MOORESVILLE, N.C. (Oct. 12, 2017) – Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not the winningest driver in Talladega Superspeedway history. That title belongs to his father. But for a three-year period, there was no better driver on the asphalt Thunderdome that is ‘Dega.
As Earnhardt Jr. makes his curtain call at the 2.66-mile speedway deep in the heart of Dixie, a lot of those memories come flooding back, both for him and for those who witnessed that seven-race flurry from the fall race in 2001 to the fall race in 2004.
During those seven races, Earnhardt Jr. won four straight races and five of seven, finishing second in the other two. It was an epic show of domination not seen since the salad days of Richard Petty or David Pearson, and it helped grow the legend that is Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Of course, Earnhardt Jr. was driving for his father’s Dale Earnhardt Inc. team at the time, and that company was the bare-knuckled, unvarnished 800-pound gorilla on restrictor-plate tracks. No matter how good other teams were at the 1.5-mile tracks that made up the bulk of the schedule then, going to Daytona or Talladega meant that the odds were decidedly against anyone other than Dale Jr. or then teammate Michael Waltrip. In other words, the other guys were racing for second place.
The 2001 racing season was a mix of heartache for anyone in Earnhardt Nation. Still reeling from Dale Sr.’s tragic death at Daytona, it took a little while for Dale Jr. to shake off the hurt and get back to doing what he does best. After finishing second at Daytona in that fateful 500, he finished 43rd, 23rd, 15th, 34th, 31st, eighth twice and 11th. Then he got to Auto Club Speedway and finished third.
The cobwebs were clearing.
In July at Daytona, the first time back after his father’s death, Dale Jr. went to Victory Lane in a 1-2 DEI finish. That went a long way toward banishing some of the heartache, and the unfettered joy of his post-race celebration is a moment that will rest alongside his pell-mell charge to the checkered.
He won again in the fall at Dover, and pulled into Talladega in the top seven in points. He left with an even better position, and the legend of Dale Jr. at Talladega was born.
Earnhardt Jr. led the race with 10 to go, and it looked like he had a lock on the checkered flag, but Bobby Labonte had other ideas. With four to go, Labonte powered to the outside around the familiar No. 8 machine, triggering a slide to fifth place for Dale Jr. He wasn’t done yet, however, moving up and around Bobby Hamilton for fourth and underneath Tony Stewart for second at the line with two to go. He threw a big block on Stewart off Turn 2 and was second behind Labonte when the white flag waved.
Around Turn 2, Earnhardt Jr. hugged the inside line and a multi-car accident touched off to his outside. Labonte, Ricky Craven, Dale Jarrett, Ricky Rudd, Johnny Benson and Robert Pressley wound up with pieces of their cars scattered all over the backstretch, and Earnhardt Jr. outraced Stewart and Jeff Burton to the checkered.
It was important for two reasons: first, it was his initial Talladega victory and moved him to sixth in points. Second, and perhaps more important, it came on the one-year anniversary of his father’s 76th and final victory. As he came down to the finish line, the full-house crowd at Talladega was on its feet, full of throat and undoubtedly not completely dry-eyed.
Sixteen years later, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still the only driver who can do that. He’s still the driver that will bring the fans to their feet like no other...unless that other was his father. When Dale Jr. makes a move to the front, you can see the crowd poised to leap, and when he is in the wind and leading the pack, they don’t sit down. Such is the power of being Dale Jr. in Alabama.
In 2002, Earnhardt Jr. came to Talladega with one thing in mind: making it two straight. He led 133 of the 188 laps and just dominated the day in the spring race.
Later that year, he led the final 39 laps to make it a three-peat, holding off Stewart for the win, and in the spring of 2003, he led 34 laps and tracked down Matt Kenseth in the final laps to make it four Talladega victories in a row.
In the next two races, Earnhardt Jr. finished second. In the first one, the fall race in 2003, he was guarding DEI teammate Michael Waltrip’s bumper to the line. He lost his winning streak to a teammate. In the second one, the spring race in 2004, he led 57 laps only to see future teammate Jeff Gordon steal the victory with six laps remaining.
The fall of 2004 came and Dale Jr. was in the thick of the points battle. A victory at Talladega would help him cut the deficit to the leader, at the time Kurt Busch. He got it...in spectacular fashion. After changing an engine prior to the race, he started dead-last in the 43-car field, but went on to lead 78 laps. He took the lead for the last time with three to go after Ricky Rudd pushed him to the front.
The victory allowed him to take over the point lead with just seven races left in the season. He was eying a championship, 13 points up on Busch and flying high...except he wasn’t. In his post-race interview, an exultant Earnhardt Jr. used a word that comedian George Carlin famously posited was among the seven you can’t say on TV. He lost 25 points and the lead, and eventually finished fifth in the final standings. That’s why there’s now a seven-second delay on broadcasts, in case you were wondering.
In the post-race interview in the press box, Earnhardt Jr. was obviously discomfited.
“I hope they understand that it was in jubilation and I know me and those other guys that got fined let it slip, but it's two different circumstances," Earnhardt Jr. said that day. "I think that when you're happy and joyous about something and it happens, I think it's different than being angry and cursing in anger.”
He also said that he was not advocating use of such language. “If anybody was offended by the four-letter word I said ... I can't imagine why they would have tuned into the race in the first place,” he said.
On the occasion of his fifth victory in seven races at Talladega and his assumption of the championship lead, a four-letter word cost him dearly.
Earnhardt Jr. added his sixth victory at Talladega in the spring of 2015, leading 67 laps and bringing the Alabama magic back to the surface. It was his first at Talladega for Hendrick Motorsports in the No. 88 and renewed the legend that the Earnhardt family has built there.
Combined, the two Earnhardts have 16 victories on the giant Alabama oval. Dale Sr. leads with 10, and Junior has six, tied for second with Jeff Gordon. Things like being great at racing on restrictor-plate tracks are not, generally, hereditary, but it seems to be the case for Dale Jr.
Can he really see the air? Could Dale Sr.? Maybe. Maybe not. It could be a case of singular focus, Earnhardt Jr. said.
“Watching my dad, who was one of the best, I learned a tremendous amount because I solely watched him, whereas someone else who grew up around the sport may not have focused as much on one particular driver,” he said earlier this year. “All those things maybe helped me develop into maybe a better plate race-car driver than the average guy.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is, without doubt, one of the best plate racers in history, even though the numbers are inconclusive. Between Daytona and Talladega, Earnhardt Jr. has 10 of his 26 career victories, 25 top-five and 35 top-10 finishes.
Whatever the numbers say, there’s no doubt that this weekend’s race at Talladega—which is to be Earnhardt Jr.’s last as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver—will be widely watched in the hope that the Talladega magic returns one last time. If Earnhardt Jr. sweeps to the lead at any point on Sunday, the fans in the stands will surge to their feet and cheer like it’s 2001 all over again.