In the name of pride
'Junior' feels good about family legacy and his link to it
By JEFF HOOD Cox News Service

Third-generation driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. got off to a slow start in the Chase, finishing 13th at New Hampshire, which put him seventh in the standings.

Loudon, N.H.

The shadows inevitably will lengthen as Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues his quest for his first Nextel Cup championship.

For Earnhardt Jr., conquering the Chase for the Nextel Cup would place him in rarified air and in a select company of NASCAR's elite.

But in the eyes of many, nothing short of a title will pull the third-generation driver out of the shadow cast by his late father, Dale Earnhardt, who captured a record-tying seven series championships.

Hearing and reading the comparisons to his father has become a way of life for the 31-year-old driver. "I like being compared to him like, 'Hey, you drive like him, that looks like him or you sound like him,' " said Earnhardt, who finished 13th in Sunday's Sylvania 300 and is seventh in the Chase standings entering this weekend's Dover 400. "But I don't like to be compared to him as, 'He won seven championships and you didn't win any.'

"Those kind of comparisons aren't very pleasing. But he was great. And I'm fortunate

to have followed his footsteps a little bit to be in the position I am today."

If Earnhardt wins this year's Chase, retired three-time Cup champion and NASCAR analyst Darrell Waltrip believes the actual impact will be felt at Dale Earnhardt Inc., the organization that Earnhardt Sr. founded prior to his death in 2001.

"I've never looked at it as if Dale Jr. is following in his dad's footsteps," Waltrip said. "Dale Jr. is his own man and even has a different driving style than his father.

"I do, however, think winning a championship would give DEI a lot of credibility." A late-race crash with Carl

Edwards in October 2004 at Atlanta Motor Speedway derailed Earnhardt's mostrecent hopes for a title.

Earnhardt subsequently spent much of 2005 struggling through a dismal season that saw him plummet to 19th in the championship standings after an early season crew chief swap with then-teammate Michael Waltrip flopped.

When the chemistry between Earnhardt and new pit boss Pete Rondeau failed to jell, veteran crew chief Steve Hmiel took over in May and guided the team to its only victory, at Chicagoland Speedway.

"My confidence got down about halfway through the season last year," Earnhardt admitted last weekend. "But Steve Hmiel fixed that and turned me into a better race car driver."

Hmiel, who serves as DEI's technical director, said he simply put faith in a talented driver.

"Probably the biggest single thing we did was challenge Dale Jr. quite a bit," said Hmiel, recalling their July 2005 victory.

He took control of that race in Chicago on a twotire stop and used his track position. He hung out and won the race.

"That was a great boost for him. I just always had confidence that Dale Jr. is a great driver and he can handle any situation we put him in. We put him in a tough situation that day, and he handled it wonderfully and won the race."

When the field was set for last year's Chase at Richmond in September, Earnhardt was noticeably absent. Whispers began circulating that Earnhardt was overrated.

The following week at Loudon, N.H., Earnhardt was reunited with first cousin and former crew chief Tony Eury Jr. The pressure was back on the Earnhardt/Eury tandem, which had won 15 Cup races from 2000-2004.

"I knew when I got back with Tony Jr. it was pretty much going to be expected among the NASCAR community that we would run well again," said Earnhardt, voted NASCAR's most popular driver for the past three years.

"You just kind of had to back up those expectations."

Twelve months after their reunion, Earnhardt and Eury are back in championship form. Earnhardt started 13th at New Hampshire, but quickly charged through the field on Sunday to run as high as third before losing the handle on his Chevrolet during the closing laps.

The third-generation driver returns to Dover on Sunday, a track where he won in September 2001.

"I don't think he expects to be what his daddy was," Eury said.

When he first started this deal, he wanted to be successful, win races and win championships.

"I don't think he's trying to outdo his daddy, or anything like that. He just wants to have a good career."