Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the thick of things but says team can do better
Following his 11th place finish last Sunday at Bristol, Dale Earnhardt Jr. enters Sunday’s race at California in the top-10 in the Sprint Cup point standings.
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[/media-credit]To be mentioned in the top-10 in any category for Earnhardt Jr. is an accomplishment after two years of riding off the radar. When you’re NASCAR’s most popular driver that’s hard to do, but when you haven’t won a race, qualified for the Chase and run mid-pack each weekend, people tend to forget about you after a while.
After four races in 2011 the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard team is working hard to become the center of attention for all the right reasons. New crew chief, Steve Letarte appears to already be paying dividends early in the season and Earnhardt Jr. has been pleased with the performance of his cars, but knows he needs to be taking care of business on his end.
“We should have finished higher,” he said of Bristol. “I screwed up speeding on pit road and that cost us a lot of spots there. But I’m just trying to do the best you can each week.”
Following a wreck in the final laps of the season opening Daytona 500, Earnhardt Jr. and company have finished 11th or better in the last three races. While they may not have started off fast in practice of qualifying, the team has been able to make the No. 88 better throughout the weekend and during the race when adjustments are needed.
That to Earnhardt Jr. is “a really good thing.”
So is working with Letarte. The two have a lot in common and good communication, Earnhardt Jr. says, is easy between them. It has even been reported that Letarte has Earnhardt Jr. arriving to the garage earlier and leaving later than he use to.
According to Earnhardt Jr. it helps to talk face-to-face instead of texting. More work can be done on the car. Ideas are being bounced around and everyone is on the same page.
Yet, even with his fast start and plenty of positives, Earnhardt Jr. says there is comes a point when he’s unhappy.
“I was last week,” he said. “I was a little disappointed with myself and a little disappointed at how we began the race. I was just frustrated that we weren’t closer. We felt like we were a little bit better than that at the end of practice, so it was frustrating that the car showed a lack of grip it has at the start.”
Though frustrated, Earnhardt Jr. says you just have to go to the next race, eliminate mistakes and get the finish the car is capable of.
The next race is the Auto Club 400. It’s a track that has not been kind to Earnhardt Jr. in the past. In 18 starts he has just four top-10’s with a best finish of second in 2006.
However, in the last five races he’s finished 16th or worse. His overall average finish in California is 22.3. There is no better time to improve on those numbers than this weekend and with a team that Earnhardt Jr. has high praise for when asked if they were top-10 material.
“Yeah, I do,” he said, not only of this weekend but in general. “We’re capable of that. We’re good enough for that. You should come to the racetrack and expect to run around guys that are in that position. I feel like we’re legitimate, yes sir.”
Junior Nation feels the same.
After appearing to be in a two-year slumber themselves, only making noise to voice their displeasure, the nation as awaken and are thus far enjoying what they are seeing with from their driver. For the first time in a long time they feel as though a win might be around the corner.
Earnhardt Jr. was pleased to hear of his fans enthusiasm.
“That’s good,” said Earnhardt Jr. “I just hope we can run a little bit better and get a top five and challenge for some wins to really give them something to cheer for. I’m glad we’re running better, but in the grand scheme of things we were unable to run 10th or 11th last year. I think we can do better. We’re showing good signs of improvement and hopefully we continue to get better and we can challenge for some wins.”
Should Earnhardt Jr. win one of the next seven events it would be a relief for a few reasons. Not only to erase his winless drought but it would earn his place in the 2011 Sprint All-Star race, which he is currently not eligible for.
As of last Wednesday, Junior Nation was already taking to the voting polls to help him earn an entry through the Sprint Fan Vote. Since Earnhardt Jr. won the All-Star race in 2000, his 10-year automatic entry has run out and he will need the Fan Vote or to transfer from the Showdown in order to compete.
If California doesn’t go as planned, there’s always next week and Martinsville, a place Earnhardt Jr. says he’s looking forward to and feels he’s close in challenging Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson for a win.
“I’m excited about going there and trying to see if there is a difference in how I can compete versus what I’ve done over the last 10 years just due to having Steve.”
Will Power ready to defend his title in Saint Pete
Will Power served notice to the rest of the field for the Honda Grand Prix of Saint Petersburg, that he was ready and able to defend his title. Power cruised to Victory at this event last year and intends to repeat this feat this year. Power was fastest during the third and final practice session for the IZOD Indy Cars Saturday morning, Mike Conway, making his return to Indy Car was second quickest with Castroneves, Briscoe and the 02 of Oriol Servia rounding out the top five.
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[/media-credit]The morning session was not without incident, shortly after the track went green Simona De Silvestro looped her car in turn eight of this beautiful 14 turn street course to bring the session under yellow, after a couple caution laps the green was displayed again and again turn eight would claim another victim, this time it was Danica Patrick. Both Simona and Danica were able to continue with no damage other than flat spotted tires. The third caution of the session came out for the off course excursion of Dario Franchitti, Dario ran into the turn 11 and 12 complex got into the grass and ended up near the tire wall between turns 13 and 14. Dario kept the car off the wall but did enough suspension damage to end his morning session, interestingly enough, Dario would still post the eighth fastest time of this morning session. The final incident was for team Lotus Driver E.J. Visio, E.J. would get into the safety barriers in turn 12 and do significant damage to the car, Visio was able to walk away from the mishap with no injuries.
As qualifying rolled around, the teams were forced to deal with the new tire rule for this season, which allows for just one set of the soft compound Firestones. These tires are known to be faster, but also wear more than the harder compound tires that most teams had been using for practice, this would leave the teams thinking they would have only five laps to post their fastest times, one out lap, one in lap and three hot laps to get the job done.
Qualifying was marred by a grinding crash in turn three, Sebastian Bourdais making his return to Indy Car made contact with rookie Sebastien Saavedra sending him head on into the outside retaining wall. Saavedra was unhurt but the car was destroyed forcing the Conquest Racing Team to bring out the backup car in order to start the race tomorrow at noon. Saavedra said after the incident, “This is a blow to our team we operate on limited funds, we have a backup car available but losing a car is difficult”.
When all was said and done, Will Power would again be the fastest man in town with a fast lap just over one minute and one second around this 1.8 mile circuit. Dario Franchitti will start alongside Power on the front row Scott Dixon posted the third fastest time and will start on the inside of row two, Mike Conway will round out the second row, and Ryan Briscoe, and Justin Wilson will start fifth, and sixth respectively.
Will Power be able to repeat or will Franchitti or Dixon take charge? Maybe Conway can complete his return with a season opening victory, and of course Briscoe, Wilson, and another 18 teams may have something to say about the outcome also. The 7Th annual Honda Grand Prix goes green Sunday afternoon at 12:30PM.
