CONCORD, N.C. — Life is going good for Dale Earnhardt Jr. He turned his basement into a nightclub, built a pool at his house and took a two-race winning streak into Sunday's Coca-Cola 600.
The only complaint the Winston Cup rookie has is how few people came to his latest party.
"Things are cool now — everything's good," Earnhardt said. "Except one thing: I had a party and invited my crew and none of them showed up. What's up with that?"
Crew chief Tony Eury said it wasn't a slight — everyone just had other plans. But Earnhardt took it hard and made sure the guys knew about it.
To get even, he stopped his car along pit road during a recent practice session and pretended to be out of gas. When the crew came running out to push it back to the garage, Earnhardt planted his foot on the brake.
The crew pushed and pushed until sparks started flying from underneath the car. Only then did Earnhardt let up on the brake.
"He made the guys pay for skipping his party," Eury said. "He worked 'em hard."
If Earnhardt wins Sunday's race, it's unlikely the crew will skip the celebratory party again.
A victory at Lowe's Motor Speedway would cap a remarkable month for Earnhardt, who won May 6 at Richmond, Va., and earned $515,000 on May 20 for winning The Winston, NASCAR's all-star race.
"Sometimes you can't believe what is happening," Earnhardt said. "It's always to the point of overwhelming. Failure, too. Everything is overwhelming."
John Andretti, who had a hard crash into the wall during last week's all-star race, cracked his ribs Saturday and might not be able to compete Sunday.
"They had been real tender since the wreck, and it was only my first lap out today when I cut the wheel hard and it popped," he said. "I called the crew and said, 'I broke my ribs' because I figured it wasn't anything else since that's what had been hurting me."
When Andretti went to the hospital for tests, the team had Todd Bodine drive several laps in the car. Busch driver Tim Fedewa was to drive Andretti's car during the night practice session and will be on standby Sunday in case Andretti can't race.
Robby Gordon, who is attempting to join Andretti and Tony Stewart as the only drivers to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, had a terribly slow car in Saturday's practice.
He will start 42nd in the race, five spots lower than where his car ranked Saturday.
"We're working on some things to get the car up to speed," Gordon said. "Hopefully we'll have it figured out before I get back from Indy."
Earnhardt will start from the pole Sunday night, the one-year anniversary of his Winston Cup debut. Earnhardt made last year's Coca-Cola 600 his coming-out-party, finishing 16th.
But Eury said the team had no idea what it was doing last year and wasn't prepared for how the track would change during NASCAR's longest race.
The race started at 6 p.m. and the crew was prepared for daytime track conditions. But as the 600 miles wore on and night fell, the track tightened and no one knew how to handle it.
"We had no idea how different the track would be between day and dark," Eury said. "We'd only been on it at night once, for a short time, and we weren't able to adjust."
This year, Eury insists they are more prepared.
The team came out for two night testing sessions this month and ran 70 laps under the light's in last week's all-star race. The preparation, plus the team's year of experience, has Eury feeling good about Earnhardt's chances.
"We've got as good a shot as anybody, unlike last year when we didn't know what we were doing," Eury said.
Earnhardt also is very focused. He wasn't prepared a year ago for the mental drain he experienced over the 600 miles and said his mind began to wander with 100 laps to go about "what I was going to do the next day and did I leave the stove on at home."
But he's learned how to separate work from pleasure, he said, and will be ready to race.
"I get in a mode when I'm at the track where I'm focusing on the race car and I don't pay attention to a whole lot else," he said. "Because I know at the end of the day we can get back to the house and kick back on the couch, sit in the air conditioned room and drink beer."