Earnhardt Jr. overtakes Rusty Wallace for the lead.

Lap 132: Rusty Wallace passes Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead.

Lap 128: Dale Earnhardt Jr. retakes the lead from Rusty Wallace.

Lap 105: Rusty Wallace takes the lead from Dale Jr.

Lap 99: Restart. Dale Earnhardt Jr. still leads.

Lap 89: Caution. Trouble on the restart. Carl Edwards, Brendan Gaughan, Ken Schrader Kyle Petty and Tony Raines get bunched up behind Matt Kenseth.

Lap 88: Restart. Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads.

Lap 83: Caution. Ricky Craven spins and hits the wall.

Lap 72: Dale Earnhardt Jr. passes Rusty Wallace for the lead.

Lap 70: Casey Mears heads to the garage with damage.

Lap 62: Green flag. Rusty Wallace leads.

Lap 59: Rusty Wallace inherits the lead. Mark Martin beats Jeff Gordon off pit road.

Lap 58: The leaders make their pit stops.

Lap 57: Mike Wallace and Ricky Rudd get together after running side-by-side.

Lap 40: Restart. Jeff Gordon still leads.

Lap 32: Caution. Joe Nemechek and Scott Wimmer make contact after Wimmer is nudged by Ricky Craven. Heavy damage for Nemechek after bouncing into the wall.

Lap 24: Restart. Jeff Gordon retains the lead.

Lap 22: Several driver elect to pit. Leaders stay out.

Lap 21: Caution is out. Jimmy Spencer hits the wall.

Lap 16: Still caution-free. The leaders lap Derrike Cope.

Lap 2: Polesitter Jeff Gordon leads the first lap.

Lap 1: Green flag.

Junior avoids yellow fever

Earnhardt, who started from the pole, led a race-high 125 laps, but several late cautions bunched up the field and gave the competitors a chance to run him down in the Food City 250.

He had a terrific restart with nine laps to go, easily pulling away from Kevin Harvick. But Kenseth pushed past Harvick and was reeling Earnhardt in when the 13th caution flag came out for a wreck involving Tony Raines and Jay Sauter.

It set up the first green-white-checkered flag finish of the Busch Series, and Earnhardt once again got a jump to pull away from Kenseth and ride on to his second series win in four starts this season.

"I was worried because I got a lot of stuff on the tires," Earnhardt said. "But Matt did a good job, he could have run all over me. The last lap I was chugging through corners, just trying to keep it on the bottom.

"He laid off of me. It was a good race, a good win. But he layed off of me and it was a good race, a good win."

Kenseth said he was hampered by spinning his tires on the final restart, which prevented him from closing in on Earnhardt.

"If I wouldn't have spun the tires, I think I would have had a shot at Junior," Kenseth said, nearly drowned out by the cheers for Earnhardt. "But it seems like everybody is happier with this outcome, so that's all right."

Kyle Busch finished third, snapping his streak of two straight Busch Series victories. Harvick was fourth, giving Nextel Cup regulars three of the top four spots.

David Green was fifth, David Stremme sixth and points leader Martin Truex Jr. was seventh. But his lead was cut from 97 points to 78 over Busch.

Truex, who was involved in an early wreck with Greg Biffle, was clearly irritated after the race.

"It's pretty frustrating," he said. "I guess Biffle was (mad) and decided to wreck somebody, and it was a tough break."

Earnhardt, who has been in a Nextel Cup slump the second half of the season and fairly unimpressive since he suffered burns in a July non-NASCAR wreck, is hoping to carry some momentum into Saturday night's Sharpie 500.

"We've got to get better," he said. "We don't point fingers, we'll just all gather ourselves and do the best we can each week."

Junior's best at Bristol

Earnhardt Jr. had a fast lap of 126.570 mph for his first pole in a Busch event since July 2003 at Daytona and his ninth in the series overall.

Tony Raines was second-fastest at 126.537 mph, and Kenny Wallace was next at 126.071.

Wallace held the pole with 49 of the 51 cars finished qualifying. The last two, however, were Earnhardt Jr. and Raines.

"I'm kind of glad (Dale) Jr. beat me that bad because I would have been really disappointed if Tony (Raines) caught me out of left field," Wallace said.

Kevin Harvick and David Green rounded out the top five.

Series points leader Martin Truex Jr. will start 12th. Truex, Earnhardt Jr. and Paul Menard, who qualified 15th, are all driving entries owned in part by Dale Earnhardt Inc.

"This place is so fast and so furious, I think it's going to be a great show," Earnhardt said. "We're really happy with the progress we're making with the (Menard) car. He had a good run today, too."

Earnhardt has never won at Bristol, but has two second-place finishes.

He is still recovering from being badly burned in a sports car crash July 18. A few weeks ago at the Brickyard 400, he was still laboring to get in and out of his car and limping noticeably.

Junior: Truex has tough battle ahead to win title

Truex Jr., in his first full season driving for DEI, is holding onto a 97-point lead over Busch heading into Friday night's Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway -- a track where anything can happen.

Avoiding the bad, Earnhardt Jr. said, is what wins Busch titles.

"He's got a pretty tough competitor in Kyle Busch," Earnhardt Jr. said. "He will have to be pretty flawless the rest of the year. It's going to be a pretty tight race to the end."

In 1998, Earnhardt Jr. won the Busch title by a scant 48 points over Matt Kenseth, whom he battled all season. It was a two-car race - their closest challenger, Mike McLaughlin, was over 400 points back in third place.

"Matt was always right in front of me or behind me," Earnhardt Jr. said.

This year's Busch points chase is nearly identical, with third-place Jason Leffler standing 398 points from the lead.

Run up front every week in the Nextel Cup Series, Earnhardt Jr. says, and you'll have a top-10 race team. Run up front every week in the Busch Series, and you'll win the title.

It's good to be consistent in the Cup Series, but hell, there's 15 guys (who are consistent)," Earnhardt Jr. said. "In the Busch Series, only 1-2 guys can match you."

Earnhardt Jr. ready to put burns behind him

Earnhardt, burned on the legs in a sports car crash on July 18 in Sonoma, Calif., was focused on recovery for several weeks. He used a relief driver at both Loudon, N.H., and Pocono, but drove the entire races at Indianapolis and on the road course at Watkins Glen.

More important, those last two races showed the team's midseason slump may be over.

If not for a flat tire at the end of the race, Earnhardt was on to the way to a top 10 at Indy. And despite the discomfort of having to use the clutch and brake throughout the race at The Glen, he drove to a solid fifth-place finish -- his first top-five in five races.

"It's gut-check time and the team is stepping up," said Earnhardt, who goes into Sunday's GFS Marketplace 400 at the Michigan track third in the standings, just 128 points out of first.

"We're not where we need to be, but I get the feeling we're heading that direction," he added.

Earnhardt finished a disappointing 21st in the June Michigan race, but the DEI team tested the No. 8 Chevrolet at the track for two days last week.

"We put spring rubbers in to try to make the car turn better. We took them out. We moved them from the back to the front. We took two tires. We did it all," Earnhardt said. "When you do all that and it's still slow, then you know it's time to go test."

Ailing Earnhardt

``I'm fine,'' said Earnhardt, who was seventh-quickest in the first practice and will start third on Sunday in the Sirius at the Glen.

If Junior needed a boost to forget his aches and pains, he certainly received one from a young visitor from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. When 3-year-old Connor Poling of West Virginia, who is recovering from heart surgery, sat down for a chat wearing a bright orange No. 8 hat, his favorite driver was beaming.

``Hello partner. Feeling all right?'' Earnhardt asked.

Connor's shyness dominated the 15-minute session -- he kept his head bowed and held his hands over his eyes, finally relenting once for a photo before departing.

``Take it easy and have a good trip. See yah, buddy,'' Earnhardt said, prompting Connor to finally break out of his shell and give him a thumbs-up.

Officially licensed product is big business

What does that mean?

In a word, it means that everybody even remotely involved has signed off on the official NASCAR beer cozy you employ to good effect each and every Sunday afternoon. All kidding aside, there's a whole lot of licensing going on these days, and it makes a whole lot of money for the companies who produce the items, sponsors, drivers and yes, NASCAR.

The official definition of licensed materials is products which carry a particular logo or mark marketed in a specific, clearly defined manner to NASCAR fans around the world.

"What licensing is, is an opportunity to find good products that fill voids for the fans, that allow them to ultimately convey their passion and appreciation for the sport through those products," said Blake Davidson, managing director of licensed products for NASCAR. "Apparel, to me, is one of the easiest ways that people can identify with the sport. Whether it's a T-shirt or a hat, those are really badges of honor for fans to say, 'hey, I'm a Jeff Gordon fan, or I'm a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan, and I support them so much I'm going to wear this article of clothing to show that support.'"

But NASCAR as a sport is its own little world, in which the teams themselves are responsible for the licensing that is done on their behalf. "If I have a product that I want to incorporate any of the NASCAR marks or any of the team marks, It's not like the NFL or Major League Baseball," said Butch Cox, director of motorsports licensing for Racing Champions. "There, you go in and deal with just one or two properties that manage the whole league. NASCAR does not have one property, per se, that manages all of the teams. You have to go to the individual teams."

Davidson agreed, saying that while everyone is operating independently, they all tend to work together. "Everyone operates independently, but there is a lot of cooperation that goes on between NASCAR and the drivers, teams and tracks involved," he said.

"We certainly look to cross-license all those products that are driver, team and track related and I think that flows back the other way too. There are a number of benefits to being cross-licensed, on both sides. The NASCAR mark is sort of that Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. We've done some studies that say when fans see the NASCAR mark on a product, it stands for higher quality and good value and a number of other attributes that they find important. If they see that NASCAR mark on a product, they are more likely to purchase that product, so it's very complimentary."

Once the company producing the merchandise approaches the individual teams, the bargaining begins. What licensing really is, is first agreeing on the product and its distribution and approving the finished product.

"If the licensor, which is the person who has control of the mark, whether it's the driver, the sponsor or the team, wants to go ahead with a product, you then go about putting licensing agreements in place and then going through the whole approval process," Cox explained.

Racing Champions produces licensed die-cast and other apparel for NASCAR teams and manufacturers, and licensing is a big part of getting those products to market. Some of the clients Racing Champions represents include the trackside business for Jimmie Johnson and Lowe's, Ward Burton and NetZero, Scott Wimmer and Caterpillar and both the Ford and Dodge manufacturer programs.

Everyone knows about the explosion in apparel and other "wearables" that has taken NASCAR by storm since the late 1980s. Driver T-shirts have become so common that some drivers develop several models for use throughout the year, and there's a sponsor shirt and hat to go with it. Faux leather jackets are much in vogue these days. Every one of these products is licensed through the team and again by NASCAR, especially if it includes the word NASCAR or its logo.

Remember when trading cards first hit the market back in the late 1980s and early 1990s? That was something that baseball had been doing since the early 1900s, and it worked well for NASCAR as the organization began to grow out of its southeastern birthplace and into the mainstream. Die-cast cars followed, along with the wearables, and now the collectibles/apparel/licensed product business is as big, if not bigger, than baseball's.

"In 1990, NASCAR licensing business was about $80 million overall," Davidson said. "Today it's more than $2.1 billion. Like the sport itself, it's grown tremendously. With the penetration of TV, more tracks and more fans across the country, it makes sense that the licensing business would grow exponentially, and it has. It's also brought more sophisticated companies, with better penetration, more quality products, etc. and they're able to service the fan base a lot more effectively and efficiently than ever before. Apparel represents about one third of licensed product sales."

How do teams and drivers make money through licensing? Well, they do, but like the purse structure and the individual driver share we've written about before, it remains more closely guarded than the formula for Coca-Cola. Rest assured, however, that in most cases some of the revenue realized from sales of licensed products is plowed back into the racing program.

"There is a direct connection between fans buying products that support their teams, because it helps them do better on the track," Davidson said. "They are making revenue and that revenue is turned around and put back into the race team, so there is a direct connection that fans readily acknowledge."

And that, as they say in business, is the bottom line.

'Young Guns' reinventing the sport of NASCAR

There is a paradox in American design right now: Never have we produced so many conspicuously good-looking objects, but at the same time, never has more of our life -- our wealth, work, information, even sexual stimuli -- existed in a realm where there are no material products at all, just images or blips of electronic code. The less the physical world has come to contain our lives, the better-looking we have made it -- perhaps just to remind us that it's still there.

Matt Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.: They're the young guns of NASCAR, and they're reinventing the sport.

For most of NASCAR's 56-year history, the opportunity to scare yourself silly in the fastest stock cars available was pretty much restricted to a small group of aging country boys, some of whom were direct descendants of the old moonshine runners who evaded IRS agents on the backroads of Georgia and the Carolinas. NASCAR was the country music of American professional sports, a regional phenomenon filled with weathered characters, slow drawls, and honky-tonk mischief.

The six drivers featured in this story -- part of Gillette's Young Guns Challenge, which will give away $5 million at the end of the season if they all finish in the top six and a fan correctly picks their final order -- are all under 32 and grew up in places like Wisconsin and Indiana and California.

"One of the hardest parts of my job is the travel schedule and the obligations," Johnson said. "You really can't have a personal life. Burnout hits earlier and earlier."

"It doesn't bother me that I'll be compared to my Daddy all my life," Earnhardt Jr. told Men's Journal. "He taught me to be a man."

Earnhardt limps away with heartbreaking finish

Yes, Earnhardt was still behind the wheel when the race ended - the first time he has finished a race since being burned in a sports car crash July 18. But Earnhardt, as usual, expected more.

A cut left front tire on the final lap of the Brickyard 400 dropped him from sixth to 27th.

"No, it don't," Earnhardt said when asked if it felt good to finish. "Just before my tire blew I had a sixth place finish."

Earnhardt was not looking for sympathy. He wanted to close the gap on Nextel Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson and runner-up Jeff Gordon. Johnson left the door open for Earnhardt when he went out with a blown engine after 88 laps, but Gordon won his fourth Indy race.

Earnhardt now trails Johnson by 240 points and Gordon by 143.

The good news for Junior's fans was that Earnhardt didn't need a replacement driver for the first time in three weeks.

Healing driver, healing team

The most striking admission during the 35-minute Q&A was that he'd forfeited the seat of his Chevrolet to John Andretti last weekend neither out of pain nor the reported numbness in his foot, but rather because the car was driving so terribly.

"I didn't get out because I couldn't keep going. I got out because I could, and that's wrong," Earnhardt said just after laying down the fastest stock car lap ever at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He'll start fifth in Sunday's Brickyard 400, and plans to run the entire race. Andretti is on hand just in case, however.

"More than anything I got out of the car last week out of frustration at how bad the car was, and how far off we were," Junior continued. "We had parts and pieces falling off, even when John was in the car.

"I threw John to the wolves. He didn't get a lap all weekend, and for him to get in that car without any hesitation ... Well, I was more impressed with that than anything I'd seen in a while.

"We're not pointing fingers or anything, we've just got to get better. It's difficult on the team right now because we have two problems: We have the driver trying to get right and we have a team that's not right. We try not to go into panic mode and get crazy, or move people and make rash decisions, because Teresa (Earnhardt) and I don't believe you change partners in the middle of the dance."

Earnhardt would have a difficult time dancing right now.

The burn on his neck has nearly healed, but three burns on his left leg are still giving him significant discomfort when he stands or walks. One is on his upper left thigh and measures 2-by-4 inches.

The others are on the back of his left leg -- one just above the knee that measures some 5-by-5 inches, the other just below the knee that he likened to the size of a silver dollar.

"All those wounds are really the only ones giving me problems," Earnhardt said. "The right leg has two blisters on it that have scabbed over and 80 or 90 percent healed up.

"The ones on the left leg are still soft, haven't developed scabs, haven't turned the corner yet, so to speak. I expected by this point that they would have. Being a human being, I want to get my leg right. Whatever the cost. That was number one for me. I wanted to make that clear, and everybody agreed with that."

Earnhardt reiterated that he wasn't knocked unconscious, and said his doctors initially predicted a two-week recovery period. Saturday was the 20th day since he wrecked a sports car at Infineon Raceway, which resulted in second-degree burns to his legs and neck.

"I was surprised, too, at my own reaction (following the crash). Disoriented might be a good word for it," Junior said. "I didn't have any headaches. I went to Dr. Petty, got checked out. Everything was good, so I even assured myself, if I had any questions or doubts that I'd been knocked out or stunned.

"I didn't expect the car to burst info flames like it did. It was a surreal moment, like I couldn't believe I was sitting in this ball of fire. It was about three seconds of 'what the hell do I do now?'"

Two nurses visited him this past week to experiment with new dressings for the burns in an effort to accelerate the healing process.

"All that has helped a lot. This week I'm able to put my heel down and walk half normal, but it still hurts a little bit," Earnhardt said. "Walking to the car, to the bus, to the crew, whatever, is harder than driving. Driving, sitting in the seat, is not a problem.

"Even last week, I wasn't bothered. Even on that long straightaway at Pocono, you'd think that it'd come to your attention at some point down that straightaway, but really I didn't have any problem."

Earnhardt said his team has failed to field good racecars for "eight to 10 races" and that he wants to stay aggressive, though in his situation that's difficult.

"I want to get aggressive, but it's really hard for me to get aggressive being a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest," he joked. "But I've still got to stop what I'm doing in the middle of the day and wrap these things up and lay in the tub for 45 minutes, so it's still in the back of your mind.

"I don't think if affects your performance, but until it's right I don't feel like I'm 100 percent focused. The level I need to be focusing is not quite there yet."

Earnhardt anticipates he'll be back at 100 percent by the time the Chase for the Championship gets underway in September. There are kinks in the DEI armor that must be worked out before that time, as well. Junior is running a new chassis this weekend, and said that has proven to be a significant upgrade.

Some have speculated whether or not Junior might benefit from a change in his team's leadership. His uncle, Tony Eury, Sr., and cousin, Tony Jr., have served as a two-headed crew chief since he was a Busch Series rookie in 1998.

"How much I care about them overrides even the worst season you could have," Junior said. "That's more important to me that me and Tony Jr. always have a good relationship, mean and Tony Sr. always have a good relationship. That's way more important than any championship. I've always felt like I'd race with them forever. That's still how I feel."

Earnhardt Jr. won't need a sub at Indianapolis

Spokesman Mike Davis said Dale Earnhardt Inc. won't use Martin Truex Jr. or John Andretti as a relief driver this weekend.

Truex Jr. qualified the No. 8 Chevrolet in New Hampshire and relieved Earnhardt Jr. during the race two weeks ago.

Andretti took over for Earnhardt Jr. last weekend at Pocono. Earnhardt Jr. had planned to run the entire race at Pocono Raceway but the combination of numbness in his legs and a poor handling car forced him to get out.

Earnhardt Jr. continues to recover from second-degree burns to his chin, neck and inner thighs suffered in a sports car crash at Infineon Raceway three weeks ago.

Draw to determine pole winner?

A driver who goes early in qualifying has a big advantage, some drivers say.

"Whoever put the schedule together doesn't understand the combination of weather and cars," said Ryan Newman, who goes out 20th of 50 cars. "It's not ideal at all. Whoever gets the early draw is more likely going to be a top five or top 10 qualifier than a guy that goes out next to last, depending on the weather of course. Last year I think the track picked up over a second and a half just because I went out so early. It's not fair to all the drivers."

Earnhardt Jr. could need all the help he can get, for the No. 8 Chevrolet was 37th fastest at 179.383 mph.

Earnhardt Jr. forced out early

"I felt fine," Junior said. "The bumps hurt a little bit but my foot was going to sleep. I haven't been using it a lot -- I haven't been standing on it much and it just goes to sleep and cramps up real easy."

Earnhardt, still nursing burn injuries suffered two weeks ago when he wrecked a sports car at Infineon Raceway, completed 51 laps before better judgment said to hand the ride over to substitute driver John Andretti.

"I could have run the rest of the way, but the car was so bad there really wasn't no use of me being in there wasting my time," Junior said. "(I figured) I should be out of the car trying to get better. I think I'll be able to go to next week's race without any problem."

The driver switch was choreographed much like last week's switch at New Hampshire, when Earnhardt gained 14 positions in 61 laps before turning the reins over to Martin Truex, Jr.

Earnhardt pitted on Lap 53, loosening his belts as he coursed down the pit lane. When he stopped in the pits, gasman Jeff Clark grabbed him under the armpits and pulled him from the car. Andretti hopped in, completing the switch in one minute, 22 seconds.

After two subsequent stops, the team spent a total of 1:42 on pit lane. Though Earnhardt appeared to be in significant pain, he says the numbness was his only concern.

Once out of the car, Junior spent 27 laps in his team's pit stall, mostly sitting on the pit wall, before being carted away by track personnel. He expressed the most dismay over the attitude of his race cars the last two weeks.

"I'm just really disappointed that things are going like they're going," Earnhardt said. "I wish that this thing would heal up a little faster, but it just takes time, I guess. The car wasn't running too well, and I thought if we was gonna make a change, we should make it then.

"We had a terrible race car today, so there wasn't any use in me being in there flying around in it."

Earnhardt started 16th, lost a lap on Lap 28 and was running 33rd when he pitted to make the driver switch. Andretti restarted 34th, one lap down, but managed to complete less than 25 laps before a broken sway bar forced him into the Turn 2 wall. He was then black-flagged for running too slow.

Running three laps down in 36th position, Andretti pitted on Lap 79 and took the car to the garage. While replacing the sway bar, he lost four more laps and returned to the track in 37th position, seven laps down.

In the end, Andretti finished 25th. As a result, Earnhardt fell from second to third in the Nextel Cup standings, 267 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

"I hated more giving it to the (substitute drivers) than getting out of it," Junior said. "We threw John in there and he ain't had a lap this weekend. The sway bar bolt was missing and the car was rolling over and spinning out on him, and I just hate it for him.

"I hated to put Martin in that situation last weekend (because) I know the car wasn't that great. But I just didn't really have any business trying to run it. Hopefully we'll come to Indy and be able to get through it."

Junior plans to spend entire weekend in No. 8

"This is a Dale Jr. weekend," Andretti said. "We still don't know exactly what the plans are, but he's going to go if he can."

Andretti said inclement weather would be ideal. If practice and qualifying are rained out, Junior would have a front row starting spot and never have to get in the car.

If Andretti does get in the car, the team won't have to switch out seats. Andretti has a seat insert that he'll simply slide into Earnhardt's seat, greatly reducing the overall time required to complete the driver switch.

Earnhardt sat out practice and qualifying last weekend at New Hampshire while nursing second-degree burns on his chin, neck and inner thighs, suffered in a sports car wreck two weeks ago at Infineon Raceway.

He started the Siemens 300, picking up 14 positions in 61 laps before surrendering the seat to Martin Truex Jr.

Junior's fiery wreck raises safety concerns in NASCAR

In-car camera shots showed Earnhardt surrounded by fire as he scrambled to unhook his seat belts and jump out of the burning Corvette, which he was driving in a July 18 sports car event in Sonoma, Calif.

Although the accident happened in a different car in a different series, the accident at Infineon Raceway raised concerns in NASCAR.

"It doesn't happen often but, when it does, it gets everybody thinking and the ideas come pouring in," said Gary Nelson, head of NASCAR's research and development facility in Concord, N.C. "We've looked at different systems and made some rule changes in the past year that I think have helped on fire suppression. And we've made some great gains in fire prevention. But our goal is to eliminate the chance of fire."

Perhaps, but there will always be potential for fire in a race car because of the fuel and parts that get hot under the vehicles.

Last year, after Cup drivers Ryan Newman, Ken Schrader, Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte were forced to scramble from burning cars in separate accidents, NASCAR began requiring a new fire-extinguishing cylinder in the fuel cell area at the rear of the car in all of its top series. The system is triggered automatically in a fire, but it can also be started by the driver.

NASCAR also made changes to improve the fire-extinguishing system in the driver's compartment.

Earnhardt said he panicked for a second or two at Sonoma when he was unable to find the lever to start the fire-extinguisher system because he was unfamiliar with the car. He never did find it and the car eventually burned to the ground.

"When the car caught fire, all I saw was fire," he said. "I didn't even see where to go to get out. The fire was within the helmet and all around the visor ... I was just trying to find out how to get where the fire wasn't."

Earnhardt was burned on his legs, neck and chin, and he needed a backup driver to finish last Sunday's race at New Hampshire. He is hoping to be ready to drive the full 500 miles this Sunday at Pocono, but John Andretti will be standing by as a precaution.

The accident reminded many in the sport that fire remains the biggest fear for most drivers, no matter what kind of car they race. Race historian Donald Davidson estimated that fire probably killed 80 percent of the drivers who died in race cars before the '70s.

Technology has reduced the risks. The biggest improvement is the rubberized fuel cells developed for use in airplanes and helicopters during the Vietnam War to keep fuel from igniting when hit by snipers' bullets. Those fuel cells have been improved throughout racing by surrounding them with fire-retardant foam.

There is also a wide variety of fire-retardant clothing and underclothing to protect drivers from fire. Still, Newman said more needs to be done to keep them safe.

"The type of extinguisher that we're using is not ideal for the situation because it's a gas," he said. "You pull the pin on something that's a gas, while you're running 150 mph, you've got the air moving, so you're basically putting out a fire that's 100 yards behind you.

"If you had a liquid or a semi-liquid, something like a foam that could suffocate a fire, even if it covered the driver, it would still be better than sitting there and getting burned."

Nelson said NASCAR is always looking for ways to improve safety, but he added that gas products, like Halon, always come out on top in testing of fire extinguishers.

"It's the one that puts out the fire," he said.

Fire, of course, is just one area of concern that NASCAR is looking at.

Dale Earnhardt, Junior's father and the sport's biggest star, was killed in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500, setting off a wave of safety innovations in NASCAR and other divisions. The changes included mandatory head and neck restraints, energy absorbing barriers on racetrack walls and the creation of the NASCAR research and development facility.

But Earnhardt Jr. didn't take advantage of all the equipment available to keep him safe at Sonoma.

When his car caught fire, he was wearing only a long-sleeved fire retardant undershirt, skipping the matching undershorts and head sock that might have kept him from being burned at all.

"My opinion was that it'll never happen to me or that I'll never be in that situation," Earnhardt said. "So it shows me I need to be wearing everything I can wear and utilize as much precaution as possible."

NASCAR generally allows drivers to make their owns decisions on personal safety equipment, like helmets and gloves, but Newman says it's time to make some items mandatory.

"It's not even mandatory to wear gloves right now," he said. "I think drivers should wear the best fire-retardant clothing and underwear, no matter if it's 95 degrees in Martinsville or 35 degrees in Atlanta.

"From a driver's standpoint, it's our responsibility, but if NASCAR is a big family, it wouldn't be a bad thing to be told by our parents what to do."

Fire fright

When Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car burst into flames, television viewers got a frightening, up-close look at the dangers drivers face when they wreck.

In-car camera shots showed Earnhardt surrounded by fire as he scrambled to unhook his seat belts and jump out of the burning Corvette, which he was driving in a July 18 sports car event in Sonoma, Calif.

Although the accident happened in a different car in a different series, the accident at Infineon Raceway raised concerns in NASCAR.

"It doesn't happen often but, when it does, it gets everybody thinking and the ideas come pouring in," said Gary Nelson, head of NASCAR's research and development facility in Concord, N.C. "We've looked at different systems and made some rule changes in the past year that I think have helped on fire suppression. And we've made some great gains in fire prevention. But our goal is to eliminate the chance of fire."

Perhaps, but there will always be potential for fire in a race car because of the fuel and parts that get hot under the vehicles.

Last year, after Cup drivers Ryan Newman, Ken Schrader, Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte were forced to scramble from burning cars in separate accidents, NASCAR began requiring a new fire-extinguishing cylinder in the fuel cell area at the rear of the car in all of its top series. The system is triggered automatically in a fire, but it can also be started by the driver.

NASCAR also made changes to improve the fire-extinguishing system in the driver's compartment.

Earnhardt said he panicked for a second or two at Sonoma when he was unable to find the lever to start the fire-extinguisher system because he was unfamiliar with the car. He never did find it and the car eventually burned to the ground.

"When the car caught fire, all I saw was fire," he said. "I didn't even see where to go to get out. The fire was within the helmet and all around the visor ... I was just trying to find out how to get where the fire wasn't."

Earnhardt was burned on his legs, neck and chin, and he needed a backup driver to finish last Sunday's race at New Hampshire. He is hoping to be ready to drive the full 500 miles this Sunday at Pocono, but John Andretti will be standing by as a precaution.

The accident reminded many in the sport that fire remains the biggest fear for most drivers, no matter what kind of car they race. Race historian Donald Davidson estimated that fire probably killed 80 per cent of the drivers who died in race cars before the '70s.

Technology has reduced the risks. The biggest improvement is the rubberized fuel cells developed for use in airplanes and helicopters during the Vietnam War to keep fuel from igniting when hit by snipers' bullets. Those fuel cells have been improved throughout racing by surrounding them with fire-retardant foam.

There is also a wide variety of fire-retardant clothing and underclothing to protect drivers from fire. Still, Newman said more needs to be done to keep them safe.

"The type of extinguisher that we're using is not ideal for the situation because it's a gas," he said. "You pull the pin on something that's a gas, while you're running 150 miles per hour, you've got the air moving, so you're basically putting out a fire that's 100 yards behind you.

"If you had a liquid or a semi-liquid, something like a foam that could suffocate a fire, even if it covered the driver, it would still be better than sitting there and getting burned."

Nelson said NASCAR is always looking for ways to improve safety, but he added that gas products, like Halon, always come out on top in testing of fire extinguishers.

"It's the one that puts out the fire," he said.

Fire, of course, is just one area of concern that NASCAR is looking at.

Dale Earnhardt, Junior's father and the sport's biggest star, was killed in a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500, setting off a wave of safety innovations in NASCAR and other divisions. The changes included mandatory head and neck restraints, energy absorbing barriers on racetrack walls and the creation of the NASCAR research and development facility.

But Earnhardt Jr. didn't take advantage of all the equipment available to keep him safe at Sonoma.

When his car caught fire, he was wearing only a long-sleeved fire retardant undershirt, skipping the matching undershorts and head sock that might have kept him from being burned at all.

"My opinion was that it'll never happen to me or that I'll never be in that situation," Earnhardt said. "So it shows me I need to be wearing everything I can wear and utilize as much precaution as possible."

NASCAR generally allows drivers to make their owns decisions on personal safety equipment, like helmets and gloves, but Newman says it's time to make some items mandatory.

"It's not even mandatory to wear gloves right now," he said. "I think drivers should wear the best fire-retardant clothing and underwear, no matter if it's 95 degrees in Martinsville or 35 degrees in Atlanta.

"From a driver's standpoint, it's our responsibility, but if NASCAR is a big family, it wouldn't be a bad thing to be told by our parents what to do."

Busch, Earnhardt pleased with results at New Hamsphire

Both were satisfied that Sunday's Siemens 300 kept them on the road to a possible NASCAR Nextel Cup championship with seven races left until the new championship showdown begins.

``I believe our chase for the championship started today in the first Loudon race instead of the second Loudon race,'' Busch said after moving from ninth to sixth in the points with his convincing win.

The injured Earnhardt remained second in the points, thanks to some relief from rookie Martin Truex Jr.

Busch started 32nd in the 43-car field, worked his way to the front and was the only driver able to stay with pole-winner Ryan Newman through most of the 300-mile race.

Newman led a race-high 187 laps, but Busch passed him twice and, finally, pulled away from both Newman and runner-up Jeff Gordon at the end for his second win of the season and 10th of his career.

``We continued to work on our car and make it better, whereas Newman may have thought he had a great car and didn't make adjustments,'' Busch said.

A number of drivers had their eyes on the season standings Sunday, with the top 10 drivers, along with any others within 400 points of the lead after the 26th race, competing for the championship over the last 10 races of the season.

Busch's first win since Bristol in March solidified his chances of vying for the title when the ``Chase for the Cup'' begins on the same flat, 1.058-mile New Hampshire oval on Sept. 19.

``I thought we had to apply pressure this week and get our 10 races going right now,'' Busch said. ``I believe our chase for the championship started today in the first Loudon race instead of the second Loudon race.''

Earnhardt, with second-degree burns on his legs, neck and chin from a crash a week earlier during a sports car event, held on to second place in the standings after starting the race to get the championship points. He gave up the seat on lap 61 to Truex, the Busch Series points leader making his Cup debut.

Truex hit the wall on lap 141 after bouncing off Ken Schrader's car, but the 24-year-old rookie hung in to finish 31st, two laps behind Busch. Series leader Jimmie Johnson, who swept both New Hampshire races last year, struggled to an 11th-place finish on Sunday but increased his lead over Earnhardt from 105 to 165 points, with Gordon 202 back.

Earnhardt, hoping for an early yellow flag, had to wait 59 laps before Ricky Craven bounced off Elliott Sadler and hit the wall, bringing out the first caution. The ensuing driver change was flawless, with a crewman helping Earnhardt out of the car and Truex sliding in, buckling up and driving away without losing a lap.

``It ain't no fun getting out, I'll tell you that,'' said Earnhardt, sitting behind the pit box in the Dale Earnhardt Inc., team's pit stall and watching Truex drive his No. 8 Chevrolet.

``My injuries really, really hurt bad,'' Earnhardt said, a smile belying his words. ``It's a pain I ain't never felt before.''

Truex said he felt good about his first Cup race.

``All they wanted was last-place points,'' he said. ``It's better than 43rd. They wanted Junior to start the race and me to get in and get everything I could. And 15 spots is 15 spots,'' he added, just a little off on his math.

Asked if he plans to stand by for Earnhardt next week at Pocono, Truex said he doesn't know.

``Hopefully not,'' he said. ``Hopefully, Junior is good to go. I'll get my shot in my own car, hopefully, someday.''

Newman led the first 170 laps before Busch got by him on the backstretch. Those two battled at the front for a while, with Newman regaining the top spot on a pit stop on lap 216, only to see Busch drive his Roush Racing Ford to the front again on lap 233, with Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet also getting past Newman's Penske Racing South Dodge.

``I think we were strong the whole time,'' said Newman, who remained in third the rest of the race. ``It's just the 97 (Busch) and 24 (Gordon) got by me. I got loose and washed up the track and let them both get by me.''

Gordon, who has three victories here, tried hard to get past Busch, getting close several times on restarts, including one just three laps from the end. But Busch was just too strong, pulling away each time and beating Gordon to the finish line by 0.607 seconds -- about four car-lengths.

The four-time Cup champion said he couldn't quite catch Busch.

``I would have had to give him a pretty good nudge to get him out of the way and I think that could have cost us a win or a second place, so I didn't do that,'' Gordon said.

The race was slowed by 12 caution flags for 62 laps. Most of the yellows were brought out by crashes, including two by local favorite Craven, but there were no injuries as the energy-absorbing SAFER barriers got a real workout.

Injured Earnhardt feeling better

Earnhardt, still feeling severe pain from second-degree burns to his legs, neck and chin sustained in a sports car crash the previous week, drove the first 61 laps of last Sunday's race at New Hampshire International Speedway before giving up the driver's seat to rookie Martin Truex Jr.

Jade Gurss, a spokesman for Earnhardt, said Tuesday the driver hopes to drive the entire Pennsylvania 500 on Sunday, but will have veteran John Andretti -- a part-time DEI driver this season -- standing by throughout the weekend.

At New Hampshire, Truex -- driving for the first time in a NASCAR Nextel Cup event -- qualified in place of Earnhardt and crashed after taking the wheel in the race. But, he was able to race to the end, finishing 31st and helping Earnhardt remain second to Jimmie Johnson in the season points race.

Earnhardt goes into the Pennsylvania race 165 points behind Johnson and 37 ahead of third-place Jeff Gordon.

Andretti to stand by for Dale Jr. at Pocono

Earnhardt completed only eight laps in practice over last weekend at New Hampshire International Speedway, and drove the first 61 laps of Sunday's Siemens 300 before giving way to relief driver Martin Truex Jr.

Before Sunday's race, Gilmore said he was planning on a similar scenario for this weekend's Pennsylvania 500, using another driver under contract to DEI, John Andretti.

"Right now John will be there (DEI) Monday morning, and he's going to get molded for a seat," Gilmore said. "What we'll do is take Junior's seat and since John has got shorter legs, they can mold a seat that will go right in with John and be really quick (to change).

"We were talking about that last week and John will definitely be on stand-by at Pocono."

Gilmore also referred to Truex, who is the Busch Series points leader driving for the DEI affiliate, Chance 2 Motorsports, as a "stand-by" at NHIS.

The concern among Earnhardt's associates is that the second-degree burns he suffered in an American Le Mans Series sports car crash last weekend at Infineon Raceway might become infected if Earnhardt attempts to do a full race distance before they properly heal.

"We're definitely thinking about doing something similar as we did this weekend, at Pocono," Gilmore said. "The doctors felt like he'd be great for Indy."

The Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is on Aug. 8 -- three weeks from when Earnhardt was injured.

"Right now, the doctors have told us it basically will take three weeks for everything to heal," Gilmore said. "We wanted to have a stand-by for here and for Pocono.

"John runs good (at Pocono) and he wanted to come up here and help out."

Andretti has three top-20 finishes in five starts for DEI this season, including a 13th in the Daytona 500.

Andretti has 20 career starts at Pocono, the closest track to his birthplace in Bethlehem, Pa.

His best start since 1994 was second in June 2000, but he has started fifth in the last two Pennsylvania 500s. His average start in those 20 races is 19.5, with his average finish 28.2. His best finish is 12th in July 1998.

Earlier this season, Gilmore said he hoped to have a full-time program in place at DEI for Andretti starting at Indianapolis, and running at least through 2005.

Post-race prize money: Who gets what

It's really pretty simple, but you have to know a couple of things about the way NASCAR and the tracks distribute their prize money to keep up.

Let's start with the prize money itself. The prize money comes from several different sources, mainly the promoter of the race itself. For instance, the lion's share of the purse at Texas Motor Speedway comes from Speedway Motorsports, Inc., the company owned by Bruton Smith that also includes tracks in Charlotte, Bristol, Sonoma, Atlanta and now, Rockingham.

Part of that money comes from the television contract NASCAR signed with FOX and NBC/TNT. Each race has a different purse. For instance, this week's race at New Hampshire has a purse of slightly more than $5 million. The Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis is in the $9 million-$10 million neighborhood and Daytona is even larger. Although NASCAR would not release the specific percentages, the traditional formula for purse distribution of television money has always been 65 percent to the promoters, 25 percent for the purse and 10 percent for NASCAR. Remember, these numbers are by no means absolute: they serve to illustrate the point.

The TV contract averages around $400 million per season, so to set the stage, let's divide that by 36. That division works out to roughly $11.1 million per race. Sixty-five percent of that number is $7.2 million, and that goes to the promoter. The portion paid into the purse is $2.7 million or so. NASCAR keeps $1.1 million, which if you add that up over 36 races totals in the neighborhood of $40 million.

The promoter has the most cash outlay, so it is logical that he gets the lion's share of the TV rights fees. Security, parking, advertising and all the other myriad things that go into the running of a NASCAR event cost a lot of money.

The remainder of the purse money comes from contingency sponsors and from four different plans available to the teams. The four plans are the Car/Champion Owner, Plan 1, Plan 1c and Winner's Circle. Participation in these plans is based on the prior year's performance, performance in the current season and longevity in the sport. Again, specific amounts were not released, but suffice it to say a certain amount of money is released to the teams on the plans at each event.

In the early days of the sport, this was referred to as "tow money," because the sanctioning body . not just NASCAR, it was sport-wide . felt the need to keep its advertised stars on the circuit as much as possible. This money was given to make sure teams had enough cash on hand to make it to the next race, and in the early days of the sport, it was quite necessary.

The real ticklish part is contingency funds. The decals that adorn a Nextel Cup stock car are not there for show. They serve to identify which contingency products a particular car is using, and therefore which contingency funds pay into that team's winnings at the end of every race. To be eligible for contingency award payouts, teams must use the product and carry the decal on their car.

NASCAR determines decal placement for its required decals, like Budweiser, Sunoco Race Fuels, and so on, and they go on the front fenders and the front quarters behind the wheel wells all the way up to the door panels and beyond. The teams are allowed certain areas of the car for their own use for primary, associate and other sponsors.

Some teams choose not to run certain decals, and are therefore ineligible for the money being offered for those programs. For instance, when Richard Petty's car won a pole with John Andretti at the wheel some years ago, he did not qualify for what was then the Busch Clash because he had never run a Busch decal on the side of his famed No. 43 machine. His reason? The King said running a Busch decal on his car would have upset his mother, who did not hold with the consumption of alcohol.

NASCAR sponsors, like Sunoco Racing Gasoline, Busch and so on, have funds set aside to reward drivers using their parts or products both by race and for the season. Other products, like Penske Shocks, Competition Cams, etc., have similar programs set up and issue either cash or certificates worth a set amount of product.

By virtue of the plan each car is qualified for, the number of decals on the car and which contingency programs the teams are involved in, prize money differs per driver per race. For example, Jimmie Johnson, by virtue of his second-place finish in the series point standings last year, is a driver on one of the plans, and he's currently leading the points this year. His car owner, Rick Hendrick, has been in NASCAR for the past 20 years, and therefore, he can finish well down in the order and still make more in prize money than the driver who finishes many places higher.

So what do you have when you cobble all that together? You have a column of numbers that now hopefully make a bit more sense than they did when you called this story up today. It's a lot of money, to be sure, and all you have to do to confirm that is watch the papers every week.

Truex on standby alert at NHIS

Earnhardt Jr. suffered burns to some six percent of his body -- mainly to his chin and inner legs -- in an accident Sunday morning during American LeMans Series practice at Infineon Raceway.

Team spokesman Jade Gurss said Junior plans to see a specialist Thursday to have his burns checked and re-wrapped before flying to New Hampshire.

Gurss also said the team is also adding a cool box and additional venting to the No. 8 Chevrolet to help keep Junior cool during the race.

Gurss said the team does not think the safety belts will be in direct contact with the burn areas.

Junior was injured when the Corvette C5-R he was driving spun and impacted a barrier in the Turn 8 section of the road course track, and then caught fire.

Earnhardt quickly exited the car on his own and was then assisted by safety crews.

He was airlifted to the University of California-Davis Medical Center, where he stayed overnight for observation. He was released Monday and returned home.

Eyeing the sidelines

And those concerns are valid. After all, Budweiser is shelling out millions of dollars to help Earnhardt and DEI win the Nextel Cup championship, not a sports car race in Northern California. Sponsors and teams clearly want their drivers to be healthy and able to race in Cup events.

While Earnhardt is expected to race at New Hampshire International Speedway on Sunday, No. 8 team crew chief Tony Eury Sr. told ESPN that Martin Truex Jr., driver of Earnhardt's Busch Series team, will stand by in case Junior is unable to go or needs to be replaced before the race ends.

And considering the extreme heat drivers feel inside their racecars during races and the effects of high temperatures on burns, Junior not holding up for the full 300 laps isn't out of the question.

Any other year, it would be a no-brainer that Earnhardt would start Sunday's race at the very least, assuming he's medically cleared, even if another driver qualified the car and ran it during Saturday's practice sessions. By taking the green flag on Sunday, Earnhardt would ensure himself of crucial championship points, even if another driver finished the race for him.

But this year, those championship points aren't quite as crucial. Instead of having to worry about erasing the 105-point gap that separates second-place Earnhardt from points leader Jimmie Johnson by the end of the season, the real concern for Junior is remaining in the top 10 over the next eight races in order to qualify for the season-ending championship chase.

Earnhardt leads 11th-place Jeremy Mayfield by 507 points. The most points a driver can earn in any one race is 190, meaning Earnhardt conceivably could sit out Sunday's 317-miler at Loudon and still sit very comfortably in the top 10.

A primary impetus of the title chase's inception was Matt Kenseth's runaway championship last season. NASCAR wanted to create excitement down the stretch and all but ensure a close points battle going down to the final weekend at Miami.

But a potentially unintended side effect of the new championship system is the flexibility top teams suddenly have should a driver have to miss a race.

In 2003, now-retired open wheel driver Gil de Ferran had a shot at winning the IndyCar title heading into the final race of the season despite having missed a race earlier in the year due to injury. De Ferran ultimately won the season finale but finished second in the title race to Scott Dixon by 18 points, illustrating the importance of making every start.

In the past, missing a Cup race wouldn't necessarily prevent a driver from competing for a championship, but gaining minimal points during an event could play a role.

A recent example is 2002, when Tony Stewart won the Cup title. Stewart did make every start, but he finished last in the season-opening Daytona 500, gaining just 34 points for his effort. Stewart ultimately beat Mark Martin by 38 points for the championship. Had Stewart missed Daytona rather than finishing last, that gap over Martin would have been just four points.

The new title chase allows for some wiggle room. While drivers competing for the final spots in the chase may end up taking more risks on track in an effort to secure a berth in the chase, the effect on the drivers leading in points is somewhat the opposite. As it stands now, there's little chance – barring a major injury or unbelievable streak of bad luck – of a driver in the top three-or-so spots in the standings falling out of the top 10 by the time the title chase kicks off Sept. 19, the day the Cup series makes its second visit to New Hampshire.

Even if one of those drivers sat out a race.

It's safe to say Junior, who once raced for weeks while suffering from post-concussion related symptoms, will make every effort to at least start Sunday's race at Loudon. But because of the chase format, deciding to sit one out wouldn't be the end of the world. It's a potential decision that is made easier by the fact that the championship isn't actually on the line each and every week.

At least not until the 10-race chase actually begins.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. released from hospital

The NASCAR star, son of the late Dale Earnhardt, was flown to the University of California-Davis Medical Center on Sunday after the car he was driving crashed and turned into a fireball at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.

Earnhardt was treated for second-degree burns on the insides of both legs and on his chin, according to a statement from the hospital. The burns covered about 6 percent of his body.

The terrifying accident came at the beginning of a morning practice, when Earnhardt lost control of his Chevrolet Corvette C5-R. The car spun and slid into a concrete barrier.

The crash broke the fuel filler neck, where gas is poured into the fuel tank, and sparked the fire. Earnhardt was able to get out of the car on his own.

While Earnhardt's injuries weren't serious, any wreck he is involved in always brings up memories of the last-lap crash at the 2001 Daytona 500 that killed his father, easily the most popular driver of his era.

Steve Crisp, a spokesman for Dale Earnhardt Inc., said the younger Earnhardt will compete in next weekend's Nextel Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway. Earnhardt, second in the Cup standings behind Jimmie Johnson, was supposed to be enjoying a weekend off from his regular series for a rare chance to race without pressure.

Junior 'resting comfortably' after accident

Track spokesman John Cardinale said Earnhardt was transported to the University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Infineon's designated hospital for burn treatment.

A hospital spokesman said that Earnhardt was "resting comfortably" at University of California-Davis Medical Center and would be examined again Monday morning.

According to an American LeMans Series statement, Earnhardt was driving a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R in a 30-minute practice session when the accident occurred. The car spun and impacted a barrier in the Turn 8 section of the road-racing track, then caught fire. Earnhardt quickly exited the car on his own, and was then assisted by safety crews.

"We had an unfortunate incident in morning warmup today with our No. 8 Corvette," Doug Fehan, program manager for Corvette Racing, said. "The accident was caused by a combination of many factors, including a slick race track, cold tires and a full tank of fuel. The hit was so hard that it broke the filler neck off the fuel cell and caused a fire. We know Dale Jr. wishes he could be back here at the race with us and we're going to try to win this one for him."

Earnhardt, who regularly competes in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series, was scheduled to co-drive in today's Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma with veteran road racing driver Boris Said. The team has withdrawn the car from the race.

"I'm bummed out and disappointed I couldn't run the race," Earnhardt said through a team spokesman. "I hope Corvette gets the victory."

Junior will race at New Hampshire

Earnhardt's injuries were "moderate-sized burns of moderate intensity," according to medical officials at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. The ALMS said Earnhardt had second-degree burns on the insides of both legs and on his chin.

The NASCAR star, son of the late Dale Earnhardt, was flown to the University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where he was expected to be kept overnight for observation. He will be examined again Monday.

"I'm bummed out and disappointed I couldn't run the race," Earnhardt said through a team spokesman.

Steve Crisp, a spokesman for Dale Earnhardt Inc., said Earnhardt was not badly injured. "They've done the X-rays and there's no bones broken," Crisp said. "He'll be fine."

Still, any crash involving Earnhardt always brings up memories of the last-lap wreck at the 2001 Daytona 500 that killed his father, easily the most popular driver of his era.

Crisp said the younger Earnhardt will compete in next weekend's Nextel Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway. Earnhardt, second in the Cup standings behind Jimmie Johnson, was supposed to be enjoying a weekend off from his regular series for a rare chance to race without pressure.

"These folks are tough," Crisp said. "They bounce back from all kinds of things."

The accident came at the start of the 30-minute morning practice. Earnhardt lost control of his Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, spun and slid backward into a concrete barrier in turn eight of the road racing track.

Officials said the crash broke the fuel filler neck, where the gas is poured into the car, briefly turning the Corvette into a fireball after it came to a stop in the middle of the track. Earnhardt quickly got out of the car on his own before being assisted by safety crews. The car continued to burn and was a total loss.

Earnhardt was to have driven in Sunday's ALMS race with veteran road racing driver Boris Said. The team withdrew the entry from the race after Earnhardt's crash.

Earnhardt has been hurt before in a race car. He sustained a concussion in a crash at California Speedway early in the 2002 season and hid it from NASCAR for five months, afraid it might keep him from racing.

It led to a poor season for Earnhardt and eventually to a new policy by NASCAR forcing drivers with head injuries to get medical clearance before returning to competition.

Junior airlifted to hospital

Medical officials at Infineon Raceway described the injuries as "moderate-sized burns of moderate intensity." Earnhardt was flown to the University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento for precautionary reasons.

During a 30-minute practice, Earnhardt's Chevrolet Corvette C5-R spun and hit a barrier in turn eight of the road racing track, catching fire. Earnhardt quickly got out of the car on his own before being assisted by safety crews.

Earnhardt, who regularly competes in the Nextel Cup Series, was to have driven in Sunday's ALMS race with veteran road racing driver Boris Said. The team has withdrawn the car from the race.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered moderate burns

Track spokesman John Cardinale said Earnhardt was transported to the University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Infineon's designated hospital for burn treatment.

According to an American LeMans Series statement, Earnhardt was driving a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R in a 30-minute practice session when the accident occurred. The car spun and impacted a barrier in the Turn 8 section of the road-racing track, then caught fire. Earnhardt quickly exited the car on his own, and was then assisted by safety crews.

Earnhardt, who regularly competes in NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series, was scheduled to co-drive in today's Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma with veteran road racing driver Boris Said. The team has withdrawn the car from the race.

Trans-Am Transcript: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale, you were here just a month ago for the Dodge/Save Mart 350 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race. Talk a little about technology differences between the Nextel Cup car and the Corvette C5-R.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.:The car is tremendously different from anything I drive in Nextel Cup. In my opinion, it might be one of the greatest cars I've ever driven.

No. 1, you get in the car knowing it doesn't have any noticeable flaws while you're driving it, so it's easier to learn your way around the track and learn the limits of the cars.

So, it's really easy to get in there and be a quick learner. I've been in the car before and I've been around the people before, so all those things make it easier to adjust.

I was really glad to be able to get out there today and be competitive, and give Boris and these guys some confidence. We went and tested at Gingerman and that was a big help.

Boris, what are your thoughts about Junior?

Boris Said: At Gingerman (Mich.), I think we ran the same time within a few hundredths of a second. He drives great and I'm happy to be driving with him.

The car is amazing and it's the best car I've ever driven. The team is so awesome and organized. Normally, I barely get a cup of water when I get out of the car, let alone all these people asking me what I want.

The car gives you so much confidence to be aggressive. If my Nextel Cup car handled a little bit like this, I'd have won for sure. It seems like we're going 50 mph faster through the esses.

What are your goals for this weekend?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Personally, there is a quest for me to learn and become better. My goal is to take what I learn from being around Boris and Ron (Fellows) and apply to my Cup experience and see if I can become a better Cup driver.

When I'm around the Corvette guys, I'm comfortable right away being around this environment. Ron and Boris are both good friends of mine and they don't put any unnecessary pressure on me.

I don't expect to go out there and accomplish what they can accomplish, but I can go out there and run competitive times. I just have a lot of polishing to do to become a better road-course driver, and this is where I'm doing it.

There is no question I'm in the best car in the field. I didn't have to think twice about it when they gave me the opportunity. It's a lot of fun and it's great people. They love racing, they take care of themselves and each other.

Boris and Dale, where will you be on Sunday?

Boris Said: Win, lose or draw, we'll try to win. We also have to respect the fact that the other teammates are going for a championship.

We're going to just have fun and enjoy it and try to win. We're not going to lie down, but we don't want to get in their way. It comes down to not making any mistakes.

Dale, are you surprised this series hasn't caught on in a bigger way in the United States?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Yeah, I am. I believe that it's entertaining for me and the personalities, the drivers, are there. The equipment is a lot of fun to look at and to drive. They're good looking race cars in the different classes and it's really interesting. I really like running here. Who's to say that it won't?

Dale, this is unusual for you to be in a race where there are some cars that are slower and faster. What challenges will that present?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Me and Boris have talked about that. We think it might be a good idea for us to have a spotter to help us with the prototypes.

In Daytona it's a lot easier because there are so many straightaways, but here with all the turns the drivers will take the first open door they see.

We'll take the necessary precautions to bridge that gap for me. The other guys do this all the time and sense it. A lot of times, I was surprised with their ability to catch me as fast as they were.

As far as the slower traffic, I need more time on the track to find more comfortable passing opportunities.

Like Boris said, the most important thing with these cars is to not run into the side of somebody. If you have to give up some time on the lap, it's better than contact.

Running the endurance races has helped a lot, but some of these guys it's hard to find the difference they're going to go. Time in the car really helps the most. It's a totally different style of racing than what I do.

Doug, are you going to let all of the Corvettes race to the end?

Doug Fehan: I think any of you who watched the Limerock race witnessed two cars and two great teams fight to win the race. There are three simple rules - don't hit anything, don't break anything and keep the car on the racetrack.

The minute you put yourself in danger of violating those rules, you've got a problem. Anybody can win these races and all three of these cars will have an equal opportunity to do it.

There will be no team orders. You've seen that Dale went out in the first session and was right there time-wise. Any of these three teams could win.

Doug, are there any possibilities of bringing Dale back?

Doug Fehan: Dale Jr. has an open invitation to race with Corvette racing, any time his schedule allows.

Dale, what habits do you have to break in these types of cars?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: One of the things you do with a Nextel Cup car, is you're a lot easier on the gas pedal and into the corner. That's a no-no in these cars.

The first thing I do is slide one of the front tires into the corner when I get out there. You've got to brake very hard, very fast and deep into the corner before you start turning in.

Braking is the most difficult thing to work your way into. It's very inviting, though, and very comfortable. It just takes time. Also, the acceleration out of the corner and how much acceleration these cars have out of the corner.

I can't believe how fast these cars accelerate out of the corner.

Dale, this is your first time running the Carousel, what are your thoughts?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: It's a lot of fun. The Carousel is a carnival ride. It's a lot of fun to go through there. The one thing that I keep having to remind myself is how quickly you turn off the course we normally run at Turn 4 (for NASCAR).

You come up over the hill and you have to immediately start thinking brake. A lot of times I'm overshooting that entry or getting in there too hot. I think that's just part of the deal. The Carousel is a blast.

Exiting on to the drag strip full throttle is just a lot of fun and you're shooting up there. I like it a lot and I wish the Cup cars actually ran that.

Dale, what's the comfort factor versus the Cup car?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: The Cup car usually ranges 120-125 degrees inside the cockpit. From the middle of July-September it gets to 140. This car is a lot cooler than that. There are a lot of ducts to bring air into the car.

Plus, running on the road course brings a lot of air in through the side windows. Visibility is pretty cool. I wish I had a big review mirror and glass to look out of.

But you've got side-view mirrors and I'm not used to looking out of them. Boris knows right away where they are, but for me it's just a learning curve. This car is so comfortable, it's amazing.

The Corvette is amazing and so much fun to drive. If there's a flaw in the car, I haven't found it yet. I wish we could drive all day long.

Doug, who will start the race?

Doug Fehan: We don't know yet. It'll be a community decision. We'll look at what's going on and pick something that everyone's comfortable with. We won't just start a guy that's good for TV.

I think we'll make a good decision based on what everyone's comfortable with.

Dale, your father once said he's like to do Le Mans, would you?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Obviously, you have to say yes. To come here and drive the car or drive it in Daytona is cool because we can do that. I'd love to do it and be a part of it.

They tell me so many stories about what goes on over there. I watch all the races when they go there. It's something that whether you win or lose, it's an experience I'd like to have.

How tough will the driver change be?

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: It's kind of like that movie "Twins" with our size difference. But, it's pretty easy actually. I thought of using an insert, so that we don't have to change lap belts.

Him being the bigger guy, it's harder for him to get in and out of the car. That's one reason we thought about me starting the race. It's not something I do all the time. I'm not sure about Boris. For me, it's tough.

In Daytona, they basically grabbed me by the lapels and yanked me out. Hopefully they'll just do that here, too.

Boris, about a month ago you raced in three races here at the NASCAR Nextel Cup weekend. This weekend, it's only one race. Your thoughts?

Boris Said: It's like a vacation here. You have a lot of time sitting and waiting to get in. The car is amazing, though. On that end, it's tough because you're like a kid waiting for Christmas.

Earnhardt Jr. struggling so far

Earnhardt Jr. is struggling at Chicagoland Speedway, as he starts 25th in Sunday's Tropicana 400. Happy Hour was worse, as Earnhardt Jr. was only 31st fastest.

And to top it off, Earnhardt Jr. had a problem with his transmission during the final practice.

"It got stuck in two gears at one time," Earnhardt Jr. "We ain't been good. We put everything we got in the trailer underneath the car. I don't know if it's a combination of different things or what. It sucks. The car is not any fun. Things ain't working out for us right now at all."

He's already looking forward to having an off-weekend after Chicago.

"Time off is always good," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I'm going to go run a Corvette though and have a little fun. That will be a good time. Right now I don't know. We're so darn bad I don't know we're ever going to get better."

Earnhardt Jr., who trails Jimmie Johnson by 27 points in the Nextel Cup standings, said his car has been loose entering the turns.

"You make a couple of changes, and it gets tight off," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Then you make a couple of changes, and you get loose in the middle. We can't get the car to drive comfortable. We just try not to point fingers at one another."

What is strange about Earnhardt Jr.'s struggles is that he has one victory and three top-six finishes on the four 1.5-mile tracks this year. The lone exception was the awful run at Las Vegas that turned into a test session.

"This is a good car," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think we might have won Atlanta with it. They're all good cars. We don't have one better than the other. They all run kind of decent. In the Busch Series we used to have one car that hauled a-- everywhere we took it. We don't have that any more really. Right now we're just not a good race team."

Earnhardt Jr. earns 'best driver' ESPY

The announcement came at the annual ESPY Awards banquet Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. Fan voting determined the winners of 38 different categories. ESPN, the sports cable network that created the ESPYs in 1993 to recognize sports excellence, will televise the show Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. Dale Jr. was unable to attend because of scheduling conflicts.

Other nominees in the "Best Driver" category included six-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, 2003 NHRA Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon, Indy Racing League champion Scott Dixon and 2003 NASCAR Nextel Cup champ Matt Kenseth.

This marks the second straight year a NASCAR driver has won the ESPY for "Best Driver". Tony Stewart earned the honor in 2003. NASCAR drivers have won the award seven times in 12 years, led by Jeff Gordon with three (1996, 1998, 1999).

Dale Jr. set to work with Said this weekend

Now, four months later, the time has arrived for Earnhardt Jr.'s American Le Mans Series debut.

For the second time in his career, Earnhardt Jr. will join General Motors' factory Chevrolet Corvette team.

Earnhardt, who will team with road racing champion Boris Said in a third Corvette C5-R fielded by Corvette Racing, will be the first fulltime Nextel Cup Series driver to race in the ALMS since the formation of the series in 1999.

"I am really looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of the Corvette C5-R because it is such a great racecar," Earnhardt said. "I'm happy that Chevy has given me the chance to cross over and take part in its sports car program, which has been a huge success."

Sunday's race will be the 50th for the Corvette C5-R.

"The Corvette is an unbelievable car to drive -- probably one of the best cars I have ever driven," Said said. "I'm also excited to drive with my good buddy Dale Jr. It's fun to drive with one of your best friends."

Earnhardt's first outing in the car was with his father in the 2001 Rolex 24 At Daytona Grand American Rolex Series race, where they finished second in class and fourth overall.

Earnhardt and Said will race in the GTS class in Sunday's two-hour, 45-minute timed event on the 2.53-mile Infineon Raceway. Corvette Racing, whose lead driver is Ron Fellows -- who has made spot starts in Nextel Cup for the past 10 years -- is GTS champion in the ALMS for the past three years.

After four ALMS races in 2004, the factory Chevrolet team has recorded four straight GTS victories, including a one-two finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

"Boris Said has a lot of experience at Infineon Raceway, and I'm getting better there, so it should be a fun weekend," Earnhardt said."

The Earnhardts enjoyed their experience racing at Daytona in 2001 -- even racing at night and in the rain. Junior became such a fan of road racing he nearly won this year's Rolex 24, teamed with Stewart on a Crawford factory prototype.

Earnhardt has said one of his goals is to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France -- something his late father had also contemplated.

For now, Earnhardt is enjoying racing the ALMS version of the Corvette, which is technically more sophisticated than the Grand American car he raced in 2001.

Earnhardt and Said recently spent a day testing the car in Michigan with two-time ALMS GTS champion Fellows.

"Man, the tires and brakes are amazing," Earnhardt said. "The brakes are 10 times better than when I drove the car before. The other series didn't allow carbon brakes, so this is the first time I've ever had a chance to run on them.

"There is a huge learning curve but once I got the hang of it, it was great. Ron and Boris helped me out to figure how to squeeze the brake pedal.

Earnhardt, a video game fanatic, said he appreciated the car's technology and capability.

"I like sports car racing because the equipment is so advanced," Earnhardt said. "The Corvette C5-R is such a capable racecar and, above all, it's fun to drive. This car is so capable, if you realize you've made a mistake you can figure it out and correct it maybe the next time you hit that corner.

"In other sports cars I've driven you're fighting just to keep on line. This car allows you a certain level of precision."

Though his NASCAR schedule keeps him busy, Earnhardt follows the Corvette team's activities as much as possible, and even sent "good luck" e-mail to the team prior to the start of the last month's 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The team finished first and second in the GTS class in the event.

"Dale Jr. has really matured as a race driver the last couple of years," said Fellows, who will co-drive with Johnny O'Connell for the Corvette team. Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta will drive the other Corvette entry.

"In our test, he got up to speed in about half a day and that is pretty impressive because the ALMS cars are so different to what he's used to and quite different from what he drove back in 2001," Fellows said. "In the Corvette he can get a lot more aggressive and I think he likes that.

"I think he might surprise some people this weekend because he has really developed. Dale can get it done on the racetrack. Technique-wise, there are a few little things that are slightly different in terms of how road racers do it, but the trick to him is that he is very adaptable."

Turnabout will be fair play, as Fellows will drive a Nextel Cup car for Dale Earnhardt, Incorporated in next month's road course event in Watkins Glen, N.Y.

"Being in the Corvette C5-R has helped me develop as a road racer more than anything else," Earnhardt said. "With Ron and Boris here to help me out, they make sure to tell me which bad habits to lose and good habits to keep.

"I'm a (better) road racer because of the things I've learned from Ron Fellows and Boris Said."

DEI's dominance an illusion?

The record says Junior is too modest, since after he won the 2004 Daytona 500, DEI cars -- either Earnhardt or Michael Waltrip's -- had won 10 of the past 13 Cup plate races.

But after Junior finished third behind Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in Saturday night's Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Earnhardt said the competition has definitely caught up with his team.

Saturday night marked the second consecutive plate win for Gordon, and five cars with strong Hendrick affiliations finished in the top 10. Waltrip was 13th and John Andretti, driving DEI's third car, crashed out while running in the top 15.

"Every time I go to the racetrack, I have the best team, the best car (and) I'm the best driver -- no matter where I'm at," Earnhardt said. "They are as competitive as we are -- it wasn't a matter of who catches who.

"You saw the Roush cars running good all day long. They were up there. The Gibbs cars were up there. At the end it was all about who was out front -- it just happened to be the Hendrick cars (because) they're fast."

"I'm proud of Jeff and all the Hendrick cars for running the way that they did," Hendrick's Brian Vickers said after he finished ninth. "That right there is what's going to keep the so-called DEI superspeedway dominance down is the Hendrick guys working just as close as Junior and Michael do."

Virtually to a man, the Hendrick drivers said teamwork was the key to their success, from the "boys back in the shop" building great cars and engines to the drivers working together on the track. It sounded like what Earnhardt and Waltrip had preached after all their wins.

"Unfortunately DEI was the one that had to show us how to do that (teamwork) and how well it can work," Vickers said. "There are situations you can see where a DEI car will give up a spot or two to get together, but they gain it back in the end and that's what it took tonight.

"It took all the Hendrick cars working together to beat those guys. Like they say, two heads are better than one and four are better than two (and) it showed tonight."

Earnhardt still wasn't convinced the advantage was ever as extreme as his competition claimed.

"Like Tony (Eury, Jr.'s crew chief) said, it's hard to keep secrets in the garage," Earnhardt said. "I don't think we have an advantage of any kind anymore. That was kind of gone away even before the Daytona 500.

"We just came down here to out handle everybody (and) tonight we didn't. We had a pretty good handling car (and) I drove it to the front. I led a lap (but) when the car didn't handle good I didn't lead it.

Earnhardt said the result was simple.

"My car got real tight," Earnhardt said. "They got by me and that was it."

Owner Rick Hendrick sided mostly with Junior when he said yes, he was proud but he wanted to be careful not to awaken a sleeping dog.

"I don't want to make (DEI) mad," Hendrick said. "There are a lot of good teams out there (but) they've (DEI) kind of raised the bar and everybody just rallied to the cause.

"We know that we've got to go back and work harder because they're going to go back and work harder, and so are a lot of the other teams. We're just enjoying this one and the last one and hopefully we'll be that good again."

Junior finds Hendrick teammates too tough to tackle

Dale Earnhardt Jr. came pretty close to one-upping his dad Saturday night. Earnhardt Jr. once again had a strong car at Daytona, leading 23 laps of the Pepsi 400.

But instead of being up front with his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Michael Waltrip, Earnhardt Jr. found himself behind Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson late in the race. Waltrip was nowhere in sight.

For once, Earnhardt Jr. knew what every other Nextel Cup driver has felt in recent restrictor-plate races. You can't beat two teammates when they are paired up.

"Impossible," said Earnhardt Jr., who ended up third. "I'm finally on the receiving end of that. I kind of understand what everybody's been dealing with the last several years. It's impossible."

Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip, who had won 10 of the last 14 races coming into Daytona, once again were strong on a plate track. Waltrip led five times for 57 laps -- most with Earnhardt Jr. on his tail -- but during green-flag pit stops on lap 111 of 160, the DEI duo slipped out of the top 10.

While Earnhardt Jr. recovered, Waltrip couldn't. And the slow pit stop soured Earnhardt Jr.'s otherwise lively mood Saturday night.

"We came out way behind everybody all the time," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We had one good stop, but I got run into the grass on that one. We've got to get better on the pit stops. If the guys can't take criticism -- we're tired of being patient, being patient, being patient -- they've got to get it together.

"If they can't take criticism, then they can go have s---ty stops somewhere else. We've got to get faster on pit road."

Like Earnhardt Jr. said, even the good pit stops ended up bad. Under caution on lap 72, Gordon, Brian Vickers and Earnhardt Jr. pulled out of their pit stalls about the same time. Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 8 car was third in line, and before you could say "Daytona sweep," Earnhardt Jr. was in the wet grass.

As water splashed around the car, Earnhardt Jr. was simply trying to keep it moving. He slipped back to 13th for the restart.

But that didn't cost him the race.

"Just not good enough," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We were real tight behind (Gordon and Johnson). Didn't have a lot of help, either. But I don't know if that would've mattered."

The "help" didn't come from Waltrip. He said "something happened" to his car, so Waltrip wasn't around in the closing laps.

Instead, it was a Ford driven by Kurt Busch. How much help would Busch be?

It didn't really matter.

"Even when the 97 got close to push me, it just made me tighter, and I'd have to lift," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It wasn't that we didn't have enough help at the end. We just didn't have the car to beat 'em."

At a restrictor-plate track, that's unusual. But perhaps the gap between DEI and Hendrick has closed.

"They're a fast team," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We work well together, we've got more experience, but they've finally figured up teaming up is the way to go. They made it happen tonight. Hopefully, they ain't that smart every damn race."

That drew a smile from Earnhardt Jr.'s sweat-soaked face. Maybe third isn't so bad sometimes.

"I was sitting there thinking about that," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We were real far behind with 30 to go. I was like, 'Man, I'm pushing real bad.' You've got to focus. I want to win, but I've got to focus and not cost myself a good finish. I just tried to be cool and get what I could. I just couldn't get 'em at the end."

Heck, even his dad didn't win every time.

"Even when you get beat, if you're right on their ass, I still feel pretty good about it," Earnhardt Jr. said.

Junior preps for Pocono with Kentucky test

Earnhardt Jr. has converted weekday Kentucky tests into Sunday wins in both March and May so far this season. He tested at Kentucky Speedway on March 11 and visited Victory Lane at Atlanta three days later. Earnhardt Jr. repeated the accomplishment on May 15 at Richmond International Raceway, just three days after testing an engine combination for that race at Kentucky Speedway.

Should he visit Victory Lane in Pocono, Pa., this week, he will become the second NASCAR Nextel Cup Series driver to combine a Kentucky Speedway test with a Pocono win. Dale Jarrett first accomplished the feat in June 2002.

Earnhardt Jr. enters the Pocono race with 98-point lead over the second-place Jimmie Johnson. Along with his three wins, Earnhardt Jr. owns a total of eight top-five and 10 top-10 finishes this season.

Other drivers testing at Kentucky Speedway Thursday included NASCAR Busch Series drivers Clint Bowyer, Billy "Catfish" Parker, Hermie Sadler and Kenny Hendrick.

Dogged persistence leaves Earnhardt Jr. in third

"This is definitely the kind of day you saw Matt (Kenseth) have last year," Earnhardt Jr. said after rallying to finish third. "He'd be running around in the middle of the pack, and they'd work themselves into a top-five or a top-10 finish."

That's what Earnhardt Jr. and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. team did at Dover -- and what they've done more than once this season.

Earnhardt Jr. didn't lead a lap at Dover and was rarely in contention for the victory. Heck, he rarely was in the top 10, losing a lap to Tony Stewart early in the race and fighting to get it back all afternoon.

But in the end, when it counted, Junior's No. 8 was lightning-fast, and he ripped through the field to chase down the leaders.

That bodes well for Earnhardt Jr.'s Nextel Cup championship hopes, for titles are often built on days like that.

"It seems to be happening to us a lot," said Earnhardt Jr., who pushed his lead to 98 points over Jimmie Johnson. "Last week in Charlotte we were running 10 or whatever and struggling for a top-10. We ended up getting a sixth-place finish, and we're real fortunate to get it."

And Earnhardt Jr. knows full well the value of turning bad days into good days and good days into great days. Teams that can maximize their efforts on any given day are the ones who are going to contend for championships.

In Junior's case, he gained ground on Johnson, not only with his third-place finish but also with Johnson's 32nd-place result after a multi-car crash. Stinks for Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. said, but those are the breaks.

"This is definitely a good day for us to gain so many points on those guys," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The No. 48 was looking like he was going to win the race. We gained a big chunk on him. It sucks, because there's was nothing he could do about his situation. He got drove into a wreck. It wasn't like we got our there and outran him.

"If those guys didn't have the wreck I don't know if we would have had good enough track position to get top five. I doubt it. The chips fell like they did today and we dodged the bullets. This will be one of the races, just like a lot of them this year, that are carving out that championship title for us."

For most of the race, however, it didn't look that way. Stewart was running so fast that a lot of top cars got lapped, including Junior's. But Earnhardt Jr. and his DEI team wasn't about to give up, no matter how big of a struggle it would be.

And it would be a struggle. Earnhardt Jr. would run well enough to be the first car a lap down -- and in position to get his lap back -- when Stewart would lap someone else, and they'd get the free pass.

Later, Earnhardt Jr. felt like he was mistakenly put in the wrong position, but instead of complaining over his radio, he let NASCAR sort it out.

"In the past, I'd be shouting over the radio voicing my opinion," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Today we just sat there, let it sort itself out and whatever they decided, they decided."

Earnhardt Jr. eventually got back on the lead lap, but even he wasn't sure how. He was a lap down when leaders Kasey Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield passed him on pit road, which would have put Junior two laps down.

But Earnhardt Jr. went back on the track, passing Kahne and Mayfield to be one lap back again.

"When they threw the caution they said I was two laps down because Ryan (Newman) was still out in front of us," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It was real confusing. They were saying I was two laps down but I thought I was one lap down. It ended up working out.

"Somehow we ended up finishing on the lead lap there at the end. I don't know how. We ended up getting one of those laps somewhere. We weren't going to argue when they were giving them back. I learned this year to keep my mouth shut on the radio when you have a different opinion about NASCAR's opinion."

And he's learned the value of making the most of a less-than-stellar day. In the end, even though he was faster than Stewart because of fresher tires, Earnhardt Jr. didn't push the issue.

"I could get under him but I couldn't make it stick," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I didn't want to get into him. Anybody else I might run him a little different. Me and Tony are pretty good buddies. I give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't want to hit him and he didn't want to hit me."

So a third-place finish was fine with Junior on this day. The breaks didn't go his way for most of the race, but when the timing was right, Earnhardt Jr. and his team took advantage of the opportunities to finish third.

"I'm not going to complain," Earnhardt Jr. said. "There's such a thing as bad luck and good luck. You have control of your own fate to a certain extent. You got to get some breaks here and there, and we got a lot of them today."

Tech Q&A: Tony Eury Jr.

Tony Eury calls the shots, but Eury Jr. -- Earnhardt's cousin -- is the hands-on director of the team. The family mix has worked well enough in 2004 that Earnhardt has led the Nextel Cup standings since April.

Eury Jr. took a break from rebuilding the No. 8 car's front valance panel in Dover International Speedway's garage to chat with NASCAR.COM's Dave Rodman about the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship, his and team and driver's improvement and the value of steam at Pocono.

You had a race team that was good in 2003 and it's even better in 2004. From your perspective what's been the biggest difference in the two seasons?

Tony Eury Jr.: It's just experience, overall. This group of guys we have here have all been together for so long, but basically we're fixing all of our screw-ups that we had last year.

We had some problems on pit road and stuff, so we're trying to fix that and just overall -- in our note taking and everything -- we've just picked it up. And when we make mistakes, we go back and make sure we don't do them again.

What's been the most surprising occurrence for you this season, either within your own team or throughout the Nextel Cup Series?

Tony Eury Jr.: There's a couple things. It's surprising to me that us and Matt (Kenseth) has won three races already this year. It's so competitive it's hard to believe you can do that these days, but everything's got to be right on that special day.

I guess (Ryan) Newman, after seeing his performance last year everyone was expecting big things out of him and I'm sure their guys are just like us. They're scratching their heads trying to figure out things and I'm sure they'll get it turned around.

Last month, you were able to go back and change front tires again for a couple races when your regular changer was injured. How special was it to get off the box to do something you really love, and was it a morale booster for the team?

Tony Eury Jr.: Yeah, it was kind of a morale booster, but I don't want to sit there and say I'm going to take anybody's job, either, because that wasn't my intention. Like I told pops (his father) -- it's good to get down there and just do it, every now and then, because I kinda enjoy it.

There's so many other things I'm doing during the pit stops that's helping out the team in other ways and that's one reason I come off of pit road. But I think those guys (on the pit crew) feel comfortable knowing that if they do have a problem -- if they're injured or something -- that they do have someone that can jump in there and just do their job.

Dale Jr. has stepped up his program this year so from your perspective what's the most significant difference in him, from 2003 to 2004?

Tony Eury Jr.: He's just got a lot more patience when he comes to the race, I think. He gives us good feedback but also, he's not just going to burn the tires off in the first 10 laps (of a run).

He knows that we've got a long race and he'll try, like we saw Matt (Kenseth) do so many times last year, when he really wasn't that fast in the beginning, he always showed up at the end of a race and that's something we're kinda trying to do.

We were (always) real good at the first parts of the race but we wasn't so good at the end, and the end's what pays points.

Going to the Pocono 500, where you go 500 miles on a tough racetrack, do you want more steam under the hood or a better handling racecar?

Tony Eury Jr.: You've got to have a good handling racecar but you want all the steam you can get, for sure. If you can get your car to come off that big No. 3 (Turn 3) down there and get your momentum down the straightaway, even if you don't have the best motor you can kinda get some guys because that's where they're going to do the most passing, is down that straightaway.

So it's good to have both, and our engine department has definitely picked it up. We've got a brand new kind of car with a new aero package on it. Michael (Waltrip) run it for the first time in the (Coca-Cola) 600 so we're pretty pumped up about it.

That will be our first car (that we run at Pocono) so we're really looking forward to Pocono and Michigan coming up.

How much of a compromise do you exercise at Pocono where you have three totally different corners, with the most important basically being a flat turn leading onto the longest straightaway in Nextel Cup racing?

Tony Eury Jr.: You want to be a little free going down into Turn 1 and for the Tunnel Turn, you want to make sure he's really comfortable because (from there) that's a lot of momentum heading down to Turn 3.

The biggest thing is you want the car to stay freed up and you want it to just get around (Turn) 3 the best you can, because like I say that's your main straightaway speed and that's going to determine where you shift going down the front straightaway and how much speed you go into Turn 1 with.

Would you be in favor of cutting the race distance at Pocono to less than 500 miles?

Tony Eury Jr.: It's a little long, but we run some that are a lot longer. I mean, Charlotte (Coca-Cola 600) was definitely one. They've cut this one back at Dover (from 500 to 400 miles) because it was a tremendously long day.

It's kinda like, you run 200 laps there at Pocono or whatever, but it's kinda cool. It gives you plenty of time so if you do have a problem you can get back up there.

In 2004, we're operating under a different championship format -- not a different point system -- so do you try any harder to win, now that you've established yourselves at the front of the pack, because really all you have to be is in the top-10 after 26 races?

Tony Eury Jr.: Oh yeah. You'll take more chances -- you'll not pit, you'll pit -- you'll run more gear than you usually will because, I mean, sure -- you're racing a guy that's in the top of the points and that's our whole deal.

We're going after it. We're taking more chances but we're here to win races and you know, as long as we're within 400 points of the leader for the last 10 (races), that's when it's going to be game on for the championship.

But we're not going to worry about the championship until the last 10 (races) and we're just going to have fun and try to win a lot of races right now.

Obviously, you've got to be pretty enthused about the way your team's performed, because by leading the points, you've put yourselves in the position of being able to race harder to win, right?

Tony Eury Jr.: Yeah. With us being in this position up here (in the points) it's pretty wild, you know? My only deal is I'd hate to be the (points) leader going into Richmond (the 26th race of the season) because if there's a guy that's 410 points behind you he might have a bull's eye on you.

But that's the deal now. It's not racing. The guys that are running 10th are not going to be racing the guy that is ninth -- he's going to be racing the guy that's leading the points so he can get a chance to be in the last 10 (Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship).

So we're just having a good time. There ain't really as much pressure now as there used to be as far as the points deal goes and we're just going to do the best that we can.

Driver Report

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: The 2003 Cup championship won by 2000 rookie classmate Matt Kenseth has put more pressure on Earnhardt, and he has responded. For starters, his qualifying is better. Still, there are obvious weaknesses. Earnhardt is in his seventh year of working with crew chief Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Eury Jr., but the communication needed to improve a car during a race is inferior to the other top five racers.

The pit crew has come a long way but still lacks consistency; Earnhardt usually has to rely on himself for gaining track position. He says his weakness is 1.5-mile tracks -- mainly discerning the differences among them. The team has tested "as much as we can" at Kentucky, trying to improve his performance on the 1.5-milers. The only one of those in the next 13 races is Chicagoland Speedway, but there are four in the final 10. Expect the team to test more this fall.

Junior named Daytona president (for one day)

The driver of the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series filled in for Speedway President Robin Braig and performed several presidential duties at the "World Center of Racing" which included:

Selected the paint scheme for the Chevrolet Monte Carlo that will pace the Pepsi 400 on Saturday, July 3. It's the first time since 1969 that a Chevrolet has paced the Pepsi 400 and the first time a Monte Carlo has paced the field in the history of the mid-summer classic.

Announced that Orlando Magic guard and NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady will serve as Grand Marshal for the Pepsi 400.

Announced a record purse of $5,804,363 for this year's Pepsi 400 on Saturday, July 3, an increase of more than $800,000. The winner of this year's Pepsi 400 will collect a minimum of $266,475.

Offered a special 8-pack ticket package for the Pepsi 400 weekend for $308. The package includes four general admission tickets to the Winn-Dixie 250 presented by PepsiCo and four Superstretch tickets for the Pepsi 400. The offer, which is good June 2 through June 8, is available by calling 1-800-PITSHOP. Earnhardt Jr. also worked at the counters selling tickets at the ticket office.

Looked over the new infield renovation plans for the Speedway. The construction for the new garages, Gatorade Victory Lane, tunnel, fan walk and specialty vehicle area will begin following the Pepsi 400.

"It's really a fun place to be around," Earnhardt Jr. said of the Speedway. "Not just on the race track or in winner's circle but actually out there seeing all the people that sell tickets and keep the Speedway running everyday. It's pretty impressive. There's a huge commitment. It's a family atmosphere too, which is something NASCAR has always had.

"The coolest thing for me was meeting all the women in the ticket office. That was fun. They're all in there selling tickets. They seem like they all have a good time together and all know each other. That was cool meeting all of them."

Taking a break from his presidential duties, Earnhardt Jr. previewed the Pepsi 400 weekend, where he'll compete in both the Pepsi 400 on Saturday night, July 3 and the Winn-Dixie 250 presented by PepsiCo NASCAR Busch Series on Friday night, July 2.

"I'm really excited about that race," Earnhardt Jr. said of the Pepsi 400. "Running at night, it's one of my favorite races of the year. It's a good time for a vacation and it's a good time for a race. You get a little bit of both.

"We've run good at it in the past. We've won it once and ran up front last year. We had an opportunity to win and ended up with a top-10 finish. We're just hoping that we'll have better luck coming around this time."

Earnhardt Jr., who won the 2001 Pepsi 400, is familiar with the history of the Pepsi 400. He has been attending the 160-lap, 400-mile Independence Day holiday race since he was a kid.

"I came to this race track a lot when I was young," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The 1985 Firecracker 400 was one of the first ones I remember when Greg Sacks won. I watched all of that race down in Turn 1.

"From there on, it was a race that I looked forward to because I knew I was out all summer from school and that was a race I expected to be at. We liked to go to as many races as we could when we were kids. School and things like that prevented us from going but we always knew we would get to go to the Firecracker 400."

Junior leads both Saturday practices

The practices are largely considered tedious, due to the drastic difference in track conditions between morning -- when the track is hot and the sun is beating down on the surface -- and night, when the track is cooler. Still, most teams turned more than 20 laps in both sessions.

Earnhardt's 29.992-second lap during Happy Hour was one-tenth of a second quicker than teammate John Andretti's circuit, which placed him second on the speed chart in the weekend's final practice.

Sunday's race marks Andretti's first start since the season's second race in Rockingham, N.C. He'll start 25th Sunday.

Kevin Harvick was third-quickest overall in Happy Hour, improving from seventh in the morning, followed by Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers in the top-five.

Dave Blaney continues to impress in the No. 23 Dodge, posting the eighth-fastest Happy Hour speed to fall just short of sixth-place Joe Nemechek and seventh-best Jeremy Mayfield. Tony Stewart fell from third in the morning to ninth in Happy Hour, while Kyle Busch improved from 32nd to 10th.

Pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson was 12th fastest in Happy Hour, after falling just three-hundredths of a second short of Earnhardt's quick lap in the morning. Junior's 29.556-second circuit in the morning practice was the day's fastest.

Rookie Brendan Gaughan backed up Thursday's seventh-place qualifying effort with the fourth-fastest practice speed Saturday morning, but suffered a setback just two laps into Happy Hour when he got loose in Turn 4 and backed the Kodak Dodge into the outside wall.

"I had sticker tires on and we had one more thing we wanted to work on with the primary car," Gaughan said. "I just overdrove it with the stickers. I was trying to push, but we've got cars now. When you push things you break sometimes."

Though he won't be driving the machine he'd hoped to, Gaughan is confident his backup is capable, and may even be better.

"This is a good race car," said Gaughan, who completed 14 laps with the backup. "We tested it at Kentucky, raced it at Darlington and it's been to the wind tunnel, so we know it's got a good body. It was the one we wanted, but we went out there and did 30.40 in the heat of the day.

"It actually feels like it might be a little better. It's not as tight as the other one. It's got a little bit of looseness, which at night should go away a little. We may actually be with a better Dodge now."

Gaughan ended up 29th overall during Happy Hour. Elliott Sadler and Terry Labonte chose not to participate in Happy Hour. Sadler was 17th in the morning practice, Labonte 11th.

Earnhardt Jr.: Nextel All-Star Challenge will be 'a brawl'

"We put a lot of emphasis on this all-star race, because it's a big-money race and we've won it before, so we know how awesome it is to come out on top. This is guts racing! It's just like the Budweiser Shootout -- it's a brawl. In brawls, sometimes you get your car all tore up to pieces, and that's what happened to us last year. Something happened in front of us, I couldn't see a thing, I hit someone, someone hit me, and all hell broke loose. It's hard to predict an outcome in a money race like this, but that's what makes it fun."

"We're limited on practice for the All-Star race, and it will be tricky setting-up your car. You're there to win, but the All-Star race is also a good test session for the (Coca-Cola) 600 (on May 30). I'm just looking forward to getting laps on that track. We've always run good at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and hopefully we'll have some good runs the next couple of weeks.

On the changes made to the race format, which now allow fans to vote in the final driver:

"It's pretty cool. I think it's for the better. It should be a lot more exciting for the fans to have a larger field at the end of the race going after the win. It's a tough race but I'd like to put my brother's name in the hat for the race. I hope either Kerry Earnhardt or Carl Long gets voted into the All Star race."

Q&A: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt Jr. took some time Tuesday to talk about his season, his role as a Busch Series owner and his role in the new age of NASCAR.

Q: What are your expectations heading into Sunday's Coca-Cola 600?

A: "It (Lowe's Motor Speedway) is considered by a lot of teams and drivers and families to be a home track. We'll have a lot of people in attendance that are family members that normally don't get to go to most of the races if any.

"It's one of the first racetracks that I was able to go to as a young kid to see my dad race. I've seen a lot of races and history there. Before I ever even started driving it was a pretty important race track for me. I've had that on my list of race tracks where I wanted to win. I consider it to be one of the biggest races of the season."

Q: What would it mean to you to win the Coca-Cola 600

A: "It would really be special. That's the longest race of the season. At every big event -- whether it be at Daytona or Charlotte -- seems to have it's own little twist and piece of history. The 600 is more of the more historic races that sort of lined up next to the Southern 500 if you will in the history of the sport. So it means a lot to me and to a lot of the drivers.

"A lot of veterans really understand the importance of that race. It's a big deal. It's hard to win. It's hard to get a good competitive car to be strong for such a long period of time all night long. We've run good in the race but haven't been able to put it together in the end, so hopefully we've got what it takes this year."

Q: Even though you are leading the Nextel Cup points race, what does your team need to work on?

A: "Well, it's obvious to me that we are struggling at the 1.5-mile tracks. We did get a win at Atlanta. I don't know what the difference is between Atlanta and Kansas and Homestead and tracks like that. We can run good at Atlanta and go to Texas and we're just off a little bit there and we seem to be able to get a top-five even though we're struggling a little bit. But we'll go to Kansas or Homestead or Vegas or California and we're just not hooked up. The car is just not competitive at all.

"And we're trying our hardest to remedy that and to learn and to get the car tuned back in. We've been to Kentucky, which is a similar track, and tested as much as we can. If we've got a weak spot, and obviously no team is perfect, then that's ours. There are other thing I'd like to see improve. There are some things, whether it be me or the team, that can always be better."

Q: Has Martin Truex Jr.'s success in the Busch Series surprised you?

A; "Yeah, he really did this past weekend. Martin will agree to this, I believe. There are a lot of guys out there with a lot of talent. There are others who will never see the light of day in this sport. But if you put those guys in the good equipment, you're going to see a lot of guys succeed.

"Martin was in a situation this weekend where he had to rely on his intuition. He had to use his brain more than just his sheer raw talent. And so that's when you find out whether a guy can take it to the next level.

"In my opinion, you can get in a great handling race car and put a straightaway on the field and if you don't make any mistakes, you end up winning the race. But he had to really decide what to do at a certain point. There was a split-second decision to be made there. I would have probably made a different one and I don't know if the outcome would have been the same.

"It's just amazing that he was down in that corner and he knew he had to get that car turned on the bottom to be able to get off that corner better than Bobby Jr. (Hamilton). Now whether Bobby Jr. goes down in the corner too far or not, that might not happen every time. But Martin put himself in the best situation he could to get by him and that was just really a surprise to me. When a guy makes a move like that, he's up in the top percentage of his class."

Q: Do you see yourself as the face behind NASCAR's expansion into larger markets?

A: "I really don't see myself as making that big of a difference. The sport is going where it's going without Dale Earnhardt Jr. I don't think I'm the lead locomotive here, and never have. But there are a lot of drivers and personalities that make up the sport.

"What powers the sport and fuels the sport are the media, the press, the networks, the coverage, and all the free advertisement we get from racing every weekend. People are tuning in and latching on to the sport for the first time. That's going to happen no matter who is driving in the sport.

"I feel pretty fortunate that I came along when I did. I'd have liked to have been around back in the seventies and to have known what it was like to race back then when it was a lot simpler. But the way the sport is now and how exciting it is, it's really awesome to be a part of it at this time, too. The sport really has a lot of the same things it has now but it just wasn't quite publicized."

Q: Does it surprise or even embarrass you that people would say you are the pioneer changing the face of the sport?

A: "It's overwhelming. It's kind of an embarrassing form of flattery, if you will, to be considered that. When I was 18 years old, that definitely wasn't what I was aiming for. I didn't even have the vision or foresight to see that and target that. But things have fallen into place one after another. Circumstances have evolved and here we are.

"There are a lot of people to credit for that aside from myself. It's not just me sitting here and pulling a bunch of strings. My publicists, JR and Jade, have both worked pretty hard -- Jade especially -- to provide the media with a lot of information and that's helped out."

Q: Has your organization discussed what you need to do to maintain a strong position in the points as the series approaches the Chase for the Championship?

"I know what I need to do. You've just got to finish the best you can every week. That's all there is to it. You've just got to really dig deep sometimes when the car isn't working good. When your car is working good, you just get around there and you get a top-10 finish every week, you're going to be there. That's obvious. When the car is not good, you've got to dig deep and make up a few spots from the driver's seat.

"That's one of the things that was tough for me to do a couple of years ago. I understand how to make that happen now without backing it into the fence or doing something foolish. When you have a 25th-place car and you get a top 20 finish with it, that's what wins you the championships. If you're a good team, you're not going to have that happen too often. But it does come across now and then."

Q: Does that remind you of anyone?

A: "That reminds me of a lot of people. But my dad was the same way. Richard Childress had great race cars but he didn't get credit for them all the time because everybody liked to say that dad could take a 15th-place car and run fifth with it.

"I don't want to sit here and tell you Richard didn't have great race cars. But Dad dug deep several times to help those guys win championships."

Q: Do you have a different opinion about the new point system now that you're in the lead and going through it?

A: "Well, I've thought about every scenario before the season started because we got a lot of questions about whether we liked it or thought we wouldn't like it. I thought about that scenario where if you're in the lead and you could lose 400 points to everybody. It kind of aggravated you to think about it like that.

"If you were Matt Kenseth last year and had that great lead and then had to lose it all at the end of 26 races for the shootout, that would be frustrating, obviously. But if it happens, it happens. It's going to be frustrating for whoever is in the lead. But the more I think about it, I look at it more like elimination rounds in a way. You've got 10 races and you really can't have a poor finish in any of them. Somebody in that group of drivers is going to put together 10 consistently good weeks. And that's going to win the championship. You've got to be ready for that. I'm a huge Washington Redskins fan. And say they won every regular-season game and then lost in the first round of the playoff. That's what I would compare it to."

Q: Talk about your fifth-place finish in the all-star race?

A: "We had a great car when the race started. We had some ideas about things we wanted to do to the car to make it faster. I'm disappointed that what we tried didn't work out for us. I'm disappointed for the team. But we made a commitment before we ran the race that we wanted the win and nothing else."

Q: How is it being a Busch team owner?

A: "There have been a few personnel changes and some extra people brought in that are going to make a big difference at DEI alone that are going to assure that things are in working order. We are entertaining some new ideas and some opportunities for the Busch team for next year already.

"Martin's success is making it a lot easier on us than it was to sell everybody on this year. So I feel pretty confident that we're going to have a great program next year. My commitment to the Busch Series as an owner is going to be something long term. I like driving in the Busch Series and I plan on driving in the Busch Series for a long time.

"I don't know if I'll run anything more than the three races I'm running right now. I just like running every now and then. It's a great series with a lot of energy coming up and trying to make it into the Cup Series. And you've got a lot of veterans there too. You have just a lighter attitude there. It's kind of easy--going if you will. It's a change of pace."

Q: How much are you schooling Martin Truex Jr? Does that help you when you get behind the wheel?

A: "If you're really smart, you'll try to learn from everything no matter what it is. I've always been open-minded enough to realize the opportunity to learn from a guy like Martin or a team like I had in the Busch Series.

"I try to learn from him what I can when he talks about what his car did or what he did in a race or when something happened. Everything he can tell me is good. I try real hard to relay important things to him. Before he went out to qualify at Nazareth, I told him my only advice to him was to not wreck. You can take that how you want, but it's a mindset to win championships no matter how your car is.

"You've got to be on the racetrack making points. There are a lot of good teams who are capable of winning races that don't finish races. That's how they lose championships. That championship in the Busch Series is there for the taking. All you've got to do is finish every race. It's up to Martin. When I tell him that, he thinks I'm just joking around but I'm serious."

Q: Who is your mentor?

A: "It can be anybody. I can go to just about all the guys who raced with my daddy. I can go to Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte and even Rusty Wallace. If I've got a genuine question and they can see it in my eyes that I really care to know what they have to say, they're going to tell you.

"What it comes down to is respect. If you've got respect for those people and realize seniority and where you fit on the ladder, people will treat you accordingly. I don't know that I've ever disrespected any of the veterans in the sport and so I can pretty much get a fair shake with just about all of them."

Q: Which driver would you most like to square off with in a crunch-time situation?

A: Right now it's probably Matt (Kenseth). We love to race each other and we love to beat each other on the racetrack. We actually used to race back and forth quite a lot in the Busch Series and it was a blast. Maybe that's because I came up on the winning end of it most of the time. But today in the Nextel Cup Series, he's quite a bit more competitive -- whether it's because of the equipment or the experience or whatever -- but he's hard to beat.

"We have a good friendship off the track and we realize that when we are racing each other on the racetrack that we're both really enjoying it. I just like him. When you pick a guy in a sport, that when you know you've outrun him that you really did you work for the day, that's the guy for me. I know when I beat Matt that I've had a good day.

"From a different era, it would probably be David Pearson. I don't know. That's kind of tough. There was a whole group of guys. I would definitely have liked to race with Cale Yarborough. I never got to even imagine what it would be like to race against him. He was pretty tough. I liked his style. My dad came along when Cale's career was starting to become more of a limited schedule. But Cale was pretty tough."

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