Earnhardt, Waltrip Surging After Slow Starts

Don’t start icing down the champagne quite yet, but Dale Earnhardt Inc. is showing signs of being a real contender after a slow start to the 2005 season.

And that doesn’t just apply to Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- Michael Waltrip also is running well in recent weeks.

Junior finished fifth in the points last year after contending for the title until the final day of the season. He started 2005 with a second-place finish in the Daytona 500, but then slipped as far back in the points as 27th with a string of three races in which he failed to finish better than 24th.

Earnhardt has since rebounded, though, with finishes of fourth, 13th, ninth and, last Saturday night in Phoenix, fourth. Heading into Aaron’s 499 NASCAR Nextel Cup race today at Talladega Superspeedway -- a race where both he and Waltrip will be among the favorites -- Earnhardt has climbed all the way back to 12th in the standings.

Waltrip is considered by many to be little more than a journeyman driver who becomes a superstar at Daytona and Talladega, the two tracks at which NASCAR requires horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates to slow the cars.

Most of the attention in recent years at DEI has been directed at fan favorite Earnhardt. But Waltrip, in a pivotal year at DEI after struggling to a 20th-place points finish in 2004 and nearly losing his ride, is working hard to give the team a solid 1-2 punch.

Coming off a second-place finish in Phoenix, Waltrip has climbed 12 spots in the points in the last three races and heads into Talladega 18th. He has three top-10 finishes in his last five starts. The younger brother of three-time Cup champion Darrell Waltrip only had nine top-10s all of last season.

The slow starts by both drivers probably can be attributed to the surprising off-season shake-up in which the drivers essentially swapped teams.

Earnhardt’s crew, including car chief Tony Eury Jr., took all of his No. 8 Chevrolets and moved to Waltrip’s No. 15 shop, while Pete Rondeau, who finished 2004 as Waltrip’s crew chief, took his crew and cars and went to Earnhardt’s shop.

The idea was to raise everyone’s game. The first few races -- other than Earnhardt’s strong Daytona run -- made it look like a failed experiment.

“I’ve stepped up my commitment,” Earnhardt said. “I started out the year relaxed and allowing those guys to get used to the change first and with me in there. I didn’t want to push them hard at the start.

“But we’re starting to get into the season. Me and Pete, we’re starting to work a little harder and demand a little more from ourselves around the racetrack. We’re driving real, real hard to get good finishes for the team and keep them going.”

Earnhardt’s resurgence was a necessity for a team with high expectations. Waltrip’s recent showing has been a somewhat unexpected bonus.

But it’s no surprise to Waltrip, who was sure both teams would prosper from the crew swap.

“Pete and the boys that work on the No. 8 car are smart, talented individuals,” Waltrip said. “I knew that when you put Dale Jr. with them, they would have success. And I saw what Tony Jr. and those guys did with Dale Jr.”

Still, it took a while to get it all together.

“If you can picture this,” Waltrip said, “when we would run last year with the No. 15 and the race would be over and we’d finish 16th or 17th, they’d look at me like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ and I’d look at them like, ‘What makes you sure y’all didn’t mess up?’ And nobody knows the answer.

“But, when I got in my car this year, I look at my crew and said, ‘I’m yours. Take me and mold me. Make me one of you.’ I wanted those guys to pour their knowledge on me and let me suck it up and be one of them.”

Waltrip said he also was sure his former team would work well with Earnhardt.

“I know Pete and those boys looked at Dale Jr. and said, ‘Take us to the promised land. We can do it, and you can lead us there.’ So it was two different situations with the same basic scenario,” he said. “I believe it will lead to the same results.”

A top-10 finish in the standings would go a long way toward helping Waltrip prove he is more than just a guy the late Dale Earnhardt put in one of his cars because of friendship.

While the 30-year-old Earnhardt is one of NASCAR’s biggest stars -- nearly an Elvis-like icon to many -- Waltrip, who turned 42 Saturday, is often an afterthought.

That’s a perception Waltrip would love to change before his career ends.

Asked if criticism of his ability has been fair, Waltrip bristled.

“Your opinions are yours and you write them down on a piece of paper and share it with thousands of people,” he said. “I’ve been criticized enough where y’all can’t hurt me.

“You can’t write anything that’s going to make my day any worse, and you can’t all of a sudden tell me I’m smart and great and make me feel any better,” he said. “I’m just going to keep on being me.”