Dale Earnhardt Jr. finds lighter side of tough Kansas outing
KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have a very good day Sunday during the Camping World RV 400 at Kansas Speedway, but at least he was able to joke about it.
Earnhardt Jr. finished 13th at Kansas, behind nine other of NASCAR's Chase For The Sprint Cup drivers. He did move up one spot to eighth in the Chase standings, though he fell to 190 points behind leader and Kansas-winner Jimmie Johnson.
But Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team were able to find a silver lining.
"I think an average driver would have finished about 35th,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I told my guys that. I don't know, we had fun regardless. The car wasn't that good. We just made the best of it.”
What was the problem? Earnhardt Jr. said the car simply wasn’t handling well throughout the weekend, and the team couldn’t make the proper adjustments during the race.
"We aren't dialing our car in,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We were real bad in the second practice. The track gets slick, we ain't working the car in to get it comfortable. That was the best I could do.
"We made light of it, though. I told them they were lucky to have me."
Earnhardt Jr. has been in some hot water recently for his terse radio communications with his crew, especially crew chief and cousin Tony Eury Jr. Sunday at Kansas, Earnhardt Jr. said he tried to work on being more professional with his team.
"I toned it down a lot today,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I've been trying to be better on the radio and be more productive. We kind of gained on it in the center of the race and we were kind of getting better. It just went away.
“It got so loose at the end, I didn't know what to tell them."
Earnhardt Jr. has a lot of ground to make up in order to contend for his first championship on NASCAR’s highest level. But he doesn’t believe this year’s title race is a three-way battle between Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle – despite those three being within 30 points of each other and at least 91 points ahead of the rest of the Chase field.
Is it a three-man race?
"I hope not, hell,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Unless you are counting me in."
