NASCAR notes
Life goes on at DEI DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) – If Dale Earnhardt Inc. is doomed without its namesake driver, no one told Martin Truex Jr.
Truex, who won two Busch Series championships for DEI, said Friday he has no plans to follow Dale Earnhardt Jr. out the door. Earnhardt is leaving at the end of the season, but Truex said his contract runs through 2008.
“People think I’m crazy when I say this, but I really don’t think it’s a big deal,” Truex said at Darlington Raceway. “Just ’cause Junior isn’t driving for us, I don’t see it making that big of an impact. Maybe long-term, but not in the next couple years.”
DEI’s employees put up a strong front in their first visit to a track since Earnhardt announced his seventh season with his late father’s company would be his last.
His crew has promised to continue to work hard and make a run at the Nextel Cup championship.
“Dale Jr. made a decision at a much higher level than what we do at the race track with the race cars,” DEI technical director Steve Hmiel said. “The things that happen in terms of business, or planning your future, decisions with a family business – they are huge. We would never presume to be a part of that.
“Junior’s driving the wheels off and we’re working like mad to make sure he can run up front. It’s our job to do things right and it’s in our interest to do things right.”
But Junior’s departure certainly raises questions about the future of many employees. Truex said he owes it to DEI to remain committed.
“I’ve got to give it a fair shake,” the second-year Cup driver said. “They gave me my opportunity, and I’ve decided I’m going to finish out the year and honor my contract because of all the things they’ve done for me.”
Tony Eury Jr., Earnhardt’s cousin and crew chief, also is under contract through 2008 and wasn’t sure what his future holds.
“I would like to stay with Dale Jr. but I’m going to do whatever is best for Tony Jr. … leave all my options open,” Eury said.
NEW FEUD: Don’t expect to see Kasey Kahne and David Stremme partying together anytime soon. Just getting the drivers to speak to each other would be a coup.
The two are feuding over a late-race incident last week at Richmond – Kahne called Stremme “fat” after and Stremme later said Kahne had “mental problems” – and it hadn’t simmered when they showed up to shoot a commercial together Wednesday. The two didn’t speak during the eight-hour shoot, which included Stremme’s Ganassi teammates.
“Yeah, that was a little awkward,” Kahne said. “We’re trying to get some sponsors and some big deals going on right now, and I don’t want to screw that up by getting in a fist fight or anything like that with David Stremme.
“I’ve always had a hard time racing with him. I don’t know why. When I’m around his car we just have problems. Racing with David hasn’t ever worked for me.”
Stremme seemed amused with the entire affair.
“If he wants to act like a high school kid, then he can,” Stremme said. “We obviously have different opinions about what happened on the race track, and I think I’m in the right because there’s a lot more people supporting my side of it.
“I think he has problems with a lot of people. I don’t know. I am here to race and not worry about his problems.”
YANKEE ROOTS: Jeff Gordon pulls for the New York Yankees. But even he was disappointed by the mega-contract the team gave star Roger Clemens.
“To me what the Yankees have done is a horrible thing for baseball. It’s only good for one person and that’s Roger,” the Nextel Cup points-leader said Friday.
Gordon talked of the impending free-agency of fellow Nextel Cup star, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and was asked how a bidding war might impact racing.
“I don’t think that’s good for the sport,” Gordon said. “Let’s work with the business model of race teams first.”
“If we don’t all control it somehow, some way,” he said. “It can all get out of control.”
That’s when he brought up the prorated $28 million deal the Yankees forged with the Rocket.
“You hear about salary caps and all those things, and then that happens,” he said. “To me, that doesn’t seem like a positive thing for the sport. I’m a Yankees fan, but I’m not a fan when it comes to things like that.”
BACK TO NASCAR’S FUTURE: The Car of Tomorrow might not be so different, after all.
A NASCAR exhibit outside Darlington Raceway detailed how the COT compares to cars driven by stars such as Richard Petty, David Pearson and Darrell Waltrip in the 1970s.
On display was Petty’s famed “Superbird” Dodge Charger that he ran for 11 races in 1972 and exclusively from 1973 through 1978. The car featured the back end flap – not unlike NASCAR’s COT – to aid aerodynamics.
Petty won 37 races and drivers’ titles in 1972, 1974 and 1975 with the car.
“That was the best handling car on the superspeedway because it was built to stick on the ground,” Petty said Friday.
Hendrick Motorsports has won Nextel Cup’s first four COT races.
SPEAKING: “I’m here to race, man. I’m not going to get in the middle of the politics of anything like that. I’m just going to do my job and however it plays out is how it’s meant to be. Lets just all wait and see how it plays.” – Kevin Harvick, on the possibility of having Dale Earnhardt Jr. as a teammate.
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