| | NEW BUSINESS VENTURE | Earnhardt opens own watering hole | |
| | Dustin Long / The Roanoke Times Walk through the doors of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s new downtown bar, Whisky River, and you're surprised.
No racing memorabilia. Anywhere.
You almost wonder if this is Earnhardt's bar. It is. It's just not what many fans will expect.
Instead, there's open spaces to socialize and dance, three bars, a rustic orange décor, cowhide backs on stools and a mechanical bull. As Earnhardt's bar presents a unique look, so does he.
The celebrity racer is becoming a businessman -- even as he ranks among the favorites to win today's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Earnhardt has been cautious in his business dealings, steadily building an empire. He co-founded a car care and lifestyle products company, has an XM Satellite radio show, owns a Nationwide team, a production company, the bar, and a motorsports park scheduled to be built in Mobile, Ala., with a goal of being operational in 2010.
Earnhardt isn't alone in looking at opportunities beyond racing. Carl Edwards owns a music studio. Jeff Gordon has a Chevrolet dealership in Wilmington, N.C. Ken Schrader and Dave Blaney own race tracks. Bobby Labonte is president of a marketing company.
The biggest news this weekend at Talladega centered around business. Tony Stewart says he's mulling offers to drive for other teams, including at least one proposal that features part ownership in a Cup team. Stewart, 36 admits he's excited about the ownership opportunity so he can stay in the series once his driving career ends.
What makes the 33-year-old Earnhardt unique among the drivers with various businesses is the scrutiny that goes with being the sport's most popular driver -- and one who hasn't won a Cup race in nearly two years.
Should Earnhardt's drought continue, he knows he'll face questions about being focused on his outside interests.
"There's a stigma about drivers can't do nothing,'' Earnhardt says. "Anytime you do anything or want to do anything or talk about anything, people want to question your focus.
"That's followed me around just like the pressure has, just like the name has. It's always there. That's OK. I've got to do things that might work out for me and my life.''
Humpy Wheeler, a family friend, says that even with the business interests, Earnhardt won't change.
"He's simply taking advantage of who he is and where he is in life,'' said Wheeler, president of Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I don't think he wakes up in the morning, thinking about how much money he's going to make.''
Although majority owner of the bar, Earnhardt admits that when he attended a VIP party he'd been there only a few times in the construction process. It wasn't as if he was ordering cases of beer while also trying to think about race setups.
While owning a bar is a cliché among athletes, the decision was made not to be like those places.
"We wanted to create a place, ultimately, where he would go,'' says Thayer Lavielle, vice president of marketing and brand development for Earnhardt's team. "He's not going to go to a place that has his own picture up on the wall.''
Lavielle is a former L'Oreal executive hired to help build Earnhardt's businesses and expand his reach.
Earnhardt's business interests are tied to his future.
"Hopefully, you do find that one that does help you establish what you want financially after you retire from driving a race car,'' he says. "If I'm going to race until I'm 50 ... I'd like to think I'm going to live to a pretty old age, so it would be nice to have some other things going on, some other things I'm involved in.
"You do things that interest you, so I line those things up. Some of them will be gone by then, but maybe there will be one still working and still profitable.''
| | Posted April 27, 2008 , 10:36 pm EST
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