I know he hasn’t won yet, and I know he won’t win the championship, but no matter how you slice it, 2011 has been a very solid season for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
After struggling mightily in 2010 with Lance McGrew atop the box, Rick Hendrick decided it was time to make a change. For 2011, Steve Letarte and his entire team were moved from Jeff Gordon and the 24 to Dale Jr. and the 88. And the improvement in Earnhardt’s performance has been dramatic.
Jr.’s last two points finishes coming into 2011 were 25th (2009) and 21st (2010). With two races remaining this season, he’s currently seventh. It’s only his second Chase appearance in the last five years. His top five finishes (4), top ten finishes (12), and average finish (14.3) are his best since 2008. And if he can maintain his points position, it would be his best season since 2006.
Besides consistently better finishes, Earnhardt had two near misses this season in the quest to end his winless streak. He was passed late at Martinsville in the spring by Kevin Harvick and finished second, and he was leading out of turn four on the white flag lap at Charlotte in May before he ran out of fuel and finished seventh; Harvick won there too. While still winless, these races were the closest he’s come in some time to actually winning.
Transforming Earnhardt from an also-ran into a contender again was not going to happen overnight. A major component in being able to win in any series is believing you can do so, and Jr. was clearly lacking that confidence. A season like he’s having might be just what he needs to get over the hump. As the saying goes, you’ve got to crawl before you can walk.
Of the two races remaining, Phoenix is probably Earnhardt’s last legitimate chance to win this season. The track has been reconfigured so the race is a big question mark, but Earnhardt has won there twice in the past. Even if he doesn’t win though, 2011 has been a very good year for ol’ Junebug.
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This was a tough weekend for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the #88 team. For the second time this season they came just short of a win; oddly enough, to the same guy – Kevin Harvick. On top of that, the conspiracy mill was in full force this week over the caution that didn’t get called at the end of the race. It was a disappointing way to end what had been a good a day.
Even with that bad day it’s hard to feel too bad for Earnhardt Jr. Consider these stats from NASCAR:
Those are stats to be proud of considering the difficulty of the last few seasons. Remember this is a guy who is on his fourth crew chief since 2005, and though he has 18 Cup wins in 12 full seasons, he has just three wins since 2005. The success of the DEI years have yet to be replicated at Hendrick.
Chemistry has clearly been important for Earnhardt Jr.’s success (as it is for most teams) and it was a key thing missing with Tony Eury Jr., and Lance McGrew. He needed someone to support him, to serve as a cheerleader and to achieve on the box – I think he’s found all that in Steve Letarte.
In interviews and on the track he just seems to be a happier guy. His worst finish of the year was at Daytona – a 24th – and he’s finished on the lead lap in all but two races. Last year, at this same point, he had three sub-29th place finishes and sat 16th in the points.
Without a doubt, Hendrick is providing Earnhardt Jr. with the equipment he needs to get things done. That key chemistry has been missing for a while though and I think they may just have found it. There is still two-thirds of the season remaining, but Junior looks to be on track for his first Chase appearance since 2008. And you never know when they could end up in victory lane.
All in all, things could be worse.
Pit road can be a very busy place. During a round of pit stops under caution there are crews flying around, cars fighting for position, and tires and fuel everywhere. But pit stops are hardly the busiest part of the race on pit road. There is no bigger circus at any time during a race weekend than the one you’ll find on pit road right before a race.
Combine 43 race cars, every driver, the necessary crew guys, NASCAR officials, PR people, reporters, photographers, team execs, sponsor reps, team and sponsor guests, friends and family, and every race fan that can beg, borrow, and steal their way out onto pit road and you’ve got one hell of a party.
Inside this big mass of people and race cars you’ll see that some drivers draw bigger crowds than others. And as you might guess, it’s the usual suspects. Want to get a quick picture or Dale Jr.’s autograph before your favorite race? Better take a number. You’ll be lucky to get within 50 feet of the 88. JR Nation is alive and well, and they congregate around their driver. Most of the big name drivers will be enveloped by similar mobs. Everybody is clamoring to get a chance to rub shoulders with NASCAR’s best.
Besides certain drivers, there are also certain tracks that are worse than others. And again, they are the tracks you’d expect. Races at tracks like Daytona, Charlotte, and the Brickyard always seem to draw the biggest grid crowds.
With so many people about, it can be a little difficult at times to get some of our race prep stuff done. Tasks like laying down our tape marks for pit stops have to wait until pit road is cleared and cars are rolling around during pace laps. And I bet the NASCAR and track security people pull their hair out trying to keep track of everyone’s credentials.
As big a pain as it can be at times, it can also be seriously entertaining. People watching is one of my favorite race track activities, and pre-race is one of the best times to do so. Words like “zoo” and “circus” often don’t even begin to describe it.
Coming off of a season that saw a pot hole mar the opening race and then rain and other issues combine to make for a less than stellar start, 2011 has been nothing short of a breath of fresh air in the Cup Series. And consider this, with Jimmie Johnson’s come from behind win Sunday in Talladega this season has produced seven different winners in eight different races – not a bad start to the season.
Add to that solid start four different championship points leaders and six different lead changes and you’ve got a season that hasn’t really had a stand out driver or team through the first portion.
Our current top-ten in points have had some good stats to back them up – all have at least four top-tens, and with the exception of Kurt Busch, all have at least two top-fives. Half of them have wins. All – with the exception of Kurt Busch – hold the distinction though of having at least one finish of 24th or worse. Some have finishes a lot worse.
The only guy to score repeat wins? Well so far, Kevin Harvick has a DNF at Daytona and two sub-17th place finishes on top of that. His season has so far been a bit of a roller coaster.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the only drivers to have any measure of consistency are the top-three. Carl Edwards is averaging a finish of 8.2 (with blemishes at Phoenix and Martinsville); Jimmie Johnson is averaging a finish of 8.9 with one bad run at Daytona; and Dale Earnhardt Jr., though he is winless, is channeling that classic Steve Letarte consistency, averaging a 10th place finish with just one DNF (a 24th place finish) at Daytona.
Even with the brighter spots in the top-ten, the points are still close enough for drivers to have big swings in and out. Both Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth jumped five spots (in opposite directions) this past weekend.
The fact is, and I think this speaks to the level of competition we have right now in the sport, there just isn’t a dominate team. Going into race nine, it gets harder to turn seven out of eight into eight out of nine, but with the way this season has gone, anything could happen.
So what do you think? Has anybody stood out to you? Who’s most likely to make an early run?
Seven races into the season and all those questions we got in the off-season are starting to be answered, namely what off-season changes have worked, and in some cases haven’t so far in 2011.
One of the biggest changes that came after Homestead last season (and the topic for this particular follow up) was the crew chief swap at Hendrick Motorsports. Alan Gustafson was moved from the #5 to the #24; Lance McGrew was moved from the #88 to the #5, and Steve Letarte was moved from the #24 to the #88. And the results so far? Well, it’s a mixed bag.
After struggling through much of last season, Mark Martin’s fortunes have not turned around with new crew chief Lance McGrew. Through the first seven races of last season Martin averaged a finish of 16.1 including three top-fives – this year, he’s averaging 17th place finish with just two top-ten finishes. He finds himself 15th in points.
How about Jeff Gordon? He was able to finally overcome that winless streak and head to victory lane at Phoenix, but he’s had some struggles elsewhere. A wreck at Las Vegas and sub-20th place finishes at Texas and Daytona have pushed Gordon’s average finish to 17.9 – compare that to an average finish of 12.2 after the first seven races of last season. In points, he sits next to teammate Mark Martin in 14th.
The biggest winner of this shift appears to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. who struggled through his first three seasons at Hendrick with crew chiefs Tony Eury Jr., and Lance McGrew. With Steve Letarte at the helm Junior hasn’t finished worse than 12th since Daytona and was in position to win at Martinsville. With an average finish of 10.9 he sits sixth in the points right now. Not too shabby for a guy who, just a few short months ago, finished an abysmal 21st in points. Consider though through the first seven last year he was averaging a 14th place finish and sat 10th in the points. Can his strong start be maintained?
With 29 races still remaining in the season there is a ton of time for the slow starters to start making some headway. Still it’s interesting to see where they stand right now. What do you think of the swap? Has it been a success? A flop? Talk amongst yourselves.
Dale Jr Press Confrence From Martinsville
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET, met with members of the media at Martinsville Speedway and discussed racing at Martinsville, the tire situation for Sunday’s race, Texas Motor Speedway, Kimi Raikkonen and other topics.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE TIRE SITUATION HERE THIS WEEKEND? “It is pretty disappointing. Just hopefully we can figure out what is wrong; why the tires aren’t as good as they should be and get it fixed.”
WHAT IS IT DOING FOR YOU? “Same thing it does for everybody else.”
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT TEXAS? “The car needs to move around. The track is pretty wide. It needs to work in several different groves; roll the center of one and two real good and get out of that corner real good. It is real loose off of two if you ain’t careful and tight in the center of one and two.”
YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE NIGHT RACE AT TEXAS? “Either way is fine. It will be good.”
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS WEEKEND’S SCHEDULE? “It’s all right. It doesn’t matter one way or another. It is fine like this, it’s good.”
AT TEXAS IT WILL BE 100 RACES SINCE YOUR LAST WIN IF YOU DON’T WIN HERE ON SUNDAY, DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT? “You come to the race track every week to try and win the race. I don’t really keep count, but it has been a long time. I feel closer to victory lane than I have I have in the most past. It is going to take some luck to make it happen this weekend because of the tire deal. We’ll just have to see how it goes. Texas is a good track for me.”
WITH THE SUCCESS JIMMIE (JOHNSON) HAS HAD HERE, BEING IN THE SAME SHOP NOW, DO YOU THINK THAT HAS HELPED YOU AT ALL? “He helped me just as much in the last several years. We knew what their setup was and we’ve run pretty good here. He was a big help over the last several years just being in the same camp as him as they were doing really well here and trying to see what they were doing. But, everybody has a little bit different setup here. When you come to this track, you like a little bit different feel. Jimmie’s probably going to have a great race. Hopefully this package we have in our car is good. I’ve always really liked running here and liked this place. The tire is really crappy, but, that is just the way it is, there ain’t much they can do about it.”
LIKING THE TRACK HAS A LOT TO DO WITH YOUR SUCCESS HERE DOESN’T IT? “Yeah. I guess. I like the track because I run good here. It is hard to tell which one came first.”
HOW ARE THE TIRES GOING TO IMPACT THE RACING TOMORROW? “I don’t know. After 12 laps, everybody was kind of falling off pretty fast. There was no rubber built up and there was a lot of marbles. You couldn’t get out of the bottom groove. You had to run right next to the curb. If you got in the marbles, it would ruin you. Once you got in the marbles, you ruined that set. I mean, there is no way to get them off. We don’t go fast enough here to really grind them off. It was messy. It was just real messy all day.”
IS IT GOING TO CHANGE THE FAVORITES HERE? “I really don’t know. I mean, I think that is secondary to what the real problem is and what our concerns should be.”
THIS IS THE SECOND TIRE PROBLEM IN THREE WEEKS, IS THAT JUST COINCIDENCE? “No, it is not coincidence. I think there’s a good explanation for it. I talked to some people at NASCAR and got a good explanation and you guys can probably go get the response that I got and it made a little bit of sense. We’ve had some good events here and hopefully we’ll get lucky and the track will rubber up. But it’s not looking so good right now.”
SHOULD THEY BE TESTING WHENEVER THEY CHANGE THE TIRE? “I think that would be the best thing to do. But, It is hard….of course, if you are going to make a change…obviously. They needed to make a change. There was a reason they made a change. They had to make a change. A lot of people assume ‘Ah, what are they doing messing with the tire. They didn’t need to mess with it’. But there was a reason they had to make a change. But if they are not sure about what is going to happen, then we probably should have some reliable data from testing to make sure it is going to be ok.”
IS TESTING THE SOLUTION? “I don’t know what else you can do. How else do you put a tire on the track and make sure it works?”
WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE A CHANGE? “I’m not real sure. I can’t even recall really what all the wordage was for the reason I got but it sounded legitimate. So, just go ask somebody at the big trailer and maybe they will tell you.”
WHY ARE YOU GOOD AT MARTINSVILLE? “I don’t know, I just like racing here. It is a good short track and I have fun racing here. I like different tracks for different reasons. The place is close to home and just fun.”
A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY THE MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACKS ARE JUST COOKIE-CUTTER TRACKS, WHAT MAKES TEXAS DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHER MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACKS? “It’s not. It’s the same…it is in that group. It has some really, really, really weird transitions like the exit to turn two is just strange as heck. But it is what it is so….”
KYLE BUSCH IS GOING TO RUN KIMI RAIKKONEN IN A TRUCK AT CHARLOTTE, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT A GUY MAKING HIS DEBUT AT THAT TRACK? “I think Kimi Raikkonen has got enough experience to debut at a place like that. I’m sure they will go and get him a good amount of seat time and Kyle’s trucks are amazing. It is great equipment. You couldn’t ask to be in better equipment there. I think it will be fine. Should work out great.”
HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN IN A TRUCK FOR KICKS? “No. I mean, I am curious as to what racing them would be like and I hear they are good fun and I will probably do it before I hang it up. But no hurry right now.”
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PASS TOMORROW IF THE UPPER GROVE IS ALL GUMMED UP? “You just won’t want to be in the second groove. If you go into the second groove, if there is marbles there, you don’t want to get them on your tires, they won’t come off. So, you wouldn’t want to be up there at all.”
WHAT WAS YOUR TEAM DE-BRIEF LIKE YESTERDAY AND HOW CHALLENGING IS THIS NOW? “It is real challenging. If the track rubbers up, it will get real, real tight. It has not even made one little step toward that direction. But I think as a crew chief, you’ve never been to a race track that hasn’t, you know? There have been some rare occasions we’ve seen like at Indy and those weird deals like that. But you just have to assume that the law of averages says it is going to rubber-up. So we don’t really want to tighten our cars up too much. We’re going to kind….they don’t drive really good after 12 laps. They get real, real loose, but we are just hoping that the track is going to do what it normally does and that will mean that the track will come to our setup. Hopefully that happens. You just have got to take that gamble; that is the problem. As the driver, you want to make the car comfortable for how the track is right now but as a crew chief, I think you want to assume that the track is going to rubber up and know how to the target the car for that kind of build-up and that kind of track condition.”
HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE IN THE CAR?
“Normally, if it’s a green race track, say if it rains on Saturday, it takes about 40 to 50 laps. But it may take the whole race. This tire just comes apart and just marbles-up the race track and doesn’t really build rubber into the race track. But hopefully the trucks today will rubber-up the track a little bit and start that process. You’re wishing for the best. Goodyear is trying to make some changes to their tires and changes to the way the tires are make or whatever. I don’t know. There’s obviously got to be a reason for why they’re making changes. You just don’t make changes just to be making changes. So, hopefully they get it figured out. This is not as serious as the situation we had at Indy, it’s just going to be a slick race track and the drivers are just going to be asked to buckle down and do a little bit more after 12 or 15 laps when the tires fall off like they do. And that’s just what we’ll have to do tomorrow.”
WHEN OTHER GUYS FROM OTHER SERIES COME OVER, HOW MUCH MORE DIFFICULT DOES IT MAKE IT FOR THAT GRASSROOTS STOCK CAR GUY THAT CAME UP THE WAY YOU DID?
“I don’t think it makes it any more difficult than it already is. It’s super, super challenging for those guys and nothing really can make it more difficult, I don’t believe. And I don’t think it matters what direction, really, you came in or how you got here. I think it’s all good and fair here however you want to call it. I don’t really think that Kimi (Raikkonen) comes in here and steals anybody’s opportunity. I think it’s a neat situation. I’m excited to see how he takes to the sport. It would be kind of neat it Mr. Schumacher would come over here and give it a try. We’d all really be thrilled to see it. Whether you thought it was great or right or wrong, we’d all be watching. So, it’s kind of neat to see some of those guys have an interest in our sport because there is definitely such a big difference between the two. What we do here in America and what happens over in Europe, there’s a big difference. They have such an appreciation for what they’re doing and we’re very proud of what we do and it’s kind of cool when the two kind of get to check each other’s sport out and they come over here. It’s kind of nice to see their impression of our sport and it’s often a lot more intricate and impressive to them than they first assume coming in.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA SAID YESTERDAY THAT HE STILL GETS EMAILS FROM F-1 TYPES. DOES THAT SURPRISE YOU THAT THERE’S THAT LEVEL OF INTEREST FROM THEM IN OVAL TRACK RACING?
“I’m not really that surprised. I think that we have great popularity and there’s tons of intrigue and it’s natural for any kind of race car driver to know what the other half lives like, you know?”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT OLDER DRIVERS WHO HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SO MUCH IN OTHER RACING VENUES TO COME OVER TO NASCAR?
“I think number one is the popularity of the sport. That has pretty much everything to do with it.”
NOTHING ABOUT THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS WHERE THEY MIGHT BE ABLE TO ENDURE MORE HERE? DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH THE MONETARY OPPORTUNITIES?
“Yeah, popularity; that kind of all runs into the same.”
THIS IS THE TOP LEVEL OF RACING IN THE AMERICA. DID YOU HAVE TO WISH FOR A GOOD RACE? YOU USED THE WORD ‘WISH’ ABOUT THE TIRES. SHOULDN’T YOU KNOW?
“Yeah, you should know, but we don’t. We didn’t do any testing. We don’t really know what the tire is going to do. It should not be a debacle by any means. There may be some grumblings by the end of the race about it still, but we’ll get through it.”
ON RUNNING QUALIFYING TODAY, JUST TWO LAPS, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
“It doesn’t matter to me. Whatever they want to do, whatever they say the rules are and whatever they say the schedule is, is fine by me. I really don’t have an opinion either way. This is kind of unique but it’s the same for everybody. It’s an even playing field.”
YOU WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SPEED CHART AFTER PRACTICE. IS THAT WHERE YOU FEEL YOU’RE AT OR DO YOU FEEL ANY BETTER OR WORSE?
“For qualifying, that’s where I feel like I was. We were having good speed in qualifying, but I felt pretty decent about my car in race trim. It drives, I feel, as competitive as I’ve been here in the past. But we didn’t find the kind of speed we were looking for in qualifying.”
YOU HAVE A GOOD RECORD AT MARTINSVILLE. HAVE YOU DEVELOPED A COMFORT LEVEL WHEN YOU COME HERE? ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT COMING TO MARTINSVILLE?
“Yeah, I look forward to coming here. I really enjoy the racing here and the race track itself and the fact that it’s close to home. So I do look forward to coming here. It’s a fun place to race, it really is. And the races are always good. They always come down to exciting finishes and they’re fun to be a part of.”
Dale Jr Press Confrence From Martinsville is a post from: Awesome Race Fans
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