Earnhardt’s Winless Streak Becomes an Intimidating 41

FONTANA — The rumbling is getting louder than the race car he drives, and the words sting almost as much as the punches Dale Earnhardt lands on himself.

He keeps up his right to ward off others’ blows.

Larry McReynolds throws haymakers at his mirror.

He stands up and sticks out his jaw, Rocky-style, at the critics.

Richard Childress jabs, then jabs again at his own picture.

He bobs and weaves in front of the naysayers.

“I can see light at the end of the tunnel for the three-car,” says Childress, the No. 3 car’s owner. “I can see light at the end of the tunnel with Dale and Larry.”

The way things have been going for Earnhardt and McReynolds this year, it’s probably a train.

It has been 41 races since Earnhardt won a Winston Cup stock car race, 41 times he has had to explain why he was passed, why he couldn’t pass, what went wrong.

Why “the Intimidator” is no longer intimidating.

“How about Rusty [Wallace’s] year?” Earnhardt says, challenging an assembly of reporter-critics, the dividing line between joviality and sarcasm hard to discern.

“He’s had a worse year than I have. He’s behind me in points. Honestly, guys, we’re sixth in points, and sure, I’m really flattered that you’re worried about me because, honestly, you still want to know what’s wrong. That makes me think that we’re not out of the picture, and we’re not.”

McReynolds has been his crew chief in 15 of those races, and questions of him are getting harder and more pointed because he’s the new guy.

“He leaves the team he’s been with for I don’t know how many years and they were winning,” Earnhardt says. “He comes here and we’re not winning. There’s got to be pressure on him. But he puts more pressure on himself than anybody could ever put on him.”

He leaves a Ford for a Chevrolet, leaves Ernie Irvan and Dale Jarrett and, McReynolds says, the pushing and pulling and egos of the Robert Yates team for Childress and Earnhardt.

Leaves six 1996 victories for two, and they were early last season. Earnhardt last won March 10, 1996, at Atlanta and his non-win at Michigan last week sent him into uncharted territory. He never has had a longer losing streak.

McReynolds is embarrassed about it.

“I put pressure on myself to be the best crew chief and have the best team in this garage area,” he says. “I’ve been doing it a long time, and probably if I didn’t have as much time under my belt, getting beat up for 17 years, I probably would run long and far away.”

He would be chased. Earnhardt and McReynolds get more unsolicited advice than Bill Clinton, and there are almost as many theories as there are theorists as to why the team isn’t winning.

Among the most popular:

* Earnhardt has lost it. More specifically, he lost it in a wreck last year at Talladega, where the roof of his car and his head were almost torn off.

“Dale, anybody who thinks he is over the hill is crazy,” Childress says. “You put Dale in a competitive car and he wins races.”

* The Childress team is living in the past, albeit a past that includes six of Earnhardt’s seven Winston Cup championships.

“Richard Childress and I have talked about it, and we maybe got complacent and stayed the same too much, ran the same stuff too long and maybe didn’t stay apace two years ago,” Earnhardt says.

“But I don’t really believe we’re behind on technology. I think Richard’s the kind of owner that races a proven product. It’s probably harder to get him to change and take a risk that others might. Sometimes it can hurt you, sometimes not. Sometimes it pays off.”

* McReynolds and Earnhardt don’t get along.

“Dale Jarrett was a good friend, but I don’t really feel I ever had that bond [with him] that I’ve gotten with this guy in a very short time,” McReynolds says. “Coming into this program, that was one of my concerns: Could I develop a good, quick relationship with Dale? Because that’s as important as a husband-wife relationship in racing.”

* Earnhardt has too many outside business interests.

“I’ve probably spent more time in the shop in the first quarter of this year than I did all last year,” he says.

* McReynolds spends too much time with his second job, as a television analyst for Busch Grand National and Craftsman Truck races.

“My response to that . . . [is], when I’m leaving that shop at 2 or 3 in the morning and still have an hour to drive, let me call that fan,” he says. “You can condemn ol’ Larry for a lot of things, but you can’t condemn ol’ Larry for not working hard enough.”

* The Chevrolets are under-powered and have aerodynamic problems.

That’s the hardest to explain away, because where Earnhardt once was the target, now he’s the shooter.

Says McReynolds, “Our benchmark and our pattern is the 24-car.”

It’s driven by Jeff Gordon, and it sticks in the craws of other Chevrolet drivers, who complain that NASCAR’s rules make their cars inferior to the Fords, only to have officials merely point at Gordon.

“Until we become the No. 1 Chevrolet week in and week out, I get a little embarrassed complaining too loud about the rules,” McReynolds says. “If Jeff Gordon finishes third and we finish 10th, then we’ve missed something that kept us from between that part of the spectrum.

“They’ve got the same body to work with, they’ve got the same engine pieces to work with.”

They’ve had the car in Victory Lane six times in 15 races. Earnhardt’s trips there are in his memory.

And, he says, in his future.

“Gordon makes it look easy, but he’s got his program together,” Earnhardt says. “. . . Somebody else will come up and they’ll turn the corner the other way.”

Until that happens, Gordon has replaced Earnhardt as the fans’ emotional target, holding rock-star status with some, being seen as the DuPont demon to many others who figure he’s a 25-year-old upstart whose success has come at the expense of a guy they used to hate. It’s hard to hate a guy with one top-five and seven top-10 finishes, but no checkered flags.

Earnhardt doesn’t get the boos anymore. He misses them.

“I wish it was the other way around,” he says. “Get booed on Sunday and go to the bank on Monday. I don’t want to be the guy who’s not a hero, but I want to be a winner and I think race fans want to see quality in people winning. Not just Jeff Gordon getting up there and blowing the field away, but Jeff Gordon getting up there and racing with Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace or whoever.”

Until then, he waits impatiently.

“I’m frustrated that we haven’t won, but I’m not frustrated with the team or Larry,” Earnhardt says. “Just like he beats up on himself, I beat up on myself.

“Look, we’re gonna win. There’s not a question of if we’re ever going to win again, it’s a question of what race we’re gonna beat ‘em. This Sunday, next Sunday. . . .”

Please, some Sunday this year, McReynolds says. The slump is getting heavy.

“Everyone’s been talking about Dale’s streak, and I guess he’s gone 13-14 seasons with a win, at least one win,” he says. “I’ve been 10 years and won a race in all those 10 years. I don’t want this year to be the year that ends Larry McReynolds’ streak, and I certainly don’t want it going in the record books that Dale’s winless season was with new crew chief Larry McReynolds.”

So they both keep on punching.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Earnhardt Slides

How Earnhardt fared in last 41 races (since March 24, 1996):

* Wins: 0

* Seconds: 3

* Thirds: 3

* Fourths: 4

* Fifths: 1

* 6-10: 9

* 11-34: 19

* DNF: 2

*

How Earnhardt fared in previous 35 races:

* Wins: 7

* Seconds: 7

* Thirds: 5

* Fourths: 1

* Fifths: 2

* 6-10: 4

* 11-34: 7

* DNF: 2