Over the course of his career, Earnhardt Jr. has come close to winning at Martinsville – but has yet to take home one of those Grandfather Clocks that the winner gets.
“We have had some good cars in the past here that I’ve felt like could have won races and we just weren’t able to get the job done for whatever reason, somebody was faster or whatever,” Earnhardt Jr. commented. “Looking forward to having another opportunity. Just every time we come here we are excited. I love short-track racing. I love this track. I love the history of this place, what it represents. It’s a joy to run here and a lot of fun to race. It can be frustrating and you’ve got to battle all day long to maintain your track position, but it’s a good challenge, a fun challenge.”
Earnhardt Jr.’s challenge will be bigger than some of his fans probably hoped come Sunday as he qualified 26th in Friday’s qualifying session for the STP 500. While it can be a daunting task to do well after starting in the back half of the field on a short track, Earnhardt has accomplished the feat before. In October 2010, Earnhardt started 28th and drove his way through the field to finish seventh. In May of 2011, he started 26th before finishing second.
Earnhardt hasn’t been one to qualify strong ever at Martinsville with an average starting spot of 13.2, but has managed to score a top-five in 35% of his starts there. Not bad for a guy who hit everything but the pacecar in his rookie season on the paperclip.
While Earnhardt struggled in qualifying, teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon both qualified in the top five. Earnhardt said earlier today in the media center that if they’re struggling, they can use a program called ‘dart fish’ and compare what he is doing to what they’re doing.
“(We can see) how they are getting in the corner, how they turn into the corner, I can try to learn things that way,” Earnhardt explained.”As far as my teammates go I’m out on the track with them. I know their tendencies and it depends on how their car is driving and how their car is handling as to how they are going to run, drive the corner and approach each corner.
“Yet Jeff has a real good knack for finding out how to get his car around this place depending on how his car drives. He can change his approach to the corner and how he enters the corner to affect the speed on his car quite well here. Obviously Jimmie has got a lot of success here, but he seems to be very consistent in how he drives and deliberate in how he drives this track. They are definitely two guys that have had a lot of success here so you sort of tune in to what they are doing, how they are setting up their cars and what their comments are about their cars. You try to stay on top of that and try to understand how their weekend is going and try to use any of that stuff to your advantage for sure.”
Hopefully practice tomorrow will lead to Earnhardt finding more speed as the Daytona 500 Champion will need it if he wants to go after the win. Whether Earnhardt will be offensive at he end of the race and able to attack will depend heavily on how he and Steve LeTarte are able to adjust the No. 88 Mountain Dew Chevrolet.
“I can tell you though as far as being offensive, defensive, you are only as offensive as your car will allow you to be,” he commented. “I can attest to that over the last six years that if your car is fast enough you want to drive it as far as it can go. If your car is quick enough to be in the lead you want to get it there. If it’s not you go as far as you can and try to defend that situation and wait until you have an opportunity to improve the car.
“I don’t think I’ve ever raced here walking on egg shells. I think you can get in trouble pretty quickly if you do that. You definitely have to be offensive all the time and always try to be aggressive in how you drive the race track and how you race with the competition.”
If Earnhardt is able to grab his first clock, it’d mark a special moment for not only him but the Hendrick organization as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of Hendrick Motorsports.
“They have always maintained their status as one of the top teams with a lot of growth and success,” Earnhardt said. “I think that is a credit to the people working there, management, just a lot of great decisions putting people in key positions. Understanding people’s talents and being able to maximize their potential just in management and other key roles in the company. Obviously Rick (Hendrick) has an influence on his employees. Everybody really strives from the top to the bottom to give their best. It’s a cliché but it’s so true when you actually get to work there and get behind closed doors and see the influence that he has just on individuals. Everybody just pushes so hard to do something good every day. It makes everybody else’s job that much easier. It’s just good reflection of his influence on the company as a whole, but yeah it’s fun being a part of it.”
