In a year where Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon got attention for being so good, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s headlines were for being so bad.
His stormy final year at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. came to an end in Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Ford 400 with a 36th-place finish.
The son of seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt leaves the team started by his father, who was killed in a crash on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. He moves over to Hendrick Motorsports next season.
The end of the season couldn’t come sooner for Earnhardt.
“I am going to go home, take a deep breath and try to take a little time,” Earnhardt said. “We have a photo shoot this week with Adidas. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to work much but I was just going to try and unwind a little bit.
“I guess I thought I would be sadder, but I am not. I still have all these guys as friends; that is even better than the working relationship. Now, I am ready to get to work.”
Earnhardt expected his last race for DEI to be emotional. Much to his surprise, it wasn’t.
“It wasn’t as emotional as I thought,” he said. “I thought it might be emotional and tough, but it wasn’t really that bad. Those guys are going to be around and I am going to get to see them an awful lot more than we assume. It is not like we won’t see each other again. We will, and it is just the nature of the business. You get used to people coming and going from day one when get you get started working in this business.”
It was important to Earnhardt to finish the race for the team after he had been involved in two crashes, the first on lap 51 and the second on lap 59.
“We didn’t wreck hard enough to quit tonight; we kept going,” Earnhardt said. “Kyle (Busch) was being a jerk, running into me and carrying on and trying to rile me up. I don’t know why he spun me out on pit road. I guess he was blinded by the sun, too. Or he just can’t see at all. The integrity is what is important, so that is what I am going to hang on to.
“I can’t wait to get to work. Get this over with, get past this. I want to win races.”
Ironically, Earnhardt is taking over a ride that Busch had this season. Busch joins Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008. Casey Mears will take over Busch’s No. 5 Chevrolet while Earnhardt’s new No. 88 Chevy will be the ride Mears had this season.
After the race ended, Earnhardt radioed his crew chief, Tony Gibson, with some thoughts on the race.
“Sorry it ended like this,” Gibson said on the radio. “Wish you the best of luck next year.”
Earnhardt responded, “I appreciate it.”
Gibson: “You’ll have better luck then.”
Earnhardt: “I HOPE so!”
The most tumultuous season of Earnhardt’s career is over. Now he can look forward to a fresh start at Hendrick Motorsports.
“I try not to let my confidence get abused or hurt, but so many things happened this year,” Earnhardt said. “You may not think it is your fault or you did anything wrong or anything to put yourself in that situation, but someone on the other side of the fence may see it better.
“A better way of putting it and a better solution and not finishing like I have been finishing.”
But Earnhardt’s last race was hailed as the “End of a Era” not only for the driver but for the team.
“It makes me feel good that people even call it an era,” Earnhardt said. “I had a lot of great wins with that car and a lot of great friendships made with that group. The hardest part for me this weekend is knowing that when I walk into the garage for my first practice in Daytona, most of those faces won’t be in that stall with me. That’s really, really hard because I really like all those guys and feel like they’re my brothers and we all really got along great. I didn’t see that sort of camaraderie through other teams.”