ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WELCOME, N.C.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
Richard Childress Racing has grown so large, it seemed as if half the population of this unincorporated Davidson County town in North Carolina took the stage at his race shop Thursday during the Charlotte Motor Speedway media tour.
There were new sponsors to introduce, as well as new drivers, new crew chiefs, new marketing experts and new public relations people.
But the combined impact of all the new folks paled in comparison to the attention commanded by seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt. This was especially so because of Earnhardt's new team leader, crew chief Larry McReynolds, who was snared from car owner Robert Yates and driver Ernie Irvan late last November.
Both Earnhardt and McReynolds said things are going great, even though Earnhardt could not reach 185 mph earlier this week during the General Motors test at Daytona International Speedway.
When they got to Daytona, Earnhardt had McReynolds stay at his home. And when Earnhardt awoke at 5:30 a.m. one day earlier this week, McReynolds ``was already up, showered and doing notes at the breakfast bar.''
It made a strong impression on Earnhardt, who prides himself on getting an early start to every day.
Earnhardt and McReynolds both asserted that they are not at all displeased about how things went Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, even if they weren't fast. The best Earnhardt could do was 184.816 mph, which was 11th fastest of 16 teams at the track.
``I'm tired, I'm hot and we just can't get these cars to run,'' Earnhardt was quoted as saying Wednesday.
``I'm not disappointed,'' he said here Thursday. ``I didn't say that. We were thrashing because we had a whole two-page list of stuff we wanted to finish. And I had to hop out. I said, `Look, I'm tired. I'm hot. I only got a minute here. I got to get a drink of water and get back in the race car.'
``I got burnt on that one, didn't I? First bad episode of 1997. Misquoted.
``We found out a lot of things that we needed to find out,'' Earnhardt added. ``We were still sorting through some of the things with the body change rules. We did a lot of things that a lot of other guys weren't focusing on. They were focusing on trying to run fast and leave there with a fast time. And we really never focused on that.''
Said McReynolds: ``I'd like to have seen us a little closer to the top of the speed chart, but we didn't get excited about it. We had a game plan and we stuck to it. Now if we go down there during the second test and finish in the same location on the speed chart, I'll be a little concerned.
``I accomplished my test within a test - getting my feet wet with Dale. We were speaking the same language right away. I didn't get the feeling when we went out there and I put the headset on that this was our first time together.''
Said Earnhardt, ``Our relationship has already taken off.''
Childress said at first he didn't think he and Earnhardt could lure McReynolds away from Yates. But when veteran crew chief Tony Glover moved from Sterling Marlin's team to Robby Gordon's new team at Sabco Racing, ``the thing it showed us was nobody was fixed anywhere,'' Childress said.
McReynolds resisted at first, but ultimately decided to move because he had become unhappy in his dual role with Yates as Irvan's crew chief and team manager for both Irvan's team and Dale Jarrett's team.
In addition to the main attraction here Thursday, Childress' new Winston Cup driver, Mike Skinner, was introduced, as well as Jay Sauter, Skinner's replacement in the NASCAR truck series.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Dale Earnhardt (left) and new crew chief Larryby CNBMcReynolds haven't been working together long, but McReynolds said,
``We were speaking the same language right away.'' KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING