| | CONCORD, N.C. -- Here's the kid who spent two years turning the NASCAR
Busch Series into a sea of red, white and blue.
When it comes to inspiring the masses, this Junior of Dale is a
modern-day Joan of Ark.
His late-race heroics to win The Winston Saturday night only added
another chapter to a rookie season that has seen Little E do little wrong.
|  | | Dale Earnhardt Jr., may be following his father's footsteps, but he's no longer in the Intimidator's shadow. |
He has style, and, in a sport that has been saturated by corporate
dollars and a corporate "watch what you say" attitude, Budweiser has allowed
Earnhardt Junior to hold on to that charisma that brings fans to their feet
each time he makes a move on the race track.
Here's to the Whaazzzzupppp! gang at Budweiser: Little E is up, and still
rising.
It's no surprise that, as each week passes in his first Winston Cup
season, the grandstands across this country are fading into the red-and-black
hues of the one they call Junior.
"I looked up in my mirror and here this thing comes," said daddy Dale
Earnhardt, who finished third behind his offspring. "This red thing ran us
down."
This thing is everywhere. It is a movement that is gaining steam with
every move Junior makes.
As the goateed leader of Team Little E emerged from his Budweiser-colored
warhorse on the Lowe's Motor Speedway frontstretch, the masses who'd gathered
in the grandstands popped the top on another beverage and roared emphatically
for what their leader had to say.
The war chant, "Earnhardt, Earnhardt, Earnhardt," picked up from Turn One
to Turn Four. "That was kind of weird," Junior said. "(My dad's) the
Earnhardt in the family."
It's a rock-and-roll revolution. For a new generation of NASCAR fans,
Earnhardt is the disc jockey playing their kind of music. For a change, his
celebrity or his money aren't Junior's motivation -- winning is the reason
he's still flat-footing a car that's scraped the wall.
"I realize how money motivates some drivers, and I realize how motivational it can be for me," he
said. "It's a handy tool when you've got it, but it's not everything. It's
damn sure not everything.
"Success can easily spoil you, and I take advantage of the situation
some. I'm shopping a little more than I used to in the past. I bought a
25-foot boat to use on Lake Norman (N.C), but it ain't nothing special. You
see a bunch of boats just like it on the lake. I bought a new truck and paid
cash for it. That was cool. I bought it from my dad, and he gave me a pretty
good deal on it, I think."
Dad gave his a pretty good deal on some DNA too.
"You don't have to say anything about (Junior)," says crew chief Tony
Eury Sr., the bearded Papa Bear who's become the pseudo-scout leader for
these Gen X mechanics who are proving age isn't the key to success. "Junior
lets the driving do all the talking."
At Texas Motor Speedway, Junior's first win came with championship
contender Bobby Labonte in hot pursuit. To earn his second win, two weeks ago
at Richmond, Junior held off two-time Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte.
Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, current champion Dale Jarrett
got his first taste of stock car racing's Big Red Machine as it swarmed him
in front of a home-state crowd.
"He came up there and blew me away," Jarrett said. "I heard him say he
messed up, I'd hate to see when he has a perfect race."
If the 25-year-old Earnhardt hasn't learned anything else this season, he
has learned to capitalize.
"I didn't know when it was mine," Junior said when asked if The Winston
ever appeared to be in his grasp. "Hell, when do you know when it's yours?
"Everything has worked out pretty cool so far this season. I didn't know
if I could win in Winston Cup at all as a rookie. To have two wins and a win
in The Winston already really takes away a lot of pressure. It's a relief
really.
"Budweiser took a big risk by going with me and my dad's company. It was
an unproven company and had a lot of living up to do. I think I've got a job
now for the rest of my life. I'm making a real good living, but all I wanted
to do was be able to hold down a job. I look at my peers and see what they've
accomplished and what I've accomplished, and I think I've done enough to
stick around."
And, in the fans case, he's done enough already to keep that "Earnhardt,
Earnhardt, Earnhardt," battle cry raging into another decade.
Phil Furr, a freelance writer based in Charlotte, N.C., writes a weekly auto-racing column for ESPN.com.
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