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The beginning of this article is about Jeffs PR guy and there’s more to Mike Davis at the end as well.
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For Earnhardt, heading into 2008, integrating himself with a new team in Hendrick Motorsports and working with new sponsors National Guard, AMP Energy Drink and Mountain Dew, and handling personal services contracts with adidas and Sony, his time is even more in demand and thus more precious.

Conversely, Davis finds himself being even more judicious in his decisions on what requests to approve and what requests to turn down.

“We try to take care of everybody once a year if we can,” he said. “The tricky part is getting it done when they would like it to be done.

“The grind with Dale’s calendar is not the travel to race tracks and race weekends. It’s the mid-week going to shoot commercials, going to make appearances.”

So it is Davis’ job to schedule Earnhardt and conserve his ability to hold up under the demands of the schedule and run his own race team, JR Motorsports and drive the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. And, allow him the free time necessary to keep everything in balance.

In the end, while saying “no” will result in disappointment or worse, Davis’ main concern is Earnhardt.

“He pulls his schedule, I don’t know how he does it,” Davis said. “And I actually am very conscious of, if I feel like he’s pulling too much and he’s getting in the race car and he’s not 100 percent, I take the blame for that. I don’t ever want that to happen.”

And exacerbating matters is come Saturday night of race week, Earnhardt naturally retreats into a shell where he can concentrate on Sunday’s race, leading people to misinterpret his focus.

“A big misconception about Dale, if you were to meet him on race day, if you were a fan, there’s a good chance you’re probably going to say he’s not a very nice guy,” Davis said. “The reason that is, is because . . . he starts to get in a zone, come Sunday morning, we don’t tell him any more than what he absolutely has to know because we know there’s a good chance he might not even hear it.

“And it’s a good thing. Listen, I love it about him. We all want a race car driver that’s going to be focused on the race and is dedicated enough to where he can get in his own little world.”

Away from the track and away from the personal appearance, Davis also sees a side of Earnhardt many people don’t know, a side diametrically opposed to his shoot from the hip, ready, fire, aim, shoot-first, ask-questions-later demeanor in front of a microphone or in a press conference.

“He’s shy,” Davis said.

That shyness has not prevented Earnhardt from expressing his unbridled passion for getting back in the race car and getting after establishing himself with Hendrick after a traumatic 2007 that saw him break ties with the company that bears the name of his late father, seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.

With that move to Hendrick comes myriad details that need attending to, and a lot fall to Davis.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/SPORTS/801220327