Start your engines!
Play RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge!
Win a Honda S2000!
Play The CART Challenge powered by Honda!
|
|
Saturday, February 24
Drivers says garage area is different now
By Wayne Drehs
ESPN.com
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- The black and red No. 3 baseball cap certainly clashed with Jeff Gordon's red, blue and yellow racing suit.
But he hardly cared. Nor did any of the other drivers, crewmembers and owners that sported the sleek No. 3 hats in honor of their fallen legend, Dale Earnhardt.
|  | | Dale Earnhardt Jr., right, shares a laugh with Jeff Gordon, left, before final practice at Rockingham, N.C. |
Saturday was a day in which the NASCAR Winston Cup Series tried to move on, with drivers climbing back into their cars for the first time since Earnhardt's death. But many couldn't help but continue to look back.
Gordon, who some have suggested will replace Earnhardt as the sport's most identifiable driver, was one of them.
"It was different just to walk into the garage. You could just sense it wasn't the same," said Gordon, after earning the pole for Sunday's Dura Lube 400 at North Carolina Speedway. "You can say it was business as usual, but it wasn't. That's why I'm wearing this hat, so everybody knows how much I miss him and how much I respected him."
Gordon, who dedicated the pole to Earnhardt, was far from alone. Tributes to "The Intimidator" were everywhere, from the giant No. 3 painted on the rock outside the speedway to a white Earnhardt banner fans signed on a fence behind pit road.
Brett Bodine's entire crew wore matching No. 3 hats, while other crews and drivers had the number sewn onto their racing suit.
Ken Schrader, who was involved in the crash in which Earnhardt died, was one of them. Like many of his colleagues, Schrader found an escape from this week's emotional roller coaster by getting back behind the wheel.
In fact, Schrader said that waiting an extra day to get back on the track, due to a scheduling change by NASCAR, which pushed qualifying from Friday to Saturday, made things more difficult.
"The past seven days have felt like three weeks," he said. "It's actually good to be here at the track and back in the car. If you took a poll around the garage, I bet most people wish we could have been here yesterday. We are racers -- it is what we do. And do make it through Rockingham without Dale banging on me a bit will definitely be a change."
That change will be even more challenging for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt Jr., who also returned to the track Saturday for the first time since his father's death, was the focal point of everyone's attention. Outside his garage, numerous fans and media members gathered, hoping to catch a quote or a glimpse from the heir to the Earnhardt racing throne.
When he took the track for qualifying, Earnhardt Jr. received the loudest cheers of the day, a standing ovation in which many fans pointed the No. 3 to the sky.
But Earnhardt Jr. qualified a disappointing 25th for Sunday's race and was little mood to talk afterwards. After the run, as his crew worked on the No. 8 Budweiser car, Earnhardt Jr. leaned against his garage door, head looking down at the ground, sunglasses guarding the look in his eyes.
"We have a good car. A top-10 car," said Earnhardt Jr., in his only comments of the day through a press release. "But in qualifying the car was not what we practiced today."
Driver Stacy Compton was impressed that Earnhardt Jr. was even racing under such difficult circumstances.
"Him being here just shows the dedication he had to his father and the dedication he has to this sport," Compton said. "It means something just to see him out there. I would like nothing more than to see him win the whole thing tomorrow."
The other man in the spotlight Saturday was 25-year-old Kevin Harvick. Harvick, driving the No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet, took Earnhardt's place in the lineup for Richard Childress Racing. He qualified 36th just before finishing second in the NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division Alltel 200.
But the story of the day was the absence of Earnhardt and how NASCAR will move forward without him. Robert Yates, owner of the cars driven by Ricky Rudd and Dale Jarrett, knew Earnhardt as a child. He said he stayed up late one night this week, writing 10 pages in a diary about his memories of those pre-racing days.
|
“ |
It's hard to compete under these circumstances. He was our Elvis. I don't think anybody will ever forget him. But with that, we have a job to do.” |
|
|
—Car owner Robert Yates |
"It's hard to compete under these circumstances. He was our Elvis," said a somber Yates. "I don't think anybody will ever forget him. But with that, we have a job to do."
Gordon, who made it a point to note that he and Earnhardt weren't close friends, said he learned more from "The Intimidator" -- especially off the track -- than anybody knew. Tips like how to balance a successful racing life with a productive family life as well as how to work the business aspect of the sport.
Gordon said his fondest memory of Earnhardt was in Gordon's first IROC race in 1995, when he, Earnhardt and Schrader went three-wide at Daytona.
"For some reason, I decided to look over at Schrader and he was just looking straight ahead, completely focused," Gordon recalled. "Then I look over at Dale, just beaming and smiling at me. He was having a ball. And that's the way he was."
Gordon said that despite his rookie status in IROC and Winston Cup, he was the one who had to lift off the gas heading into the quickly approaching corner.
"I knew he wasn't going to lift," Gordon said. "And it was unbelievable to me that I had to be the bigger man to let off the gas. I guess that's because I knew what I was up against. I'll never forget that day."
Just like many are sure to not forget tomorrow, the first race without NASCAR's on-track leader. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
|
|
|
|
