THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100722
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WELCOME, N.C. LENGTH: 62 lines
Richard Childress Racing has grown so large, it seemed as if half the population of this unincorporated town 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, crew chiefs, marketing experts and public relations people.
But the combined impact of 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 crew chief, Larry McReynolds, who was snared from car owner Robert Yates and driver Ernie Irvan in November.
Earnhardt and McReynolds said things are going great, even though Earnhardt couldn't even reach 185 mph 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 morning 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 every day.
And about that Daytona test. Earnhardt and McReynolds asserted that they are not at all displeased about how things went, even if they weren't fast. The best Earnhardt could do was 184.816 mph, 11th fastest of some 16 teams.
``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 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?'' Earnhardt said. ``First bad episode of 1997. Misquoted.''
``We found out a lot of things that we needed to find out. . . . 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.''
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. ILLUSTRATION: Dale Earnhardt says of Larry McReynolds: ``Our
relationship has already taken off.''