Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 13, 1993 TAG: 9306140088
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
DATELINE: LONG POND, PA. LENGTH: Medium
This might seem unusual, because last year, in the midst of Earnhardt's worst slump as a top Winston Cup driver, Shelmerdine announced he was leaving the team.
After nine highly successful years, including four Winston Cup championships, Earnhardt's crew chief was burned out. And no amount of coaxing from team owner Richard Childress could persuade him to stay.
With the new year came a new crew chief, Andy Petree, who had led Harry Gant's team since 1989.
And now Earnhardt is back on top. He will be going for his fourth consecutive victory (including The Winston all-star race) in today's Champion 500 as he seeks to extend his Winston Cup points lead over Rusty Wallace.
"Momentum has really come around," Earnhardt said after winning Sunday at Dover, Del. "It seems like there's a new air about the team. It's a lot of fun to go down there in the garage and be around those guys. They're pumped up. It's a fresh team, really. Everybody is really victory lit."
But even though Shelmerdine, 35, is no longer a part of this, it is clear he remains close to his old crew, and they remain close to him.
As a part-time driver in the sportsman and ARCA series, Shelmerdine drives a black No. 3 car - same as Earnhardt - and he is a frequent visitor to the Earnhardt hauler. And, of course, his old teammates are among his biggest fans.
On the face of it, one could suggest that Shelmerdine's burnout last year helped cause Earnhardt's slump, and the team's resurgence in 1993 is a product of Petree's arrival. After all, since Petree departed Gant's team, Gant hasn't been competitive.
But Shelmerdine and Earnhardt's crew dispute this notion. To say anything else, of course, would be undiplomatic. But they really appear to believe it.
Earnhardt's team members see themselves as the General Motors or IBM of stock car racing, where the strength of the corporation cannot be significantly undermined by a single change in personnel.
"We still basically have 90 percent of the team intact," said right rear tire-changer Will Lind. "We didn't run bad last year because of Kirk, and we're not running good this year only because of Andy."
"It's a teamwork deal, and that's an awful good team," Shelmerdine said. "One guy doesn't make that much of a difference.
"I really was getting bored, and I was going to quit even if we had a good season," he said. "I thought I needed to leave before my attitude started rubbing off on the other guys. Unfortunately, it was a bad season. So it was kind of unfortunate timing."
"I don't think we're working any harder this year," said Danny "Chocolate" Myers, the team's gas man. "It just seems that things are going a little better. It's not that Kirk is not here. I think if Andy had been there last year, we would have still had a bad year."
"We knew [the slump] was going to happen to us sooner or later," Lind said. "But the mood doesn't change here much from good to bad. To be on top as long as this team has, we don't let too much bother us."
Kevin Triplett, the team's publicist, learned that soon after he took the job in 1992.
In the pits at Atlanta in March, Triplett began clapping when Earnhardt passed a car to move into third.
Lind quickly took Triplett aside and told him to cut it out, adding, "We don't show any emotion here. We're here to do a job."
The 1993 comeback is "not all luck," Childress said. "We've made a lot of changes. Last year, I think we started out behind after our championship in 1991. We were focused so hard on trying to win the title, we couldn't experiment with new stuff for 1992. Other teams were trying stuff we couldn't afford to try."
Part of the team's stability and intense pride can be traced to Childress' first-class treatment of team members. He provides top-notch insurance and benefits and was the first Winston Cup owner to have a profit-sharing plan.
A team member who makes, say, $50,000 a year can earn another $7,500 from the profit-sharing plan and, in a championship year, an additional $8,000 to $10,000 in bonuses.
"It's awful good incentive for the guys," Childress said.
But one cannot discount the impact Petree, 34, has had on the team. He fits in as if he has been there for years. And with Gant, he proved that he has a few racing tricks up his sleeve and has the level of experience to replace Shelmerdine.
"I think it's about what I expected," Petree said. "I felt like it might take a little bit of time to get to this point, but perhaps not until a month or two from now."
Said Earnhardt, "Andy was the key to go in the right place to make this team work. He's been a big part of it."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB