Dale Jr: “Am I happy about it? No. Am I satisfied? No.”
This week at Darlington could be Dale Earnhardt Jr’s last shot to get into the playoff’s. However, the driver himself, doesn’t think he has the car to get it done.
Pete Iacobelli from the AP asked Dale Earnhardt Jr if he was overly worried as NASCAR quickly approaches the playoff’s. Given, Dale Earnhardt Jr still hasn’t qualified to be a championship contender, in his final season.
“I’m not overly worried. I mean, it’ll either work out for us, or it won’t. I’ve been in this situation before and I’ve certainly come to terms with how my season’s went.”
“Am I happy about it? No. Am I satisfied? No.”
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We are, as a team, trying to steer ourselves in the right direction. Positively, with a good attitude about it.”
We’re dumping buckets of water out of the ship
-Dale Earnhardt Jr
“You know, I’ve seen this situation in the past. Team that I’ve even been in, fall apart. It just goes worse and spirals out of control. So, we’re dumping buckets of water out of the ship. Trying to figure out how to get going and get it right.”
“We had a good day today. We wen’t to the sim yesterday. So, we went to the sim and worked out guts out. Found some things, we brought them here today. They worked exactly like they did on the sim which is pretty impressive,” Dale Jr finds joy in the positives. “These are little positives that you pull out of every day when you’re strugglin’.”
Do I think that we have the car to win? We don’t.
-Dale Earnhardt Jr
“We had some decent speed. Are we as fast as some of the other guys? No, but we’re right there. Do I think that we have the car to win? We don’t.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr was 11th quickest in 10-lap runs after the first practice in Darlington. In final practice, he was 13th quickest overall.
“I know there’s maybe only 2-3 guys that can say that. But we do have some speed, which has been missing for the past several weeks. We worked hard to show up here and be competitive.”
“The first half of the year, when we didn’t run well, we always had good speed. And we always were running well. That kept you positive, that if we could just complete a race and put one together, it’s going to result in a good finish.”
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“And then midway through the summer, we lost some speed. Then, we had crappy finishes and no speed. So, we’re trying to get that speed back because you can’t run well without it.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr collected 4 top ten’s and 1 top five in the first half of his final season. Since the midway point, 7 races ago, he has a best finished of 12th. Which came at Kentucky. Along with another 12th at Pocono.
I’m not going to beat myself over the head about what happens the rest of the season.
-Dale Earnhardt Jr
“I’m not giving up or anything. But, I’m not going to beat myself over the head about what happens the rest of the season. We’re just going to work hard.”
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“I don’t want my guys to remember this season, because we fought and fell apart. And got negative and nasty and short with each other. I want those guys to remember it, ever if we don’t win or have success. I want them to remember that we worked out guts out and we stayed at it until the very end. We fought hard to the finish.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr has run 619 races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. At season’s end, he will total 631 races. Throughout his 19 year career Dale Jr has been to victory lane 26 times. That places him 29th on the all-time NASCAR wins list.
Author: Shane Walters
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Pete Iacobelli
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