Hi WCG. I've made it this far through the withdrawal season. I really don't think this deal about Junior is a big thing. I'm not really sure Theresa has a very good grip on things at DEI. Also, the "media" loves to blow everything out of proportion. Around the time of November's Phoenix race, the bozos in the "media" were saying that the season was too long, whaaaannnhh! and whining about the races being too long, whaaaaannnnhhhh!. It got ridiculous. The pretty boys in the "media" used some comments they attributed to Dale Jr. as support for their claims. Then, before the Homestead race, Junior was interviewed by the network. The interviewer told Junior that he looked kind of depressed. Junior stated that he was depressed because he hated to see the season come to an end and was looking forward to testing in Daytona during the first week of January. Junior is the sort of person who says what is on his mind. Many times what he says comes out in a way that leaves what he said open to interpretation. Junior frequently says some things that I find very deep and profound. The problem is, sometimes, I think that HE doesn't even understand the profoundness of his comments.
Junior has stated that he won't leave DEI until he wins a championship for the company. I believe that. Also during the Phoenix race last year, NASCAR big whigs were dropping like flies when Junior said that he would take a year off if he won the championship. I didn't believe that for a minute. I think he sometimes makes comments like that just to push peoples' panic buttons. When Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks, people listen. I think he inherited a hidden mean streak from his old man that causes him to like to tweak people.
BACK IN THE DAY.............I enjoyed many a race at Riverside!!
snip~
Never mind that the pacecar was actually motionless, and well off of the track (as the replay would clearly show), for Rusty's live comments put the blame on NASCAR, and before the green flag would come back out NASCAR put Wallace and Rudd back out in front. For some strange reason, NASCAR awarded 3rd place on the restart to Parsons leaving Earnhardt in fourth, followed by Labonte.
Restarts at Riverside actually took place at the exit of turn eight where the pacecar would pull off to the right side of the track. Upon the restart, and now with only a handful of laps left, Earnhardt took turn eight VERY wide, and left the bottom open for Labonte to slip into fourth. It's said that Dale was busy making "gestures" to the pacecar with his right hand as he passed the Corvette.
Meanwhile, Labonte got a good run down the backstretch, and slipped under Parsons for third as the cars entered the long and sweeping turn nine. At this moment, the TV commentators began interviewing Earnhardt's crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine. It was apparent from the discussion that Earnhardt was at the boiling point, and this even more obvious as the camera began to follow the #3 car. Earnhardt dove into turn nine hard and deep and closed in dramatically on Parsons. Now just behind and above Parsons, Earnhardt gave one of his more delicate bump-and-runs. Parsons collected his car just before the exit of turn nine, but Dale had dove underneath him and was headed off for Labonte. Just after the start-finish line, the cars snaked to the left in front of the pits and then began their way into the "esses."
The "esses" at Riverside were a series of six quick, uphill, high-speed turns in right-left, right-left, right-left succession. Each turn had curb-mounds paved on the inside to keep drivers from taking a "shortcut" through the desert. There were no guardrails or jersey barriers nearby, as there were no grandstands anywhere in proximity. If you went off of the track, you would just be swallowed up by dust and rocks. Rollovers in this area of the track were not uncommon.
By the time they entered the esses, Earnhardt was foaming at the mouth. Through the first turn in the series, Earnhardt had made up nearly five car lengths on the rest of the leaders. Entering the first left-hander, Dale's left-front tire was well to the inside of the curb. When he hit the curb the left entire left side of his car went airborne, with the left-front tire a full two feet into the air. By the time the car had landed, it was pointed about 30 degrees to the right of Terry Labonte's car, which Dale almost landed on. The upcoming turn was a right, and unfortunately this was in the middle of a right-left-right combination that came up on you as quick as the current "chicane" at Watkins Glen.
There was no way Earnhardt was about to lift. It just wasn't in his DNA. His car bounced as it landed, but Dale stood on it even though he was about to miss the entry of the next turn by a good ten feet. Fish-tailing crazily through the sand and rocks, by the time they arrived in the middle of the right-hander, Earnhardt was still in the desert, but was now three-wide with a startled Rudd and Labonte and throwing up a 30-foot tall rooster tail of sand. He lost momentum as well as traction in the sand, and Labonte pulled out into second with Dale trailing Rudd by a few car lengths at the end of the esses.
As they entered turn six, Earnhardt charged hard again, this time on the outside of Rudd. The cars touched, and Earnhardt's tires began to climb up on the outside of Rudd's car ever so slightly. As his car lifted, it became unsettled, and Rudd began to crowd Earnhardt high up in the groove. As they finished turn six, Rudd would not yield and smashed Earnhardt's Chevy two feet off of the course on exit. They headed downhill on the short, steep chute before turn seven, with Rudd pulling out roughly four lengths. As they were about to enter the turn Earnhardt stabbed the brakes violently, and the rear of his car lifted up as if it was about to flip over on its roof. He ended up fish-tailing again wildly into the turn. The Goodyear’s were about to give up, but not before he gave Rudd another nudge in the middle of seven.
He wouldn't win the race, and he wouldn't even make another pass in the remaining three laps.
His rampage had lasted a little over a minute, but in that one minute, in just one lap, you knew you were seeing something utterly unbelievable. I have my old VHS tape that I've been rewinding here for the last two hours as I've been writing, and I still get goose bumps watching it in astonishment.
When you hear of people describing Dale Earnhardt as the "greatest ever," and you want to see why, watch an old tape of a nondescript fourth-place finish at an old, now-abandoned track standing on its last legs.
June 12,1988 at Riverside, lap 90.
Dale Earnhardt's finest symphony.
http://insiderracingnews.com/LC/121506.html