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 During a recent trip to Germany, Earnhardt proposed to longtime
girlfriend Amy Reimann at a venerable church in Illesheim attended
by his ancestors.
"My 10th and ninth grandfather lived there, went to church there,
and that church is the church that they went to," Earnhardt said
Friday before opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Sonoma
Raceway in advance of Sunday's race (3 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1).
"It's over 1,000 years old, apparently, a very old church. The town
is very old. There were 300 people living in it 300 years ago and
there are 300 people living in it today. Nothing has really
changed."
Earnhardt, 40, wanted to make the trip to confirm what he had
learned via Internet sources about his own genealogy. He found
original documents that provided firsthand evidence about his
forebears.
"We went to the city of Speyer and to the archives and actually held
the book that this church used to document handwritten documentation
of births, deaths, baptisms," Earnhardt said. "I could sit there and
read the individual writings of my 10th grandfather, my ninth
grandfather when they were baptized and when they died. I could see
it with my own hands and I'm holding the book, the original book.
"So that made me more confident to make the decision to propose to
Amy in that church with that connection to that church. I don't have
a church because we race on Sundays. I mean I went to St. Mark's
Lutheran in Mooresville when I was a kid, but I don't have a church.
I'm Lutheran, and if I wanted to go to church and I could, I would
go to St. Mark's. But I just thought that was a place to do it."
For Reimann, the proposal was a complete surprise.
"I've been planning on it for several months," Earnhardt said. "I
was hoping for years that Amy and I would get married, and it just
seemed like over this last year, it made more sense to me and that
the timing was right. And I picked that particular spot just because
I wanted her to feel special.
"We talked about this trip for a while. I told her about this trip
and we talked about it for two or three years and had done a ton of
work on the genealogy stuff to understand what we were doing and
making sure we were doing the right thing and going to the right
places.
"So she kind of knew how important the trip was. I think to do it at
that particular time, at that moment while we were in that church,
may make that moment more memorable for her. And I thought it was
just a great place to do it. I thought about it. Every other spot
that I could think of just didn't measure up, you know? It just
wasn't good enough or special enough for her.
"She was blown away. She certainly didn't have an idea that that was
going to happen, I don't think."
NEW KENTUCKY RULES PACKAGE COULD BE GAME-CHANGER
David Ragan thinks -- and hopes -- the new NASCAR Sprint Cup rules
package instituted for the July 11 Quaker State 400 at Kentucky
Speedway will shift the balance of power in the series.
The rules changes include a reduction in rear spoiler height from
six inches to 3.5 inches, a reduction in splitter overhang and a
smaller splitter extension panel, the net effect of which will be a
significant reduction in downforce.
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"Kentucky -- that's going to really change the dynamic of what the
Cup series looks like," Ragan opined at Thursday's Sonoma Raceway
luncheon in San Francisco. "If some teams really hit on this new
aero package, it could be a big deal.
"If we continue to run the (new) aero package at all the downforce
tracks, which I think is going to happen, it could change the
landscape of who we normally see up front."
In early May, Ragan replaced Brian Vickers in the No. 55 Michael
Waltrip Racing Toyota after Vickers suffered a recurrence of blood
clots, a condition that has sidelined Vickers periodically during
the past five years. Ragan began the season with Front Row
Motorsports before spending nine races in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs
Racing Camry, subbing for injured Kyle Busch.
The way Ragan sees it, the new rules could bring a significant
reshuffling of the series.
"I think everyone at Toyota and MWR, if we can make some of the
right decisions and build some of the cars that are suited for this
aero package, we could find ourselves in a good spot for the summer
months," Ragan told the NASCAR Wire Service.
"It's not just a small little change. This change is going to move
the needle. It changes the aero balance of these cars, and so the
setups that we've been running -- I'm no engineer, so don't expect
me to get too technical with you -- but I think it shifts the
balance enough and moves the needle enough ... the good guys are
still going to be good, but it's definitely going to restructure
some of the front-running guys, in my opinion."
SHORT STROKES
Before opening practice on Friday, Sonoma Raceway and Save Mart
Supermarkets announced a five-year extension of Save Mart's co-title
sponsorship of the annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at the
1.99-mile road course. ... Clint Bowyer, the 2012 winner at Sonoma,
led opening practice with a lap at 95.547 mph. Kyle Busch, who
posted his only victory at the track in 2008, topped the speed chart
in final practice at 96.175 mph. ... One of the pre-race favorites,
road course ace AJ Allmendinger, was second fastest in opening
practice but 23rd during Happy Hour. Five-time Sonoma winner Jeff
Gordon was 15th quickest in the first session and sixth in final
practice in preparation for his last race at the road course as a
full-time driver.
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