Dale Jr.: “It’s Overwhelming, Really”
May 16, 2008
CIA Stock Photo, Inc.
NAVY PILOTS LIKEN it to landing on a postage stamp. It’s essentially a controlled crash.
The shouts from Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his NASCAR racing protégé Brad Keselowski were a cross between exhilaration and what-now?—loud enough to be heard over our plane’s engine and the heavy-duty ear protection and helmets we were wearing.
The plane veered sharply and started another approach. This time it was a perfect landing—the plane’s tail hook snagged the third of four cables stretched across the rear of the flight deck. And we STOPPED.
“I think they might have done that on purpose,” Earnhardt said with a smile after our small group walked out of the rear of the plane and into the Navy’s world—a ship three football fields long, 24 stories high from top to bottom (keel to mast top), home to a squadron of F-18 fighter jets and more than 5,000 personnel.
“I’ve never seen it like this with so many people, not even when Chuck Norris came,” said Tuttle, who had Earnhardt autograph a picture to “Mr. NASCAR,” his father in New Jersey. “It’s nice to see the Navy car he drives and know that’s what I represent.”
Earnhardt’s celebrity has afforded him the opportunity to do many extraordinary things. But his visit to the USS Theodore Roosevelt was special even by his standards.
It’s also deeply personal. The United States Navy and U.S. National Guard sponsor Earnhardt’s race cars in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series and he takes the commitment seriously.
He’s not hocking motor oil or selling widgets. This sponsorship is about encouraging young men and women to join the military, to possibly put their lives on the line in sacrifice for our country.
“This is a tangible sponsorship,” Earnhardt said. “It’s unlike the majority of corporate America sponsorships, and for me it’s an honor. It’s truly humbling.
“And it’s quite a responsibility especially in these times. It brings a real sense of urgency and importance.”
“You can tell that everyone on board has been real excited about this,” said Lockwood, a mass communications specialist who studied journalism at Washington State University.
“This trip shows he cares about the morale and that the Navy cares about the morale.”
The trip may seem like a small gesture in the big picture, but we discovered that it is not.
Back at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, Earnhardt’s jet waited to take him and Keselowski to Richmond, Va., for the weekend’s NASCAR race.
It was a moving experience in every sense of the word.
“It’s overwhelming, really,” Earnhardt said, trying to muster the words. “Overwhelming.”
