Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Friday's rough day 'just one of those deals'
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Just about anything that could have gone wrong did for Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Friday at Talladega Superspeedway.
In the first Sprint Cup Series practice, Earnhardt Jr. and his Hendrick Motorsports team changed engines after a cylinder head issue in the motor. Then in the second practice, Earnhardt Jr.’s Chevrolet spun into the wall after blowing a tire and was rammed by the Ford of Yates Racing’s David Gilliland.
The incident forced Earnhardt Jr. to a backup car and by virtue of the engine change he must drop the rear of the field for the start of Sunday’s Amp Energy 500.
For a driver already off to a rocky start in the first three races of the Chase For The Sprint Cup, Friday didn’t do much to help NASCAR’s most popular driver in his bid for his first series title.
But it didn’t do much to dampen his spirits either.
“I’ve always liked this place,” Earnhardt Jr. said of the 2.66-mile Talladega oval where he has five wins but none since 2004. “Regardless of driving for [car owner] Rick [Hendrick] or [Dale Earnhardt Inc.] in the past, we’ve had troubles here and we’ve always came back and been OK. It’s a place where you can kind of rally back if you have good luck. I don’t know. I’m not too worried about it. …
“It’s definitely easier for this team to handle a day like this on this track. If you were to tear up a car in happy hour at Charlotte or somewhere, it would be a whole lot of work, a whole lot of questions and uncertainty. There aren’t any really here.”
Eighth in the standings and 190 points behind series leading teammate Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. needs another strong Talladega finish if he hopes to rally back into championship contention.
The good news is that the backup car is the same piece that Earnhardt Jr. raced to a ninth-place finish in the Daytona 500 and a win in his Gatorade Duel at Daytona.
“If everybody is over there trying to get their backup car going and their hollering and cussing at each other, it don’t work. It pushes you apart,” he said. “And at the end of the day, you get ticked off at one another and you have to smooth those things out. If you stay calm and strong, and they’ve got the car back out and they got to practice – a little bit of a mental victory.
“We’re basically where we were this morning when we unloaded. I feel like we’ll definitely mentally be stronger and tougher on Sunday because of what happened today. It’s just one of those deals.”
