The novelty and newness of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Hendrick Motorsports is gone, but he’s still NASCAR’s most popular driver and his name still fuels emotion in race fans everywhere.
So this season, as we enter a year that’s sure to be financially tough on the sport as a whole, NASCAR needs Earnhardt to win the Daytona 500 more than ever.
It would give the sport a jolt of energy right at the start of the season, one that could carry steam into California and Las Vegas where tickets were a hard sell even before the economy tanked.
But what if people thought they could get to the race track to see the resurgence of NASCAR’s favorite son?
Think back to last year, when Earnhardt started the season with a win in the Budweiser Shootout, then won his half of the Gatorade 150 qualifying races. He was the favorite for the historic race at the track where Earnhardts excelled.
“I want to make this a special place,” Earnhardt said after the Shootout, then thought back to what Daytona meant to his father.
“This is where we lost him and I want to keep whuppin’ it.”
Earnhardt was in contention to win the big race last season (he finished ninth).
Earnhardt the younger, however, is comfortable in his own skin and has taken his notoriety in stride as he prepares for the 2009 Daytona 500.
“It really only takes a couple laps really to get re-acclimated with everything going on, the speed and the senses and all the things you’re trying to do,” Earnhardt said. “But it should just be like an old shoe, you know, your favourite pair of slippers or whatever.
“It is an on/off switch for me. I feel like, and I’m glad to turn it on, and I’m glad to turn it off. Just whatever I need to be doing, whatever the job is at the time.”
“As far as last year, I mean, I was real happy how we started the season,” he said. “The first half of the year was great. We were second in points; we ran great right out of the box.
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