THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511110664
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
For Dale Earnhardt, the 1995 Winston Cup championship slipped out of reach after two bleak summer weekends at Michigan International Speedway.
He crashed at Michigan in June and finished 35th. And he broke a timing belt there in August and finished 35th again.
In the stretch of races between those two, Earnhardt had three other bad runs - 22nd at New Hampshire, 20th at Pocono and 23rd at Watkins Glen.
But as he sat in a garage lounge Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he was feeling pretty good about his year. After all, he had the chance to meet actress Cybill Shepherd.
``There's a lot of good things that happened to us this year,'' he said. ``We were on Jay Leno this year. Man, that was a fun trip. I was on with Cybill Shepherd and I've been a fan of hers for years. I was pretty intimidated there. What I didn't want to happen was her being on stage when I walked out there. I wouldn't have been able to say a damn word.''
As for the championship, it's too far gone even for gamesmanship. Jeff Gordon has a 147-point lead and needs only to finish 41st here Sunday to clinch the title. Gordon will start eighth and Earnhardt 11th in the NAPA 500.
``I've won these things and lost 'em,'' Earnhardt said, leaning back in his driver's uniform with a a World Champion Atlanta Braves hat on his head. ``There ain't nothing you can say or do except go out there and race the last one.
``I played hurt a lot this year. That wreck in Michigan hurt my back quite a bit more than people realized. So I was playing hurt pretty bad. But that still didn't hold me back from competition. I was more fired up at the end of the season than I was after that wreck.
``But as a whole, the year was really good for us. We won races and a lot of people didn't. We won the Brickyard 400. We were on Jay Leno. You can `what if?' a season to death.
``I can't blame anything on anybody. . . . I was involved in two wrecks that weren't my fault, but maybe, looking back, if I had just got the hell out of the way, I would have been all right. But that ain't racing.''
The season will end for Earnhardt with one piece of unfinished business. Although he's under contract to drive for car owner Richard Childress through 1996, they haven't agreed to terms beyond that.
``I'm just sort of in limbo, listening right now,'' he said. ``I'm just waiting.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Photo]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
``I've been a fan of hers for years. I was pretty intimidated
there,'' Dale Earnhardt, above, said of a TV gig with Cybill
Shepherd.
by CNB