Speed reading

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2002 | 10:36 a.m.

Dale Earnhardt went into last year's Daytona 500 intent on teaching rookie driver Kurt Busch a lesson, according to a soon-to-be-published book that chronicles the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season from the viewpoint of Busch and his Roush Racing teammates.

Earnhardt, who died in an accident on the final lap of the race, apparently was still upset with Busch, a Las Vegas native, over an incident between Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a race in October 2000 at North Carolina Speedway.

"Rookie drivers rarely found friends among the veterans at Daytona -- but rookie Busch would find at least one sworn enemy," author G. Wayne Miller writes of the 2001 Daytona 500 in the first chapter of "Men and Speed: A Wild Ride Through NASCAR's Breakout Season." The book will be released in May by PublicAffairs Books.

"(In the fall of 2000) ... Busch had accidentally bumped Dale Earnhardt Jr., spinning him out and dashing his hopes for that day. Junior, a softspoken young man, forgave. Junior's father did not. Word was that Dale Earnhardt, nicknamed 'The Intimidator' for his uniquely ruthless style of racing, intended to teach Busch a lesson -- perhaps today."

Earnhardt did send Busch a message during the Daytona 500, a race in which the 22-year-old Busch ran as high as second before finishing 41st among 43 cars. Midway through the race, Earnhardt banged into the side of Busch's car coming out of Turn 4, then extended his hand out the driver's-side window and flipped off Busch -- which was captured by the Fox TV cameras witnessed by an estimated 32 million viewers.

Busch went into his first Daytona 500 knowing that Earnhardt may have "had it in" for him, Miller said this week in a telephone interview from his home near Providence, R.I.

"That was the word through the grapevine," Miller said. "I don't think Earnhardt had an obsession with Kurt, but it was more like 'this is the kid and we're going to show him something.' And he did -- he gave (Busch) the middle finger."

The incident is one of many behind-the-scenes tales Miller gathered while following Busch and his Roush Racing teammates, Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth, throughout the 2001 season. Team owner Jack Roush gave Miller unfettered access to the team and the book promises to give readers a unique glimpse of the sport and its drivers.

Miller, a senior staff writer at the Providence Journal, said that although the book focuses on all four Roush drivers, Busch emerged as the central figure.

"He's certainly a leading character in it," Miller said. "I spent a lot of time with Kurt. He begins the book and he ends the book. I spent a lot of time with the other guys as well but in terms of a protagonist ... I think I did spend more time with Kurt than anyone. He's there in every chapter and he's big in several chapters."

Although Busch tends to come off as guarded -- as do most Winston Cup drivers -- in interviews, Miller said he was able to gain Busch's trust during the course of the season and got him to open up.

"Kurt was extremely open (with me)," Miller said. "I was there a lot of times when his father wasn't there and Jack's not the kind of guy who holds hands ... so I was there a lot of times and I was the one guy he could talk to."

The book details both the highs and lows of Busch's rookie season in racing's premier series, which included three top-five finishes and a pole position. Miller also was there when Busch failed to qualify for the fall race in Atlanta -- the only race he missed all season.

"He was very nervous at that point -- even before Atlanta," Miller said. "He wasn't sleeping well by the end of the season. He was out of provisionals and he was very concerned that he wasn't going to make a race.

"(Roush Racing president) Geoff Smith came in and had a heart-to-heart with Kurt and then it was just the two of us there alone and, as he had done many times, he just kind of poured his heart out about the frustration and how tough it was at this level; how everything had come so easy prior to that and here he is looking at the prospect of going home and not making a race -- which is what happened.

"In a way, this is sort of a little coming of age story for him. He matured and he became a better driver, certainly, but more than anything I think he realized just how damn hard this thing is. Kurt had never had to deal with frustration and agony and heartache and the pain ... and he came out of that all, I think, a wiser young man."

As for Miller, who had never seen a Winston Cup race in person until undertaking this project, he said he came away from the experience as a die-hard fan of the sport.

"I'm attracted to characters and this sport is full of characters," Miller said. "I really came out of this liking this sport. The theme of the book is the theme of speed and why these guys, ultimately, risk their lives to do this. Part of it is money, part of it is fame ... but the majority of it is that these guys, early on in their careers, get addicted to speed and particularly winning at speed.

"Mark (Martin) talks about the feeling -- the actual pleasure -- of winning. The feeling of winning, he said, you can't compare it to any drug. It is so pleasurable that he said he would walk 100 miles barefoot in the snow to achieve it. This theme of an almost addiction to speed and winning at speed -- which is what the ultimate payoff is -- makes these people do crazy things."