Dale Earnhardt's legacies ....and Jeff Gordon reflects

  Dale Earnhardt, 1998, finally winning the Daytona 500 (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

  

  Yep, Dale Earnhardt not only had remarkable talents at the wheel, particularly here at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega, where car owner Richard Childress said 'Dale can see the air,' and at Darlington, where his derring-do was as amazing to watch in an early Saturday morning practice as in the Southern 500 itself…Earnhardt also had that famously brusque personality, a hard-scrabble edge honed during his years toiling in the sport's minor leagues before finally getting that big break.
   That edgy persona served him well on the track, because when most rivals saw him coming up in their rear view, they knew just what was coming next – a hard bump.
   And Earnhardt relished racing with the few who were willing to dish it out right back at him, like Tim Richmond.

   Jeff Gordon, who had some memorable battles with Earnhardt during the eight years they were on the Cup tour together, may know the real Dale Earnhardt better, off as well as on the track, than just about anyone. Despite the sometimes perception of Black Hat versus White Hat, the two had business interests together.
   But it is those Gordon-versus-Earnhardt battles that highlight.
  
  

   Daytona 500, 1993: Dale Earnhardt takes a young Jeff Gordon to school (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

    "He taught me a lot about the draft….but he didn't tell me it, he just beat me enough times, passed me enough times," Gordon says.  "He'd start to make a move, and I'd think 'It's not possible.  He's got something going on in that car.  What is it?'
    "Eventually I realized he just was that good. 
   "The last three or four years we raced together on the speedways (Daytona and Talladega, 1996 through 2000), I felt like it was kind of a race between me and him. 
    "He taught me enough -- or I learned enough from racing with him -- that I felt like I could do what he could do, you know. 
   "He was always reinventing things…and only getting better at those tracks.  I always was in awe of racing with him. 
   
   

   
The man in his prime (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    "But it was a totally different type of racing back then," Gordon adds.
    Yes, it was. A more personal racing, it would seem, mano e mano, rather than machine versus machine, tactics versus tactics.  Today's NASCAR sometimes seems so much more an engineering battle, of dueling computer simulators, than driver versus driver, ego versus ego.
    Earnhardt reveled in making his racing personal, enjoyed getting under a rival's skin, enjoyed rattling their cage, keeping them on edge and on the verge of making a mistake.
    When Earnhardt was on the track, everyone wanted to draft behind him, because Earnhardt invariably made the right moves. Remember his last win, that amazing Talladega charge in the final laps…..remember his many Daytona duels…remember those stunning moves, passing into a hole that didn't exist until Earnhardt got there, and it magically opened up.
   Yes, maybe Earnhardt could see the air. Maybe Earnhardt could see the future too, those next few seconds out on the track. Heck, maybe he could will the future, simply through intimidation.
    Earnhardt always wanted to get under your skin.
    But Gordon seemed to play it cool himself, trying not to let Earnhardt rattle him. Or at least not to let it show.
   Now Gordon is free to concede that yes Earnhardt did play on him at times:
    "You don't get under somebody's skin until you're beating them all the time. 
     "The 1995 season (Gordon's third on the tour, Earnhardt's 17th), it was a real test.  There was no doubt that there were certain races and tracks that he did get underneath my skin -- because he was faster than me, or because he pushed me around, pushed me out of the way. 
    "But it was mainly because he was faster than me. 
    "I've always said a guy can't push you out of the way if he can't get to your bumper. My goal was to make sure Dale never got to my bumper. 
    "I was fortunate -- I think our cars and our team were better during the mid to late '90s.  Most of the time he wasn't able to get to my bumper, so he wasn't able to get under my skin as much as maybe he had some other guys in the past." 
    
   

   

   Jeff Gordon (C) celebrating his 1997 Daytona 500 win with teammates Terry Labonte (L) and Ricky Craven (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

    Earnhardt won championships in 1990 and 1991, and 1993 and 1994, the last of his record seven.
    With Gordon winning championships in 1995, 1997, 1998, narrowly missing in 1996, and winning it again in 2001, it was looking like he was on track to make a good run at matching Earnhardt's seven. But Gordon has stalled out at four.
    All the pieces of Earnhardt's legacy will be discussed and debated here these next few days.
    Gordon says those seven championships loom large.
    "But I think, even more than that, it's how he affected the fans…how they resonated with him. 
    "I think that in his passing we saw how big he truly was, by the impact he made on the fans and the sport, and the public in general even outside of racing. 
    "To me, that's his real legacy. Man, it's like Elvis stuff going on there.  That's unbelievable."

    Gordon that February day back in 2001 got crashed out in that huge wreck 60 miles from the finish and was in his hauler for the final laps.
    "I didn't have a good day," Gordon said.
    "I saw the wreck on TV in the hauler when I was getting dressed to leave, and I thought 'Oh, he'll be fine.'
    "It didn't look like that type of an accident."
    Earnhardt had endured far worse, like breaking his sternum at Talladega in a horrifying crash, and having his heart literally ripped loose in his chest in a savage crash at Pocono. And he always managed to bounce back.
   Not this time.
   "I remember walking to the bus lot and seeing Teresa (Earnhardt's wife) walk by," Gordon went on. "She definitely had a look on her face that I had not seen on her face before. 
     "But I'd seen Dale go through plenty of crashes and be completely unscathed.  I got on a plane, and I remember the talk was 'they're checking Dale out… that it's more than what it looked like.'
    "But I still didn't think it would be anything more than maybe some injuries. 
    "Then I landed at home and my phone just lit up; I started getting those messages. 
    "I couldn't believe it.  I was just in shock. I went home, turned on the TV, saw (NASCAR president) Mike Helton doing the press conference.
    "I was just blown away. I was in shock. 
    "But I didn't really accept it and feel its full impact on me personally I would say for several months." 
 
    

      Dale Earnhardt Jr. (L) and teammate Jeff Gordon (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

Gordon says his own career wouldn't be seen in the same light as it is today without Dale Earnhardt.
    "Absolutely there's no doubt I wouldn't have been as popular," Gordon says.
    "This is something we talk about today with the sport -- with a guy like Jimmie (Johnson) winning five in a row, there just isn't that rivalry." 
    Gordon versus Earnhardt is the stuff of legend.
   And Gordon, now with nearly 20 years himself in the sport, and turning 40 this summer, understands it better today than perhaps even at the time.
   "It wasn't made up. It just happened," Gordon says. "Here's this young kid from California, growing up in modern-day motorsports, growing up being interviewed on ESPN and all those things…..to old-school, hard-knocks Dale Earnhardt. 
    "It was just black and white. Two total opposites in a way…even though later, as Dale and I got to know one another, we weren't as opposite as maybe it was perceived from the outside.
     "Still, that's the way the fans thought of it, and the way the media thought of it.
     "And it heightened the excitement of those races, those championship battles. 
     "Dale was one of those guys that it worked really well for him to have a rival. 
     "He had several throughout his career, and he thrived on it."
      Earnhardt versus Darrell Waltrip.
      Earnhardt versus Richard Petty.
      Earnhardt versus Bobby Allison and Davey Allison.
      Earnhardt versus Geoff Bodine.
      Earnhardt versus Tim Richmond.
      Earnhardt versus Ricky Rudd.
      Earnhardt versus Bill Elliott.
      Earnhardt versus Rusty Wallace.
      Earnhardt versus Neil Bonnett.
      Earnhardt versus Terry Labonte.
      Earnhardt versus Mark Martin.
      Earnhardt versus Ernie Irvan.
      Earnhardt versus Mike Skinner, when Skinner was his own teammate.
      Each rivalry has its own moments of high drama….

     Gordon, on the other hand, was the archetypal 'new wave' driver, who preferred efficiency to emotion out on the track.
     Drumming up hot rivals like Earnhardt loved to do, "that was never really my style," Gordon says. 
    
    

     When Earnhardt died, there was a rush for several years to find someone to try to take his place as 'head wrangler' in this sport. Earnhardt of course was a famous confidante with NASCAR boss Bill France Jr. too.
    No one has risen to the occasion.
    "I didn't ever feel like 'Hey, you know, Dale's not here, now I've got to take over that role,'" Gordon said.
    "It was 'We all have our personalities, our jobs, and let's do them the best that we can.'
    "Dale helped build this sport to a level we're proud of and need to keep going.
    "I miss that…We need it. 
    "But we can't create it. 
     "It's going to happen.  I mean I think that's some of the excitement about Kyle Busch -- he brings a uniqueness that people either love or hate.
     "You get Kyle battling for the championship with somebody like Jimmie or me, it's definitely going to stir that up."
     

   Jeff Gordon (L), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (C) and Jimmie Johnson (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

Dale Earnhardt Jr., now 35 and mired in a six-year slump, so to speak, filled the gap on the track for a few years after his father's death. But now, well, Earnhardt comes into 2011 simply trying to get his own career back on track.
    "Dale Jr., in a lot of ways, has filled a lot of the gaps," Gordon says of his teammate. "But he needs the championships, he needs the wins. 
    "Now if Dale Jr. starts winning a bunch of races this year, we'll be like 'Oh, my God!'
     "Some people in the sport don't want to think that that's all it takes…but sometimes that's all it takes.
     "And it doesn't have to be Dale Earnhardt Jr.; it could be somebody else. 
     "But it's pretty obvious that if Dale goes on to do what the expectations are on him -- and what I think that team is capable of doing -- it not only could catapult him and his popularity, but the sport's as well." 
 
     

     
       Teresa Earnhardt and team owner Richard Childress, and Dale Earnhardt's legendary number 3 (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)