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Welcome to the Cup Scene Daily for
Vol. III,No.VIXII FINAL EDITION
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Quote Of The day: 7 DAY ARCHIVE SundayMonday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday INSIDE TODAY'S ISSUE: Wimmer will not appeal conviction: NASCAR places driver on probation Burton seeks NASCAR approval for new sponsor BANG Racing adds sponsor McMurray crew wins pit competition at Coca-Cola 600 Ratings down for 600 12,000 mile road trip begins this week Blaney picks up sponsor Wallace replaces Cope NASCAR beats Indy in ratings Film Study: Johnson says he thought he had plenty of room Ford Motor Racing chooses driver for program to become first female NASCAR star Newman looks to add to Dover sweep Time for D.W. to Get Off the Fence Cup Scene readers speak out about Talladega
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Happy Birthday Mark Graves, Jamie McMurray, Troy Selberg "Junebug" become "Mister President" at Daytona International Speedway Wednesday. The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series point leader, had a whirlwind of duties with a pack of media following him around the facility.
He chose the design for the Pepsi 400 pace car, took some ticket orders, announced the grand marshal (Tracy McGrady) and purse ($5.8 million) for the 400, then reviewed the infield redesign. After finishing those chores, the Daytona 500 winner addressed the media and said he hopes to chase down the Nextel Cup Series title. "I want the championship this year and we're concentrating on that," Earnhardt said. "I want to get that behind me. I want to put that in my book." Then he wished out loud his desire to someday compete in the 24 Hours of LeMans, staged in France, and the Indy 500. The 29-year-old driver explained he is not a goal setter but has a long-range vision for his career. "There are a couple of goals I set for myself, before I retired, that I drove in the Le Mans and I drove in the Indy 500, but that's before I retire and quit driving for good," he said. "There's plenty of time for that." Don't look for Earnhardt over at the Indy Racing League anytime soon. He said his primary mission as a driver is in NASCAR, but he really wants to dabble in other forms of the sport. He got the thirst to compete in sportscars after two appearances in the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Earnhardt will run a American Le Mans Series event on a NASCAR weekend off in July.
"Having that opportunity, I'd be a fool not to. There are drivers coming into NASCAR that would love to drive at Indy 500, but they'll never get the chance because nobody would think to put them in a car. "But if I went up to a prominent car owner, they might really consider it just because of the name thing. I'm going to take advantage of it if I can." Earnhardt wants to have a list of starts like A.J. Foyt or Mario Andretti, who excelled in several disciplines of racing. "It would be cool to be among that group," Earnhardt said. "If I did it, I'd want to run good, of course. In the 24-hour race at Daytona here, we're going to come back because we came so close. It draws you back. Maybe that's what happened to all those guys, like A.J. and them." Earnhardt said he won't consider doing double duty on Memorial Day weekend like drivers Robby Gordon and Tony Stewart have done in recent years. He indicated an Indy 500 start would come near the end of his career. "I ain't worried about a double-duty deal," he said. "I ain't gonna get involved in that. I'm thinking a long time down the road now." Junior said he had fun making several decisions after "assuming duties" from Speedway President Robin Braig. After swapping his navy blue Boston Red Sox cap for a gold Daytona lid, Earnhardt walked into the speedway's executive boardroom and selected the paint scheme for the blue and gold pace car that will lead the field in the July 3 Pepsi 400. "Everybody agree with me?" he says with a cold stare to his audience, which erupts in laughter.
Before taking a look at the speedway's infield renovation project, Earnhardt walked down a hallway, stopping to look at several historic photos, including one of Daytona's earliest races -- "Wow, Stirling Moss raced here, huh?" he says. But his biggest decision was sitting at one of the ticket vending booths, where fans were stunned to see him behind the counter. "There's nothing hard about this," he tells ticket agent Barbara Adkins, "unless I have to do calculus." Teri Schmuck, who lives about 20 minutes from Earnhardt's Mooresville, N.C., home in Concord, and her boyfriend, Adrian Mills, were the first to flash a credit card for a pair of $95 seats to next year's Daytona 500. "I'm absolutely star-struck," Schmuck says to Earnhardt, who obliges with her five autograph requests. "I've told Adrian that you are the hottest male alive, and he said, 'Gee thanks,' but I know he's not mad. This made my whole vacation." “It’s really a fun place to be around,” Earnhardt Jr. said of the Speedway. “Not just on the race track or in winner’s circle but actually out there seeing all the people that sell tickets and keep the Speedway running everyday. It’s pretty impressive. There’s a huge commitment. It’s a family atmosphere too, which is something NASCAR has always had. “The coolest thing for me was meeting all the women in the ticket office. That was fun. They’re all in there selling tickets. They seem like they all have a good time together and all know each other. That was cool meeting all of them.” Earnhardt says if he really was the NASCAR president, he'd make all the races 300 miles and move the All-Star race from North Carolina to Daytona in July, so "we'd have two weeks here right in the middle of the season." He already is starting to take over NASCAR's leadership role, maybe a little quicker than he'd ever imagined. "The lead guy? Hmmm," he says. "Well, I wouldn't want to sit here and have some other guy saying he's the lead guy. There's a lot of drivers with a lot of knowledge out there and a lot of veteran racers who know more than me. I mean, who am I? I guess I feel like the football player in 'Jerry Maguire,' where everyone is telling him how terrific he is and how big he is. Everyone around me kind of does the same, I guess. I'm comfortable with the role, but there's a lot more to it. I do what I can do."
His talents have drifted into the music world, where he's become a VH1 star. He's been featured on "Cribs" and "Driven," and also appeared in a Three Doors Down video with Tony Stewart. He recently filmed a video with Trace Adkins. "It's pretty cool," Earnhardt says. "They come to me. Trace said there was a part in his song about me, so he wanted to know if I could be in the video. I remember when my dad sometimes would be in someone's video and I always thought that was cool." His performance with Chesney at last year's Dale Earnhardt Tribute Concert in Daytona was not only memorable, but frightening. "It's one of those things where you know it's coming," he says. "I was backstage, and I was scared to death. Everybody's looking at you. He pulled me right out there, too -- I told him not to do that. But the lights are so bright, you can't see anything anyway." Earnhardt's TV commercials seem to keep popping up every week. Most of them are light-hearted. "It's fun to do them," he says. "But I don't think I'm the actor I thought I'd be. I just have no talent for that." His favorite commercial? "It has to be the Chevrolet ad, the one with Taz and my dad in the back seat telling me how to drive." The upcoming Pepsi 400 means a lot to Earnhardt, who won it three years ago, just five months after his father died on the same track. "I still like to call it the Firecracker -- it sounds cooler," he says, "and I'm not a Pepsi driver, anyway. "That was the one race I'd always look forward to going to. We were in school all year, so at this race we'd get to go to the lake or to the beach and fool around, act crazy. We'd watch the races from the old scoring stand in Turn 1. I remember watching Greg Sacks win in a Die-Hard car. Dad ended up in the fence that day after he blew a tire. I remember (Ken) Schrader flippin' over in (Junior) Donleavy's car. Those were my first ones. It was always hot and sunny, just a fun time. It's always a great race." Earnhardt's celebrity status sometimes overwhelms him, but he knows how to relax when he's not thinking about his own race car, or the Busch Series car he owns that is second in the points standings with Martin Truex, Jr. "I like to go back home and play racing games on the computer with my friends and build stupid stuff in my shop," he says. "I've been working on a Jeep for two years now. It's just fun to goof on. It probably sounds boring to you all, but it's fun to me." Earnhardt says the fans are special, and doesn't go out of his way to hide when he takes a vacation.
"Usually, if there's not a race going on in that city, not too many people are going to bother me," he says. "Sometimes, people will get too aggressive and yank my arm. But, like when I go to the grocery store, I always go by the motto, 'Don't stand still.' If you're in one place for five minutes, people are going to start noticing you."
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