Ken
Gone but not forgotten
From NapaNews.com:
Junior not haunted by Infineon's ghosts
Sunday, June 26, 2005
By ERIN LAWLEY
Register Sports Writer
SONOMA -- This season hasn't exactly been Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s best.
He's had three top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes, but compared to last year -- where he won six races and finished fifth in NASCAR series points -- it puts him in a bit of a rut.
The man known simply to race fans as "Junior" is staying optimistic and relying on his team to pull him through today's NASCAR Nextel Cup Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma's Infineon Raceway.
"It's been relatively easy to say positive and motivated," Junior said on Wednesday about his relative lack of success on the track this season.
"My crew motivates me. I'm looking forward to coming into Sonoma. It's really easy to get aggressive in this track. It's a tough race and it's a tough race track. It wears you out."
Last July at Infineon, Earnhardt wrecked pretty badly during a warm-up for an American Le Mans Series race. He lost control of his Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, spinning out and sliding into a concrete barrier. His fuel filter neck broke and sparked a fire.
After being airlifted to Sacramento, he was released from the hospital the next day after he was treated for second-degree burns on the insides of both legs and on his chin.
"I don't put the crash and the race track together in the same sentence," Junior said. "I knew when it happened, it wasn't an experience I wasn't going to forget. I try to do as good a job as I can. I don't think it's caused me to be any less aggressive."
Going all out during practice is a necessity for Junior, who makes sure he goes as far as possible to see how much he can get away with during the actual race.
"I've wrecked in every corner," he said. "I try to spin out in every corner to see how hard I can push it. I try to use up all my tires, too. It's a great race track, though."
Junior is aware his popularity has dwindled this season, but it's not shaking up the 30-year-old. He feels he isn't "plugged into" the MTV crowd so much anymore and that his demographic is changing.
He thinks the media is making a bigger deal out of his status than is necessary.
"People tend to focus on the bad stuff and make a mountain out of an ant hill with these occurrences," Junior said. "There's a point where you get irritated but you've got to handle the press well. Nobody's taken advantage of me. I have a pretty good rapport with them. You just have to be careful what you say and what you do. I have to remind myself (the media's) got a job to do just like I do, and y'all can't have favorites."
Junior gives some of the credit for his popularity to the circumstances he and his family were faced with earlier in his career.
He recognizes that a lot of his supporters became fans because of the death of his father, Dale Earnhardt.
"When my father passed away we got a lot of sympathy supporters," Junior said. "Then time goes by, enough time for them to think we're over it, and everything changes. I miss him more during the hard times than when we're winning. That's when you need it. That's when he's handy."
Junior qualified 10th on Friday for today's race with a time of 76.880 seconds and an average speed of 93.184 miles per hour.
"My team's real happy and I'm real happy," Junior said. "I think I could have run a 50 or 60. I wish I could have been able to do that for them. The car was real good in practice. I'm pretty happy with the car in race trim. We'll see."
Local driver finishes fifth in Southwest race
In Saturday's Blue Lizard Australian Suncream Southwest Series race, St. Helena High School graduate Chris Cook finished fifth. He will make his Nextel Cup debut today in the 28th position.
Cook graduated from St. Helena in 1985.
Junior not haunted by Infineon's ghosts
Sunday, June 26, 2005
By ERIN LAWLEY
Register Sports Writer
SONOMA -- This season hasn't exactly been Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s best.
He's had three top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes, but compared to last year -- where he won six races and finished fifth in NASCAR series points -- it puts him in a bit of a rut.
The man known simply to race fans as "Junior" is staying optimistic and relying on his team to pull him through today's NASCAR Nextel Cup Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma's Infineon Raceway.
"It's been relatively easy to say positive and motivated," Junior said on Wednesday about his relative lack of success on the track this season.
"My crew motivates me. I'm looking forward to coming into Sonoma. It's really easy to get aggressive in this track. It's a tough race and it's a tough race track. It wears you out."
Last July at Infineon, Earnhardt wrecked pretty badly during a warm-up for an American Le Mans Series race. He lost control of his Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, spinning out and sliding into a concrete barrier. His fuel filter neck broke and sparked a fire.
After being airlifted to Sacramento, he was released from the hospital the next day after he was treated for second-degree burns on the insides of both legs and on his chin.
"I don't put the crash and the race track together in the same sentence," Junior said. "I knew when it happened, it wasn't an experience I wasn't going to forget. I try to do as good a job as I can. I don't think it's caused me to be any less aggressive."
Going all out during practice is a necessity for Junior, who makes sure he goes as far as possible to see how much he can get away with during the actual race.
"I've wrecked in every corner," he said. "I try to spin out in every corner to see how hard I can push it. I try to use up all my tires, too. It's a great race track, though."
Junior is aware his popularity has dwindled this season, but it's not shaking up the 30-year-old. He feels he isn't "plugged into" the MTV crowd so much anymore and that his demographic is changing.
He thinks the media is making a bigger deal out of his status than is necessary.
"People tend to focus on the bad stuff and make a mountain out of an ant hill with these occurrences," Junior said. "There's a point where you get irritated but you've got to handle the press well. Nobody's taken advantage of me. I have a pretty good rapport with them. You just have to be careful what you say and what you do. I have to remind myself (the media's) got a job to do just like I do, and y'all can't have favorites."
Junior gives some of the credit for his popularity to the circumstances he and his family were faced with earlier in his career.
He recognizes that a lot of his supporters became fans because of the death of his father, Dale Earnhardt.
"When my father passed away we got a lot of sympathy supporters," Junior said. "Then time goes by, enough time for them to think we're over it, and everything changes. I miss him more during the hard times than when we're winning. That's when you need it. That's when he's handy."
Junior qualified 10th on Friday for today's race with a time of 76.880 seconds and an average speed of 93.184 miles per hour.
"My team's real happy and I'm real happy," Junior said. "I think I could have run a 50 or 60. I wish I could have been able to do that for them. The car was real good in practice. I'm pretty happy with the car in race trim. We'll see."
Local driver finishes fifth in Southwest race
In Saturday's Blue Lizard Australian Suncream Southwest Series race, St. Helena High School graduate Chris Cook finished fifth. He will make his Nextel Cup debut today in the 28th position.
Cook graduated from St. Helena in 1985.
