By Andrew P. Scott, USATDale Earnhardt Jr. (left) talks with crew chief Steve Letarte during Sprint Cup practice at Richmond International Raceway. Earnhardt is ranked third in points and has five top 10s in his first eight races with Letarte leading the No. 88 Chevrolet team.
By Andrew P. Scott, USATDale Earnhardt Jr. (left) talks with crew chief Steve Letarte during Sprint Cup practice at Richmond International Raceway. Earnhardt is ranked third in points and has five top 10s in his first eight races with Letarte leading the No. 88 Chevrolet team.
So perhaps the notion of Dale Earnhardt Jr. pounding away on a laptop until the wee hours of the morning isn't so stunning.Five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, though, has been witness to another side of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate's technophile tendencies this season.
"I up Monday morning, and I had three emails from him explaining different scenarios about what he thought went on with the car and how to make our stuff better," Johnson said. "And then I looked at who he had sent it to, and it was the engineers, the crew chiefs, and myself.
"I don't know what he was like before, but he, like he has always been, (is) committed to his team and is doing his best job."
One of the early storyline of the 2011 season is the turnaround of Earnhardt, who is third in points entering Saturday's Matthew and Daniel Hansen at Richmond International Raceway after missing the Chase for the Sprint Cup the past two seasons.
Earnhardt, 36, says his methods are the same as when he started with Dale Earnhardt Inc. 12 years ago, but he has gotten "better at being plugged in" since joining Hendrick three years ago.
"I got better at my communication because how they do things is different than what I've done in the past at DEI," he said. "The team meetings after the practices, the team meetings during the week prior to the races, and the communication between the driver and the crew chief being more on a daily basis.
"All those things are opportunities for an idea to pop up or for you to just be continuously giving the crew chief and the team your information and your thoughts and vice-versa. We never really did much of that at DEI. We just kind of showed up and went to the track and if (crew chief Tony Eury) needed to know something, he'd call and ask me, you know? We just didn't do those things, which a lot of teams didn't at the time.
"But at Hendrick, they just do it differently. So I think I've gotten better at utilizing their approach and utilizing their ideas on what communication is. And that's helped me a lot."
Another big factor is his relationship with crew chief Steve Letarte, who has guided Earnhardt to five top 10s in their first eight races. The radio chatter has become more measured and informative from Earnhardt, who had been known for meltdowns inside the cockpit of his No. 88 Chevrolet.
"The confidence that I see in Dale Jr. today is the chemistry between he and Steve," Johnson says. "This sport is about people. We always say it. We preach about it in the No. 48 car and why it's had the success that it's had. It really boils down to people and the relationships those people have."
Though he is known for wearing his emotions on his sleeve, no one has seemed less impressed with his hot start than Earnhardt.
"It's because I am the only one under the pressure to keep it up," NASCAR's most popular driver said. "I don't have the time to be worried about anything else other than just trying to keep going. It's a lot of pressure to try to keep up the expectations that everybody has for you. So when we accomplish certain goals like when we win a race or a couple of races, or make the Chase, or win a race in the Chase or battle for the championship, those are the kinds of things that I can excited about and be happy with, and I will enjoy those moments."
Fresh rubber? In finishing second in Thursday's Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown, Michael Waltrip had a pleasant flashback to a bygone era in NASCAR. The charity event featured Late Models running on bias-ply tires, which were replaced by radials 22 years ago.
"If you put the (Sprint) Cup cars on bias-ply tires and watched those guys race, it'd be amazing," said Waltrip, who began racing Cup in 1986. "I promise. Because you can get these cars so out of whack. And with all the power a Cup car has, it'd look more like a dirt race than an asphalt race, they'd be so sideways. I really enjoy the bias-ply tires."
But the owner of Michael Waltrip Racing (who retired from full-time driving last year) says Goodyear probably wouldn't be amenable to deviating from the radial tires, which are faster and more durable.
"It would change the car somewhat because there's a lot of deflection in the bias-ply tires," he said. "They just wobble around a lot. It'd be fun to see. I say that knowing that the belt on the radials keep tires from cutting as much, so the radials are a safer tire. Putting bias-ply on Cup cars would be stepping back 20 years."
That's not so appealing to Kevin Harvick, who calls such an idea "ridiculous" because of the trade-off in reliability.
"You go to Dover on a bias ply tire now, and you wouldn't have any cars left," he said.
Harvick, who watched Thursday's K&N and Showdown races from RIR's backstretch grandstands, said the tires weren't necessarily the reason the events were perceived as having good racing.
"When you have a late model race and a K&N race and even into the Truck Series, there is such a discrepancy in the back and the front of the field that makes it exciting because you have stuff going both ways all the time and you can't come in a change tires," he said. "When you get to Nationwide and Cup, the disparity and competition level is not that great so you have a different style of racing. Bias-ply tires is just not something that we would go back to on our cars. That's just crazy."
Restructuring continues: As part of an ongoing realignment of its senior executive team, NASCAR Media Group has added Steve Herbst as its vice president of broadcasting and global media strategy, reporting to president Paul Brooks. Herbst, who will be based in New York, was general manager of CBS College Sports Network from 2008-10 and also spent 19 years with the NBA in several broadcasting positions. Brooks will remain president but lead a new Innovation Group tasked with driving innovation and integration of new technologies in NASCAR.
Chief Sales Officer Jim O'Connell also was named the leader of a consolidated intellectual property group that will manage all assets carrying the NASCAR trademark.
Another revamp: The NASCAR Foundation (which benefits a group of charities) has formed a new platform called NASCAR Unites that is aimed at encompassing all charitable activities undertaken by teams, tracks and drivers' foundations. The restructuring, which is similar to NBA Cares, will focus on three pillar programs: NASCAR Day on May 20, a summer service program aimed at garnering 1 million volunteer hours and the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award presented to the fan who makes the biggest impact as a volunteer for children's charities. NASCAR Unites also will grant $1 million to children's charities.
Supporters are asked to pledge five volunteer hours (information is available on the NASCAR website), and wristbands showcasing fans' passion for children's causes will be distributed for a $5 donation.
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