Dale Jr. wants another grandfather clock from famed short track
It’s almost impossible for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to rank his wins. All of them are special in their own way, considering how difficult it is to win on a particular weekend.
Everything has to fall into place from the car to the pit crew to, quite frankly, luck. And sometimes that isn’t even enough.
But Earnhardt acknowledged some wins carry extra meaning and that is certainly the case as he returned to Martinsville Speedway this weekend for Sunday’s STP 500 at the famed Virginia short track, which sits less than 10 miles from the North Carolina border.
Earnhardt always came to the track when he was growing up because of its proximity to his childhood home. His dad won there six times.
And the track’s trademark trophy — a grandfather clock — only adds to the prestige of the race, as well as making a heck of an impression on youngsters.
“It is one of the few tracks that I always got to go to even as a young kid,” Earnhardt said. “You could get right up on the action, man, right against the fence down there in the corner and see the guys coming through there in practice. And you could see the balance of the cars and what they were dealing with. It is just a fun place to be at, even as a kid.
“I always wanted to win. That clock makes it even more special and more desirable.”
More than that, though, is how demanding this track is on the drivers. It requires a skilled driver to take the checkered flag at “The Paperclip,” known for its long straightaways and flat, narrow turns.
At tracks such as Daytona and Talladega, drivers can luck into wins, so to speak. That doesn’t happen at Martinsville, and the proof is in the winners.
Richard Petty won a track-record 15 times, and Darrell Waltrip has 11. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon have each won eight times at the track, most among active drivers. Denny Hamlin (four), Tony Stewart (three) and Kurt Busch (two) are other multi-winners.
Other than Hamlin, all of those drivers have won championships.
“It takes some driver to win here,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t often take a lot of credit for everything we do good out there, but I will say that at Martinsville it does take a little bit of driver to do well here. I feel like when you win at certain tracks like Martinsville you can feel good about it that you were part of that puzzle and part of making that happen.”
Through five races, Earnhardt sits in fourth in the points standings. He opened the season with a pair of third-place finishes followed by a fourth, and then a wreck at Phoenix led to a 43rd-place run. But he bounced back last week at Fontana with a sixth-place finish.
Earnhardt has always run well at the track despite not winning until last fall. At 101.2, Earnhardt is one of four drivers with an average driver rating of more than 100 at the track, along with Johnson (122.5), Gordon (119.8), and Hamlin (110.1).
But simply having good runs without a visit to Victory Lane had become frustrating for Earnhardt.
“We ran 30 races here before we won finally,” Earnhardt said. “I was getting pretty frustrated because I wanted one of those clocks pretty bad.”
Now, he’s looking to add a second.
Drew Davison, 817-390-7760
STP 500
Noon Sunday, FS1
This story was originally published March 27, 2015 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Dale Jr. wants another grandfather clock from famed short track."