General Discussion » What is really wrong with Dale Jr
Maybe he just can't get a grip on the C.O.T. He has really struggled since the switch, and maybe he can't grasp how this car works to tell his Chief what ne...
Earnhardt Jr. admits to recent swoon, but heading to tracks he prefers
By SceneDaily Staff
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Drew Hallowell
Getty Images for NASCAR
LONG POND, Pa. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. considers a certain stretch of races in the summer portion of the Sprint Cup tour to be his Achilles' heel, and he’s hoping to fix that in future campaigns.
Since joining NASCAR’s top circuit full time in 2000, Earnhardt Jr. has consistently performed better early and late in the season than in the middle. This season, Earnhardt Jr.’s first at Hendrick Motorsports, has been much the same where the summer is concerned.
Despite getting off to a solid start, he hasn’t been as strong in recent weeks.
Earnhardt Jr. pinpoints a few tracks that the series visits each summer – Pocono Raceway, Watkins Glen, Infineon Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway – as the reason for his struggles. Among those tracks, the driver has just one victory.
“This part of the season has typically been a stretch where I haven’t been productive in any of the seasons that I’ve been around,” Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Pocono Raceway, site of Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500. “I’ve been more productive this year, I think, at the Poconos and Indys in [car owner Rick] Hendrick’s cars. He’s given me an opportunity to do that. We weren’t able to capitalize really, but we’ve been able to maintain.
"That part of the season is almost over. I get the opportunity to try again next year during the heat of the summer to try to do better at the Poconos.”
Since winning at Michigan on a fuel-mileage gamble on June 15, Earnhardt Jr. has just one top-10 finish, an eighth at Daytona. During that stretch, he has maintained his second-place spot in the series standings. But he’s not entirely pleased with his overall performance.
“Even the Michigan win, we need to run more dominant at those places,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We’re going to start going back to tracks that I traditionally have had a lot of success at and do better at, and I’m really anticipating that and am excited about it. We need to look back on earlier season notes, what we’ve learned and what we can apply to that stuff because you’re going to go back to those tracks, and everybody will be just a little bit better from what they learned this year with this car.
“We’re all learning so much with it over the span of the season, so I can't expect to go back and be just as good as I was at Atlanta and places like that. We just have to hope that we’ve learned enough and stepped our game up enough.”
Earnhardt Jr. says some of the burden for not running as well he would like falls squarely on his own shoulders.
“I’ll take a little bit of the responsibility, sure. It’d be pretty stupid not to take some of the responsibility,” he said. “We run pretty good here [at Pocono]. We’ve got some second - [place finishes] and stuff. There’s a couple tracks in there that we struggle at, the Sonomas. I don’t feel like I get it done during the summer like I do at the beginning of the year and the end of the year. I feel like that’s been the case … Maybe over the next couple years I can erase all that. But, yeah, the summer seems to be … if there is a part of the season where we have to buckle down to watch out for a slump, that’d be it.”
As for the exact reason for his summer woes, Earnhardt Jr. says it’s the tracks themselves more than anything.
“It’s just tracks that aren’t typically favorites of mine, a couple road courses we have to go to that I really don’t enjoy,” he said. “Pocono’s a challenge, Indy’s a tough race track. There’s just a lot of different tracks that we go to ... that aren’t necessarily my cup of tea. But I’m open-minded about it and [want] to get it right and get going, and [I'm] hoping to get some wins during the summer.”
Mentioned Drivers: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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Comments
13 responses to "Earnhardt Jr. admits to recent swoon, but heading to tracks he prefers ". Post a Comment.
Mark Ernst said:
Aug 1, 2008 at 4:45 PMYou shouldnt worry so much. You will be just fine from here to Homestead.
robert mcleester said:
Aug 1, 2008 at 6:41 PMits a new year,a new team,take one race at a time your heading in the right direction!
Barb Green said:
Aug 1, 2008 at 7:39 PMDon't mean to change the subject, but does anyone know what Kyle Busch was referring to in his post-Brickyard interview? He said JR hit one of his pit crew.
John Lockhart said:
Aug 1, 2008 at 8:18 PMThere is no reason why Dale Jr. can't get at least one or maybe two wins from here to the end.Robert is right,everything is new and his done great.It might be close,but he'll be there at the top for a possible championship.
Mark Ernst said:
Aug 1, 2008 at 10:11 PMI heard Kyle say that but they never showed any thing. See his true attitude with how things werent going his way? I see a big points day for Jr.
Lisa Fowler said:
Aug 2, 2008 at 2:11 PMThey said that no one had any video of the "accident" in the pits but what I heard was Jr. hit one of Kyle's guys and knocked him under the car which held Kyle up in the pits. Certainly it was an accident, but sometimes what goes around comes around.
MARTIN said:
Aug 2, 2008 at 5:11 PMKyle is carring a chip on his shoulder concerning Junior and HMS. Kyle is bitter and immature. He made a remark about HMS just the other day too. Kyle has a big problem between his ears. Darn, just grow up and get over it.
Pearl Roll said:
Aug 2, 2008 at 10:28 PMGet over it already-the only one with a chip is you. Oh my god Kyle made a remark-- call the police.
Millporter said:
Aug 3, 2008 at 12:22 AMPearl, you keep ruffling feathers on Junior's articles. Junior is his own worse critic so us JR Nation fans come on here to support him. Junior says very little about Kyle Bush. When Junior is interviewed, he tells em he not gonna write the news for em. There are people out there looking for news between the 2 drivers and watching every move. Watch the race, I say. I've been a fan for many years. Big E was my fav. Jeff Gordon said it best. He said he can count on 1 hand the elder drivers left in Sprint and he's right. Now you get over it, Pearl.
Rodger Everhart said:
Aug 3, 2008 at 7:46 AMI don't think Jr. will win another race this season. Don't get wrong, I'm a big Jr. fan. It's just that the 48 and 24 are HMS'S main cars and have always been. The 88 and 5 are no more than glorifyed research and development cars for Johnson and Gordon.
Pearl Roll said:
Aug 3, 2008 at 3:38 PMIf this is an article on Jr then why is KB mentioned again and again in the comments. Did I say a word about Little E-NO!! So off my case and go back and read the comments before me there buddy.
Chrissie Bennett said:
Aug 3, 2008 at 11:27 PMPearl if you want to talk about Kyle Busch then go find a story about.
patricia jordan said:
Aug 4, 2008 at 4:31 AMlay off the jr. kyle bush story junior has shown real class,so we need to let it go..kyle will grow up as did his brother...iam a major earnhart fan ,so lets look at the big picture...we are in the chase....