| | FORT WORTH, Texas -- Nobody expected Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win so soon.
The 25-year-old rookie of the year candidate surprised even himself on Sunday. He not only won the DirecTV 500, he dominated the race at Texas Motor Speedway.
"I really didn't know what to expect this year," Earnhardt said. "I didn't know if we were going to kick butt right out of the box or whether we were going to be lousy for a year or two."
Not surprisingly, the son of seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, was inconsistent in his 11 races, including five last season.
He easily qualified for every event he entered and had a career-best 10th-place finish last month in Las Vegas. But he also finished 19th or worse in four of his five starts before Sunday.
The win on the fast, demanding 1½-mile Texas oval -- the same track where he earned the first of 13 Busch Series victories two years earlier -- looked easy as Earnhardt led a race-high 106 of 334
laps.
He said the rainout of Saturday's final practice gave him an edge.
"I think the lack of practice helped us out because our car was good right off the trailer," he said. "A lot of guys would probably have been better in the race if they'd had a chance to practice."
Earnhardt said that even with that break, he was surprised such drivers as Jeff Burton, who finished second, and Bobby Labonte, who was third, didn't give him more of a battle.
"I wondered what they were doing, if they were just riding around," he said. "We'd drive away from them. I couldn't believe our car was that good, but it was. I could adjust my driving line and style to each set of tires. I'd point and shoot and that thing ran. That's all there was to it."
The victory was particularly gratifying after three straight frustrating weeks in which he finished 29th, 40th and 38th.
"After the last three weeks, it was fun to go get out front and show these guys I could use my head and make smart decisions," Earnhardt said.
"Even when I've got a real fast car and I'm not up front, I can be patient and pick my way through there. It was fun to prove that to them and prove my status as far as being a driver goes."
He didn't have to prove anything to Labonte, the series points leader.
"It didn't surprise me any," said Labonte, who ran second to Earnhardt until late in the race. "Anybody that has seen him drive, knows he's a good one."
Such praise from Labonte was particularly gratifying to Earnhardt.
"I admire him a lot about how he carries himself around the garage area and stuff," Earnhardt said. "He's a really cool guy, real quiet, and he doesn't ruffle anybody's feathers."
Earnhardt, who won the Busch Series championship each of the past two seasons, leads Matt Kenseth by five points in the rookie standings entering Sunday's race in Martinsville, Va.
"I didn't know how quickly this (win) would come and I'm kind of overwhelmed by it," Earnhardt said. "But I think we're going to see a couple of rookies get into victory lane this year." | |
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