Dale Jr. Interview on Winston Cup No Bull Teleconference

OCT. 1, 2002

TRANSCRIPT OF NO. 8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO DRIVER DALE EARNHARDT
JR.'S INTERVIEW ON TODAY'S NASCAR WINSTON CUP TELECONFERENCE FEATURING
DRIVERS ELIGIBLE FOR THE WINSTON NO BULL 5-MILLION-DOLLAR BONUS IN THE EA
SPORTS THUNDER 500 AT TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY ON OCT. 6, 2002:

This will be Dale Jr.'s eighth Winston No Bull 5 attempt.

YOU WON THIS RACE LAST YEAR AND TOOK HOME THE MILLION DOLLARS AND YOUR DAD
(DALE EARNHARDT) WON IT TWO YEARS AGO AND TOOK HOME THE MILLION DOLLARS. IT
WOULD BE PRETTY COOL TO DO IT THREE IN A ROW FOR THE EARNHARDTS:

EARNHARDT JR.: "Yeah, it would. Man, I can't believe it's already eight
attempts. It's a lot of fun to get a chance to win a million dollars,
especially for the fan. It puts a little bit more pressure on the driver, I
guess, but it gives that guy a chance.  I think, going into Talladega, one
of the tracks we do really well at, we got a pretty good shot at it. We're
really going to have everything prepared the best we can."

WITH KERRY (EARNHARDT) RUNNING THIS WEEKEND AND ALL THE SUCCESS YOUR DAD HAD
AT TALLADEGA, WHAT IS IT GOING TO BE LIKE RACING WITH KERRY IN THE FIELD AND
KNOWING WHAT THE EARNHARDT FAMILY HAS ACCOMPLISHED IN TALLADEGA?

"Well, it's just another drafting partner, is the way I look at it.  All the
guys at DEI, we try to get all three cars running really competitive so we
can kind of work together because it's really difficult to pass. The way
they got the aero package structured at this point, it's kind of difficult
to pass. To have an extra teammate out there is really going to benefit me,
Michael (Waltrip) and Steve (Park). We'll just have Kerry dialed in as we
can so we can get him up front, and working with us and hopefully he can
learn a little bit about the draft and things like that for Winston Cup, for
his future whenever he moves up."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED GOING THROUGH THIS SEASON AND HOW IT
MIGHT HELP YOU THIS SEASON AND EVEN GOING INTO NEXT YEAR?

"Well, I don't know. We learn all kinds of things. It seems like every year
the mechanics of getting the car handling and stuff is a little bit
different. They change a little bit here and there on the tire and things
like that, and the tracks kind of go through a little bit of a seasoning
over the years. As far as what I've learned, I think, you kind of modify
your approach a little bit each week to see what...kind of how your outlook
on the race and how you approach each race, you kind of try to change that
just a little bit to see if a different equation kind of works different for
you as far as having a little more patience or trying to save your tires
early on or whatever. We're learning a lot of things. During pit stops we
change the spring rates of the tires because you never get the exact same
spring rate for each tire, so you have to kind of go one way or the other as
far as...if you've got a bunch of right front tires that vary in spring
rates, you start with the stiffest and go to the softest or you start with
the softest and go to the stiffest. So, we've been moving both things around
and changing things like that trying to see what is better for us as the
track gets tighter throughout the race, what helps the car turn better
throughout the end of the race. One of the things that we tried to improve
on is being strong at the finish. We'd go into a lot of races running really
well in the beginning and...we can't seem to keep up with either the track
or the car goes away. We're just trying to figure out what the situation is
with that and how to fix it. As far as me, myself, we've had some pretty
decent runs. We've been to a lot of places and been strong, which gives us
good hope and good possibilities that we can be a championship team one day.
We just have to have all the breaks and everything go our way."

IF YOU HAD GROWN UP AS THE SON OF A MILL WORKER IN MOORESVILLE (N.C.)
INSTEAD OF THE SON OF DALE EARNHARDT, WHAT KIND OF A CAREER DO YOU THINK YOU
MIGHT HAVE AND HOW INVOLVED YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN IN RACING."

"I don't know what the outcome would've been. I don't think I would have
been involved in racing if my dad hadn't been a race car driver. I'd
probably ended up working for the cotton mill or something. I always kind of
thought about that. I don't know. There's a lot of things that happened when
I was younger that changed, I guess, my path, you might say. I think when my
mother turned custody of me and my sister Kelly over to my father in 1981,
that's when my life kind of changed. I really didn't know much about racing
nor was I even interested in it up to that point. Of course, I was really
young, but, still, I don't think I'd have been a race car driver if that
hadn't had happened. 'Cause that put me around my father and in the
environment of NASCAR. It's hard to say. I'd probably still be living in
Kannapolis working in the Cotton Mill if it hadn't been for that."

THROUGH ALL THE TIMES YOUR DAD WON RACES IN TALLADEGA HE ALWAYS INSISTED
THAT HE STILL DIDNN'T LIKE RESTRICTOR PLATE RACING. YOU'RE COMPILING QUITE
AN IMPRESSIVE RECORD yOURSELF. ARE YOU WARMING TO IT OR DO YOU LIKE IT,
DISLIKE IT? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT?

"I like it, because it gives everybody an opportunity to be competitive even
if your car is just a little bit down on horsepower or your car doesn't
quite draft as well as others. You can still be in the middle of the race
and have some fun, no matter whether you're racing for first or 25th; you
can still race and pass people and feel like you're doing something. A lot
of race tracks, if you're not competitive, it can make for a long day and
you really don't feel like you accomplished anything. I enjoy it, had a lot
of success at it and I look forward to those races. It's intriguing to
wonder what it would be like without them and how that would work out. The
only way I would like to do that is if they just completely unrestricted the
cars, motors and aero package...that would be fun to race and have to lift
and stuff like that and get your cars to handle to go around the corner and
things like that. I think that if they just took the plates off and then
tried to slow the cars down with the bodies -- I don't know if that would be
as much fun as what we've got now."

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE KICK YOU GET WHEN YOU FIRE THE ENGINE UP AT THE
BEGINNING OF A RACE?

"Actually, I get really nervous probably right before that. As soon as I get
in the car, you kind of get calmed down because it's such a spectacle before
the race and you kind of get nervous with all them people standing around
and wandering up and down pit road and stuff. I don't know. You're just
really nervous. You'll be in the car and you'll fiddle around with the gear
shift and the switches and stuff and just ready to fire up, getting kind of
antsy about it. Once you crank it up, I don't know, you can't wait
to...you're just really impatient. You can't wait for the pace car to move,
you want to back up and pull forward and get your steering wheel on
straight, make sure you've got all that going on. You're just ready to get
off pit road as fast as you can. I don't know. I hate sitting still. When
the motor's running I'm ready to go and get off pit road."

WITH THE RECENT CONCUSSION CONTROVERSY, WHAT IS THE THOUGHT PROCESS THAT
MADE YOU THINK THAT YOU REALLY HAD TO GET OUT THERE EVEN THOUGH YOU WEREN'T
FEELING 100 PERCENT? WAS IT PRESSURE FROM SPONSORS, EVEN IF IT WASN'T VERBAL
FROM THEM, PERCEIVED PRESSURE, PRESSURE FROM THE TEAM OR JUST PRESSURE YOU
PUT ON YOURSELF?

"I'm not really sure. I really didn't think...It never crossed my mind -- if
you can kind of understand it -- it never crossed my mind to not race the
next week. The situation kind of got blown out of proportion a little bit.
It wasn't quite as serious,I guess, as it has come across as being. With
that in mind, it never came to my mind to not drive the next week. I just
felt..I just wanted to make sure that the way I was going to feel wasn't
going to be the way I was going to feel the rest of my life. Two or three
weeks later it started going away. I don't think it was really pressure or
anything. I just didn't ever think about not driving. We'd cast our arms and
legs if we broke them trying to drive the next week, not because of pressure
or anything, just because we're supposed to be in there."

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE BUSCH TEAM?

"Right now, we're talking to three or four guys about driving it. I don't
really want to say names; all these guys got to protect themselves. We're
talking to a couple of young guys and one older guy about driving the car.
We've got to really decide whether we want to go with a young guy or an
older guy. What I'd like to do...I'm going to run three races next year, and
that's all the plate races. That's really the only reason I started the team
is just so I could run the plate races. So that answers your question about
the restrictor plates...I started a Busch team so I could do some more of
that. It kind of snowballed into 'well, we'll try to satisfy some of our
current sponsors, with putting him in the car for some races', so we're
going to put Steve Park in the car for about five or so races next year. And
let him get some enjoyment out of it, because I'm sure the car is going to
be real competitive everywhere we go. And then we're going to try to get
another driver to bring in to run seven races or so and then the following
year I'd like to go full-time with it. We've got a number of options. We
could just run 20 races and a couple of Cup races in 2004. I don't see that
team going to Winston Cup or becoming a Winston Cup (team) in the near
future, but it's a good possibility down the road; it just depends. Right at
this point it's just kind of start-up to bring in drivers and crew chiefs
and crew members and try to work with people and improve them and move them
up through the company and into the Winston Cup programs."

YOU HAD A SPECTACULAR RACE LAST WEEKEND, COMING INTO THE PITS IN THIRD,
GETTING OUT IN 15TH OR 20TH. THE WAY YOU BATTLED BACK TO THE FRONT OF THE
PACK EVERY OPPORTUNITY IS INCREDIBLE. DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM IN THE PITS? DO
YOU PLAN TO MAKE ANY CHANGES?

"Everything that happened on pit road this weekend was my fault. There's a
couple of times I got impatient. The left side guys would go over to the
left side to finish the stop and I'd get impatient and go ahead and take my
foot off the brake and get it on the clutch and the gas, ready to dump the
clutch and get off pit road and they're still changing tires. When I let my
foot off the brake and they're hitting lugs it'll start turning the wheel
and they can't finish hitting lugs. I tried to cover it up, saying that the
brakes were messed up or something, but they weren't. We've struggled before
on pit road and we have made a change as far as...we're trying out some guys
on the back of the car as far as tire changers and tire carriers and
whatnot, to try to get more consistent. We're not really looking for
13-second stops. We're just wanting people that can do good 14-second stops
every time. It would be nice to gain a few spots here and there on pit road,
but if you just come out where you were, it's good enough. But our car was
so good this past weekend. It wasn't as good as Jeff's (Gordon) maybe at the
end, but it had been earlier in the race. It was so good that coming out
last didn't bother me. It was almost more fun to be able to come back
through there and pass all them people over and over."

A LOT OF THESE GUYS AT THE TOP OF THE STANDINGS ARE DREADING TALLADEGA. THEY
TALK ABOUT TALLADEGA BEING A CRAPSHOOT WHERE ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. WHAT HAVE
YOU GOT THAT THE CONTENDERS DON'T HAVE?

"...I'm not in the points race, so I'm not quite as nervous about it. So I
can go up there and take some more chances. I won't be as patient about it;
I can just go right to the front if my car will go there. I don't know. I
just like running in races, and even if you do get crashed out in a big
mess, that's just what happens. You can't do nothing about them big wrecks.
You can't really avoid them. If I was in the points race and got up in there
and got crashed out and got a 35th-place finish out of the deal I'd be
pretty upset about it, but I would still look forward to the next plate
race. As competitive as our cars are, who wouldn't, driving them cars? Our
cars just go right to the front, me and Michael's. We've got to work on
Steve's a little bit and get his more competitive. When you've got cars as
good as that, that can do things our cars can do, you just love to go to
them race tracks."

OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS YOU'VE EMERGED AS ONE OF THE SPORT'S POPULAR
PEOPLE. YOU'RE ALSO ONE OF ITS MORE REFRESHING. YOU'RE ALWAYS WILLING TO
TELL US HOW YOU'RE FEELING AND WHAT YOUR THOGUTHS ARE. WITH ALL THIS FLAP
ABOUT YOUR CONCUSSION, IF YOU HAD TO GO BACK AND COULD CHANGE ONE THING,
WHAT WOULD IT BE? WOULD IT BE TO NOT KEEP IT A SECRET IN THE BEGINNING OR TO
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT A OUPLE OF WEEKS AGO?

"I probably would have told...I definitely, definitely, not probably, would
have told Mike Helton and a few of the officials so they could be aware of
it. They would have probably helped me with a better way of handling it. I'm
not so sure I would have told anybody in the press unless that was in
NASCAR's favor. I kind of hurt the trust between me and Mike a little bit.
He's always been a real good friend of my father's and he's always kind of
looked after me a little bit. And I feel like between me, him and several
people at NASCAR, I didn't really do them any favors. I would've done it a
little bit different."

SO THE ANSWER IS MAYBE BOTH?

"I think I told the wrong people at the wrong time."

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