February 24, 2014 at 3:00 p.m.
Shoutouts & Callouts
Dale Jr.'s emotional win and a wonderful Bradley Center experience
Shoutouts & Callouts
I'll be darned if the Daytona 500 didn't move me to tears again.
Last week I wrote about how this race has tugged at my heartstrings ever since I was a little boy and it did so again Sunday night. I've seen so much in the 500 over the years - the ultimate triumph, the ultimate heartbreak and the ultimate tragedy. Sunday night's race signaled one thing - the ultimate closure.
On the week the No. 3 returned to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 13 years after Dale Earnhardt was killed in the final lap of this race, it seemed fitting that his old car number sat on the pole and his own flesh and blood - Dale Earnhardt Jr. - hoisted the Harley J. Earl Trophy for the second time.
Prior to the race, much of the talk was about Austin Dillon, the new driver of the No. 3 car. He ended up finishing an eventful ninth, either detonating or getting collected in three of the accidents that took place over the final 60-plus laps, but Junior was the story over the second half of the race. He made his way to the front and proved he had one of the cars to beat.
That made the anxiety even greater down the stretch. So many times the Earnhardts, junior and senior, have had the car to beat in the 500 only to find a way to lose it. Seagulls, empty fuel tanks, cut tires, crashes and last-lap passes have combined to cost the Earnhardt family far more 500s than they have won.
So when a large patch of Bear Bond, a super-adhesive duct tape, become lodged Earnhardt Jr's grille under caution with five laps to go, Junior's enormous fan base gasped. Could this cost NASCAR's most popular driver another 500?
Then, coming to the white flag, when Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin both hung back to get a run, I held my breath. Who would get to Junior's back bumper first? Could he possibly block both from getting past?
Earnhardt Jr. may not have anywhere near the number of Sprint Cup Series victories and championships his father had, but he's every bit as good, if not better, than Dale Sr. was at Daytona and Talladega, the two tracks on the NASCAR circuit where horsepower-zapping carburetor restrictor plates put manipulating the draft at a premium.
He displayed that mastery on the final lap Sunday night. At first I was just excited, happy that Junior won. Then, as he was taking his victory lap, it hit me.
Some things in life are hard to explain, but NASCAR fans will tell you in the year following Earnhardt Sr's death, there were a series of victories that greatly helped the healing process for a sport in mourning.
First, just eight days after Earnhardt's death, Steve Park, driving an Earnhardt-owned car, won at Rockingham N.C. in the series first race after the tragic accident. In the third race after Earnhardt's death, Kevin Harvick, the rookie who had to come in and take Earnhardt's seat, won at Atlanta. Finally, that July in the first race back at Daytona since the accident, Earnhardt Jr. held off the pack to win an emotional 400-miler.
In each of those wins, it felt like there was a message from above saying, "It's OK. This is how Dale would have wanted it."
There has been plenty of debate in the NASCAR world regarding whether Richard Childress Racing, who fielded the famed No. 3s for Earnhardt Sr., should bring the number back to NASCAR. That debate grew stronger when Dillon, driving a black Chevrolet that bears a striking resemblance to Earnhardt's cars, put up the fastest time in Daytona 500 qualifying.
Many Earnhardt fans - and I fell in this camp for a time - felt that the number, or at very least the way the number was styled, should be put in mothballs for good. If it was not retired for good, the only person worthy of bringing it out was Earnhardt Jr.
As Dillon, and his younger brother Ty, used the number in NASCAR's lower-tiered series, I backed off that stance. Seeing the No. 3 back on the track helped get me used to the fact that some day it would race in the sport's biggest series again.
I said I wouldn't know exactly how I felt about the No. 3 being on the track until I saw it race at Daytona. On Lap 1, I knew I was fine with it. And, to me at least, Junior winning the 500 was another message from above saying, "It's OK. This is how Dale would have wanted it."
That, my friends, is what brought me to tears yet again following a Daytona 500. The No. 3 is back on the track and an Earnhardt is in victory lane again in NASCAR's biggest race.
At least for one night, all was right with the world.
Shoutout: Memories created at the Bradley Center
There were a lot of people walking around BMO Harris Bradley Center Saturday with neon-green T-shirts. If that didn't give away the fact there were some excited tourists in the building, their big, goofy smiles did.
Those blindingly bright T-shirts said it all: Hodag nation had invaded the Bradley Center and the experience was better than I could have imagined.
Simply playing on the same court as an NBA team would have been a big enough moment for a lot of people, and for the hundreds of basketball players from Rhinelander and D.C. Everest, ranging from grades 3-12, it was.
But I'll recall several of the little things. Here were a few of the highlights.
The team was placed in an auxiliary locker room before the game. There were 12 lockers (enough for an NBA team), a meeting area, a shower facility with heads placed high up on the wall, high enough to accommodate the occasional 7-footer.
Once the team was dressed and ready, the Bradley Center staff gave them the nickel tour of the Bucks' locker room. I tagged along with them. We were able to take a couple of photos. I found it obligatory to get a picture standing in front of O.J. Mayo's locker (no relation, especially if he keeps deciding to tie his shoes rather than play defense). Speaking of shoes, one coach noted the kicks of Bucks' big man Zaza Pachulia - size 17s.
From the locker room the team headed out of the tunnel and onto the floor of the Bradley Center.
"Being where an NBA team plays, being able to see their locker room, behind the scenes and see how NBA players feel every day going into games, it was a really cool experience," RHS senior Mitch Reinthaler told me.
There were plenty of little things I notice when we were on the floor too - the lighting, the spring the floor had, "Evergreens" and "Hodags" on the scoreboard. It was actually a little chilly on the floor. That's because we were sitting on top of a layer of ice. The floor at the Bradley Center is put over the top of the sheet of ice that is the home of the American Hockey League's Milwaukee Admirals.
On the floor, I don't know how many glances I exchanged with Rhinelander players and coaches. Whether we said it or not, we were all thinking the same thing, "This is really cool."
It was indeed a really cool experience. The Bucks game later that night against Indiana wasn't that bad either. It played out about how I thought it would in a matchup between the best and worst teams in the Eastern Conference. Indiana jumped out to a big lead - 22 points at one point in the second quarter - the Bucks made a run and got to within three, but could never get over the hump.
The halftime performance by Coolio was good, as were the cameo appearances by Glenn Robinson and Ron Dayne. I caught a little Nerf basketball during one of the timeouts, which has become one of my daughter's new favorite toys. But the coolest part of the game, at least from my perspective, was walking into the arena, finding our seats, looking at the floor and thinking "I was down there today." It gives you a perspective that watching on TV or even sitting in the stands does not provide.
This weekend's trip provided some memories I won't soon forget. I think the same can be said for most everyone who made the trip.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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