Sometimes Dale Earnhardt Jr. laughs about it.
This whole “feud” with Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage was nothing more than another example of the power of Earnhardt’s name. It’s a power that confuses him, amuses him and makes him a little uncomfortable.
Click Here For More NASCAR Photos
In January, Gossage’s colleagues, including company president Bruton Smith, annoyed Earnhardt when they said drivers need to do more to help tracks sell tickets. Earnhardt said drivers do enough. Track promoters should do their job.
Earnhardt watched the rest unfold. In less than a week Gossage announced, after speaking with Earnhardt’s representatives, the two of them had buried the hatchet. It’s not good business to rip the sport’s most popular driver. Gossage even called Earnhardt “the best thing we’ve got.”
“I figured that if he really wanted to or if Bruton or anyone wanted to, they could pick me apart in the press,” Earnhardt said.
Gossage backed off. But in the end, they always back off.
Even without scores of wins (Earnhardt has 18 wins, three since 2004), even without a championship, his power has grown.
Once shy and hidden by his father’s titanic shadow, Junior shows more every day how comfortable he is in his position and that, however reluctantly, it is his own.
Lately the patience with Earnhardt has waned ever so slightly. At age 34, he’s even had to consider the possibility that he might never win a series title.
“If it doesn’t happen, what’s my life going to be like?” Earnhardt said. “Am I going to become an alcoholic, hide out in some (darn) town house and disappear or what? That’s the way everybody makes it sound. You don’t win a championship, life’s over.
Click Here For More NASCAR Photos
“I sit there and I think, it is important to me and it is my No. 1 goal. I will be sad to not have it happen. I will have to come to terms with that, and it ain’t going to be, like, easy to do. But I do know at one time I just wanted to make enough to pay my bills. ... I did better than I thought I was going to do.”
Shy and quiet are two of the first words those who know Earnhardt Jr. well use to describe him.
| 
|