Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (right) shares a moment with his Xfinity Series driver, Elliott Sadler (left) during Thursday’s NASCAR media Tour in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo: Charlotte Motor Speedway
The 35th Annual NASCAR media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway concluded on Wednesday, wrapping up a two-day media event that brought together the sport’s star drivers and journalists from around the world.
The final day of the program featured drivers from NASCAR’s Cup Series as well as their other two major touring series – the Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series – as they prepare for a new season of racing just a month away.
One of the first drivers to take the stage was newlywed Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who is now fully approved to return to racing after sitting out the last half of the 2016 season with concussion symptoms.
Earnhardt’s health issues served as a wake-up call for many drivers in the garage, including Carl Edwards, who cited the health risks involved in racing a major factor in his decision to retire – something Earnhardt himself is not ready to do just yet.
“To get approved to race is one thing but to decide to race is another,” said Earnhardt, Jr. “Mentally, you have to make the decision if you want to keep racing. And if you want to keep racing you have to go into it 100 percent. This is the top, elite series of motorsports in North America and if you’re going to be out there you can’t do it without 100 percent. I had to answer a lot of personal questions myself and just really buy in.
“People have asked me since I turned 40 when I would retire and all I wanted to do was make that choice myself. I don’t know when I’m going to stop racing, but I want to able to make that choice and not have it made for me.”
Health issues were also the primary topic of discussion as Wednesday morning’s event rolled on with interviews with Xfinity Series drivers Matt Tifft and Ryan Reed.
Tifft, a development driver with Joe Gibbs Racing, had planned to make 13 Xfinity Series starts for JGR in 2016, however in June he was diagnosed with a brain tumor which required surgery which kept him off the track for three months.
Now, as he gets ready for the 2017 season, Tifft says he’s has fully recovered and is ready to race again.
“I’m doing great,” said Tifft. “It’s awesome to be able to look forward to 2017 in full health and without having to worry about any of that. Just get rolling and get racing. That’s the best thing out of all of this.
“Anybody who goes through something like I did with a brain operation or really any serious medical condition, there are times when you wonder if things will ever get back to normal. I always had it in the back of my mind that I was going to get back into racing and get back into NASCAR. I used that as my motivation to get back.”
Roush-Fenway Racing driver Ryan Reed is back for his fifth season with the team, coming off a career-best points finish of sixth in 2016.
Reed made history as the first driver with diabetes to compete in a national touring series, and has been using his racing career as a not just to fulfill his own dreams, but also as a vehicle to raise awareness and to reach out to others suffering from the same condition.
“As somebody living with diabetes I understand how tough it is and all the challenges that come with it, so looking at where I’m at with racing and having a platform to spread awareness and definitely want to take full advantage of that,” said Reed. “We go to the race track and if somebody reaches out or if we hear about someone’s story, whether it’s a kid or an adult living with diabetes, whether they’re struggling with it or not struggling with it, there can be a lot of great things that happen just from getting together.
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Later on in the day, the media tour welcomed two-time NASCAR truck series champion Matt Crafton and his daughter Elladee to the stage.
Crafton said his ThorSport Racing team is ready for the 2017 season after trudging through 2016 following a fire at their Sandusky, Ohio race shop that forced the team to work anywhere they could.
The team soldiered through by working in empty parking lots and even the shop of a local sprint car driver who offered them space to use until their own shop was ready.
“It was amazing how many people stepped up and asked if we needed anywhere to put anything,” said Crafton, who said the shop will be “100% done around the second week of February.”
“It’s going to be a huge motivator” being back in the shop, Crafton said. “If you look our season last year, up until June, we were on a tear up until the shop burned down. I knew (the fire) was going to hurt us, but I no idea it was going to hurt us as bad as it did. To just look back at all tools and setup plates we lost – that’s the stuff you can’t replace.”
Despite the loss of their shop, Crafton managed to make the final four in the Truck Series championship at Homestead, but came up just short with a seventh-place finish.
Crafton credited the truck series “chase” for pulling them out off a difficult season, but is ready to move on to the new race format.
“I’m not going to lie, at the beginning of the season, I wasn’t a really big fan of (the Chase),” said Crafton. “ But I became a big fan of it after were tenth in points with the five DNF’s and a fire at the shop and to be able to go to Homestead and have a shot at winning a championship, I loved it.”
Among the other truck series drivers to make an appearance on the media tour was Christopher Bell, returning to drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Bell was fresh off his victory in the prestigious Chili Bowl Midget Nationals earlier this month, joining a long list of drivers who have made the jump from the open-wheel dirt track series to the high-banked ovals of NASCAR, including two-time Chili Bowl winner Tony Stewart.
Bell admitted that although his roots are in dirt track racing, he’s becoming more accustomed to driving in the truck series.
“The dirt track scene and the NASCAR scene are almost polar opposites, so it’s very tough to bounce back and forth,” said Bell. “For me, growing up on dirt, the NASCAR scene is almost the foreign scene to me. But over the last couple of years, I’ve been able to get more accustomed to it and get more comfortable doing it.
“The dirt is still where my comfort zone is, but it’s obviously grown to the point where I’m comfortable in the truck garage.”
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