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Low profile OK with Earnhardt, at least for now
03/25/2006

By JOHN MOOREHOUSE

BRISTOL, Tenn. - It's hard to imagine Dale Earnhardt Jr. doing anything in a nondescript fashion without the aid of a complex disguise.

Yet despite his fame, Earnhardt's strong start this season has been greeted with little fanfare.

"It's considerably more low key than it has been in the past," acknowledged Earnhardt, who sits seventh in the Nextel Cup points standings heading into Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Coming off a career low is one of the factors. Earnhardt finished 19th in the points last season, his worst effort since becoming a full-time Cup driver in 2000.

Meanwhile, other drivers like Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch - the new would-be villain on the circuit - carved out their own slices of national notoriety.

"Last year took a lot of the spotlight off us and put it on a lot of the other drivers who'd come into the series," Junior noted. "In a sense, it's fine with me, but you want to be as successful as you can in this sport. We want to get back into form on the racetrack, and I think everything else will take care of itself."

So far, so good.

Earnhardt already has two top-10 finishes to his credit, counting a third-place showing in Monday's Golden Corral 500 in Atlanta. His position would be even stronger if not for a speeding penalty that had him tumble to a 27th-place finish there.

That misstep aside, all is much brighter in the world of DEI these days, thanks in large part to the return of Tony Eury Jr. to the No. 8 team. Eury had a rather public split with Earnhardt, though he stayed in-house to helm the crew on teammate Michael Waltrip's ride last season.

"It's really a great feeling, to have put all that nasty stuff that had come between us aside and not see that anywhere around us now," Earnhardt said. "You can kind of tell when you work with people whether that's still gonna be a problem. I don't have that feeling at all. I've changed and he's changed and it's really a good feeling to be able to get in his race cars."

Eury's return has been coupled with a renewed sense of resolve inside Earnhardt.

"This is all I ever wanted to do. Just because I don't look like I've got the killer instinct doesn't mean that when I'm on the racetrack that I don't drive like it," Earnhardt said. "I'm as determined as I've ever been and as focused as I've ever been. I think a season like last year definitely solidifies that inside you.

"I found there's a lot more to me as a driver and a lot more inside me as a driver than I knew about. … I come in here with a lot more confidence as a driver and definitely determined to get back where I feel like I need to be."

Earnhardt is already in impressive company at Bristol after winning both the Cup and Busch races at Bristol back in the fall of 2004. That achievement finally gave Junior something he had wanted ever since he watched his late father run on the high banks.

"I came here year after year after year wanting to go to victory lane at Bristol as a kid, because it was the track he won his first race at," the younger Earnhardt explained. "When you win a race here, you feel like you successfully navigated a minefield. It's half elation and excitement and the other half relief. To sweep that weekend was amazing to me."

Published: March 26, 2006
Contact this Times-News contributor- JOHN MOOREHOUSE