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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But I didn't put a lot of thought into it. I mean, it's obviously -- don't seem like five years. You know, it's good that he's still on people's minds, people still miss him. I still like to see the 3s, the stickers in the back of everybody's pickup truck and stuff like that.

Q.
I know in '04 when you won the Daytona 500, the next week at Rockingham you said I would like people to stop talking to me about my dad, what goes through my mind.

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
Yeah. No, I don't get those questions that I was getting then about dad. But it's okay to talk about him. I don't mind talking about him. But there's some questions that are hard to -- not hard to answer, you get tired of answering them. There's no real answer for them. And you probably could write the story without me even giving you the answer because you probably know the answer.

I just -- you know, I don't mind talking about him. I was proud of him. You know, I just don't know what it would be like if he was here as far as the company goes or as far as the sport goes. It's kind of hard for me to -- it's hard for me to imagine, even with my imagination.

Q.
After what happened last year, what would you consider to be a good year? Would you take a fourth?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
No, no. I think we're going to come into the Chase being top three in the points. We'll have six or seven wins this season, if not more. If we lose the championship, it won't be by much.

Q.
Did last year make you hungry, the team hungry?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
Well, I'm with a different team. The company's really hungry as a whole. The company's showing a lot of fire, a lot of spark, a lot of promise. We got some guys that we're really excited about that are coming to work for us, making a few key hires.

Q.
On a lighter note, Rusty Wallace is doing analysis for ESPN. How do you think he'll do?

DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:
Rusty, he's done it before. He's done great. You like to have that driver mentality up in the booth. I think Wally Dallenbach is one of the best at this point to have as little experience as he had. I think he does such a great job because he understands, as a driver, you can't be biased. I think Darrell has been retired for so long, he sort of lost that side of it where he's a little biased from one guy to the next. If he feels like beating up on somebody over a period of two or three races, he'll do it.