Long time Nascar fan and devoted Dale Earnhardt Jr fan.

Dale Jr: I'm Back - Yes That's Me

Who is this new Dale Jr who wants to be in disguise and why? He says it’s because his mom Brenda and sister Kelley gave his crap about his beard, so he’s keeping it until it gets hot. (I imagine it gets hot in the car)

The look pictured above is a man who is trying to get his mojo back, most of Jr Nation remembers when he wore his hat backwards - a time when he had a little strut and swagger in his step. The world of Jr Nation before we all got beaten down beginning towards the end of 2008 and most of last year.

Whose car is listed as P1 in the first practice - yes it's us the 88 - How nice was that to see yesterday? Even though it was only two runs, the others had two runs to beat us and they didn't! Today is qualifying for the Daytona 500 - top two get the front row for the race. Everyone else will run the two Duels on February 11th for position.

Our first race tonight is the Shootout (a none points race) which Jr will mash the gas and go to the front as he described it. He's won this twice, let's make it three! From 11th to first, get that car back in victory lane. Time to rise from the ashes for all of us.

Shootout format:

Shootout will be run in two segments, the first at 25 laps and the second a 50-lap sprint for the win. That's 187.5 miles on the track's high-banked, 2.5-mile layout.

Following the first segment, a 10-minute "pit stop" gives crews the opportunity to make normal adjustments to their cars. That means tweaks they would do on a normal pit stop during a regular Cup Series event.

• All work must be done on pit road or in the garage.
• Teams may not change springs, shocks or rear-ends.
• All green- and yellow-flag laps in both segments will count.

Following the 10-minute "pit stop", the event's second segment remains a 50-lap sprint for the win.

Some of the questions from Thursday's media session.

It does seem some of the pressure is off Jr for now as the media has been mostly asking him a lot of Danica Patrick questions. (Danica had a nice media session as well - see my other blog on the main page)

Q. Where will you be during the ARCA race?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.: Depends. I don’t know what I got to do during the race. No damn telling what they got me doing. Might be working. Normally I don’t get to watch the ARCA race. I’ve always had something going on during that race, like a drivers meeting for the All‑Star Race or some mess. I’m sure ‑‑ or the Shootout. I’m sure the drivers meeting is in the middle of that race. They don’t normally carry it live. Sometimes they have. I don’t remember what they did last year. Normally I just watch it in the bus.

Thoughts on the race?

"I don’t know. I don’t even know how she done today. I only talked to Danica once in the last six months. She’s working with Kelly and Tony, Jr. Those are the people that are going to be in contact with her. She don’t need too many people in her ear talking to her, giving her too much crap to think about. She’s been around racing a long time. I think she’s smart enough to know what she’s gotten herself involved in. And she doesn’t need everybody trying to tell her what’s good for her, you know, that kind of stuff. Annoys the shit out of me when I got six, seven people trying to tell me what is the right thing to do, what the next move is to make."

"You know, she seems to be pretty smart. So I try not to really get in her ear too much. I just hope we give her a good car and when she mashes the gas it puts a smile on her face. As long as she’s having fun out on the racetrack, I’ll enjoy that part of it."

Note: The media hasn't lost it's touch, I heard them talking about Danica not having enough communication from JRM - blah blah blah - because she didn't know ARCA was a wreck fest. I would think they wouldn't try to scare her needlessly by pumping negative things into her while she is trying to learn about the car and the track.

The other complaint from the media (Sirius) was that she didn't know if she ran the NW race she would be taking Kelly Bires place. Now this is a problem - Kelly Bires has a lot of ASA Late Model racing experience with a little NW and truck thrown in for the Nascar related series. I just wonder how that transfers to having more racing experience than Danica? I realize he's going for a Nationwide championship with JRM, but with the Cup guys running Nationwide races all year it's a long stretch to assume he could win. Brad Keselowski who had two years to try could only get a third place finish at the end of last season.

Back to questions -

Q. Do you basically feel you don’t need that (Danica) to be a distraction?

"I don’t mind talking about Danica. I know we do have some vested interest in the races that she’ll be involved in. Everybody wants to know whether she’s going to run in the Nationwide race, all that stuff. I don’t mind talking about all those things. I know it’s a responsibility of mine, being an owner of the company. I don’t want to personally be physically active in all of it just ‘cause I got a lot going on myself.

Like Tony, Jr., he can handle it. You know, I got the right people in the right places to make sure it goes as good as it possibly can go."

JRM and Kelly Bires question-

"Yeah, and there’s a part of me that hopes that Kelly gets to drive. There’s a part of me that obviously hopes Danica does so good in this ARCA race that we would want to put her in a car, too. But Kelly, you know, we’re in a tough situation financially. To bring a car down here and run without a sponsor is about $150,000 at the cheapest. We can’t afford that. I’m gonna run Kelly in a lot of races we don’t have sponsors because we don’t have a full season yet on the 88, but we can’t afford to have three teams here. We don’t have that many people. It basically came down to trying to make the best of the situation. That’s what we’re going to try to do.

Question -. Jimmie Johnson talked about the merger of the garages with the 5 and the 88. He is willing to make that partnership work. Can you talk about that. In the past, you have been reluctant to talk to other guys and get advice.

Dale Jr "No. I definitely haven’t been reluctant to talk to anybody. But, you know, Mark has been a great supporter of mine for years. He’s a lot of fun to work with. Definitely he’s one of the guys I definitely listen to. Obviously Jimmie and Chad had a lot of success, so I look at their setup a lot. If I have questions about what they’re doing, trying, I talk to Chad quite a bit."

"So that’s one of the greatest things about being in this company is being able to look right over on somebody’s desk and see what they’re putting down for answers. I enjoy that part about it quite a bit."

"You know, I think I’m kind of shy at times, but I’ve never really been ‑‑ I’ve never been against really working together and trying to take two teams and be stronger. We did that at DEI for years. At least we tried to make it work."

Thoughts on 500? -

"The start time I like. I like that the race is running all during the day and there’s no swing into the nighttime where the track grips up and everybody’s car just suddenly turns into the super‑duper grip machine. It’s going to be fun when we’re out there trying to win that race sliding around on that hot, slick asphalt. Hopefully we made the right calls during the race to put ourselves in position. If it’s slick and hot like that, it’s gonna be important to be up front in clean air ‘cause after about 10 or 15 laps, it becomes more and more challenging to pass the leader as you get further into the tire run. So you’re gonna see guys ‑‑ I think it’s going to be important to put yourself in that position all day, not just at the end."

Note: This was an interesting answer to questions about JJ’s 4 wins and going for 5.

“Shoot, yeah. I mean, he’s got four. As long as he doesn’t have to start over, he should be in pretty good shape.”

Makes me think he knows that starting as the new guy at Hendrick was harder than we all thought it would be.

He said what he would like to do after he retires from driving. “Do I want to take on some sort of a role inside of NASCAR? I would really enjoy maybe being in the camp where Pemberton is, Helton is. Would I be a central figure then if I was there? I don’t know.”

How much fun would Nascar be if Dale Jr was in a leadership role in Nascar. I can see it now - heck yeah call them to the oval office - beer for everyone! I'll take them to my boxing ring and let them duke it out!!

He also hopes the shows he did on MTV, Rolling Stone and I will add in 60 Minutes and some videos etc, that he has brought a lot of new fans into the sport.

Answer to unknown question -

“Somebody asked me how you get respect. You get respect because of the way you act. They asked me whether if that was in or outside the car. I said it’s all the time, no matter where you’re at. You don’t get Mulligans for being an asshole!”

Boy is that ever true, we saw that in action last year from other drivers like Hamlin and the younger Busch.

And finally the most important question of the evening -

Q. How important are the female fans to you in NASCAR?

" I think they make up the majority of our fan base. I think it’s like 60/40. Am I wrong?"

It's 45% (seems low to me)

Jr "Well, they make up a large part. And it’s a lot of fun trying to get them tuned in, kind of plugged into what’s happening. Of course, they like the personalities. You know, they’re sort of drawn to the sport for different reasons. But it’s a lot of fun. I mean, you know."

Adding in - "Well, you know, they get kind of carried away sometimes. But for the most part everybody’s been pretty good."

End of media questions.

I wonder now whether the talking heads will take the pressure off of Dale Jr because they are waiting to see if Danica will make mistakes . Or, when she's finished with the ARCA race, depending on how she does, will they then turn their attention back to Jr.? I have a feeling they will be waiting eagerly for that first little error to make a big deal of. He had two missed pits and one stop on the line last year which isn't any different than any of the other drivers out there, they all do this at time. It's really inevitable, I still offer my challenge to the media guys to get in that car during a race, get onto pitroad with all the other cars coming and going, keeping your speed below the limit and get in your pitbox 100's of times perfectly!

I would personally love to see Dale Jr be a little bit more aggressive and not so dang polite all the time. Nice guys do finish last a lot of the time. I see the bad guys mentioned above, plus a few others, finish well after pushing their way to the front. I have a feeling the new Jr just may give me that wish.

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