Junior draws inspiration from Bristol legends

April 16th, 2015 9:47 pm by Wayne G. Barber

While his famous father always serves as an inspiration, it’s another nine-time Bristol Motor Speedway winner from whom Dale Earnhardt Jr. draws some inspiration for this weekend’s Food City 500 in support of Steve Byrnes.

Earnhardt, who is a noted car collector and a loyal Chevrolet guy, recently talked about the favorite cars he owns and the particular one which ranks at the very top.
“My favorite cars include a 1967 Camaro and a 1973 Camaro, but my all-time favorite is a 1976 Chevy Laguna,” said the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series. “It’s definitely a unique choice,” he said. “It’s not a very common hot rod collector, but it has some ties to NASCAR that make it nostalgic for me and make it an enjoyable drive. It’s a S3 model and I like to drive it more than anything else.”
The car, a version of the Chevelle, has a tie-in to his all-time favorite driver outside of his dad. The Laguna, with a No. 11 on the side and a yellow and white Holly Farms paint scheme, was the primary car which Cale Yarborough used to win three straight NASCAR championships from 1976-78.
“It was a great race car,” Earnhardt said about the Junior Johnson-owned Chevy. “It was so good that they outlawed the car after a few years because of the competitiveness of the front air dam and nose, and the downforce the nose created. It was a great race car which had a lot of success. Cale ran the Laguna in 1976 and ’77, and then he ran the Oldsmobile Cutlass some in 1978. They would switch back and forth depending on the track they were at, but the Laguna was very competitive and Darrell (Waltrip) drove one for the DiGard team with the Gatorade colors. It was quite an impressive race car.”
Waltrip had the No. 88 on his car just as Earnhardt will on his car this weekend’s race. Waltrip, who holds the all-time track record of 12 Cup Series wins at Bristol, is another one whom Earnhardt looks up to when it comes to racing at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”
Besides enjoying the sport’s history, Earnhardt pointed out his record at the short tracks are as good as at any type of track.
“I just love short-track racing,” said the 23-time Sprint Cup Series winner over the telephone. “If you look over the statistics of my career I’ve performed best at the short tracks. Bristol is also one of those race tracks I loved to go to as a kid. There were places on the circuit you looked forward to, but Bristol was always on top of the list. There is just no other track like it.”
From being a kid watching the race in the pits to driving on it and becoming the first driver to sweep Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series races in the same weekend in August 2004, Earnhardt has always seen Bristol as a fun place first and foremost.
He looks to have more fun this weekend and improve on finishes of 24th and 39th in Bristol races last season. That broke a streak of 27 straight top-20 finishes at the .533-mile oval.
It’s a record he’s proud of, especially considering the impact Bristol can have on a driver’s senses.
“When you first get out there, it’s like watching a VCR on fast forward,” he said. “Then after you get acclimated after 20-30 laps things kind of slow down and you mentally realize what’s going on. But there ain’t any track like it. Driving it, witnessing a race there, there isn’t another experience like it. If you’re a race fan, you need to go to the Daytona 500 at some point, but the Bristol race is the best ticket in NASCAR.”
Earnhardt, who currently ranks seventh in the Sprint Cup Series points, accomplished something his famous father never did by becoming a multiple-time Daytona 500 champion last season.
Now, the goal is to earn a second Bristol victory and take part in the victory lane celebration on top of the Goodyear building in the track’s infield.
“To drive up on top of building to victory lane is such a unique thing,” he said. “The energy you feel from the fans, it’s a real enjoyable experience. Plus it’s such a tough race track, so tough to win there. A driver has to be a real wheel man to win at Bristol. You don’t luck into one. You have to work hard all race long and you take a lot of pride in winning there.”