JUNIOR’S TALLADEGA HEIGHTS
Like father, Earnhardt’s legacy has links to restrictor-plate track
Their legacies have been intertwined for decades, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and this caldron of chaos where the Appalachian Mountains taper away.
Talladega Superspeedway suited him from the start of his NASCAR career.
His late father and seven-time NASCAR Cup series champion Dale Earnhardt Sr. won there a record 10 times, establishing his reputation as one of the undisputed masters of the odd art of restrictor-plate racing. Even as
he labored 20 years before winning the plate race that mattered most — the Daytona 500 — Earnhardt Sr. had parlayed his ability to divine the movements of snarling lines of race cars, hunkered inches apart at 200 mph, into glory, fame and devotion out in the Alabama hills.
They loved him, then mourned him upon his death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. And they deposited that devotion with Earnhardt Jr. as his career at NASCAR’s highest level began to bloom soon after. And the son rewarded them. Sponsored by Budweiser, he was young enough, rowdy enough and similar enough to his father in different ways to cast the sprawling grounds around the biggest NASCAR track a brilliant red. Much of that similarity was his seeming preternatural skill at the form of racing in which his father excelled. That it also was the type of racing in which Earnhardt Sr. died added an almost mystical quality.
Of Earnhardt Jr.’s 26 Cup wins, a career-best six have come at Talladega — plus four at Daytona, including two in the Daytona 500. He leads all active drivers in victories at Talladega, but he knew long ago how much more he’d have to accomplish there to surpass his father.
After winning the fall race at Talladega in 2004 and assuming the points lead with seven races left, Earnhardt Jr., though he’d won five of the last seven races at Talladega, responded exuberantly during a television interview: “It don’t mean (expletive) right now. Daddy’s won here 10 times.”
A 25-point penalty cost Earnhardt Jr. the points lead, and after wrecking at Martinsville and Atlanta, he finished fifth in the final standings for Dale Earnhardt Inc. He didn’t win at Talladega again until the spring of 2015 with Hendrick Motorsports, was second in the fall and crashed into a 40thplace finish last spring. He missed the 2016 fall race while recovering from a concussion.
Earnhardt Jr.’s heritage at Talladega goes beyond results, though. Honoring his and his father’s lineage sometimes literally called down vengeance from the sky. Beer cans descended from the grandstands in protest of Jeff Gordon beating him by a position under caution in April 2004, and a 12-ounce rebellion arose again in April 2007 when Gordon, his future teammate, passed his father with a 77th career win. On what would have been Earnhardt Sr.’s 56th birthday, no less.
Earnhardt Jr. expressed approval in Gordon surpassing his father, and the brew flew again.
“I thought Junior had more power than that,” Gordon said after the race.
As 42-year-old Earnhardt Jr. approaches his penultimate race at the 2.66-mile behemoth before retiring at the end of the season, it’s apparent what this track and this form of racing has given him. And what it’s taken.
Earnhardt Jr.’s decision to leave under his own terms has been praised and respected. Walking away from driving of his own volition into family life and whatever numerous business ventures lay out before him makes for a heartening story. But a driver whose career was put in jeopardy, who had to work diligently first to regain life normalcy before even considering a return to the No. 88 Chevrolet, has 27 more green flags scheduled before the credits roll.
And even as Talladega has been a scene of wonderful memories for the Earnhardts, it’s a place that can take its fair measure in return. Gordon — a 12-time platerace winner, including the Daytona 500 three times — rued his final trip to Talladega in his final full Cup season of 2015 and stated unapologetically that he wouldn’t compete at those two tracks again.
Yes, racing is dangerous. Yes, Earnhardt Jr. made it through the first plate race of the year at Daytona perfectly fine. And yes, a crash at Michigan International Speedway is believed to have been the first domino in the most recent chain of events that led to his admission of a problem and recusal from racing in mid-July last year.
But there will be those inside of Earnhardt Jr.’s circle and out who will be glad to cross this second of four plate races off the todo list, because absurd and seemingly random sequences of tumbling and soaring race cars are always just a bobble away at Talladega. After suffering a concussion in a tire test crash at Kansas Speedway in 2012, Earnhardt Jr. missed two races after feeling unwell following another hit at Talladega six weeks later.
A brutal and simplistic reminder of the interminable nature of brain injuries came this week when the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby suffered a concussion after being crosschecked in the NHL playoffs. Crosby, who, like Earnhardt Jr., was treated by University of Pittsburgh Medical Center neurologist Micky Collins, missed six games at the beginning of the season and Game 4 of the series. His short- and long-term status has not been further revealed by the team. Athletes do not return to their sport in a vacuum. Their sport continues to happen around them.
Talladega’s going to happen again Sunday. Earnhardt Jr. might give the faithful something to stand up for again as he roars through the trioval on the final lap. Everyone, including NASCAR, wins. Maybe they just get to wave their respects as he moves on closer to the end of the proverbial line.
Talladega has no doubt helped shape his legacy, like his father’s. But maybe this time, uneventful is better for everyone.