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.
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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.
Now that the IndyCar season is in the books, Danica has turned her full attention to the Nationwide Series. Her start last Saturday at California kicked off a stretch run that will see her compete in every NNS race to finish out 2010. Coming into Fontana, Danica hadn’t done much outside of running in the back and creating a ton of ridiculous hype.
At the Auto Club Speedway on Saturday however, something may have changed. From a starting position of 14th (her best to date), Danica was able to run in the top-20 all day, and was looking to finish there before she was tagged in the right rear down the backstretch late in the race by James Buescher. The move appeared to be payback, and it ended Danica’s day. Now, as we head to Charlotte and the final NNS COT race of the season, was her performance a sign of things to come, or just a fluke?
For me personally, I think it would be huge if Patrick was actually showing signs of being competitive. A competitive female driver would be huge for the sport. But before I jump on the Danica bandwagon, I’ve got to see more. Remaining on the schedule are Charlotte, Gateway, Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead, all of which are tough race tracks. It would be a big step in the right direction if she could somehow find a way to do more then be a moving chicane.
Just so we are straight though, I am not naive enough to think that after just eight NNS starts, Danica has somehow figured it all out and will now become a weekly top-20 finisher. I do think she still has a ton to learn about how to actually race in NASCAR, and her incident with Buescher showed that.
What I want to see is for her to run well and be consistent during practice sessions, effectively communicate her car’s handling characteristics to Eury Jr. and Co., qualify decently, and make laps during the races without tearing up race cars. If she can do that, she just might convince me that success is possible for her.
It is no doubt a huge leap to go from open wheel to NASCAR, and Danica will definitely have a rougher go of it because she just isn’t as talented as guys like Juan Pablo Montoya and AJ Allmendinger. However, with the proper guidance, the willingness to learn, and a little luck, she just might figure it out.
What do you think?
Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR
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Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Nationwide Series, NASCAR
I don’t understand JR Motorsports. They spend an awful lot of time complaining about their money situation. Dale Jr. advertised how much the wrecks cost him at Daytona; and they seem to constantly be advertising their struggle to find sponsorship (welcome to the club). And lest you think otherwise their team spokesman is more than willing to underscore how much Jr. is putting into the team out of his own pocket. So what do they do? They decide they’re going to run a car full time that they don’t appear to have fully funded. What!?
Apparently it was just too good of a team not to run full-time. And That’s fine. I’m happy for Scott Wimmer. Certainly Wimmer is a proven winner in the Nationwide Series and he’s a little easier sell to sponsors. When he’s in good equipment he’s shown he can be competitive. But why the sudden change in rhetoric?
Maybe they do have money lined up for this team. Maybe this weekend is a way for them to cement some deal. Or perhaps they lined something up for the #88 and had enough money from another deal to keep this thing going. I don’t know.
If they don’t though I hope for their sake they’re not going to try the ‘let’s run well and hope we impress a sponsor strategy.’ We saw how well that worked for Ganassi, not once but twice. Ask Aric Almirola and Dario Franchitti (and all the people who got laid off). Or how about RAB Racing, a team that really doesn’t have any money, trying to make a go at a full-time run this season with Scott Riggs (right now their asking fans to help sponsor their ride). This strategy generally has one certain result: lost money.
Unfortunately waiting and hoping you can quickly put a deal together just isn’t very realistic, especially in the Nationwide Series. You can get away with running a competitive truck team (and not lose your ass) by piecemealing different small deals; it’s substantially harder in the Nationwide Series (unless Junior is willing to lose some money).
It’s fine if they want to run a team full-time without full funding. I don’t care. But quit talking about your money issues and how much everything is going to cost you. We get it at this point.
As the Danica Patrick bandwagon steams toward the Daytona Nationwide Series race next weekend, don’t worry about saving me a seat just yet. Finishing sixth in her first ever stock car event is commendable, but I think it’s a bit early to crown her the next big thing.
In case you missed it, Patrick recovered from a late race spin through the tri-oval grass at Daytona to finish sixth in her debut race in the ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. She kept her nose clean, didn’t give up, and brought home a car with all the fenders still on it. Which in itself is quite an achievement in the ARCA Series. But lets try and remember what she was up against.
Stop by Jayski’s story links page for February 7th and you will find no less then 15 articles about Danica’s debut. Most of which contain quite a bit of praise for the 27 year old driver, some of which she deserves, and some she doesn’t.
Danica took on the ARCA Series at Daytona in an ARCA car powered by Hendrick and put together by JR Motorsports. She had a veteran crew chief on the box (Tony Eury Jr.) and had a combination of JR Motorsports Nationwide Series guys and Hendrick Motorsports Cup guys working on and pitting her race car. Not a bad way to start off a stock car career.
And not to knock the ARCA Series, as it’s a great place to gain valuable experience on bigger tracks, but this is the same series that David Stremme once won a race at Michigan by lapping the entire field once, and up to ninth place twice.
So before we crown her and heap a ton of ridiculous expectations on her, let’s allow her to run a few races and gain some experience against some tougher competition. I think it’s only fair.
And just as a side note, I know there is a certain motorsports writer (ahem Jeff Gluck) who, before the season started, posed an interesting question and bet to his readers and Twitter followers. He wanted to know who would outperform the other this season, John Wes Townley or Danica Patrick. Give round one to Townley, who followed up a fourth place run in last year’s ARCA opener with a third place run this year.
The big three NASCAR series all shared the same track this last weekend in Dover, but they all split up this weekend. The Truck Series is in Texas, the Nationwide cars take to Nashville, and the Cup cars head to Pocono. But before the weekend kicks off, it’s question and answer time! If you don’t know what this post is, until further notice, we will be answering any and all reader questions every Wednesday, right here. So if you’ve got one, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send one to us. On to the questions…
1. From Jason:
Hey guys, I love the blog - keep up the great work!! In various interviews with drivers and crew chiefs from all of the big teams, they all keep talking about continuing to work hard to refine their bodies for the COT. Even though NASCAR and the mainstream media claim that teams can’t mess with the bodies due to such tight specs in the rule book to conform with “The Claw”; I am starting to get the impression that there is actually significant grey area that engineers can tweak around with. Can you provide any more color on this topic and where on the body that engineers may be making tweaks within the rule book.
Thanks Jason, we are glad you like the site! While there are certainly more templates for the COT body, there is still some area to work with. There are places where templates don’t go, and between those places and the tolerances allowed by the rules, teams will find ways to make the cars better. The gains made just happen to be much smaller. - T.C.
2. From mert7878:
We all know that at the Sprint Cup level the drivers are among the best in the business. What I’d like to know is, putting aside the differences in equipment and team support, what separates the truly great drivers from the merely very good drivers in Sprint Cup?
That is a good question and one I don’t know if I have a good answer to. A truly great driver knows his equipment, he can feel every little thing right or wrong with his car and he knows how to communicate that. He also knows where he has to be and where he can be on the race track at all times. And perhaps most important he knows his abilities. This sport is all about situations and tendencies and if you know either through instinct or experience what do and when to do it (and how to do it) you will have the makings of being a great driver. - Journo
3. From Walt:
Two questions who determines the placement of the decals on the cars and how do the drivers and owners split the purse?
NASCAR has fairly specific rules about the placement of decals, which is why everyone has numbers, sponsors, and contingency decals in the same places. And the purse split is determined by a driver’s contract. From what I understand, the norm is for drivers to get around 40%. - T.C.
4. From Bill:
When it rains why is there a yellow flag instead of a red flag? It seems to me that the people up frount have no choice but to pit while the people in the back don’t lose much by continuing. It makes the losers the winners.
There are no guarantees that once it starts raining, that the rain will continue long enough for NASCAR to warrant a red flag. If it’s a quick passing shower that doesn’t make the track unraceable, then no red flag would be needed. NASCAR will run under yellow until conditions force them to throw the red. And the decision of whether to pit or not in these situations is really a throw of the dice. Some will stay out to try and gain that advantage, and others will pit thinking maybe the race will get restarted. - T.C.
5. From Susan:
I want to go to one Sprint Cup race this season. What track would you consider to be the best for a fan (esp since the COT)? In other words, I want to see passing. Thanks.
You will see passing at what ever track you attend. There is a misconception right now that the COT doesn’t allow for passing, and that just isn’t true. Personally, some of my favorite tracks include Bristol, Martinsville, the Superspeedways, and Dover. Maybe the readers have some thoughts? - T.C.
6. From Kenny:
T.C., yesterday, on “NASCAR Now,” Tim Brewer did a story about a supply depot used by the teams. He showed a pile of metal strips and said they were used to make lug nuts. I’m wondering if he was joking. Are lug nuts fabricated by the individual teams or are they bought in bulk from a major supplier?
He was not joking. Teams do not manufacture their own lug nuts. There are several suppliers the teams buy from, including KRC and ARP. - T.C.
7. From Lynn:
How many laps did the jet dryers drive for the Coke 600?
That’s a good question that I unfortunately don’t have an answer for. A lot is my best estimation. Jayski normally has goofy stats from races, but that one he did not have. - Journo
8. From T-Dawg:
I have been to several races where it has rained and had to watch the time consuming process of watching the track being dried. Are the tracks responsible for the jet dryers? And if so, why doesn’t NASCAR take over this responsibility? It seems that nowadays with modern technology they can predict when it is likely to rain during the weekend. Sure would be nice to see NASCAR have a “rain team” on standby at each track with ten or twenty jet dryers instead of the two or three that the track provides.
Yes the tracks are responsible for the jet dryers. SMI has a team of them and so does ISC. You’ll notice there will be trucks from say Texas at Las Vegas. As far as why NASCAR doesn’t do this I can give you two reasons. First, the cost to do this would be astronomical. I don’t know what a jet dryer truck goes for these days, but I can’t imagine they’re cheap. Assembling 10 or 20 of them would likely cost millions of dollars. Not to mention the cost of jet fuel. It just wouldn’t be worth it. The second reason they don’t do this is because NASCAR doesn’t own the tracks. It is essentially a maintenance issue and that is for the track to handle, not the sanctioning body. - Journo
9. From Dragonfly:
Can you please explain what exactly is a “start and park”? And what is the point? Is there any money in it? Thank you for doing this for us NASCAR fans every week!
A start-and-park is when a team shows up to the track with no intentions of completing the event. They qualify, and then park their car early in the race. The point is to make money, as they will collect the winnings for the lowest positions. At Dover, David Gilliland and the #71 TRG car used this strategy, and won $78,000. - T.C.
10. From Measure:
Watching theCoke 600, the worst rain-affected race since Fontana in spring of 08, the broadcast mentioned that with 7 jet dryer trucks, they could dry a soaking-wet track in 2 hours…. the no-rain window was often much smaller than that. With all the money NASCAR has, why don’t they come out to every race with 14 or even 21 jet dryers ready, just in case, so they can get the track dry in under an hour?
As I said above to T-Dawg in question eight, the cost to assemble that many jet dryers would be astronomical. And then you have maintenance, transportation and fuel costs. It just isn’t worth it. And to be honest there really aren’t any guarantees that you would use them. There is a chance, all be it a slim one, that there won’t be rain at any race. - Journo
11. From Kenny:
What is the consensus around Gasoline Alley regarding Tony Eury, Jr.’s ability as a crew chief?
I think everyone acknowledges that Tony is a good crew chief, but I think everyone also sees that the chemistry on that team just wasn’t right for whatever reason. The crew chief swap at Hendrick should not be seen as a knock against Tony, but things just weren’t working and obviously they aren’t going to switch drivers. He is the obvious first move. It will be interesting though to see if he stays at Hendrick past this season. - Journo
12. From Neon:
For both TC and Journo-Do you hear comments, criticisms, applause, intrigue about your website around the garage area (TC) and media arena (Journo)? Like the saying goes “I’d like to be a fly on wall….”. Do you get a kick out of what you see and hear under your anonymous cloak?
I’ve never heard anything said first hand at the track, but I have been told about people making comments about us through other folks. It usually centers around who we are and how we know what we know. I love hearing about it, because it means people are actually reading us. - T.C.
I actually have heard it first hand (I was eavesdropping). I laughed a little about it and of course told TC as soon as I could. - Journo
13. From Tom:
Gentleman, I enjoy your website. Would you please explain exactly what the “7″ car did wrong? “rear axle housing exceeded the maximum specified toe of plus or minus one degree” What does that mean? I know a little about drive trains, but that has me stumped. Did it give them some competitive advantage, or was it technically just splitting hairs?
Thanks Tom! With the rear axle housing, teams are allowed to toe the rear wheels in or out, up to one degree. From what I understand, they do this by bending the axle tubes on the rear end housing. In Robby’s case, the axle tubes were toed too far. For a good explanation of toe, click here. - T.C.
14. From Jim:
Well, You’re there to see it. Where did they put all the Haulers at Dover?? By my figures there was 122 parked somewhere since the Cup, Nationwide, and Trucks were there all on the same day. I’m not sure if there’s enough empty real estate inside a mile track.
Don’t worry, there is enough room. The Cup haulers and garage are situated in turns one and two, the Nationwide haulers were in their garage area in turns three and four, and the Truck Series haulers were pretty much in the middle of the infield. - T.C.
15. From Newracefan:
We’ve all seen the PR girls you know, the ones that hand the driver that all important Coke or what ever is sponsor appropriate. Are there any PR boys? Who do they really work for, the driver, the team, or?
Of course (though I wouldn’t call them PR boys to their faces ;))! On the NASCAR media list I counted 16 in the Cup Series. Just to name a couple, Tony Stewart has been with Mike Arning for ages, Martin Truex was with Blair Minton (a male) and now Jarrod England, Clint Bowyer works with Rory Connellan and Carl Edwards has been with Randy Fuller for the length of his Cup career. A lot of the heads of the communications departments at the teams are male too. Jonathan Gibson at Penske, John Olguin at Ganassi (EGR), Ben Schlosser at RCR; the list goes on and on. As far as who the PR people work for, it really just depends. Some of the teams provide PR people; at other teams the sponsors or drivers hire people at agencies to represent them. Some drivers hire a person in addition to the sponsor or team provided person. - Journo
16. From Melissa:
How are the NASCAR officials assigned to the teams each week? I can think of a few number of ways, but I’m trying to get out of the speculation business.
You know, I don’t have any clue how they do that. I looked through my rule book as well and didn’t see anything. I’ll have to get back to you on that one. - T.C.
17. From Ric:
I have noticed that during yellow flags the driver will sometimes have his left hand holding on to the safety net, or his hand / fingers just sticking out the window. I do know that the driver will stick his hand out to signal he is slowing down when he has car trouble, to pit, etc. but this doesn’t look like this, beside it’s a yellow flag everyone is going slow. Thought maybe he’s just trying to be in a different position to relax the muscles, but I don’t ever recall seeing them drive with the left hand and do something with the right. Any clue on what they are doing?
In many cases they are trying to get some fresh air into the car. Kind of like when you stick your hand out of your passenger car’s window while driving. - T.C.
18. From Ric:
Does the pit crew prepare and/or practice differently depending on what TYPE of track (superspeedway, short track, etc) is next? Do you prepare and/or practice differently for any certain track(s)?
Many teams will set up their practice pit stalls to the size they will encounter at the race track, so they can get a feel for when to jump off the wall and how much room they have to work with. And smaller or larger stalls create issues, such as how the driver comes in and out, which teams will go over. Also, at Superspeedways, the fenders are much tighter to the wheels, so teams will close up the wheel openings on their pit practice cars. Other then that, the only track that warrants special practice is Watkins Glen, because pit stops are backwards. - T.C.
19. From Mike:
I would like to know where SK motorsports is located.
I believe SK Motorsports is in the old Fitz Motorsports shop in the Lakeside Park in Mooresville, NC. - T.C.
And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!