Otro que he encontrado buscando foto de los dos juntos sin encontrarla (diria que vi alguna de la epoca de 1993-1994 a la que hace referencia el siguiente artículo).
Earnhardt and Mansell
February 26, 2001
Dale Earnhardt was, among so many things most of us never knew, a fan of Nigel Mansell. So, when Mansell had Bruton Smith to his left and Humpy Wheeler to his right and a scheme in his face and a wall to his back, it was Earnhardt who came to the rescue.
The scene played out at the Speedway Club in January 1994. The occasion was the annually festive American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association banquet, and Mansell was there to receive the organization`s premier Jerry Titus Award as driver of the year, while Earnhardt had yet again been elected to the group`s All-America team. Mansell was in the glow of unprecedented back-to-back Formula One and CART championships while Earnhardt was atop the Winston Cup pyramid for the sixth time. They were, at that precise and precious moment, the two greatest racers on this planet.
Bruton and Humpy had camped out near the elevator, the better to set upon Nigel upon his arrival, proposal in pocket, ticket sales in mind. For a high five-figure fee -- many multiples below what the Englishman could instantly have earned for a single day`s test of a Grand Prix car -- they suggested arranging a ride so as Mansell could make his NASCAR debut that fall . . . at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, of course. Earnhardt, across the spacious room concluding a TV interview, looked over and immediately sized-up the situation and steered a straight line toward the trio as if going to the front on a restrictor-plate track.
"Now, don`t you be messin` with my man, here," Earnhardt said to Smith and Wheeler, with his classic mustache-expanding smile. Several minutes of light conversation and laughs later -- Bruton and Humpy having by now gotten the message -- Earnhardt nodded to a far, unoccupied corner. There, close to the massive picture window which allows Club patrons to view the action, Dale and Nigel privately exchanged experiences from their respective worlds. For 20 fascinating minutes, they talked about contracts and souvenir sales, family and private aircraft. Later, at dinner, they sat at adjoining tables and when the time came for Earnhardt to be honored, no one applauded more sincerely than Mansell. And so it was with Dale when Nigel was called to the stage for his tribute. When the ceremonies concluded, before Mansell departed to continue testing at Phoenix, Earnhardt extended an invitation to his farm should Nigel ever return to the neighborhood.
The origins of this unlikely mutual admiration society, between the ninth-grade dropout from the North Carolina mill town of Kannapolis and the college lad who once called the Isle of Man his domain, had sparked a year earlier. During a rain shower at Phoenix International Raceway, at his first CART testing session, the then-reigning world champion sat in a sponsor`s luxury motorcoach and was shown a videotape of an interview Earnhardt had done in 1992. The Intimidator said he liked to watch the Formula One races early Sunday mornings and called Mansell his favorite. Dale spoke of Nigel`s aggressive driving style, his personality, his connection to the fans. Dale never verbalized it, but his eyes told the real story: This bloke is a lot like me!
Mansell asked to keep the tape.
They first met that July. Mansell emerged from a post-practice news conference at the daunting Michigan superspeedway and walked down pit road, where Earnhardt was sitting in an IROC car. Dale dropped his window net so they could shake hands and chat while photographers clicked away. A few months later, when both clinched their respective series titles, they exchanged messages of congratulations. When Mansell accepted the 1993 Driver of the Year award in December in New York City, Earnhardt interrupted his own pre-Winston Cup banquet activities and detoured to the posh famed "21 Club" for a surprise visit. Nigel, beaming like a chandelier, absolutely delighted in the gesture.
Earnhardt wanted Mansell to accept an IROC invitation so they could compete against one another, even offering to practice with him with a radio hookup, the better to show him the ways of stock car racing. But the Brit decided that wasn`t his cup of tea, so to speak, leaving the opportunity for one last get-together at Michigan before he bid adieu to CART and jetted back to Formula One. Mansell asked the Texaco chef to prepare a special lunch before the IROC event, and inside the hotel suite-on-wheels, they dined. It was Nigel and wife Rosanne and Dale and wife Teresa, joined by Mansell`s engineer Peter Gibbons and spin doctor Michael Knight and Earnhardt`s business manager Don Hawk. It was the weekend before the inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, and the drivers talked about the hallowed track, the tradition, the fans, the history.
The next day, Mansell started on pole with a qualifying speed exceeding 233 mph, then promptly had his throttle stick open entering turn one. He pitted with eyes of a circumference larger than the china plates used to serve lunch the previous afternoon. "I didn`t enjoy that at all," Nigel understated to Newman/Haas team manager Jim McGee as repairs were attempted, but when he went back out it happened again (!) and the now near-lethal car was retired. Like Earnhardt, Mansell never had to use his platinum card to make any purchases in the bravery department of life, but he left Michigan that day quickly and gladly.
A few days later, at Indy, Earnhardt did the unnatural -- slow down -- to commiserate with a Mansell associate. "Nigel had his throttle hang open?," Dale asked, whereupon were explained the scary sequence of events. He listened carefully, respectfully, and then said words which said it all about what it was to be Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR`s greatest driver.
"You tell Nigel I said he`s a p**** for not driving it that way!"
It is that spirit I choose to
