All for one: forget rugged individualism—Dale Earnhardt Jr. [No. 8] and Michael Waltrip have demonstrated the power of working together on the track

Auto Racing Digest, August-Sept, 2002 by Monte Dutton

ONE OF THE MORE INACCURATE CLICHES spouted by NASCAR drivers is that Winston Cup racing is a team sport. By strict definition, it obviously is not. Points are accumulated only for individual drivers and there are no prizes for the combined success of a team owner's charges.

When a driver refers to Cup racing as a team sport, he is usually praising the efforts of the engine builders, chassis specialists, engineers, pit crews, and others whose work helps get his car from the garage to the finish line. The concept of who is on a driver's "team" has changed, however, in the age of the multicar owner. Drivers who share a boss now interact with and assist each other--sometimes even on the track--to the dismay of NASCAR's old guard.

Drivers are particularly encouraged to work together at tracks such as Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, where carburetor restrictor plates are used to limit horsepower. At these tracks, drafting is the only reliable way for drivers to move to the front of the pack and teamwork is rewarded.

But no matter where a race is held, team alignments have never been more crucial. The single-car team has, by and large, been rendered irrelevant. They still exist but rarely win, and even when they do--as the Wood Brothers' Elliott Sadler did last year at Bristol Motor Speedway's Food City 500--there can be extenuating circumstances. The Wood Brothers are ex officio members of the Roush Racing stable, from which they receive engines and technical assistance.

In the garage, multicar owners have their drivers thinking and acting like a unit--none more than Dale Earnhardt, Inc.'s Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

It is often said that Waltrip earned his 2001 Daytona 500 victory, the first of his Winston Cup career, because Dale Earnhardt--who was killed in a crash on the final lap--was keeping the cars behind him at bay. Many racing observers felt that Earnhardt assisted the two cars that he owned, those of Waltrip and Dale Jr., who finished second.

That's a myth. Waltrip won the 2001 Daytona 500 because his teammate, Earnhardt Jr., lined up on his tail and enabled him to shake loose from the unruly gaggle of cars trailing behind them. The elder Earnhardt was fiercely trying to hold on to third place when the accident that took his life occurred.

Since that race, the Waltrip-Junior tandem has worked together to produce two more restrictor-plate victories--both by Earnhardt--at Daytona in July 2001 and at Talladega in April 2002. In Earnhardt's Talladega win, Waltrip could not have blocked better had he been driving a road grader. The strategy was obvious, and it sealed Earnhardt's victory.

At one point in their radio transmission, Earnhardt said to his spotter, DEI general manager Ty Norris: "I'm getting nervous here. I mean, when you're up front ridin', you have time to worry about what can go wrong."

"Michael wants to know how the view is up there in the catbird seat," Norris replied. "He's right behind you, fighting off the field."

"It's good," said Earnhardt. "I've been havin' some fun watching him battle."

After the race, Earnhardt was also quick to admit that he had help from his teammate. "As we came around after we got the checker, I thought to myself, `Michael Waltrip was the reason we won that race,'" he said. "We had a good car, but having a teammate working for you helps, and it has won us three of the last four plate races."

Waltrip's older brother, Fox commentator and former driver Darrell Waltrip, later said the reason it was Earnhardt who won the race while his brother did the drafting may have been because "the name of the team isn't Michael Waltrip, Inc."

Many stock car fans think of their heroes as rugged individualists and don't approve of choreography on the high banks. They want NASCAR to be every man for himself--teammates be damned. Yet NASCAR seems to be gradually drifting in the direction of what is known in other forms of racing as team orders--a ladder of importance that determines equipment, practice time, and access to top crews within a team.

Team orders have been common-place in other motor sports series for decades. No one is surprised, for instance, when second-tier Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello moves over to allow his Formula One teammate Michael Schumacher to win a race.

Of course, Earnhardt doesn't believe DEI has a team order. Even though he has most often benefited from his team's drafting effort, he claims if the positions were reversed in those races he would have fiercely protected Waltrip's lead. "When Michael won the Daytona 500, I had so many chances to pass him, but I knew if I did that it could cost us the race," he says.

The Talladega runner-up is bothered by the perception of a team order at DEI. "We have a deal," says Waltrip. "Whoever is in the lead first, the other one takes care of him. I was proud of Dale for blocking for me when I needed him to, and that's what I do for him."

"Little E" is also proud that he and Waltrip have a level of cooperation that other drivers either can't or won't reach. "We have these multicar teams in order to give us an upper hand on the rest of the field," he says. "It's not like other teams don't have the same opportunity. The Hendrick cars [Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, and Jimmie Johnson] never pair up. The Yates cars [Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd] never pair up. But if you want to win, that's what it takes."