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Debbi Willis, Daw613@bigfoot.com

Fairy Tales

Everyone knows how fairy tales go: someone has a dream, someone helps them achieve the dream and everyone lives happily ever after. Fairy tales have all the regular characters of a good story: the hero, and a variety of support people who believe in them and love them. Every so often, the person who lives happily ever after in his dream life of being a big success has children. Naturally, the children want to share this dream. In most cases, they expect to simply inherit the whole dream and follow in daddy's footsteps. Not so if they are Dale Earnhardt Jr, though. Granted, after two BGN titles, and the Texas 500 win it may appear so. Dale Jr may look like he's just following his father, but the stories have prevailed about having to work his way into the ride of his life. Having EARNED his success, Dale Earnhardt wasn't about to spoil any of his children by handing them their opportunities, even if one was his namesake. Lessons are best learned with a little adversity and a challenging road to the goal.

This fairy tale has certain colorful characteristics: a busy, emotionally-distant, man-of-few-words dad with a persistent strong-spirited son, and a flourishing dream. Dale Earnhardt's life story reads like a well-worn novel everyone knows with all the tales of his track antics to, from and during races. Losing his own father early on in his illustrious career admittedly had a major impact in Dale Earnhardt's life. However, the lessons learned weren't forgotten nor lost on his own parenting style with Dale Jr. While he raced his way into the history books, he still had this namesake who wanted to share all he had worked for. Dale Jr has recounted to many somewhat amazed reporters how hard he really worked to get where he is: living in the double-wide trailer on the family property, working at the shop for a regular wage, hoping for the chance to drive one of dad's cars, and running local short tracks on his own. As in any venture (and children are as much an "adventure" as ventures of their own), the proof is in the pudding and needless to say, the results show an excellent start!

Finally, as the fairy tale would go, the son was deemed suitable by the father and Dale Jr began his career in the BGN. Securing back to back championships immediately impressed those who wondered if Dale Jr had what it takes or could live up to the legacy. Graduating to the Winston Cups under the glaring scrutiny of the media and fans, had everyone watching and comparing him constantly. Knowingly from experience, Kyle Petty gave him the best advice possible about making himself different from his dad to keep his sanity. Dale Jr achieved that with his love of music and reputed sleeping in mornings! At Texas Motor Speedway, he held up under the pressure and fared well to win his first Winston Cup race quicker than his father, and remarkably on the same weekend as his father's first win in 1979 as a rookie. The glimpse of enormous pride and deep emotion of Father to Son was a rare and impressive sight in victory lane!

Critics abound at every turn though, especially in successful fairy tales. Some reporters think Dale Sr "stole" Dale Jr's moment in victory lane with the post race interview, but more than likely, Dale Sr was buying his son time to cope with the moment, especially in light of his bout with the flu. And, those who would discredit Dale Earnhardt at every opportunity would also hurt Dale Jr by saying his father's only in the picture for the money, as though, the winnings from one Texas race could make a dent or difference in Dale's financial interests? Of course, discount a Father's pride for the son, and one might "hurt" both at once! Cheap shots of statements referring to the money show how some folks don't know a racer's blood if they really think it's the money that Dale or many other drivers, for that matter, race for. The winnings are only the benefits and means of doing what they love most: racing! And the cheap shot comments only prove they are doing enough right to get everyone's attention.

Fairy tales always have happy endings, right? Let's hope so for another generation of racing fans! Then again, fairy tales don't really exist, some stories just sound like one. This is a story of a family achieving their goals with hard work and determination by keeping their sites set squarely on their goals. The late Alan Kulwicki said it best, "Obstacles are what you see in your path when you take your eyes off your goal." Dale Jr has the natural ability and talent to be fine driver. Whether he meets, beats or remotely lives up to his father's records is a matter of time and the natural breaks of racing. All the ingredients for success has been secured for the team: a good sponsor with enough money to run the operation, a good crew and chief who knows the driver and a hungry, young and talented driver. So, for right now, Dale Jr. looks very promising! Maybe fairy tales do exist after all.

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