Frustrated with NASCAR’s new car, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has confidence in crew chief Lance McGrew
Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. has not finished in the top five since this year's spring race at Talladega Superspeedway. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. is happy with his new crew chief but still frustrated with NASCAR’s new race car.
Earnhardt Jr. has worked for the last 10 races with crew chief Lance McGrew. He has no top-10s and four top-20s with McGrew, compared to three top-10s and six top-20s in the first 12 races with Tony Eury Jr., his cousin and long-time crew chief who was replaced by McGrew in June.
“We’re still not seeing the type of stuff that we need to see to feel like we’re going to be able to turn it around,” Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Michigan International Speedway. “But we’re working hard. I have a lot of confidence in Lance. He has a lot of confidence in me. I think we get along really well.
“We’re working really, really hard together. … We want to be able to help our teammates in the Chase [For The Sprint Cup]. We want to be able to be an asset to the company before the end of the season toward their quest for the championship. That’s what’s most important for us, to feel like that we have a hand in controlling everyone’s destiny and be a part of it. We’re trying to become better, and we have reason to do that before the end of the year, not only for ourselves but the company as well.”
It has been a tough year for Earnhardt Jr., who is 25th in the standings after a brake failure at Watkins Glen that the team traced to a hose clamp that rubbed the brake line against a nut.
Earnhardt Jr., who has said he reads what is written about him, says he has tried to use criticism as motivation and not have it get him down.
“It’s tough handling criticism, no matter which direction it comes from,” he said. “Everybody finds that as a challenge. I don’t really find it to be a real big problem because for the most part, most of the criticism that we’ve gotten this year was definitely deserved or warranted.
“Most of the time, the media was bringing up facts and statistics. … You’d rather not be in the news for those reasons, and you’re just trying to get back to the race track to do something to turn it around and it hasn’t happened yet.”
Now apparently Earnhardt Jr. wants the media to help to pressure NASCAR into tweaking the new model Cup car formerly known as the car of tomorrow. While he likes it for safety reasons, he doesn’t like it as far as the box it puts the crews in as far as adjustments.
“The media could address it a little stronger, and I think the drivers could be a little more vocal about it, and I think NASCAR could … probably be a little more urgent in improving our product,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The ultimate result is create exciting racing that the fans will enjoy, that the drivers enjoy, so everyone is happy. That should be our quest always, even when things are good.
“I feel like, especially right now, we need to really really try to turn over every stone, and that includes where we are with the COT and where we feel like its development is and where we feel like its future goes and where we feel like this car goes, how it evolves.”
Earnhardt Jr. said he is not trying to start a crusade, just answering some questions about the new car.
The sport’s most popular driver said double-file restarts have brought a spark to a series that needed a spark, and he believes the racing can be even better.
“I think all the drivers enjoy [those restarts],” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The fans love it. We need more of that – things that are tangible, such as the cars themselves, and things they can do in the races to add more of that. The double-file restarts give us that opportunity to be exciting for only a moment, and we need to figure out how we can maintain that throughout the entire race.
“I feel like I just remember how the other cars drove. I liked how they drove. And I like how this car is safe, but I want to be able to race it like we raced the other cars. … We’re not where we want to be as a sport. We need to do things that excite corporate America, excite the fans, and we need to be proactive immediately. Before [the double-file restarts, racing] was rather poor. The races were very poor, and we almost depended on a late caution to save the day to make somebody race side by side for a couple of laps at least within 10 laps of the finish of the race. Somehow that saved the day, and there was no argument the next week. It would go away. That was very frustrating because 95 percent of the race wasn’t worth the price of a ticket."
Earnhardt Jr., who actually won the first race at Michigan with NASCAR’s new car when he captured the victory in June 2008, says he likes the facility.
“The track has a lot of different grooves, and you can move around and find a place to run on the track [which] makes it pretty enjoyable,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It’s in the backyard of the manufacturers. I like the race track because it’s so wide.”
Does that win – 51 races ago – seem like a lifetime earlier?
“Not really,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The Busch Series championships, Daytona 500 wins, all-star race wins, that was a lifetime ago.”
