ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702070085
SECTION: AUTO RACING PAGE: 29 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
Here's what needs to happen if Dale Earnhardt expects to have any hope of winning the Daytona 500 this year:
He needs to lose the Busch Clash.
He needs to lose his twin-125 qualifying race.
He needs to lose the IROC race.
The Grand National car he owns needs to lose, too.
Then maybe, just maybe, he'll have a chance to win the 500. Because time and again, Earnhardt has won every Speedweeks race he has entered before the 500, only to lose the big one.
This time, he needs to sneak up on it. And if he can just get his car working at the end, the jinx will be conquered.
Something spooky happened after Earnhardt's last-lap loss in 1990. Now, the elusive 500 trophy seems farther away than ever. Year after year, Earnhardt's car seems to fade at the end, or just sit there helplessly in the draft behind stronger engines.
Sterling Marlin, not Earnhardt, has had the all-powerful Chevrolet in recent seasons. And if it's not a Morgan-McClure Chevy, it's a Robert Yates Ford. Yates and Runt Pittman, Marlin's engine builder, are obsessed with winning at Daytona. They seem to have a lock on it. And they've effectively locked out Earnhardt.
On top of that, Earnhardt has a teammate this year - a teammate who has been running fast at Daytona. And although Earnhardt's opinion of the two-car team may remain a question, he seems to have mentally prepared himself for one of the most uncomfortable scenarios.
If the situation in the draft prompted it, would Earnhardt help his teammate, Mike Skinner, win the Daytona 500?
``I think I'd do it,'' Earnhardt said, ``because I'm a team player. Richard Childress has never won the Daytona 500, either. I think I'd rather see my teammate win than some other guy, because I've seen those other teammates [help each other] beat me.''
As always, the Winston Cup championship is as important to Earnhardt as the 500. And with his new crew chief, Larry McReynolds, Earnhardt has a pit boss who is as good as they get.
It's hard to believe McReynolds would leave Yates, with whom he had such a terrific rapport, to join the prickly Earnhardt.
Earnhardt said he thought it probably was tougher for McReynolds to leave Yates than it would be for him to contemplate leaving Childress. But McReynolds no longer was happy working at the Yates shop, where he was trying to manage two teams while remaining Ernie Irvan's crew chief.
``Sometimes, when you get in so deep, the only way to recover is to get out altogether and get into a different situation,'' McReynolds said. He made the decision around Thanksgiving to join Richard Childress Racing.
But reputations alone do not guarantee success. Superstar combinations have failed miserably in the past, and unlikely combinations have worked. The question is: Will McReynolds and Earnhardt mesh? Will their personalities click?
``When I come off the race track, I've got something on my mind that I want to change on the car,'' Earnhardt said. ``And he's got his thoughts together. And when we both speak, it needs to sound the same. And it does already.''
McReynolds long ago passed the basic test.
``Larry is a hard-working, dedicated person,'' Earnhardt said. ``That's what he is. That's what it takes.''
And as Earnhardt now admits, it will be McReynolds' task to lift him and his team out of their second major funk of the 1990s. The first came in 1992, when longtime crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine reached the end of his rope. Last year's slump came after perhaps the worst crash of Earnhardt's career, which left him trying to drive with a broken shoulder and sternum.
``We had some bad races after the wreck,'' Earnhardt said. ``I was hurt and it was taking some time to [recuperate] and it was just a terrible time for us.
``We got beat up bad last year - as a driver and a team. And we beat ourselves up. And we got down on ourselves.
``And our team sort of ... not fell apart, but our team questioned itself in a lot of ways. We lost a lot of confidence in ourselves.''
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Dale Earnhardt (left) and Richardby CNBPetty have won a record seven Winston Cup championships each, but
Petty has seven victories in the Daytona 500 to his credit and
Earnhardt still is seeking his first victory in the season-opening
race.