Q&A: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Saturday, 11th February 2006

After missing last year’s Chase for the Championship, Dale Earnhardt Jr has a more familiar back-up crew for the 2006 season, a season in which Earnhardt Jr says he will definitely be a contender.

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I talked to Chris Long at SPEED a couple years about doing a show, maybe like a pop-up video style show with those races in the background. You know, we finally got around to it.

Q.
When does it begin?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
The first episode is Monday at 9:00.

Q.
What about your satellite radio show? They put Howard Stern on satellite radio so he can say anything he wants to. Do you think you'll have the freedom to say what you want to?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
Well, you can say whatever you want to, there's just repercussions. You know, I just want -- I thought we'd do the show, see how it went. If XM is happy, we'll keep doing it. If they want to change something, we'll change something.

But it's basically just me. Like the first episode, you know, I get Shane Huffman and Russ Ward from the Hooter's team to talk about the sponsorship, the practicing, the testing. Steve Crisp drops a line or two about the Busch team, their testing, how that's going, what kind of driver Mark is like, what made those guys want to come work for me, what inspired them about our company. Little known company as far as the ownership side of it. All new, so why would they take that chance, you know. And we told a couple stories of me and Steve Crisp when he was travelling with me in the Busch Series. Just had some fun.

Q.
Have you got any idea where that DEI restrictor plate edge could come back for you?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
We never lost it. I mean, we had some strong cars here last year. I should have won the Daytona 500. If I would have made a certain move, I could have won the Daytona 500 last year. But we had a fast car at Talladega, got in a crash. I don't remember what happened the other races. I think we finished third at Daytona here. That's strong.