AFTERSHOCKS

Race days should help, but they don’t.

The reminders are everywhere. Enough No. 3s and pictures and posters of Dale Earnhardt to start a political convention, inside the race track and out. Parking lots are a sea of 3s--painted on cars, flapping from mini flagpoles, T-shirts stenciled with Earnhardt’s name and number.

It never stops. It will be the same this weekend at California Speedway when NASCAR brings its Winston Cup show to Fontana.

Day after day, night after night, the pain and sorrow remain for Richard Childress, the empty feeling that comes from having lost his best friend, his closest business partner, in that wrenching crash at Daytona International Speedway that took Earnhardt’s life in February.

Earnhardt was driving Childress’ black No. 3 Chevrolet.

“There have been eight races since then, and I don’t know how many days and nights,” Childress said by telephone from his race shop in Welcome, N.C. “I’ve done my best to try to get everything back to normal, but it will never be.

“Every track we go to, it’s a continual reminder of Dale and how everyone misses him. Fans come up and hand us an old picture of Dale they want to share. Or they want one of us to autograph something of his. We all have to live with it, but I find myself waking up in the middle of the night, wondering why. Or what if.

“Over Easter, we had some time off, so I went hunting in Montana, thinking it might take my mind off Dale. It was worse. I kept thinking he should be there. We hunted together before we ever got together in race cars. I packed up and came home early.”

Curiously, the two had talked about what would happen to Richard Childress Racing if something happened to one of them--but neither thought it would end the way it did.

“Dale and I often talked about what would happen if I was in Africa and got run over by an elephant, or fell off a mountain, or if something happened to him in whatever manner, what we would want and what we would want to do--and that was to go on.

“Both of us were racers and we made a pledge to each other that we would go on, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Two days after the accident, Childress announced that Kevin Harvick, 25, the team’s Busch Grand National driver from Bakersfield, would take the seat in Earnhardt’s Chevrolet--but with No. 29 instead of 3 and painted white instead of black.

“Everything about the cars--we have 12 of them--is exactly the same as we were running with Dale, except the driver, the number and the color. I had no doubt in my mind about putting Kevin in the car. He had impressed me in our Busch car and after I talked to the guys in the shop, and the sponsors, I called him up and told him what we wanted him to do--be ready to race the next Sunday at Rockingham [N.C.].

“I explained to him all the pressure he would be under, the media scrutiny and all that sort of thing. He said he felt he could handle it, and he sure has.”

Harvick’s response: “Dale Earnhardt was probably the best race-car driver there’s ever going to be in NASCAR. I would hope that you guys don’t expect me to replace him, because nobody ever will.”

In only his third Winston Cup race, Harvick won at Atlanta and, although he started his season a race late, he is 11th in the standings. He is also second in the Busch standings in an RCR Chevrolet.

“I’m not surprised,” Childress said. “He has all the potential to be a champion. He has age on his side, he’s knowledgeable and, hopefully, we can contribute to his future.

“I first saw him in a Winston West race at Fontana in 1998. We ran a car that day with Mike Dillon and Harvick won, very impressively. Then I watched him in the truck series. He never won, but I saw enough that I liked his style. There was one race in Bakersfield he had won and Ron Hornaday took it away from him.

“When Dale and I talked about what we’d do when he retired, he kidded me about wanting to hire Kevin away from me to drive one of his cars. Dale was so proud of what a tradition he had in the No. 3 car, he would have wanted to play a big role in who drove the car. I know he wanted the car to go on winning races, being part of a championship-caliber team. I’m sure Kevin would have been one of his picks.”

What is going to happen to the No. 3 now?

It will not appear on a Winston Cup car for the rest of the year. To keep a number, a team must use it in at least five races in a season, but NASCAR waived that rule for Childress this year.

NASCAR ultimately controls all numbers and has said it will not retire one.

“I have some ideas and Teresa [Earnhardt’s widow] has some ideas, but we’re holding them back right now. Teresa and I have a good relationship and there are a lot of things we need to work out for the future, such as the images of Dale, but for the moment we’re trying to let things get back to normal--if they ever can.”

Earnhardt had driven for Childress and RCR since 1981, but in 1998 Dale formed his own full-time Winston Cup team with Steve Park as his driver. When Park was injured in midseason, the veteran Darrell Waltrip took the seat. In 1999 Dale Earnhardt Jr., after winning two Busch championships, joined his father’s team.

“When Dale started his team [Dale Earnhardt Inc.], I helped him with his organization and he developed a philosophy similar to ours,” Childress said. “We always had a close relationship and we still have one with Teresa and DEI. With Andy Petree [car owner for Joe Nemechek and Bobby Hamilton, winner of last Sunday’s Talladega 500], RCR and DEI, we formed a company, RAD, to do all our aerodynamic work.”

Michael Waltrip and Dale Jr., who finished 1-2 in the tragic Daytona 500, are Earnhardt team drivers this year, along with Park, who won the week after Daytona at Rockingham.

“Our shops are about 40 miles apart, but at the tracks the teams are pretty close,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “If I need some information, I can go to the crew chief of the 29 car [Kevin Hamlin] and he’ll give me an answer straight up. I feel like when me and Kevin [Harvick] are racing together, it’s like having an extra teammate. We are both young guys and we have a lot of respect for each other.”

Little E, as Dale Jr. is known, credits Kyle Petty, “a good buddy,” for advising him to focus on driving his race car and letting his stepmother run the Earnhardt business.

“As much as I’d like to take a bigger role in DEI, Kyle told me that at this point, my best contribution would be to just do my driving,” Earnhardt said. “Then, in the next couple of years, maybe I’ll have more knowledge to fall back on and begin to help out. In the meantime I trust Teresa’s judgment completely.

“Since Day 1, she has been the cornerstone in the operation of DEI. She handles the money side, the bookkeeping, the direction we’re going. She has always played a big role, of course, even more so now. Basically, she has taken over complete operation of the company. I have tremendous confidence in the woman, as far as the future is concerned.

“Before the accident, my father always joked that before he met Teresa, he always owed money to the bank, but after he met her, the bank always owed him money.”

Although he won the pole at Texas and finished eighth and was eighth again at Talladega, Little E has not had much success since Daytona. He is 12th in Cup points.

Childress also fields a car, No. 31, for Mike Skinner in Winston Cup, and this week RCR is adding a third driver. Jeff Green, last year’s Busch Grand National champion, will drive the No. 30 car--the one Harvick had originally been scheduled to drive in seven races this year.

All three, Harvick, Skinner and Green, will also drive in Saturday’s Auto Club 300 for Busch cars. All are entered for different reasons--Harvick to get more lap time at Fontana, Skinner as a replacement for the injured Dillon, Childress’ son-in-law, and Green because he is defending series champion.

“We look at the Busch races as a plus, except at Daytona and Talladega, where they make me a little nervous,” Childress said. “You can’t beat track time. Dale drove in a lot of Busch races before he stopped a few years ago.”

*

Childress and Earnhardt’s racing relationship began in 1981, the year Childress drove the last Winston Cup race of his seven-year career as an independent. Operating out of a small shop in downtown Winston-Salem, he drove in 187 races without winning, but his earnings of $595,000 kept him going.

“I didn’t want to drive for someone else, so I scratched along with the help of people like Junior Johnson,” he said. “I used a lot of hand-me-down parts because it was the only way I could make it. The shop had 6,400 square feet and I had sometimes three to six employees. I did everything myself. I think this helps me today because my employees know that whatever I ask them to do, I’ve done it, from chassis work to cleaning the bathroom.”

Childress’ RCR shop in Welcome, a few miles from Winston-Salem, has 170,000 square feet in 12 buildings spread over 30 acres. Working there are 180-190 employees.

“At the end of the first 10 races in 1981, I was $150,000 in debt and had to borrow money on my home to make it,” Childress said. “Then I hooked up with Dale and he had some sponsorship with Wrangler [jeans] and things started going our way.”

Earnhardt had won the first of his seven Winston Cup championships in 1980 with car owner Rod Osterlund, but Osterlund stunned Earnhardt by selling the team to Jim Stacy. The switch so upset Earnhardt that he quit Stacy and took Wrangler with him to Childress.

“Dale and I were in the same hunting club,” Childress recalled. “I had raced against him when he was with Osterlund. Even though he was already the champion, he was a little rough around the edges. I didn’t have the finances for him to be a top driver, so in 1982 I recommended him to Bud Moore and I signed Ricky Rudd. I knew if Dale had stayed with me, the only way would have been down.”

Two years later, however, Earnhardt returned to Childress and a racing empire was born.

“When Dale came back, Wrangler upped its ante as our main sponsor, in 1987 GM Goodwrench came on as an associate sponsor and Winston money began to escalate, so finally we were in a position to build cars that could compete with Junior [Johnson], Bud [Moore] and the Wood brothers.”

Compete they did.

Earnhardt won Winston Cup crowns in 1986 and 1987, then again in 1990, ‘91, ’93 and ’94. Along the way, he amassed more than $40 million in purse money, plus many times that in endorsements, appearances and memorabilia.

In the aftermath of his death, the Earnhardt memorabilia continues to bring in enormous sums of money--and with it continual reminders that keep any semblance of normality from returning to Childress and the Earnhardt family.