Dale Junior is having the time of his life. Here's why

   In the many interviews Dale Earnhardt Jr. did immediately following his Sprint Cup Series victory last Sunday at Pocono, he repeatedly made mention that he was having "the time of his life" right now and believed the crew members on his team felt the same way.

   Earnhardt has won a pair of championships in what is now the Nationwide Series, won a pair of Daytona 500s and has enjoyed a fair share of success in Victory Lane, so what is so special in 2014 that leads him to say that?

   Certainly it can't all be about winning his second race of the season, and it isn't. I asked Earnhardt after the win Sunday, what all goes into him making that statement. Here is his complete answer:

   "When I go to the garage or when I go to the shop and visit with (my crew guys) and talk to them, my car chief, Jason Burdette, brings his son over to my property to run around our little go‑kart track, and Steve (Letarte) and I have a great relationship off the race track. I let his son into our clan, in Clash of Clans a couple months ago. That's been a thrill for Tyler.But we had to clean up the language a little bit, but he's having fun," Earnhardt said.

   "We do a lot of normal things together, and there's a real appreciation for each other individually as people. There's a great ‑‑ we're real fortunate because there's not a guy in that group that's hard to be around. We're all easy going, and everybody really gets along. We set aside our flaws and really enjoy the relationship and working together, and we've done that for a couple years now. But now that we're having success, it makes it a lot more fun. But the fact that we can get along when things weren't the best, I mean, that team had just ‑‑ Jeff (Gordon) and that team split up and we all knew what kind of talent he is, and so the way they wrapped their arm around me and put me under their wing and made me feel comfortable and made me confident and made me feel worthy of the opportunity to work with them was great. They've been just genuine, genuine people, Burdette and Kevin Meander and all the guys are just so genuine. They're real. Their feelings and relationships are real.

   "I'm enjoying that. I said it out there in victory lane. Winning races is great, but it's nothing unless you enjoy who you're doing it with, and when you can do something great and it's with people you enjoy being around, man, it really adds to it, so this is why it's so special right now."

Longtime and popular NASCAR team owner Junie Donlavey dies at age 90

    Longtime NASCAR team owner Junie Donlavey, who fielded cars for dozens of NASCAR stars at some point in their respective careers, died Monday, according to family friends. He was 90. 

   A member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, Donlavey fielded his No. 90 cars for scores of drivers including Joe Weatherly, Tiny Lund, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Dick Brooks, Bobby Isaac, Fred Lorenzen, David Pearson, Johnny Rutherford, Harry Gant, Buddy Baker, Charlie Glotzbach, Ken Schrader, Jody Ridley, Bill Dennis and Ricky Rudd.

   “Life has really been fast, I can tell you, but it’s been pleasant,” said Donlavey following the International Motorsports Hall of Fame induction ceremony.  “I didn’t regret a minute of it even though we ran against heavy-backed teams.  We still had fun!”

   Donlavey began fielding his team in 1950. He drove for his team at first, but soon gave way to other drivers. He earned a reputation as working well with young drivers over his tenure. Donlavey  was a Navy veteran and son after his stint in the Navy started his own auto repair business which fostered into his interest in racing. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007. 

   Funeral plans are incomplete as of Monday morning.

   Donlavey was a Spirit of Ford Award Winner for his contributions to motorsports and fielded Ford vehicles from 1961 until his retirement in 2004.

   

   “All of us at Ford Motor Company mourn the passing of Junie Donlavey and we send our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends. Junie was a true gentleman whose legacy won't be measured in wins on the track," said Edsel Ford, member of the Board of Directors at Ford Motor Co.  

   "His legacy will be the hundreds of drivers and crew members who he helped that went on to great careers.  All of us will miss his friendly smile and engaging stories in the garage.”

Greg Biffle to remain with Roush Fenway Racing

   NASCAR veteran Greg Biffle and his primary sponsor, 3M, will remain with Roush Fenway Racing, multiple sources have confirmed to the Charlotte Observer and ThatsRacin.com.

   An official announcement of contract extensions for Biffle and the sponsor with RFR could come as soon as this coming week, sources said.

   A team spokesman said the organization would continue its policy of not commenting on drivers' contract status until an official announcement was made.

   Biffle, 44, has spent virtually his entire NASCAR career with team owner Jack Roush and won championships in the Truck and Nationwide series. He has 19 Cup series wins in 415 starts and has finished as high as second in the series standings (2005).

   With Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. remaining and the addition of driver Trevor Bayne to its Cup lineup in 2015, Roush will need to expand to a four-car operation to field a team for driver Carl Edwards, whose contract is also up at the end of the season.

Kyle Larson picks up an early win at Pocono

   In what he hopes is a prelude to a strong run on Sunday, Sprint Cup Series rookie Kyle Larson won Saturday's Pocono 200 Automobile Racing Club of America series race by running down Mason Mitchell in the final 10 laps of the race.
 

   "I was nervous for a while there," Larson said. "He was real aggressive and got the lead, then started to pull away."

   Larson, 21, however, fought back and regained the lead and became the fifth different winner in as many races this season.

   "We had a good car, a dominating car," Larson said. "We definitely wanted to win. I was glad that we had to work for it there in the end. I learned something in all of this. In the end, it was a lot of fun."

   Mitchell finished second for the fourth time in his ARCA career. John Wes Townley was third, Will Kimmel fourth and Justin Allison fifth.

Was Dale Jr.'s pairing with Steve Letarte his "last straw" at Hendrick Motorsports?

   During a break this week during testing at New Hampshire International Speedway, NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., raised an interesting issue during a discussion of how his crew chief, Steve Letarte, has influenced his career as a driver.

   Earnhardt had not experienced much success at Hendrick Motorsports before he was paired with Letarte and said the pairing may have been "my last straw" at HMS.

   Here is Earnhardt's complete answer to the question involving Letarte:

   "He's just a common factor and a friend and I trust him a whole lot and believe in what he does and believe in every move he makes and makes me feel comfortable behind the wheel. I don't question the cars, I don't question the preparation, I don't question our initiative or motivation and our determination. I've never felt more confident and being able to depend on my team, especially after we've been able to work together for years and have just gotten better and better. It's been an amazing experience and he's a big part of that," Earnhardt said. 

   "We took off, before we ran our first race. I think that we really had an agreement that we were going to do this together and make it work. We both kind of needed each other in the moment. He was coming off kind of frustrating seasons with Jeff (Gordon) and both of them kind of needed a new start, so me and Steve both definitely maybe deserve each other. I'm glad it's worked out the way it has and I knew that when we got together that it was kind of my last straw. We'd been through so much, I'd been through so much, so I needed to get something going and fast. It couldn't have been a better or a more enjoyable few years than what I've had the last few years with Steve."

Former NASCAR team owner Hoss Ellington dies at age 79

    Former NASCAR team owner Charles Everett “Hoss” Ellington, of Wilmington, N.C., died May 31, 2014, after a long battle with cancer. He was 79.

   In 262 races in what is now the Sprint Cup Series, Ellington's team won eight poles and five races, including the 1977 Talladega 500 with driver Donnie Allison.
 His teams had 52 top-five and 92 top-10 finishes. Sterling Marlin, A.J. Foyt, Buddy Baker, Davey Allison, Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett were among his many drivers.

    A private graveside service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Duke Cancer Institute, 512 S. Mangum St., Suite 400, Durham, NC 27701. 

   To read the full obituary from PortCityDaily.com go here.

Humpy Wheeler: NASCAR looked the other way but drivers (and sponsors) did not

    Former Charlotte Motor Speedway general manager and president of Speedway Motorsports Inc., H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler offers a diagnosis of what is missing from NASCAR these days. You may be surprised to learn that he believes NASCAR itself is working hard to produce the environment necessary to build more excitement but is running into a big roadblock - the drivers, or in particular, their corporate sponsors.

   Let him explain: 

   "What is wrong with NASCAR?

   We have heard it all in the past two months -- the economy, lack of passing for the lead, high ticket prices, confusing car paint changes, the weather and everything else but the pink elephants.

   Folks, what it is … is simple. It is the lack of real rivalries and the absence of a superstar in the realm of Ali, Brady, LeBron, Namath, etc.

   Sure we have Johnson, Gordon, Tony Stewart but you can't be a great superstar without tremendous rivals. Ali had Frazier; Namath the entire NFL; etc.

   What made NASCAR? The fierce battles between Curtis Turner and Jr. Johnson; Tim Flock vs. Buck Baker; Bobby Allison against Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough; Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace; Earnhardt, Sr., battling Geoff Bodine and Bill Elliot, etc. 

   Those were in the days before vast changes were made in the cars and before huge mega dollar sponsors who wanted their flying billboards to be quiet and the drivers as well behaved as Philadelphia nuns.

   Drivers sometimes didn't talk just right; dressed the way they wanted and were as tough as a Mohawk riveter. Kind of reminds us of the rodeo riders today.

   America loved these guys when they came on their stage in 1979 on CBS on a snowstorm Sunday and guess what: got into a fight on live TV! It was the Dukes of Hazzard; Andy Griffith; the Civil War on Wheels and the Friday Night Fights all rolled into one piece of technicolor drama. 
   
   And -- as we all know -- it took off like a Bonneville streamliner. Gutsy, clever and smart promoters saw their chance now and came up with all kinds of ways to get the media to cover it including bringing a lot of talented, fancy and not so fancy guys to come in and put on a show and did they ever from dirt tracks like the Robinwood Speedway in Gastonia, N.C. to the high banks of Charlotte and Daytona.

   In those building days cars hit one another -- rubbin' was the mild word. There were few sponsors to regulate behavior and NASCAR looked the  other way and the people loved it and there were few empty seats.

   Sometimes I remember the fights AFTER the race … the ones you didn't hear about. Those behind the rest room! One driver taking another and almost drowning him in an infield lake after he was knocked into the fence.

   Or the time Tim Richmond called David Pearson "an old man" and found himself flat on the hot concrete.

   These things just don't happen today and rivalries are quickly snuffed out by the huge disinfectant that comes into play when the boys get rowdy.

   So, with all sorts of PR people, button collared suits and enough security that we wonder if Godzilla is about to attack. No wonder drivers hurl themselves into their impenetrable tractor trailers after an incident.

   Probably the most dangerous place in the track after an incident is the track hospital where NASCAR commands all in a wreck to go and get checked out. 

   So, what happened to 'have at it boys?'

   I think NASCAR obeyed its own command but did the rest of NASCAR Town? No, because
that's the street where the sponsors live and their commandments.

   I do believe that the organization NASCAR is trying to get this whole thing back on track with rules changes and attempts at making the cars easier to pass for the lead (although we haven't seen this much). They, especially Brian France, know this whole rivalry element must
happen to get it back on track.

   But then maybe the answer is some rail-tough 20 year old from the backwoods of America whose only dream is going fast and whipping people with his determination and driving talent that ranks up there with Johnson, Foyt, Andretti, Yarborough, the Allisons and the Pettys who isn't handsome, dresses wrong, talks badly and doesn't particularly like any driver who has ever tried to beat him. He will flat put you in the fence if you cross him. He is as tough as the truck he drives and sometimes as mean as those rattlesnakes he has killed by the barn. He could pass the Secret Service rifle sniper test and sometimes disappears for days with his rod and reel. 

   He loves dirt so much his friends thought he had a vitamin deficiency. He has a girl friend but few have ever seen her and if anything gets in the way of his racing it is eliminated. He is frustrated by all the  rich kids racing who he knows won't last but keep him where he is. He dreams of the day he can get underneath their quarter panel.

   If you know this guy we need him bad!"