For most of the NASCAR gang, it’s follow the leader behind Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Two DEI drivers — Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. — were sandwiched between Joe Nemechek as the drivers with the fastest practice times on Saturday. Today’s qualifying runs will determine the two front-row positions for the next Sunday’s Daytona 500.
Nemechek had the fastest time at 185.189 miles per hour on Saturday, followed by Waltrip (184.953) and Earnhardt (184.759).
DEI has been dominant in the world of restrictor-plate racing, including Waltrip’s bittersweet victory in the 2001 Daytona 500 marked by the death of Dale Earnhardt and victories by Earnhardt Jr. in the 2001 Pepsi 400 and in his past three Talladega starts.
In all, they have combined to win six of the past eight plate races. Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway — NASCAR’s biggest and fastest tracks — are the only places where carburetor restrictor plates are mandatory.
“The car is good,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I don’t want to say too much and jinx us.”
Nemechek is starting his first full season in the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy.
“A top 10 would be great,” he said. “But, just to have a shot at the pole is going to be pretty cool.”
All other starting positions for the 500 will be determined by a combination of the orders of finish in Thursday’s 125-mile qualifying races and further individual time trials during the week.
Also, drivers who fall out of the 125s early have the option of standing on their time from pole day and hope it stands up to get them a spot somewhere in the field of 43 competitors.
OLD-SCHOOL DRIVER
Kyle Petty, making his 646th career start in the Daytona 500 next Sunday, is one of the few drivers who truly appreciates the historical reverence of this racetrack. His family is part of NASCAR’s old school.
“If you come to our race shop I can show you where my grandfather worked on his first car,” Petty said. “Martinsville is the same race track my grandfather raced on, and this is the same track he raced on at Daytona. The history we have in the Petty family and what is tied to NASCAR and the France family and the sanctioning body, that history is still there.
“A few guys still have a link to it. Guys have come along later that are in the middle part of it, but they don’t go back to the beginning. It’ll get to a point where there’s fewer and fewer of us who go all the way back to the first days.”
BIG LIGHTS FOR LITTLE E?
Earnhardt Jr., the star of the Budweiser “Ride Home” commercial has greater aspirations.
“I like doing commercials because I have some kind of an idea that I might have an opportunity to be an actor once I don’t drive race cars,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Kind of the Harrison Ford of race car [drivers].”
Earnhardt said he wasn’t the original choice to be a designated driver for the night, but after another driver turned down the opportunity, “they kind of plugged me in there. Every time it comes on it’s a little embarrassing.”
Little E is gaining icon status for a new generation of race fans. He has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and in profiles in Rolling Stone and Playboy magazines. He has also introduced acts during the “MTV Music Awards.”
KEEPING IT SAFE
A representative of the track’s security unit said the speedway doubled its stable of security personnel in response to the increased risk of terrorist attacks. The representative would not quote an exact number of security personnel at the track.
