After Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s big win last weekend in the Daytona 500, the big question was whether he could keep the momentum rolling and do well in The Profit on CNBC 500 this weekend. The critics have been answered as Earnhardt came home with a solid second place finish.
“To be able to run with them as we did all day was a big confidence builder for us,” Earnhardt Jr. said after the race. “Even at the end of the race I thought our laps we put together coming up to the checkered were faster than him.”
Earnhardt Jr. and team put together a solid race as they ran inside the top five the whole day, and ran second behind Kevin Harvick for the majority of the second half of the race.
“Our team is performing so well,” Earnhardt added. “Got a lot of great chemistry and good communication going back and forth. Everybody’s confidence is very high. Everybody’s mood and morale is really high.”
The success shouldn’t be a surprise as Earnhardt had finished fifth and fourth at Phoenix last year, and finished the 2013 season with on a streak of good finishes. In the past 10 races (eight from last year, two from this year), Earnhardt Jr. has an average finish of 4.7 with only one finish outside of the top 10.
“Hopefully we can maintain that and not have any bad luck or make any mistakes and continue to keep working towards winning more races,” Earnhardt Jr. continued. “If we run second enough, we’re bound to at least trip into one or two (smiling). We ran second quite a few races in the last 10 or so races we run. I feel really good. I feel like we’re coming around the corner, peaking at the right time this season to try to run for the championship.”
Earnhardt admitted that he was curious today whether he would be able to carry the momentum that they had from last year and how they would do with the new rule package compared to others. He feels that they’re in a good spot, but knows that they have work to do considering how dominant Harvick was.
“Hopefully we can learn what we need to learn rapidly in the next several weeks so we can get up to par and win some races,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “There’s a couple teams out there that are behind, not onto the new package and new rules. I’m glad that we’re doing pretty well. The performance is there for us.
“Hopefully we can maintain it. We go to a completely different track at Vegas, but we have a whole day Thursday to figure it out. It will be good to have that track time.”
While it was a solid day, one of the things that Earnhardt Jr. will have to work on in the future is his restarts as the final three restarts did not go that well for Earnhardt Jr.
“I tried to go in sync with him. I think the last few restarts, I matched it up. He got a push from the 22,” Earnhardt commented. “I’m on the outside line, which ain’t the preferred line on that corner. The leader really has a great opportunity to maintain the lead here if he doesn’t make any mistakes on the restart.
“But the first several restarts, he was just kicking my butt at the line, then I started seeing what his pattern was, what he had been doing, was able to time it a little better so I didn’t look so foolish.”
Earnhardt Jr. added that when he was able to get a good restart, he tried to pinch Harvick down, but it wasn’t enough with how strong Harvick was today.
Earnhardt Jr. also said later in the session that part of the reason he couldn’t catch Harvick after a restart was it seemed that the car would handle different after a caution than it did before a caution. That has been added to the book of things to work on, with regards to the balance of the car in the future.
“On some restarts I had a loose car for 10 laps, then I would have a car that wouldn’t turn for 10 laps on another restart,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “I don’t know how that happens or why that happens. Everybody sort of battles a different balance every time we this a restart and get going again, cycle the tire, have a caution, cool the tire off, get going again. Makes the balance of the car a little different.”
