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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Earnhardt Jr. Relaxed, Confident
Hendrick Motorsports driver still looking to snap winless streak...
Bob Pockrass  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted January 29, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Dale Earnhardt Jr. , driver of the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet, speaks with the media during the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
As Dale Earnhardt Jr. entered his interview session during this year’s Sprint Media Tour, he had a much different outlook than a year earlier.

In 2011, he was coming off his second consecutive year in which he failed to finish in the top 20 in the Sprint Cup standings. He also knew that not only would the media ask him about his struggles, but also want to talk about the 10-year anniversary of his father’s death.

Now a year later, Earnhardt Jr. is coming off a season in which he didn’t win but at least finished seventh in the standings.

“I didn’t know what we would talk about today,” Earnhardt Jr. said with a laugh. “I felt like we wouldn’t have anything to discuss other than the typical thing that you might ask everybody – how you get better.”

Well, so how does Earnhardt Jr. get better coming off a season where he posted four top-five and 12 top-10 finishes?

“You never really know what to change, what to do better,” he said. “You’re going to drive. Guys are going to work. How to beat the best team in the sport, when you look at what you’ve got, nothing really stands out that this is what you’re missing.

“You just kind of keep trying. Talent evolves in this sport, technology evolves in this sport and teams are good and somebody else comes and takes their spot. Hopefully we’re the next guys that go in that spot. That’s about all you can hope for.”

The way to get better is to win a race. Earnhardt Jr. has not won since a June 2008 race at Michigan, a span of 129 races.

He came close in 2011, with late leads at Martinsville and Charlotte but didn’t get it done. Kevin Harvick had a better car at the end of Martinsville and Earnhardt Jr. ran out of gas on the final lap at Charlotte while leading.

It still was what many considered a successful year, his first with crew chief Steve Letarte.

“We definitely took a step in the right direction with the changes we made last year,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I don’t know what our potential is past that, but we’re going to work hard to see if we can find it and find more and be more competitive. We were close to winning a few races and hadn’t had that in a long time.

“Working with Steve, he gave me the opportunity, whether it was our strong performance or his strategy, one way or another, he’s given me the chance I didn’t have. I felt closer to winning than I felt before.”

Letarte liked the feeling of being close. He didn’t like the feeling of not getting it done.

“2011 was a good year,” Letarte said. “I really, really enjoyed it. It was a really good year. I think it’s time for us now to have a great year. I think we need to get the zero out of the win column to have a great year.

The relationship between Letarte and Earnhardt Jr. quickly blossomed. Letarte was able to take his driver’s feedback and make changes that helped the performance of the car.

Too often in previous years, Earnhardt Jr. had difficulty improving the car throughout the race. It started as early as the third race of the season at Las Vegas, and Earnhardt Jr. immediately had more confidence than in the past.

“I think I got better at being particular in my feedback,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I know I did get better in my communication with my crew chief and being particular in the problems I was facing.

“In the past, I would get frustrated and my comments would be broad and generic and not assisting anyone in any real manner. I think I’m a lot more specific in, ‘Hey this is a problem, this is where I think it lies, I’ll let you think about that and work on it and I expect you’ll fix it.’ So it’s been good.”

Now Earnhardt Jr. has the confidence that the team can build off of what was successful last year. They won’t enter race weekends guessing as much as they did at the start of 2011.

They also started using some ideas from Kenny Francis, the former Red Bull Racing crew chief who, along with driver Kasey Kahne, joins Hendrick this season.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished seventh in the Chase but had no wins in 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)

“This past season gave us a lot of information that we’ll be able to work with,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We can go into a lot of races with a lot of expectations that we didn’t have this past year, a lot of anticipation about the cars, what we were fighting, what our problems were all race long and stuff like that.”

While there’s confidence, there also is still that nagging question of when will they win and what they will do to challenge more for a championship.

“There is comfort there but we have to do better,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We have to come in and we have to improve. Still there is some pressure, still some expectations that are higher than we had last year. So you feel some pressure there and some tension, but I think it’s quite positive.”

That positive feeling allowed Earnhardt Jr. to spend the offseason not worrying about his team. He didn’t spend it wondering if he will ever get out of the slump.

All he had to do was think about how to take what should be a competitive car to victory lane.

“I’m relaxed,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I had a good offseason and I didn’t really have a whole lot of things going on. All I’ve got to think about is doing better than I did last year and are we doing what we need to do as a team to do that. … I feel closer to winning races.

“I feel like the potential is there for us to make that happen, which is a good feeling, [one that] gives me a lot of confidence that this year could be the year we get it done.”

SceneDaily.com • Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya among host of NASCAR drivers competing in Rolex 24 At Daytona
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Bob Pockrass

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