Dale Jr: Daytona Fan Fest Recap

Dale Jr: "I’ve Already Accomplished More And Got Further In The Sport Than I Probably Dreamed"

What an exciting night it was last night at the NASCAR Preseason Thunder Fan Fest for everyone to finally see something NASCAR related after the off-season, and boy was it ever great!!

Many of the drivers attending, Dale Jr of course, Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, AJ Allmendinger, Joey Logano, Kelly Bires and also Ron Hornaday from the truck series to name a few.

The fans who attended had a great time, the line for Dale Jr was the longest, he was paired with Kelly Bires and Michael Annette on stage for the Q&A.

First I will add some of my own notes that I took last night.

Dale Jr on Talladega: I want someone who is going to push the (crap) out of me

On 3rd season at Hendrick: "My main goal is to get to the end of the contract and Rick feel in his heart and that he was glad he did this and worked together and has some tangible reasons for that, some trophies and has made a profit."

He said confidence wavered in 09, but said crew chief Lance McGrew has restored a "belief in the 88" in the shop this winter.

Jr said the Danica deal helped the whole team financially, helped them keep their people (I predicted this and hope it continues) He also said that the 88 Nationwide car will run every race with or without a sponsor. (very glad to hear this and hope they get more sponsors after running well)

This made me sad to hear because the fans were disappointed, NOT in the driver, but the car which had quite a few failures as specified in my previous blogs!

"At the end of the year when you do miss the Chase, you feel like you can make it up to your sponsors or your family, but you don't feel like you can make it up to your fans that have been cheering for you all year long."

"They put up a fight with you all year long. They fight right there with you. They argue every day at work with who's against their driver." (Boy is that ever true. this happens online and in the media - I for one am not shy about telling the media when they are way off base - like David Newton, who in my opinion, made some really silly comments about Jr last night on Twitter)

Dale Jr knows Nascar's history better than anyone and responded to a question about Daytona. "When I pull into Daytona...I try not to get caught up in the hype. I think about the old races. "I try to remember the names and faces that made the track and the sport what it is...that's what gets me pumped up."

About the shop and the car which was the critical problem in the 2009 season of failures he said. "Everyone in the shop was uncertain with the team. Lance McGrew was able to solidify his situation so there was more trust in the team. Getting the belief and understanding from everybody in the shop is what changed a lot"

In response to how they were preparing for 2010 "We've moved some people around in the shop - the whole culture changed - had 2 get everyone believing in the 88 car" - (I told you guys this)

And finally, but one of first questions he was asked about this coming season, he said if he wins less than three races this year, he'd be disappointed. (This is what set Newton off on his little bash session)

Fan Q&A that I took notes on follows below the SPEED transcript.

Dale was asked about changes in Nascar and his team.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: “Well, you know when you’re running a business, you make decisions, and you’re hoping you’re making the right decisions. Not all decisions are the right ones, but you hope that you’re making them with the best intentions. So I think that you have to look at it — at NASCAR’s situation, that’s what they’re doing. They’re trying to make all these decisions with the best intentions to try to improve the racing for the fans. I mean, we’ve got to take care of the fans first. They don’t make these changes for the drivers. But I like all the changes. I like them — the start time changes are awesome. Being a driver now, I don’t get to go through the process, but I remember when I was watching my father run in the mid-’90s, racing home from church trying to get to the TV before you miss too many laps. That was just part of the experience to me. You know, and that’s one of the things — there’s things that you really grow used to or get to where you count on, and that was one of the things you counted on about Sunday, every day, for years.”

“I think it’s great to be on ESPN. I mean, there’s a lot of — that’s where sports belong. I think the other changes they’re making to the cars and everything; again, they’ve got the best intentions to try to make it as good as they can. I’m pretty happy. I like changes and like to see what we can do better, and the only way to do anything better is to keep modifying and tweaking it, so I think it’s great.”

Q. Dale, looking ahead to 2010, this season, coming off of last season, you know you’ve got a lot to accomplish but you can’t do it all at once. Can you maybe detail some of the major goals that you all have for this season and how you’re going to go about accomplishing them?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: “Well, our goal is to win as many races as we can, win the championship, challenge for the championship. I’d like to win — I think anything less than three races this year I’d be a little bit disappointed, and depending on what tracks those are, you know, it would be great to win at some tracks we haven’t necessarily been great on in the past.”

“We’ve made a lot of changes in the off-season with our personnel and changing the entire culture in the shop, and I hope that those things are really going to improve our team and get us where we need to be competitively. We have everything there mechanically to get it done, and we have great people within the organization. So there’s three guys that made the Chase, and we didn’t, so there’s — we have to get out there and prove ourselves. I don’t really know if I can get more detailed than that, but we’re just going to go out there and try our hardest and be ruthless from the first lap to the last.

Q. Also a question for you, Dale. Events like this where the sport already has a good reputation for being very friendly with the fans, up close and all of that, and with the economy being the way it is, I know last year the struggle was selling tickets. Do you think events like this just help improve that reputation, and do you think what you do tonight puts fans in seats on Sundays?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I really don’t know. It can’t hurt. The promoters are coming up with — the track promoters are coming up with some great schemes and packages, I think, and getting a lot more creative to sell packages to fans that are — they’re working more with their hospitality tents and their sponsors and people located in and around the racetrack, entertaining people to put together packages to try to sell in more creative ways than they ever have before. I think that helps a lot. It always helps when the drivers are out and they’re visible and we can be around the fans and give the fans an opportunity to be around us and have contact with us and our cars and the main items and pieces that make the sport go — the things that they follow, which is the drivers and the cars. If we can give them as much access to that as we can, it’s good.

Q. For Dale, I’m sure in the position you’re in, you get a lot of pressure put on you from the outside, some of it you put on yourself. I wonder how they affect you and how you deal with them, the pressure from the outside versus what you put on yourself?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I really don’t pay much attention to that. I really don’t dissect that down and break it down. I feel a lot of pressure from you guys or from the public to live up to the expectations and you sort of get the headlines every off-season about what everybody expects you to do this next season. I’ve dealt with that over time, and you just kind of wait for that. Most of the time the headlines sting a little bit, so you just kind of wait for that to wear off.

I feel like I know what I can accomplish as a driver. Every driver, all three of us sitting here and everybody else in the field, feels like they know what their potential is and wants to go out there and do it. So you just gear up every year and go to work and make the best of the situation. That’s all you can do.

I don’t really put a ton of pressure on myself. I’ve already accomplished more and got further in the sport than I probably dreamed. But you know, just if you’re competitive every time — if you finish third, you want to run second. If you finish second and that was your ultimate goal, you want to win. Nothing is ever enough. Once you get a little taste of success, you just want more of it. That’s what keeps me going, I guess.

Q. Dale, do you feel like you can come out of the box and be as good as you were the first half of 2008, or do you feel like it’s still going to be a steady improvement to get to where you need to be?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: I think we should aspire to come out of the box good. Me and Lance seem to have a pretty good relationship, pretty comfortable with him. I don’t feel like there’s much more to do gel-wise with us, maybe some small things. But for the most part we should aspire to come out and be quick right off the bat.

Now on to the SPEED stage with the fan Q&A. This may not be exactly perfect, so bear with me as it was hard to type so fast.

When asked about personal feelings from last year he said "you tell yourself and everyone else I'm gonna be more tenacious, try harder regardless if it sounds like a broken record...you find yourself sitting on the red chip with nothing left, but you always find a little more that comes out in competitive spirits. When the car is there and there's no adversity you do well. (Is that ever the truth/answer to the crux of the problem from last year)

He went on to say Daytona is the hardest race to win - pit stops and other things can go wrong, the landscape changes 7 or 8 times. Note: he has won the 500 and the Pepsi 400 plus the Shootout twice and the Gatorade Duel, so he is one of the most successful at this track!! Let's also add the four Nationwide/Busch races he won there in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006!

Asked about the new/old spoiler replacing that awful wing he answered "Yeah good move but we won't see visually a huge difference - it's a good move for drivers and the stability in the cars. We've worked really hard on that and really still trying to understand the wing (completely)

Asked about his teammates success last year "It was hard watching the other 3 and us with the same equipment not be able to make it happen - during the off season we've had great support from the sponsors being behind us and we're ready to go into the new year.

I think that's all the notes I have, if I find anything else I will post it in the comments section.

I would like to say Dale looked great, rested, happy and had the fire in him to start out the season strong. His eloquence in answering questions will probably garner an announcing job in some form after his career is over if he so chooses.

We along with you Dale Jr look forward to great things this year. As always we ride with you every week whether winning or losing (first loser runs second) and we will be voting hard this year for that 8th MPD award.