"I knew I wanted him to drive my car the
first time I
saw him drive somebody else's," Earnhardt's car owner
and
long-time friend Richard Childress says. "His
desire and sheer
determination to be the best at what he does is amazing. I've
always thought
he was the best, even when I raced against him."
Desire. That's the
common denominator.
"There's Earnhardt and then there's everybody
else," says Bud
Moore, for whom Earnhardt drove in 1982 and
'83 and who has fielded cars at
one time or another for 12 different drivers
who received votes in the
survey. "The biggest thing
about Earnhardt is his desire.When he slides
down in that race car, he is going
to go to the front if it's at all
possible. He'll find a way to get there.
"He's looking up ahead all the
time, figuring out his next move. When he goes
into a turn, he knows what
he's going to do when he gets there. He's going to go
high or he's going to
go low, but he knows. He doesn't get
there and then say, `What do I do now?'
Talent is talent,
then or now. And he's got the talent." "The
Intimidator" says he was born
to race. And he wouldn't have it any
other way.
"I just want to win," Earnhardt says. That's the way he
does most things, to
the point. Shortest distance between two points is a
straight line. Straight driving.
Straight talk. "Shoot, in the
beginning, you just wanted to race,"
he says. "That's what you
wanted to do, and you wanted it so bad
that was all you worked for. You
didn't think about what you're going to
accomplish or what you could
accomplish, you just wanted to race.
"You go to the race and you see
other guys race, the Pettys and Pearsons
and Allisons and Yarboroughs, and
then you get the opportunity to be in the
same race with them one day and
that's just astounding to you. That's the way it
was with me." It's hard
to imagine Earnhardt astounded by
anything. But his voice lowers and raises,
first with admiration of other drivers,
and then with pride for his own
accomplishments
-- including being called the greatest by a
group of his peers.
"A racer wants to race and win," he says.
"Imagining having the opportunity to
do that for a living, and then to
be successful, and then to be considered one of
the greatest drivers that
ever raced - especially by a group of peers - is one of the
greatest honors a
driver could ever receive."
And Earnhardt is a driver who has a trophy case
full of honors.
He won his first NASCAR Winston Cup race in just his 16th
start, at Bristol,
Tenn. Fourteen years later, a street he used to get
in
trouble for drag racing down was renamed Dale Earnhardt Boulevard.
"I
want to do the best I can every race," Earnhardt says. "I don't like
it when I
don't. When I sit down in that race car, that's it. There's nothing
else on my mind.
There are a bunch of guys heading for the finish line
and
I want to get there first. I want to win."
He's won more races (28) at
Daytona International
Speedway than any other driver, in three different
divisions.
He's won more than $28 million - more than any other driver. Of
the
18 race tracks on the 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup schedule,
Earnhardt has
won at least one race at 16 of them -
missing only Loudon, N.H., and Watkins
Glen (where he owns three
career poles and the track qualifying record).
In the 18 years since he hit the circuit
full time, he has won at least one
race in 17 of those years. "I still
want to win, I still have that desire,"
Earnhardt says, using the word
more as an attitude than a description.
"That's the thing that keeps me
going. I've
had a great career. If it ended tomorrow, I'd have no
regrets."
Does Earnhardt see his "great career" coming to an
end anytime soon?
"Not even close," Earnhardt says with a grin.
That
grin that has become recognizable world-wide, along with a scowl when
necessary.
Along with the respect that comes with being
considered, at least by some,
the greatest driver of all time.
So whether it's in the eyes or in the mind
or it's inborn. It's there.
Oh boy, is it there. "The will to want to
win hasn't diminished," says
Earnhardt. "There's one thing on my
mind when a race starts:
How am I going to get to the front?"
