8 the hard way

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

He has won 74 races, a record-tying seven NASCAR Winston Cup championships and more than $35 million in 21 seasons, but Dale Earnhardt is showing no signs of slowing down.

Or resting on his laurels.

Rejuvenated by off-season surgery to relieve a pinched nerve in his neck, "the Intimidator" has his sights set on breaking Richard Petty's record of seven Winston Cup championships.

"Richard (Childress, Earnhardt's team owner) and I and Goodwrench (his sponsor) are just short of signing a new contract for an extension through the year 2003," the 48-year-old Earnhardt said. "If we do that, then we've got four more years to win championships.

"Petty and I have seven, so the eighth one is the next one so it would be very gratifying, a very big accomplishment for me and a lot of people that are involved with me in racing and I'd really like to go out and accomplish that. It would be very important to me to win another one."

Despite driving in pain for much of last year, Earnhardt won three races and finished seventh in points -- the 19th time in 21 seasons he has finished in the top 10 in the series.

The open test session the past two days at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was Earnhardt's first opportunity to get behind the wheel of his famous black No. 3 Chevrolet Monte Carlo since his Dec. 16 surgery. He said his goal during his recovery was to gain his medical release in time for this week's test.

"It's a good test and it's very important to come here," Earnhardt said. "We were really hoping that the doctor would release me, and he did last Tuesday, to come here and test.

"It's a very important test to get a feel for the cars myself; I don't think I could have sent another driver out here to test with the cars and really got a lot of good feedback."

Earnhardt said he actually enjoyed the six-week period he was away from the race track, and said he was prepared to make a run for a record eighth championship in 2000.

"It was a good January, really, to relax and get to feeling better and to heal up," he said. "It was definitely a great operation, the doctors did a great job fixing a vertebrae and it got rid of the pain automatically. It felt good to come out and get in the car ... we should be in good shape as far as racing.

"Last year, we played hurt through most of the year. It didn't really affect me that bad in the race car as much as after the race or before or after the practice and qualifying session. It was just aggravating all the time and once we got rid of that aggravation, it's going to be a lot better for me and (allow me to) focus on these cars and not worry about being in pain. I feel good about the future and about this year."

And that, Earnhardt said, is half the battle.

"Preparation is the biggest thing in racing -- whether it's mental, physical or mechanical," he said. "I think this year, all around the board with the team, myself and everybody, we're more prepared and well prepared for this year.

"That's the game, to go out here and be one of the cars to reckon with every race. You can look at the scoreboard and see that (1999 champion Dale) Jarrett's top fives and (four) wins won him the championship and that's what we intend to do this year."

Not that the two days spent testing were all business for Earnhardt. He and son Dale Jr., who will drive for Dale Earnhardt, Inc., in the Winston Cup Series this season, took turns driving each other's car Monday afternoon.

While the elder Earnhardt complained about the setup on his son's car, Dale Jr. was thrilled just to drive his father's legendary car.

"Man, I drove 'Big E's' car," Junior said. "It has been a dream of mine since I was 10 years old playing with Matchbox cars; I always wanted to drive that black 3 car. That was pretty cool.

"I really didn't care how the car drove or what I found out; I just wanted to drive it."

Dale Sr. was a little more analytical about the experience.

"He's been wanting to drive it for quite a while, he's asked me for several years to drive it," Earnhardt said. "It was pretty neat to see what he thought about it, but his likes on driving and setups are different than mine.

"I think his car was too flat, too pushy through the center, and my car rolls over. I don't know if that's a trend of youth ... I just know on long runs what the car will need to protect the tires and I think that's what we have."

As far as competing every weekend against his son, Earnhardt said the novelty wore off last season after Dale Jr. competed in five Winston Cup races in preparation for this season.

"He's excited about it, I'm excited about it," Earnhardt said. "We went through all this with five races last year and got him in tune and got his program started and got him headed in the right direction.

"I'm going to try to win another championship for that 3 team and see where I go. I've got to do like I've done my whole racing career and focus on what I'm doing and if I do everything right, everything else will come along behind it. Dale Jr. is on track and he's on his own."

* TEST NOTES: Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted the fastest lap among Winston Cup drivers during Tuesday's test session at 167.182 mph. Stacy Compton and Ricky Craven were next at 166.984, followed by Jeff Gordon at 166.700. ...

Todd Bodine led all Busch Series drivers on Tuesday with a fast lap of 159.300. ...

Busch Series driver Shane Hall, who flipped his car several times down the backstretch Monday, was back on the track Tuesday and logged about three hours in his Alumni Motorsports Chevy.