Chime in please: Kyle Busch/Elliott Sadler
General
Will, I'd beg to disagree heartily with your opinionon Dale Earnhardt'sset of social skills early on in his Cup career. He drove for you and I worked directly with him from late 1980 until early 1984. When we began with him at Wrangler I found him to be an extremely shy guy around others he didn't know out of the car who was extremely reluctant to do media interviews or interact. Same for meeting Wrangler customers and going to company functions... things that are expected at that level. The late Joe Whitlock had to cajole and I had to explain the meaning of his "Personal Services" contract numerous times. During a rainstorm at Wilkesboro once when we were holed up in the Wrangler van hetold a Winston-Salem tv crew who wanted an interview he didn't have time to
"mess with" them. That was the breaking point for me and I got that straightened out pretty quickly. In those days the first word out of Dale's mouth when you asked him to do something was always,
"WHY?" My answer was always, "Because we are paying you to do it." A few years later working with Kyle Petty, I always got the opposite reaction. Kyle Petty had been well schooled by his father on the importance of "meet & greet" and cooperating with the media, an education Dale did not get from Ralph Earnhardt. Kyle Petty always asked if that was all you needed or if he could do anything more. It was pretty refreshing after "fighting" Dale for nearly 4 years. Iwatched Dale become very outgoing in later years and he was especially great when I worked at the Richmond track and had him meet privately with
"Make A Wish" children. However, in those early days Dale Earnhardt'ssocial skills set was definitely not in the same league with those of Kyle Busch as you assert (or Kyle Petty)at the same point of his career. Early one Sunday morning in 1989 I was walking on the infield road at Atlanta near the tunnel entrance and track cafeteria when a van blew its horn as I walked by and nearly scared me to death. When the darkened driver window rolled down, it was Earnhardt behind the wheel with Teresa beside him. Dale asked me to get in the van. He asked forgiveness for his behavior in those early years and thanked me for everything I had done to help him.He said he wanted to say that to me in front of Teresa. Anyhow, that's my take andmy opinion and I certainly respect yours, even though we differ.
