Bob Pockrass, NASCAR 9y

Earnhardt says late mistake cost him

AutoRacing, NASCAR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. proved last year that he could take advantage of a strong car and win the Daytona 500. He proved this year that he could take a strong car and lose it.

It's the cruel fate of the nature of sports. Win some. Lose some.

Earnhardt left Daytona a year ago celebrating a Daytona 500 victory, joining Twitter and putting out photos for his fans, including one of him with the Daytona 500 trophy and one of him at the statue of his father that is outside the Daytona International Speedway.

He left Daytona on Sunday with a third-place finish that he knew could have been better after he got shuffled from third to 19th on a restart with 19 laps remaining. He again tweeted this year, but this time they were tweets of disappointment. Among them:

On that fateful restart with teammate Jimmie Johnson on the outside line as the leader, Earnhardt got caught with no drafting partner in the middle lane to drop from fourth to 19th and leaving him with little hope of repeating as the race champion Sunday afternoon.

Earnhardt attempted to rally and sat eighth on the green-white-checkered restart, screaming to fourth in one lap, and was third when the caution came out to end the race about a half-lap before they hit the finish line.

He had led 32 laps and appeared to have such a strong car at times that other cars even in the draft couldn't reach him.

"I didn't do what I needed to do," Earnhardt said. "I got shuffled to the middle there. [I] had a fast car, was able to get some spots back [and] get a good finish. I'm pretty happy about that.

"You don't get cars that good too often. You like to try to capitalize. [I am] a little disappointed."

With new crew chief Greg Ives atop the pit box and Earnhardt with a fast car, it appeared there could have been a seamless transition from one crew chief to the next.

"You like to take good cars like we had today and win with them when you get a chance," Earnhardt said. "But I've got a great team. I feel like Greg is going to be awesome. Hopefully we're going to have more opportunities this year."

While they have had three "races" together -- the exhibition Sprint Unlimited, the 150-mile qualifying race and the Daytona 500 -- the first true test of their relationship and communication will come next week at Atlanta.

Earnhardt had total confidence in former crew chief Steve Letarte when Letarte made changes to the car. Letarte, who has moved to the television booth, also had a great way of motivating Earnhardt.

Ives, who won the Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series title with Earnhardt driver Chase Elliott last year, will get his first real chance to show he can take Earnhardt's feedback and make productive changes next week.

"Speedway racing is an anomaly because the spotter is on the radio so much -- I can't really talk all the time," Ives said. "I've got to communicate to my spotter. There are areas I need to improve on going into Atlanta.

"There was so much talking on the radio and a lot of busy chatter with the spotters, it was tough to kind of give myself a judgment on that."

Crew chiefs have little impact on restrictor-plate races once the race starts. It's up to the drivers to make the moves. Earnhardt made the mistake when he couldn't get into the outside line when trying to make a move on that restart where he had restarted third.

"Jimmie [Johnson] was on the quarter panel [on my outside]," Earnhardt said. "He was in a great spot on the guy in front of me. And I thought if I could get in behind him, he was going to shoot past to the lead, I could tuck on the quarter panel a little bit as soon as I got on that right rear quarter panel.

"I didn't think they were that close on the outside line. I thought we had a couple car lengths on the outside line, but they were right there."

And his day was pretty much over.

"You know, just one of them moves," Earnhardt said. "You made some good ones, you make some bad ones. I made a bad one too late."

^ Back to Top ^