Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511120015
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium
For Dale Earnhardt, the 1995 Winston Cup championship slipped out of reach after two bleak summer weekends at Michigan International Speedway.
He crashed at Michigan in June and finished 35th. And he broke a timing belt there in August, and finished 35th again.
In the stretch of races between those two, Earnhardt had three other bad runs - a 22nd in New Hampshire, 20th at Pocono and 23rd at Watkins Glen.
But as he sat in a garage lounge Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway on the eve of the final race of the long season, he was feeling pretty good about his year. After all, he had the chance to meet actress Cybill Shepherd.
``There's a lot of good things that happened to us this year,'' he said. ``We were on Jay Leno this year. Man, that was a fun trip. I was on with Cybill Shepherd, and I've been a fan of hers for years. I was pretty intimidated there. What I didn't want to happen was her being on stage when I walked out there. I wouldn't have been able to say a damn word.''
As for the championship, it's too far gone, even for gamesmanship. Jeff Gordon has a 147-point lead and needs only to finish 41st - or to lead a lap - to clinch the title.
``It's too far out to get in anybody's head now,'' Earnhardt said.``If this was a 40-point thing, you could work on him right now.
``I've won these things and lost 'em. There ain't nothing you can say or do except go out there and race the last one.''
``I played hurt a lot this year,'' he said. ``That wreck in Michigan hurt my back quite a bit more than people realized. So I was playing hurt pretty bad. But that still didn't hold me back from competition. I was more fired up at the end of the season than I was after that wreck.
``But as a whole, the year was really good for us. We won races and a lot of people didn't. We won the Brickyard 400. We were on Jay Leno. You can `what if?' a season to death.
``I can't blame anything on anybody. I could blame mistakes on people's parts, mistakes on my part. I was involved in two wrecks that weren't my fault to start, but maybe looking back if I had just got the hell out of the way, I would have been all right. But that ain't racing.''
The season will end for Earnhardt with one piece of unfinished business. Although he's under contract to drive for car owner Richard Childress through 1996, they haven't agreed to terms beyond that.
``I'm just sort of in limbo, listening right now,'' he said. ``I'm just waiting.''
Earnhardt said the option he and Childress have to extend their contract expires in May, ``so [Childress] will probably have to do something by then.''
by CNB