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Junior: rock star and rock solid

Sporting News, The, Sept 20, 2004 by Lee Spencer

Before I can even check in for my 9 a.m. flight, I have to get past a band of wide-eyed racing fans waiting curbside at Charlotte/Douglas airport.

There are four middle-aged women dressed in red, including one who's holding a Dale Jr. Blvd. street sign over her head and screaming "JUNIOR" in a Southern accent as if she were on the frontstretch at Talladega.

The race is 300 miles away in Richmond, but there's no escaping the multitude of Dale Earnhardt Jr. minions.

But can he live up to the hype?

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In 173 starts, Earnhardt has 13 victories. That's an impressive number, but his father won the rookie award and series title in his first two full years on the circuit. Matt Kenseth, who has one more start than Junior, has nine wins but also a championship. However, a similar outpouring of adulation has yet to engulf him.

Jimmie Johnson, who started full-time Cup racing two years after Earnhardt and Kenseth did, has 10 career wins and hasn't finished worse than fifth in points, but he hardly receives the rock star treatment afforded Earnhardt. Even four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who travels in some highprofile circles, graciously has resigned himself to second in the NASCAR popularity contest.

So why the clamor over the young man whose family affectionately refers to him as "Junebug"?

There is the name. There is the persona. And then there is the resemblance to his father--on the track and off. Certainly, he has his father's charisma. Part of Senior's popularity stemmed from the people in the stands relating to a former mill worker from Kannapolis, N.C. But Junior doesn't have his father's gruff exterior, opting more for a brooding, boyish demeanor even though he is just weeks from his 30th birthday.

Junior also has inherited his dad's talent. He easily assumed the restrictor-plate throne and methodically has attacked his weak spots throughout his Cup career. Mthough short tracks have been Junior's strong suit, he struggled on the high banks of Bristol until last month, when he wheeled his No. 8 Chevrolet to victory still smarting from the scars of a fiery crash in July. Fortunately for Earnhardt, Michigan and California aren't among the season's final 10 races. There's still work to do on the big, flat tracks.

For the Chase, Earnhardt's team will test aggressively at Kansas and Homestead, where he finished 18th and 24th last season, and at Dover, where the crew miscalculated the shocks package in June.

Awaiting my connecting flight in Washington, D.C., there are more Junior fans. But the demographic has changed. The three young men in khakis sitting across from me could just as easily have been going to the Florida State-Miami game, but the white 2004 Daytona 500 cap, the red Budweiser cap adorned with collectible pins from a half-dozen races and the 2004 Daytona 500 T-shirt commemorating Junior's win are giveaways. The four women in Charlotte probably held equal adoration for Dale Sr., but this is a different breed. These 20-something New Englanders don't remember the Intimidator in his heyday.

"I started following racing and Dale Jr. during his rookie year" says Mike Jenkinson, 28. "I pulled for him because he was my age and worked for the family company like I do.

"Everybody is a Junior fan, but there are two types of Junior fans, like there are two types of Yankees fans. There are Junior fans because it's the cool thing to do. He's the new, hipper-style driver. Then there are fans like us who can tell you his strengths and weaknesses and will stand behind him win or lose. Being a Red Sox fan is good training for that."

When Earnhardt took the checkered flag in the season opener at Daytona and led the points after nine of the races earlier in the year, it appeared that NASCAR had its It Boy on the road to the title. He fell back to third, but with the season practically starting from scratch this weekend, Earnhardt has to be one of the favorites to win the Chase. He has won at four of the final 10 racetracks but still has to get past the Hendrick boys and his buddy Kenseth to get his first Cup championship.

If Junior falls short, there's always next year and fans such as Jenkinson, who will support him no matter what. TSN

* Add the new second race at California to those that need to be cut to 400 miles. A four-hour race challenges the attention spans of the most avid race fans. The length of the Pop Secret 500 also cut into the postrace TV analysis, leaving many viewers wondering what certain drivers needed to accomplish at Richmond to qualify for the Chase.

* Ganassi Racing's full-time Busch Series effort next season makes sense. Although the organization has made tremendous gains with Casey Mears' team this year, Sterling Marlin's and Jamie McMurray's teams definitely could be more competitive. Having information from the Busch races would benefit all three teams on Sundays.

* NASCAR needs to suck it up and admit that the Lucky Dog rule adds nothing but confusion to the system. Jeff Gordon's dilemma at Bristol was a perfect example of how disruptive the rule is to competitors. Drivers should race each other for position instead of having officials determine where the cars should line up.

Junior: rock star and rock solid

Sporting News, The, Sept 20, 2004 by Lee Spencer

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