Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has re-discovered “the joy of winning.”
In the process, he has brought joy to NASCAR after a week where series officials had to defend the organization against bad news ranging from litigation from a former Nationwide Series official charging the series with racism and sexism to continued complaints from its competitors regarding the new car.
By winning Sunday’s LifeLock 400, the most popular driver in the series was able to give new life to NASCAR after a week that shook the sanctioning body to its Southern roots.
“I missed the joy and I missed winning and hopefully we’ll have some more before this season is out,” Earnhardt said.
It was the “joy of winning” that Earnhardt missed the most and his victory brought back some of the joy NASCAR fans have for the sport.
Being a NASCAR fan in recent months has been a bit of a downer as the drivers spent so much time complaining about the new car, the garage area was starting to resemble a “Whine Cellar.”
But there has been good reason to complain because the style of racing was turning into a “high-speed parade” with less passing and side-by-side action that fans have come to expect.
When Earnhardt left his family owned Dale Earnhardt, Inc. team over a squabble with his step-mother, Teresa, he joined the premier team in the sport, Hendrick Motorsports.
He was teaming up with his rivals, namely four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon and two-time champion Jimmie Johnson as well as the team’s other driver, Casey Mears.
Earnhardt gave team owner Rick Hendrick a victory in its very first contest, but the season-opening Budweiser Shootout is a special event and is not considered an “official Sprint Cup race.”
He was considered a favorite to win the Daytona 500 but was shuffled back in the field when Ryan Newman passed Stewart on the last lap to win the race.
Since that time, Earnhardt has been close to victory on many occasions only to see another driver take the checkered flag.
“When are you ever going to win again?” is a question Earnhardt was continually asked.
On Sunday, he gave a definitive answer.
“I never wondered, will I never win again,” Earnhardt admitted. “I’m going to be around here for quite a while and I’ll have good opportunities driving good race cars for hopefully a good time and more opportunities to win.
“The winless streak didn’t frustrate me as much as most people would think and I was so happy to be where I am and so satisfied with how we’ve ran to this point that I wasn’t really frustrated about not winning. I felt really fortunate to have what I had.”
But that feeling began to change when he saw his Nationwide Series driver, Brad Keselowski, win at Nashville last week.
“It reminded me of the joy that I had forgotten,” Earnhardt said. “I knew winning is going to make me happy but I forgot really the look on everybody’s face and the look I would see once we won on Tony Junior’s (Eury, Jr., his crew chief) face, Rick’s (Hendrick) face, my sister and all my team. I started to remember, ‘I’ve got to get back to victory lane. I miss it so bad.’
“That was the motivation for me to get back to victory lane.”
By getting back to victory lane, Earnhardt can now focus on the upcoming races of the “Summer Stretch.” These are the races that set the stage for the “Chase for the Championship” in the fall.
 “I think I have real potential and the races especially in ‘The Chase’ are good tracks for me,” Earnhardt said. “The summer stretch has always been a difficult stretch for me. Tracks like Pocono are hit or miss and the road course races, getting them in and out of the way.
“The summer stretch, we’ve never really been smoking hot in the last eight year. We’ll see with this opportunity that Rick Hendrick has given us; we may turn that around and really surprise ourselves throughout the summer. I look at his as an opportunity.”
That may give him more opportunities to experience the “joy of winning.”