EARNHARDT JR. BEYOND FRUSTRATION
CHARLOTTE _ His last top 10 came seven weeks ago at Bristol; it was only his fifth of the year – the fewest since his first full year in the Cup Series in 2000. To say Dale Earnhardt Jr. is frustrated is an understatement. In his second season with Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt Jr. has struggled mightily, failed to show improvement and has been subject to a crew chief change that clearly shook his confidence.
With teammates Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin smoking the competition this year, not to mention a stout showing by Jeff Gordon, Junior has been left wondering what went wrong and if it can be fixed. Those frustrations came to a head Thursday night after the No. 88 made its qualifying run. After running a lap of 189.913 mph in the evening’s practice session (good enough for 13th), Earnhardt Jr. looked for a top-10 starting spot in front of his hometown crowd. Instead, Junior’s pace fell off nearly three miles an hour, leaving him a dismal 39th, and even more frustrated.
Speaking with the media after a sponsorship announcement on Friday afternoon at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, the aggravation and disappointment were visible on his face.
“Last night we go out, we were top-15 in practice, and we went out to try and qualify and we were one of the worst cars here,” Junior said while looking at the ground. “We don’t know why and don’t have an explanation for it. All the other (Hendrick) cars qualified well, gripped well, backed their times up from practice and we didn’t even get close. We looked ridiculous last night. It’s really encouraging one day and the next day it’s equally discouraging and that gets really old. I’m about to the end of my rope on it.”
This year Earnhardt Jr. has struggled to maintain his grip on that rope. Criticisms for his aggressiveness in the season-opening Daytona 500 pitted some fans against him for one of the first times in his career. A blown engine the following week seemed to make things worse.
With little improvement and no end to the misery in sight, team owner Rick Hendrick made the decision to pull Earnhardt Jr.’s cousin Tony Eury Jr. off the pit box and give Lance McGrew a shot at turning things around. Since taking command of the team in Dover in May, Junior has one top-5 and two top-10s – hardly anything to write home about.
“I’ve been riding it out, but I think there comes a point when you don’t want to ride it out anymore,” the discouraged Earnhardt said. “You’ve just had enough. It’s been a long year. I really don’t want the year to be over with because I like going to the racetrack every week and racing. The last several – well, all year – it’s been so low, the highs have not been very high and the lows have been terribly low. It’s hard to want to get back up and try again the next week when you take such a beating, but I don’t know what else to do.”
As the season winds down, the frustration continues to mount, especially with performances like Thursday night. Unsure of what will be in store for next year, the sport’s most popular driver is unsure of what will fix the situation. Should Lance McGrew stay? Will there be another crew chief change? Even Earnhardt is uncertain what it will take to turn his misfortune around.
“I don’t know what’s next,” he said. “I was thinking about that last night. I don’t know what the logical next step would be. We seem to be getting better, but even getting better is not satisfying me at all.
“Whoever I work with needs to be a dictator,” Junior said of his crew chief. “The most success I had was with Tony (Eury) Sr. and you know how he runs his ship. I just don’t think I’m the guy to leave that decision up to because I would not make the right one. There’s a lot better people to make it, especially in the organization. There’s a lot of smart people around there. I’m just waiting on somebody to make the call, just put the damn team together and say this is what you’ve got and what you’re going to do next year. I’m just waiting on that to happen.”
Those aren’t the words of a man who sounds like he is sold on his current crew chief.
While he waits for decisions to be made, Junior shows up, climbs in the car and, as he put it, “if it goes fast, it goes fast.” Earnhardt Jr. has some tracks coming up that he has typically run well at – namely Talladega and Texas – but can the 35-year-old overcome his setbacks and frustrations, pick his head up and get the job done? That’s a question only Dale Earnhardt Jr. can answer and he needs to do it on the track.
UPDATE: Video of the Junior interview.
Related links:
Earnhardt losing streak reaches 51
Replacing crew chief has not improved Earnhardt's performance
Dale Earnhardt Jr. song 'New 88' video
17 Comments
give jr a break he is 22nd in points there are a lot of drivers behind that and there are alot of drivers who haven't won races in a while. jr has never acted like he was better then any other driver out there.he is an honest hard working guy and thats why his fans love him. i have never heard him use his fathers name to get him anything . The guy has been through alot in his life already , so just give him a break.
Jr was at DEI already and did nothing there, all this crap that Jr needs to do it for Sr or Jr needs to go to RCR cause thats where he belongs is crap. Jr is a racecar driver he needs to be in a place he can competitively race. Jr is at the BEST team in Nascar with the worst results, he is a let down to Hendrick and his fans, Jr is just like Danica, neither can drive, they are both surviving off there names, and the only thing they are good for is bringing in sponsorship dollars. Ihe has been at Hendrick for 2 years and 1 win, which was a lucky fuel mileage call by Eury Jr either way its a win. Jr is not that good of a racer if he was, then there would be results.
EVERYBODY HAS PROBLEMS HEY HE'S NOTHING LIKE KYLE PETTY!!! DALE JR. HAS ALOT OF TALENT NO HES NOT DALE SR. ATLEAST IF HE MAKES A MISTAKE HE'S MAN ENOUGH TO ADMIT IT. JIMMIE JOHNSON ALWAYS WINS AT LOWES MTR SPEEDWAY WHAT A DEAL NOT! I SORRY I THINK HE IS A JOKE NOBODY WINS THAT MUCH AT THE SAME TRACK! I THINK SOMETHINGS UP WITH THAT.BUT JR NEEDS TO PUT ASIDE HIS DIFFERENCES WITH TERESA AND DO IT FOR SR. AND HIMSELF AND PROVE HES GOT IT!!!
Jr sucks, he is by far the highest funded driver in Nascar, on the sports best team, and he is a huge disappointment. He doesn't need to go to RCR, he needs to go back to the Nationwide series where he can actually compete. It's not the car, it's not his team, it's not the crew chief. It's the hack driving the car, he's another Kyle petty.
Dale Jr has not been himself ever since he went to Hendrick, Rick needs to release him from the contract after this year, and Dale Jr needs to head straight to RCR, thats where he should have gone in the first place, he does not need to worry about establishing his own identify as he did with the 88 at Hendrick, all he needs to do is tell Richard Childress he is ready and willing to step up to the plate and hop in the
black#3 and drive his heart out and if he does this i think he will win races again, because at RCR he can be his self
Dale Jr. just does not belong at Hendrick Motorsports. I knew from the start when Earnhardt went to drive Hendrick cars that something like this would happen. If Rick Hendrick really cared, he would be doing something that would be helping him out. But he isn't. Its seems like he is just more interseted in Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin. Heck, even the sataite team of Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. Rick even wants to have Brad Keselowski on his team more than he wanted Earnhardt. All Hendrick wanted was the name, not the driver, he wanted the money and the popularity to himself. and now Earnhardt is loosing more and more fans. What he should do is get a early release from Hendrick, work things out with Teresa and work like a freaking family, move Casey to like DEI, and put Earnhardt in a RCR car. So that Rick Hendrick could get his pretty little driver Brad Keselowski and put him in the #88 car.
If this were any other name we would never hear about it. Jeff Gordon doesn’t even get this kind of press……and he’s Jeff Gordon!
Now his worshipers are trying to comfort themselves by saying that he won two championships in the minors. So what! That was a LONG time ago, means nothing. Lots of drivers have done well in that series, and you never hear of them again.
How many future champions -after having been in the sport for years, with the best equipment- never win, never challenge for a win and find themselves mired back in the points?
None!
His disciples are going to be catatonic next year, a few months off wont change a thing. The only thing that will make that car run better is a different driver.
I feel bad for him, well more accurately I’m embarrassed for him….might be time to go find something else to do.
But hey, he’s still number one in sales! Big thumbs up there. That’s just as good as wining a championship…or a race even….right?
It's obvious to me, and a lot of the racing public, that JR needs to find a new day job. We've given him the benefit of the doubt for one season too long. First it was his mean step-mom, sabotaging his team (yeah right), then his crew chief (and cousin) , now his own Hendrick (top in in the industry) team... Ever stop to think maybe the boy has "run out of talent?" I'm thinking there wasn't much to start with, with only 3 wins in the last 5 seasons... Perhaps the hype of being NASCAR's "Most Popular" driver is too much for guy. (I don't get that either, but oh well.)
But I'm sure some JR fan will tell me that I'm just another "hater".
No, more like a realist.
the boy can drive.. his demons are f'ing with him.
you don't win two busch championships, everything before that, a myriad of cup races where HE won them BEING the driver - if he can't drive lol.
he's got serious funk and that's all there is to it. I'd say the expectations certainly played a role in this too.
Ok Jr in not performing, I think we all can see that. The only person that can reply here is the editor that I can see so Anonymous yes he is in the same equipment as other Hendrick drivers but let me ask you this question? Dale was split with Tony Eury mid-season so Rick Hendrick in all reallity could not put the BEST MAN FOOR THE JOB in a crew cheif position as the best men were under contract with other teams. An interm crew chief was given the job. True Lance won the Nationwide title with Brian Vickers, Also true Rick Hendrick felt that Lance was not the man for the job on the #18 on the cup side as he was replaced by Alan Gustafson. Rick Hendrick's best Crew Cheif in training was shipped out the year before Darien Grubb. So my question is this? Just how many Sprint cup wins does Lance Mcgrew bring to the table? To all the people in blogs that say look it was not Tony Eury Jr he has a new crew chief and still nothing I ask this same question. If Lance was not good enough for Kyle Busch (He got Kyle a whopping 0 wins that is NO WINS for the hard of hearing) what makes him the right choice for Dale Jr? I myself never liked Lance he is a sloppy 2nd in so many way's. For example his current girlfriend (Erica Dewey) was a cast away of Kyle Busch when he decided to trade up. Now that was funny give it up! Well I wont hold you in suspense Lance has ONE win on the cup side it was Brian Vickers 2006 win, Anyone remember how Lance and Brian got that win? I am the first to admit Jr has had a bad season, in fact several bad seasons, ok many bad seasons, with that taken into account, if he quit today he would still have more wins in cup than over half the field on any given sunday. So bash away just while doing so lets put ALL THE NUMBERS on the table OK. Sincerely and Clearly a Dale Earnhardt Jr Fan LOL
Wow... Really? He's on the best run team, with the best engines, the best cars, the best crews, and you're claiming that he doesn't have the car? Get real. Everyone else with Hendrick power (Gordon, Johnson, Martin, Stewart, and Newman) are all in the chase and doing pretty darn well. Heck, Stewart and Newman may have Hendrick power, but they still have their so-so crews and they still get it done. Face it, Jr is a mediocre driver. Changing crew chiefs and crewmen isn't going to change that fact.
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I have a feeling 2010 will be the same as the 2009 season. Like you can hear it in his voice and you can see it in his eyes. I'm a huge Dale Jr fan, but Junior just simply does not fit with the Hendrick team at all. I can not wait till 2010 is over, because I know for a fact Dale Jr will be released from the Hendrick contract and we will head over to RCR (Richard Childress Racing). Just wait and see. I did predicted that Dale Jr. would have some kind of trouble....I was right. I also predicted that he would show his frustration around Lowe's....I was right again. Now I'm going to predict that 2010 will be the same as 2009....