SEASON PREVIEW: Dale Earnhardt Jr. hoping help from Mark Martin’s No. 5 team will improve his chances
Dale Earnhardt Jr. signs autographs at Michigan International Speedway. // LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
His 25th-place finish in the point standings was a career-worst. His winless streak grew to 65 consecutive races. He began the 2009 season with one crew chief, and ended it with another.
It was forgettable stuff. Enough to send most drivers competing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series rushing off to See You Later-ville once the final checkered flag had flown at Homestead.
That wasn’t the case, though, for Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Hendrick Motorsports driver may have struggled on the track in 2009, but that didn’t mean he was eager to see the season come to a close.
In fact, Earnhardt Jr. says, it was just the opposite.
“We weren’t running good … so at Homestead I didn’t want the season to end. It would have been nice to have had a couple more races to keep working with [crew chief] Lance [McGrew]. You don’t want to stop until you think you’ve got something to work with.
“We hadn’t really seen as much progress as I was hoping we’d make. I’m sure he’d say the same thing.”
Changes have been made to the organization’s No. 88 team in hopes of getting the sport’s most popular driver back in the thick of battle. Despite the fact that teammate Mark Martin was in the running for the series championship last year, personnel was shifted around in an effort to kick-start Earnhardt Jr.’s efforts and get a head start on 2010.
McGrew describes the changes as “cross-pollination” between the No. 88 and No. 5 teams.
Chris Heroy, previously with the No. 5, is now with the No. 88 and will be the race engineer, according to McGrew. Likewise, Kevin Hulstein moved over, and will handle front-end duties.
“I think Chris has a real good personality and one that will mix in real good with Dale’s,” McGrew says. “Kevin [is] just one of those guys that wants more. He got to a point on [the No. 5] team where he couldn’t advance. The guy Alan [Gustafson, crew chief] had doing that [front-end] job is solid. You don’t replace a guy like that. Fortunately for me, we had an opportunity for [Kevin] to come over [to the 88].”
Team owner Rick Hendrick says he was “blown away” by the two teams’ willingness to work together toward a common goal, and how quickly they moved to make the idea a reality.
“We did a lot of self-evaluation and I could not be prouder of Alan and Lance and the way they’ve gone after it,” he says. “We knew some things we wanted to do differently, and [Alan] was willing to start making those changes two or three races from the end of the year.”
Earnhardt Jr. knows the proof is on the track, though, and while he isn’t skeptical, he will admit to a bit of uncertainty.
“You don’t know how [off-season changes] will relate to performance so you’re sitting here with a bunch of anxiety wondering what it’s going to do when it gets on the race track,” he says. “Are we going to be better?
“Because none of us want to go through another year like we had last year.”
Earnhardt Jr. failed to post a single top-10 finish in his last 12 starts in 2009, and had just five for the entire season.
“I would really like to put together complete races where we're competitive throughout the event and we're able to get finishes that are good finishes, and those are top-fives and wins," he says. "Wins are what everybody's out there racing for, but if we could put together complete races without mistakes, without me making mistakes, without issues and problems arising, that's definitely going to signal some progress."
THE EARNHARDT JR. FILE
Best career finish: 1st (18 times)
Career top-10s: 142
Career Cup starts: 363
Laps led: 6,529
Best track: Bristol (average finish, 11.6)
Worst track: Homestead (average finish, 23.9)
Did You Know: Dale Earnhardt Jr. has led more laps at Martinsville than any other track on the Cup schedule, but has never won on the series’ smallest venue.
Coming Saturday: Clint Bowyer
