Earnhardt got serious at Michigan
There’s lowquality, grainy footage of Dale Earnhardt Jr. racing side by side with his father in the 1999 International Race of Champions series at Michigan International Speedway on YouTube.
Earnhardt made two last-second attempts to pass his dad, Dale Earnhardt Sr., on the last lap. He tried to pass him low, then he steered his Pontiac high on the final stretch. Neither worked.
To ensure father would beat son, longtime rival Rusty Wallace nudged Sr.’s car forward near the finish line.
Earnhardt, who will retire from full-time NASCAR racing after this year, still can’t believe he was unable to beat his dad.
He finished 14th in his final run at MIS in the Pure Michigan
400 on Sunday. He said Friday that he often watches that YouTube clip and loses himself in the nostalgia of racing his dad, who died on the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001.
“Oh, man, I’ve watched that a lot,” he said. “I watch it and just think, ‘Man, how in the hell did I lose that?’ There was a lot that happened that day with me and dad running nose-to-nose, first and second, that whole race.”
Earnhardt Jr. has 15 top-10 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series finishes at MIS, including wins in 2008 and 2012. In the Xfinity Series, he had wins in
1999 and 2006 and four top-five finishes and never placed worse than seventh. He had two topeight efforts racing IROC.
Yet that close-call loss to his father is still his favorite memory at MIS.
“It was a very short race,” he said. “I don’t remember how many laps or miles, but I got out of that car, and I’ve never been more tired in my life. I went to victory lane and just about passed out. I went to the infield care center and got two bags of IV fluids.
“I’ve never felt worse after a race for whatever reason. I must have held my breath the whole time. I don’t know. But whatever it was, after I came down from the adrenaline that was pumping, I went to victory lane hoping that Tony (Eury) Sr. and all the guys are in the Xfinity garage and all excited, saying I about had him, and I did awesome. And I wanted my dad to say that.”
Nope. Earnhardt Sr. didn’t even acknowledge that Earnhardt Jr. had made it a competitive finish. He was too busy hoisting his trophy to the ceiling.
That moment was one of the first that saw Earnhardt Jr. go from a self-admitted screw-off to a man who wanted to make a name for himself.
As a teenager, he set low expectations for himself because he had seen other drivers try to replicate the success their fathers had in NASCAR and fail. Earnhardt Sr. had 428 top-10 Cup finishes and seven championships.
Junior started arriving to work late and messing around when he was in the garage. He straightened up, but at one point his only goal was to make it into an Xfinity car and get one win. “(But) when I won my first few in the Xfinity Series, I thought, ‘Well, alright. I’ll be able to keep a job in this sport for (a) while because of this little bit of success that I’ve had,’ ” he said. “I finally figured it out late, late in my career what I was supposed to be doing this whole time, as far as my job and being an asset and being accountable and applying myself.”
Earnhardt relived the memory of his father and Wallace teaming up Friday. While he wanted a win, those memories still bring a smile to his face, especially remembering the actions of his father when they started the final five laps.
“He was motioning to me the whole time to stay right with him, to stay in line and not try to pass him,” Earnhardt said. “You could pull out and get alongside the guy in front of you pretty easily, but it was hard to pass on the bottom. He was like, ‘Don’t pull out, don’t pull out.’ I’ve got all these guys dogging me trying to pass and trying to pass. So on the last lap, I got a run, went down into Turn 1 and got under him, and it didn’t work, and I thought I was screwed.”
Another car got behind Earnhardt Jr. and challenged him down the straightaway before they got to Turn 3. That forced Earnhardt Sr. to take Turn 3 from the bottom. Earnhardt Jr. thought he’d sneak into first by going high.
“I just went around a little bit higher, and it stuck, and I got along his outside coming out of Turn 4, and I was going by and he hit me,” Earnhardt said. “He was trying to side draft me, but he also hit me, and that momentum I had going forward just stopped.
“His side draft started to work, and he started creeping forward, and Rusty was behind us. Rusty went behind Dad for a second, which pushed Dad a little farther. And then right at the last second, Rusty went low, low. That was all he needed to get back by me.”
Earnhardt Jr. said it’s always bothered him that Wallace chose to help his dad.
“He and dad were always one-upping each other. One would buy a plane; the other had to have the same plane. They did that their whole career. ... He had his one shot to really rub it in Dad’s face and push me to victory lane. He could have hung that over Dad’s head for so long, and he kind of helped Dad, to be honest with you. I was so mad he didn’t push me. If he had, I would have won.”
Folsom writes for the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network.