Back in 1998, when I was in Tucson, AZ, the Sunday paper would have an extra paper called the USA Weekend.  I had saved this paper from the August 28-30, 1998 edition and, after sorting out all the excess papers and old stuff still packed in boxes, found it.  The Tucson Citizen, a now defunct paper, printed it.  It went out of circulation a few years back.  I will share the story, word for word, as it was printed and written by Bob Knotts for your enjoyment (minus the copyright photos).  It is a long story so hope you like to read.  After reading this article, it raises many questions considering the things that have happened since this was written.  I will attempt to provide my opinion at the end of this article.

                                         One Driven Family

                                    by Bob Knotts

Dale Earnhardt Jr., sensitive son of a flinty stock-car racing legend, struggles with his dad's success - and now his own.

    Sometimes the son takes out the old video and slides it into the machine and remembers the part of his father he loves most, not the racing legend who now signs autographs under the glare of TV lights but the uncomplicated country kid from Kannapolis, N.C., who drove like a dervish possessed, sheerly from a passion for speed.

    The tape shows Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s first Daytona 500 in 1979 after the racer in the underpowered car somehow had battled to the front of the pack, running alongside the Richard Pettys and the Donnie Allisons and the Cale Yarboroughs, NASCAR's elite.  And the shocked announcers wondering out loud about this "cottonhead from Kannapolis," referring to the newcomer from a small town still dominated by cotton mills.

    "That's who he was. That's what he is, down inside the nucleus," explains Dale Earnhardt Jr., the 23-year-old son who has started building his own racing reputation in NASCAR's Busch Grand National series.  "But now it's blaring sunglasses and leather jackets and limousines and jet planes. ... racing's made him more of a cardboard cutout, a mirage.  But, unfortunately, that's the way you've got to be.  If you don't fit in their plan, then they won't have you."

The Rewards outpace the hardships

    Fame gives and takes differently from each person who gains renown.  Celebrity's balance sheet is never predictable.  Dale Sr. would tell you that, in his struggle to become one of this country's most famous racers, the penalties have been far outweighed by the long string of rewards: the victories he has earned and the records he has set and the fabulous wealth he has accumulated.

    There's also the beautiful wife of 15 years, Teresa, who has become his closest business partner, and the opportunity now to travel with daughter Taylor, 9, and work alongside his youngest son.

    But this same son seems keenly aware of the price racing has demanded from his father, possibly more aware than the great champion himself: the physical punishment, the constraints on what drivers can say and do without losing fans (and therefore money), the endless time away from family, perhaps even the submersion of some part of the essential man beneath a public image.

    Dale Sr. is the all-time U. S. motor sports career money leader, with more than $32 million.  He owns a helicopter, three planes and a Learjet.  And at an age when many racers have retired , the 47-year-old star from Kannapolis finally won his first Daytona 500 this winter and is doggedly pursuing a record-breaking eighth Winston Cup title.  It's fair to say he didn't accomplish any of this through introspection.

    "I don't sit there and analyze things," he scoffs. "I go out and make 'em happen."

Perspiration and broken bones

    It's for men like Dale Sr. that the word "flinty" was invented.  Nothing deters him.  He quit school in the ninth grade to concentrate on racing, drawing the ire of the father he adored, NASCAR Sportsman Division champ Ralph Earnhardt.  But Dale wouldn't return to class.  Years later, he won a race after another car crashed in the final straightaway and landed on top of the machine --Earnhardt barreled toward the finish line carrying the competitor piggyback and took the checkered flag first by a nose.

    Even now, when wrecks have taken such a toll that last year he fell asleep in the first lap of the Southern 500, Dale Sr., won't slow down.  Less than 72 hours after a May accident cracked a rib and knocked chest cartilage askew, he winces in pain and yawns during an interview.  "Sorry, I got up at 4 this morning," the part-time chicken farmer explains on his massive property in Mooresville, N.C.  "I was out on a tractor at 6 a.m."

    Dale Jr., worried about he effects of so many crashes, says he now cares more deeply than anything else about the health of this parent who was rarely around during his childhood.  "The years go by pretty quickly," he says.  "When your grandparents pass away, you wonder what it's going to be like when your father goes.  It's something you don't look forward to."

    But as much as he obviously loves and admires his father, praising the honesty and fairness and common sense he sees, the younger Earnhardt seems to understand that he can't be his father, that he is in some ways a very different man.

    "I enjoy contemplating, “he says, "Most of all, I value my freedom to think how I want to think.  But the more I get into this business, the more I have to bite my tongue."  In conversation, his words and manner are those of an introspective, sensitive person with a fierce determination to live his own life. And even a casual visitor can see this isn't always the easiest thing for someone whose father is called the Intimidator, a rugged man of action who began with little and soon lost even that, going deep into debt pursuing his racing goals before forging a multimillion- dollar empire out of perspiration and broken bones.

    The Mooresville home base for this conglomerate, called simply Dale Earnhardt Inc., is only about 20 minutes from Kannapolis, a place where you can still feel the ghosts of that young "cottonhead.”

Dale Sr. grew up in a modest white house on the corner of Sedan Avenue and Coach Street, and to this day his mother refuses to leave despite repeated offers from her wealthy son.  Three red rockers sit on the old wooden front porch, with its rusty light fixture and a birdhouse made from a Sundrop soda can.  The small garage out back where Earnhardt and his dad built race cars is there, to.  The Gem Theatre and What-A-Burger Drive-In sit tucked among other reminders of mid-century Kannapolis, though now one road is "Dale Earnhardt Boulevard." The local joke is that the teenager got so many speeding tickets there that the city named the pavement for him.

The pain fed Dale Sr.'s ambition

Dale Sr. talks fondly of growing up in the community.  But the most painful period of his life descended suddenly when his father died of a heart attack while working on a car.  His closest adviser had vanished, when he was 22.  "It was a heck of a deal," he recalls sadly.

    Already married to his second wife and supporting a son and daughter, Kerry and Kelly, Earnhardt worked odd jobs and borrowed heavily to keep racing.  Soon there was another child, Dale Jr., and another divorce.  Over several frustrating years, his passion to race turned into a furious desire to prove his unrecognised talent against big-time competition.  When his break finally came in 1978, Earnhardt wasn't about to let himself fail.

    Such tenacity rarely happens naturally, and cultivating it often comes at a cost for someone so intensely driven -- and for those nearby.  A fellow racer once complained Dale Sr. would give an aspirin a headache.  "I am moody in a lot of ways," he acknowledges.  "If I've got a task at hand, I like to do it ... and move on.  It's not that I'm a bully.  It's just that I'm determined. "

    Inevitably, this sometimes spills into the fast-rising son, who at press time had won five races and enough points to lead the series in his first full year of Busch events.

    Those who know him say a warmhearted man lies underneath the elder Earnhardt's crust.  After talking with him awhile, it's easy to believe this.  "I do care what people think about me," he says softly.  "It goes back to what advice my dad gave me and how he was raised and tried to raise me: when you leave here, all you're gonna have is your name and your word.  If that's not any good, then you're not much good. ... I want to be remembered as much for that as for being a great racer -- being a good father, for one, but also a fair person in life, fair to other people."

    Which is not to say his fervor for racing is any less strong today than ever.  It isn’t.

    Now his son has inherited that Earnhardt fire in the belly.  But perhaps even more important to Dale Jr. than winning races, he seems to want to win the respect of his dad, to be looked upon as an equal.  And there are signs that's happening.  Dale Earnhardt Inc., which owns the Busch series team Dale Jr. drives for, recently signed him to a five year contract, with an option for another five.  The contract will put Dale Jr. in some 1999 Winston Cup races and may put him on the circuit full time in 2000.

A new generation, a new NASCAR

    At the same time, the youthful Earnhardt wrestles with the modern age of racing -- the TV lights, the photo shots, the publicity tours --- an era created partly by his father.  Dale Jr. longs for the old days he has seen so many times on videotape, the door-banging shootouts of his dad's youth.

    "Back then, there wasn't that much money in it and they just raced like hell 'cause they loved it," he says, his Southern drawl thickening.  "Now NASCAR is a whole lot stricter and they don't allow nobody to run into the side of nobody no more, and everybody races around there like toy soldiers.  It's crappy, to be honest with you, how racing's become."

    As he grumbles about the new realities of motor sports, he also knows they're not likely to change any time soon.  But even at this young age he seems prepared to accept for better or for worse the life he's chosen, all of the god and all of the bad that racing can offer someone named Dale Earnhardt Jr. ---- and to begin striking his own personal bargain with fame.

Included are some stats for both Earnhardt's:

Dale Sr., 47

• Began racing professionally at 23.
• Currently ranked ninth of 63 drivers in NASCAR's Winston Cup series. (He's won the series seven times.)
• Lifetime winnings: $32.4 million (more than any other driver in history.)
• Sponsor: GM Goodwrench Service Plus.
• Drives Chevrolet.
• Hobbies: hunting, fishing, boating.

Dale Jr., 23

• Began racing professionally at 17.
• Currently ranked first of 110 drivers in NASCAR's Grand national series.
• Lifetime winnings: $564, 395.
• Sponsor: ACDelco.
• Drives Chevrolet.
• Hobbies: water sports, computers.

(All Stats as of Aug 8, 1998)

(Bob Knotts, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last wrote about NASCAR's 50th anniversary as one of the nation's hottest spectator sports.),_.___

          Many things have taken place since Aug 1998; months and years after Dale Earnhardt Sr. won his first and only Daytona 500 in February of that year.

The most important and unthinkable (at the time) is the un-timely death of the “man in black”, the “black #3 Goodwrench” driver, Big “E”, otherwise known as Dale Earnhardt Sr., in February of 2001.  It shocked a sport and a large fan base.  May he rest in peace!  Then the disagreement between Dale Jr., and his step-mother, Teresa, about giving him 51% in DEI, Dale’s subsequent move to Hendrick the following year, and the demise and merger with Chip Ganassi.  There isn’t much I can say about Dale Sr., that hasn’t already been said so I’ll concentrate on Dale Jr., and his comments.

It has been almost 11 years since this article was written and the interviews conducted.   I wonder, does Dale Jr., still have the same answers and concerns as included here?

Junior stated, "That's who he was. That's what he is, down inside the nucleus. But now it's blaring sunglasses and leather jackets and limousines and jet planes. ... racing's made him more of a cardboard cutout, a mirage.  But, unfortunately, that's the way you've got to be.  If you don't fit in their plan, then they won't have you."  He was talking about his father and NASCAR racing from the early days to present.  As much as I am a fan of both Earnhardts, I agree with what Junior says, “…that’s the way you’ve got to be.  If you do not fit, they won’t have you.”  I wonder if his current problems, and some of his past ones, are attributable “to not fitting in” as he says (or maybe it’s what he’s been thinking for sometime), who knows?  Only Dale Jr., does.

"The years go by pretty quickly," he says.  "When your grandparents pass away, you wonder what it's going to be like when your father goes.  It's something you don't look forward to."  Unfortunately, for Junior, this came all too soon.  I know he did not look forward to it happening, but I wonder if what he thought it would be like is anything close to what it has been like.  I know it certainly has not been easy for him; he has made this comment in the videos and interviews after his dad’s death.  He has lost his most trusted advisor in racing and has had to figure many things out for himself.  In a way, I am sort of like Dale Jr.; I lost my dad back in 1979, I still miss him, miss his wisdom and helpful info.  I never thought of losing anyone when I was younger so I cannot say if I thought it would be different than it has been.  I can agree, tho, it is never something anyone looks forward to.

Dale Jr., says, "I enjoy contemplating.”Most of all, I value my freedom to think how I want to think.  But the more I get into this business, the more I have to bite my tongue."  Over the years, there have been times when Junior did not bite his tongue thus receiving penalties from NASCAR.  IMO, for the last 4 seasons, most Junior fans have seen a subdued Junior especially last and this year.  I wonder is he still “contemplating things” or has he lost the spirit to race and win?  Maybe he has too much going on outside racing, like Whiskey River, building a new house, expanding his property to include rentals, etc.  Makes me wonder what is up with him?

          Junior states, "Back then, there wasn't that much money in it and they just raced like hell 'cause they loved it," he says, his Southern drawl thickening.  "Now NASCAR is a whole lot stricter and they don't allow nobody to run into the side of nobody no more, and everybody races around there like toy soldiers.  It's crappy, to be honest with you, how racing's become."  I agree with him.  These days, with all the rules and the COT, it is like a bunch of toy soldiers running in circles (except for the road courses).  However, without the rules and the safer COT, we would probably see lots more driver deaths or, at least, serious injuries.  Dale Jr., said this back in 1998; I wonder if these safety innovations would have prevented the deaths of Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin Jr., at New Hampshire in 2000 or the death of Dale Sr., in 2001? Today’s NASCAR and the racing is nothing like it was back then and I, for one, miss the old “bump ‘n run”, “beatin’ n’ banging”, and the bump draft at Talladega and Daytona.  I miss the “Man in the Black #3” who could come from almost dead last in a few laps to win a race or gently nudge a car and pass to win.  And what about Dale Sr’s, “pass in the grass”?  Now, that was a race.