Gluck: Earnhardt Jr. searching for answers, victory
SPARTA, Ky. – After most drivers already had departed Kentucky Speedway for the airport, Dale Earnhardt Jr. lingered on pit road late Saturday night. He walked around his car several times for a closer inspection, had lengthy conversations with several team members and appeared to be deep in thought, standing with his hands on his hips.
When he eventually approached the group of reporters waiting for him, Earnhardt said he was slightly bummed. He finished 13th after running out of gas on the last lap, which wasn’t bad, but he could have finished ninth.
A driver worried about four points? Under the current win-to-get-in Chase for the Sprint Cup format, many of Earnhardt’s peers have no such concerns.
But with eight races remaining in the regular season, the winless Earnhardt remains uncomfortably close to the Chase bubble. He’s 32 points inside the cutoff, but a first-time winner could change the math.
Not that he’s stressed about it.
“I’m good,” Earnhardt said when asked if he was fretting over his position. “I mean, what am I going to do? We’re running as good as we can. It’s either going to be good enough or it won’t be good enough.
“I’m not going to lose any sleep over it – at least at this moment. When we miss the Chase, it’ll be frustrating and disappointing – but we’re going to plan on not (missing it). We’re going to plan on making it.”
The problem is, that’s been the goal all along – and the season hasn’t unfolded how Earnhardt and his No. 88 team expected.
Heading into next week’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Earnhardt has six top-10 finishes this season, but only one in the last 10 races. His average finish is 15.6 (down from 11.3 last year) and is trending to be the lowest since the conclusion of the disastrous Lance McGrew Era in 2010, when he finished 21st in points.
The stumbles for the No. 88 team have been so unexpected based on how the team started the season. Earnhardt certainly didn’t see it coming, not after he had four top-five finishes in the first eight races (including three runner-up results).
“We just started off the season so good, and it just ended,” he said. “We couldn’t get anything right.”
It hasn’t helped that Earnhardt’s most reliable tracks the last couple years – Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway – haven’t yielded the typical results. There have been no top-20 finishes at restrictor-plate tracks this year – let alone a win.
“We’ve given away 60 points at those races,” he said. “That’s a lot of damn points, man.”
Earnhardt isn’t the only Hendrick Motorsports driver scratching his head. The perennial powerhouse is being led by rookie Chase Elliott, who is ahead of even six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson (one top-10 in the last nine races) in the standings. Kasey Kahne is outside the Chase picture, with two top-fives this season.
Still, Earnhardt said he’s reassured by the speed of his cars. Speed is the most difficult thing to find in racing, he said, and the little things – human error, communication, etc. – can be fixed.
But what of the communication? Earnhardt famously had terrific chemistry with former crew chief Steve Letarte, and that seemed to carry over in crew chief Greg Ives’ first season.
“Last year, it came real easy,” Earnhardt said. “We get along great. We’re kind of faced with some adversity. Things aren’t coming as easy on the racetrack. The car has got speed, but the finishes aren’t there.
“Me and him, we talk, we communicate, we call, text, we spend time together during the week. We’re in several meetings throughout the week. So we’re around each other, working. We’re trying to figure it out.”
The pylon behind Earnhardt showed an 88 in the 13th position. Given how far off the team was at the start of practice, it could have been much worse.
“We finished 13th,” he said. “I’m glad you guys hold us to a higher standard than that, because we definitely have the potential to be better than that.”
Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck