By Steve Ballard
The Indianapolis Star

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn't need to be reminded what Daytona International Speedway took from him. Fathers are irreplaceable. Yet for NASCAR's favorite son, there's no place else he feels so much alive.

Earnhardt Jr. first came to Daytona as a 10-year-old in 1985. He was a witness to many of his father's record 35 wins on the 2.5-mile track. And now, two years after Dale Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the Daytona 500, his son keeps coming - to honor his father by carrying on the family tradition.

Earnhardt Jr. starts on the pole in the second of Thursday's Twin 125-mile qualifying races that will set the field for Sunday's 45th Daytona 500. He already is assured of a front-row starting position from his qualifying speed and can use Thursday to get his car dialed in just right.

Then Sunday, in his fourth try, he'll attempt to win the biggest event in stock-car racing, a feat it took his father 20 years to accomplish.

"It don't make me try harder. It makes me feel like I come from a better breed than most of the guys I'm racing against," Earnhardt said of his father's legacy after winning the Budweiser Shootout last weekend, his third trip to victory lane at Daytona.

"I learned a lot about how to drive race cars by watching him and I was probably watching more than he knew or anybody knew. I had a lot of practice just trying to think about, `Man, how did he lose that race, or how did he win that race and why did the car do that?'

"Now that I'm driving, I'm running into all these situations and understanding certain things I've seen over the years. He was really, really good at this track. I always just thought it was a mind thing. But, of course, you've got to have a good car."

Earnhardt certainly has that. He and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate, Michael Waltrip, have combined to win six of the last eight races on the superspeedways of Daytona and Talladega, Ala.

Waltrip led a 1-2 finish for DEI the day its founder was killed. Earnhardt Jr., who has three wins in a row at Talladega, scored an emotional victory in July 2001, the first Daytona race after his father's death. Waltrip followed him across the stripe that night.

"We just seem to have a silent bond," Waltrip said. "We never talk about it. We never have a plan. We usually have to work to get to the front separately, then we use each other to stay there."

Despite that one horrible day, Earnhardt said he can't wait each February and July to get back to Daytona.

"I love it. This place is a pillar," he said. "It represents everything I like about this sport."

While winning the Daytona 500 is his immediate goal, Earnhardt also wants to be more of a factor in the championship race. Rampant inconsistency has left him 16th, eighth and 11th in his first three Winston Cup seasons.

He is cutting back on his personal appearances and said the face so familiar on magazine covers, ad layouts and TV screens is going to be seen more often around his team's Mooresville, N.C., shop.

Earnhardt said he felt he let his team down at times last year. Crew chief Tony Eury disagreed.

"We were disappointed. We thought we were a lot better race team than we were," Eury said. "It would be a fair statement for him to say we let him down."

Besides his own immense fan base, Earnhardt has inherited many of his father's faithful. They rise in unison anytime he makes a move on a racetrack.

Although he has an outward cockiness about him, the pressure of living up to a legend is a lot to bear. Sometimes, the insecurity shows, as it did when he was asked about being favored to win Sunday.

"That is a hell of a lot of pressure because, I don't know, I ain't the greatest," he said. "I got a long ways to go before I am the greatest, and I hate to be the guy that don't hold up his end of the deal."