Junior: rock star and rock solid

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?

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.

Down the road

New Hampshire

INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

Sylvania 300

* When: 1 p.m. ET Sunday

* Length: 300 laps/317.4 miles

* TV: TNT

Run with this:

NASCAR and NEXTEL Cup competitors alike were fearful that the second New Hampshire race of 2001 might be the coldest in history. The event had been rescheduled from September, its usual place on the schedule, to late November because of the tragedies of Sept. 11. Fortunately, the weather smiled on NASCAR, and the season finale went off without a hitch.

Mobil 1 is ideal for severe conditions such as driving in cold weather.

M@IL BONDING

LEE SPENCER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS

Do you think Hendrick Motorsports has been experimenting with the engines, or is there reason for concern?

William Floyd, Willits, Calif.

William: According to the folks at Hendrick, the engine woes that have plagued Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 and Jeff Gordon's No. 24 were unrelated. Gordon's engine failure at California was because of a piston problem but was different from the trouble Gordon had with a piston at Michigan. And Johnson's three breakdowns also were unrelated. The HMS engine department broke down the engine last week and did not seem overly concerned.

The tuners put the engines through strenuous levels of dynamometer testing before they reach the track. Once a malfunction is identified, the same problem seldom recurs.

INSIDE DISH By LEE SPENCER

How important is getting a head start on the Chase? Huge. It's so important that both Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon tested last month at New Hampshire and several owners shook down cars for Loudon at Milwaukee. "We've experimented with things that really haven't worked out at times, but now we're back to basics," Johnson says. "It's time to points race."... Another Hendrick Motorsports teammate, two-time champ Terry Labonte, met with owner Rick Hendrick last week to discuss his future. Labonte is expected to run a limited schedule over the next two seasons, possibly reviving the No. 44, the number he won his first title with, while Kyle Busch moves into the No. 5 Chevrolet.... NASCAR inspected 11 cars after the Richmond race to ensure there was no impropriety with the drivers who qualified lot the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Although inspections lasted well into Sunday morning, no issues were found.... Expect NASCAR to scrutinize the new points format closely before deciding whether to use it in the Busch Series and Craftsman Trucks Series. NASCAR vice president of corporate communications Jim Hunter says adapting the system in the two lower series is a possibility, but the issue would have to be "debated internally" first.... Robby Gordon's luck is turning-at least in the Busch Series. Gordon won the Emerson 250 after 23 Busch career starts, and he confirmed last week that his primary Busch sponsor, Fruit of the Loom, has signed on for 24 races in 2005. But when asked about his status with Richard Childress Racing, Gordon replied, "Those are the only plans 1 do have right now." Gordon's contract expired last month, and he has not been told if it will be renewed. But Gordon is prepared to run his own Cup team if he is cut loose by RCR .... Busch Series points leader Martin Truex Jr. will get another Nextel Cup start in the No. 1 Chevrolet at New Hampshire this weekend, with Enterprise Leasing as the sponsor. Truex relieved his boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was suffering from painful burns, at New Hampshire in July and finished 31st.... Joe Gibbs Racing still is looking for a crew chief to lead the No. 11 FedEx car in 2005. Sources say Slugger kabbe, crew chief for Michael Waltrip, is a candidate. Labbe is one of the best crew chiefs in the garage and would be great for a start-up team. Finding a driver is another matter. Although IGR is expected to run J.J. Yeley in additional races this season, sources say FedEx is looking for a more experienced driver. Jamie McMurray, Robby Gordon and Dave Blaney have been mentioned as prospects.... Former MB2 Motorsports driver Jerry Nadeau met with team G.M. Jay Frye last week to discuss his Cup future. Initially, Nadeau was going to run an A-B-C (ARCA-Busch-Cup) program in 2005, but Frye says doctors want to wait until May--two years after Nadeau's crash at Richmond--to determine Nadeau's condition. If Nadeau checks out OK, he could run ARCA and Busch races in 2006.

TSN's POWER POLL

                           Nextel       TSN       TSN points:
Driver                   Cup points    paints    last 10 races

 (1) Jeff Gordon           5,050     2,630 (1)     1,151 (1)
 (2) Jimmie Johnson        5,045     2,443 (2)       709 (7)
 (3) Dale Earnhardt Jr.    5,040     2,016 (3)       617 (12)
 (4) Tony Stewart          5,035     2,011 (4)       912 (2)
 (5) Matt Kenseth          5,030     1,949 (5)       618 (11)
 (6) Elliott Sadler        5,025     1,834 (9)       680 (9)
 (7) Kurt Busch            5,020     1,915 (7)       789 (5)
 (8) Mark Martin           5,015     1,771 (11)      894 (3)
 (9) Jeremy Mayfield       5,010     1,872 (8)       826 (4)
(10) Ryan Newman           5,005     1,946 (6)       651 (10)

Through race No. 26 at Richmond. Get a complete TSN
Power Poll rundown and a points system explanation at

msn.foxsports.com/name/public/NASCAR/Cup/PowerPoll.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning