commentary by Josh Stewart of the Long Island Press:

Dale Jr. Taking Charge Is His Biggest Victory

Dale Earnhardt Jr., fittingly for a Bud man, has a new Born On Date.

January 8, 2007.

After his Monday Preseason Thunder press conference at Daytona, you wanted to have him fingerprinted. Was this the same guy who had a penchant for giving up on what he wanted in order to avoid conflict?

Not anymore. It wasn’t that Junior slung insults at stepmother/boss Teresa Earnhardt. Didn’t have to. This meet with the media should have been conducted with a version of “Killing Me Softly” playing in the background.

It started with a preemptive strike, as the morning of, a USA Today story set the tone.

“When you go into her office and there are stacks of paper, most of it is dealing with my father and whatever they’re doing with his name and whatnot,” Earnhardt Jr. told the paper. “So, we don’t talk a lot. We don’t have a lot of sit-downs about racing and the team and ownership and stuff because that’s not at the top of her list.”

Ouch!

He had only started turning the tables, questioning her commitment. When her Wall Street Journal comments came up at the press conference, he explained that being a driver and being a public personality go hand in hand. But in responding, he said to reporters, “You guys that are here every weekend, you know what the sport is like because you’re here every weekend.”

Shot at Teresa’s attendance record? Uh, could be.

He then could have run a classic play from the Athlete PR Playbook and blamed the media for fanning the flames, so he could help create the mirage of a more united front.

He wasn’t interested.

“A lot of people went to bat for me, especially a lot of people in the press. It was nice to read those comments and stuff as far as what everybody’s opinion on it was.”

Everybody who could get within 30 feet of a laptop thrashed Teresa soundly after the WSJ quote. And Junior wasn’t at all afraid to bring that up.

He talked about his contract negotiations, admitting that DEI ownership interested him. Why?

“I don’t want to come here if I can’t compete well and run well and I just get by,” Junior said. “I want the best. I want the best cars, I want the best people… We want that and we see other companies doing it and you see other teams doing what it takes and making the right moves, and I just want it to be—I want to be in the same situation as I see other drivers in.”

Sounds like a man curious about the company’s direction. Maybe he’s wondering why it took DEI this long to resolidify a third full-time Cup team, compared to its competition.

In talking about his JR Motorsports Busch operation, he admitted, “It’s not making money, probably won’t make money. It doesn’t hopefully lose too much money.”

Why would someone still taking his virgin steps running a Busch team want to take on ownership at DEI, the vaunted “Garage Mahal,” when he says he has no other interest in Cup ownership?

Probably only if he feels the current owner is incompetent.

Junior would forever be seen in a different light by the time he was done answering questions. Stories like sister Kelley following him to military school to look after him were nice, but they always made Dale Jr. seem just a hair inadequate to handle his own business.  

That’s all changed. Forget about the July 2001 Daytona win to honor his late father. Forget about the 2004 Daytona 500 triumph.

In standing up for himself like never before, he has experienced his biggest victory as a racer. With that kind of confidence, DEI might just thrive, in spite of itself.

You can contact Josh Stewart at jstewart@longislandpress.com. Click on “Dale Jr.’s Wicked Stepmother” and “Teresa: Fans Say Make Up With Dale Jr.” to read past Press columns on this subject.