Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s front-row starting spot for Daytona 500 part of Rick Hendrick’s promise to improve No. 88 team
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start on the front row for the Daytona 500. // LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Before the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season had even ended, team owner Rick Hendrick promised to do everything within his power to get Dale Earnhardt Jr. back among the contenders in 2010.
If early results are any indication, Hendrick is making good on that promise.
Earnhardt Jr. will be starting second in the Feb. 14 Daytona 500, his best qualifying position since starting second last year at Kansas. It’s the first time he’s been on the front row for a restrictor-plate race, where seven of his 18 career wins have come, since 2003.
His fast lap of 190.913 mph was just a tick behind teammate Mark Martin, who will start on the pole for the season’s first points event.
It was a shot in the arm, however temporary, for the No. 88 team, which struggled through the 2009 season. Earnhardt Jr. finished 25th in points and missed the Chase For The Sprint Cup for the second time in three years.
“All this really does today,” Earnhardt Jr. said, “is obviously it pleases a ton of people back in Charlotte; it gets all these guys on our teams pumped up about the opportunity … next week.
“It takes a little bit of pressure off, eases a little bit of the stress to be able to go out there and do something good.”
For Hendrick, who watched from the sidelines as the sport’s most popular driver battled through problems on the track, the qualifying run was the culmination of months of hard work. There were personnel changes and a melding of ideas that eventually determined the direction that the organization would follow.
That crew chief Alan Gustafson, crew chief for Martin, and Lance McGrew, Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief, were willing to work side by side to make both teams better amazed even the veteran car owner.
“He knows how hard we’ve worked as an organization,” Hendrick said of Earnhardt Jr. “I felt like we let him down last year. We tried but we were just not getting it done.
“I don’t know of anybody in that garage that would have taken on the task that Alan did with Lance. I told the two of them today that I was as proud of them as if they had won a championship. Because they sat down and came up with a game plan and really went to work. I’ve been amazed at the amount of effort. … I think when Junior sees that kind of commitment … we had good opportunities at the end of the year, but no matter how good we were running, something was going to happen. We all felt like we were snake-bit. It was really good to wipe the slate clean.”
Martin and Earnhardt Jr. are locked into their starting spots, but still must participate in next Thursday’s 150-mile qualifying races.
“I like the fact no matter what you do in that race, you're going to start second, as long as you can bring the car back,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “So if you're sitting there with a decent shot at trying to make a move to the win, you can do it a lot easier without much risk. If it doesn't work out, you finish fifth or 10th, whatever, you haven't really lost anything as far as your starting position for the 500.”
Earnhardt Jr. has won just once since leaving his family-owned Dale Earnhardt Inc. team to join Hendrick, a span of 57 races. Talk of potential wins isn’t new, but it’s been all too rare for both driver and owner during the past 12 months.
“I told him when he came over here I was going to give him the best stuff I could,” Hendrick said. “I think I tried, but I think we could do better, and we have.
“I’m just really excited. We worked hard and I’m proud of all the guys. But Alan and Lance and Mark and Dale deserve all the credit. We’ve got a long road to go. … Nobody will ever know the amount of 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week work weeks that Alan and Lance put in to get these cars down here and laying the groundwork for the weeks to come.”
