AUTO RACING : Earnhardt Earns a New Fan

A touching scene took place at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel minutes after Dale Earnhardt accepted the checks and accolades that came with his sixth Winston Cup championship.

Earnhardt, one title away from Richard Petty’s once-untouchable record of seven, and Petty, the retired king of stock car racing, had just completed a TV interview.

The cameras went off and Earnhardt started to walk away. But Petty, who retired as a driver at the end of the 1992 season and remains the most famous and beloved figure in NASCAR history, called out to him.

The two stood side-by-side observed only by a couple of onlookers, including ESPN’s Jerry Punch.

“Richard reached into his inside coat pocket and pulled out a slip of paper,” Punch said. “He handed it to Earnhardt and asked for his autograph. Earnhardt thought it was a joke at first, but Richard said he was very serious and would Dale please sign for him.

“Earnhardt looked very moved and he signed the paper, ‘To the King, you’ll always be the greatest, Dale Earnhardt.’ Richard put it in his coat pocket with a big smile, thanked Dale and they went their separate ways. It was quite a moment.”

NASCAR’s NEW BAN on December testing has a few loopholes that are being squeezed through by numerous teams.

The stock car sanctioning body decided to limit testing in the off-season, as well as during the race season, to help teams save money, even things out a bit between the haves and have-nots, and force the teams to give personnel some needed time off.

“The no-test rule for December coms out a plus. It’s been so competitive in the past we’ve left the final race of the season (in mid-November) and couldn’t get back to the shop quick enough to start working seven days a week on the cars to bring to Daytona to test in early December,” said Larry McReynolds, crew chief for Robert Yates Racing and driver Ernie Irvan.

“Then you’d rush back to the shop, cut the bodies up and get ready for the next testing days. It got to the point that we were taking only about a half day off at Christmas--you can’t do your guys that way. We’ll still get a lot of work done now and give our guys a break--hopefully a full week during the holidays. Then everybody should be fresh to go.”

Despite the good intentions of McReynolds, NASCAR Winston Cup Director Gary Nelson and many others, racing has been a year-round job for a long time, and it’s hard to keep these guys from working.