Earnhardt wins clock of his own

RIDGEWAY, Va. – Every hour, on the hour, the clock would ring.

In Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s childhood home, there was a little round rug that sat in the hallway near the stairs. About 30 years ago, a young Earnhardt would sit on the rug and play with Matchbox cars, as he listened to the current race on Motor Racing Network. The ambient sounds of the race mixed in with the hourly chime of a special grandfather clock situated near the stairs.

But it wasn’t an ordinary clock – that clock symbolized another win at Martinsville Speedway by his father, Dale Earnhardt Sr. Ever since then, Earnhardt knew he wanted a clock of his own someday.

And three decades later, he got one.

“I couldn't believe it,” Earnhardt said after taking the checkered flag at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. “I still really can't believe it. The clock seems so hard to get. This is so special. I try not to get too caught up in the emotion of it because it's a team deal, but this is very personal and very special to me to be able to win here.”

Earnhardt had been knocking on the door of Martinsville’s Victory Lane for years now, finishing six of the last eight races in the top eight prior to Sunday’s race. This time, the 40-year-old driver said everything simply fell into place for his No. 88 team.

“We had amazing pit stops, had a really smart, good, aggressive strategy by [crew chief] Steve [Letarte] and the engineers,” Earnhardt said. “They were giving [Letarte] great information, giving him confidence to make great choices. At the end, the right things had to happen on the restart to get by those guys, and it just sort of did.”

Earnhardt’s passion and drive to win at the paperclip oval made the win especially meaningful for Letarte.

“To come here and win is great,” Letarte said. “Really since Dale and I have worked together, he's always talked about this place. It's just different when he talks about it. Kind of has that twinkle, he really wants that clock.”

But Letarte has his own history with the grandfather clock. He captured his first win as a Cup crew chief at Martinsville in 2005 with Jeff Gordon. To come back nearly 10 years later and win with Earnhardt was a special moment for him.

“[Earnhardt] talks about winning that clock at lot,” Letarte said. “Now hopefully when I’m sitting at his house having a cold one, we’ll listen to the chime 10 years from now and smile.”