CUP: Earnhardt Jr. Sees End To Streak Of Frustration

Sprint Cup

CUP: Earnhardt Jr. Sees End To Streak Of Frustration

Dale Earnhardt Jr. hoping to end a run that has him winless in 129 straight races…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 25, 2012 Concord, NC

Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks to the press during the 2012 NASCAR Media Tour in Charlotte, NC. (Photo: Tom Jensen, SPEED)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. came close – agonizingly, frustratingly, painfully close, for his fans – to winning two Sprint Car races last season.

He had a strong race in April at Martinsville and held the lead with four laps to go, but Kevin Harvick motored around him to take the win.

Earnhardt Jr. led near the end of the grueling Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May but ran out of fuel on the final lap, Harvick again stepping in to grab first. Junior limped to seventh.

Those near-misses, although disappointments, provide some fuel for thought for Junior as he rolls into the 2012 season looking to end a streak of 129 winless races.

“That was an ‘up’ side because we hadn’t come that close to winning races before,” he said. “Whether it was our strong performance or Steve’s (crew chief Steve Letarte) strategy, he’s given me the chance I didn’t have. I feel closer to winning than I felt before.”

Letarte, tossed the assignment last year of resurrecting Junior’s career by team owner Rick Hendrick, said the Martinsville and Charlotte situations produced some positives but that he prefers to move on from all that.

“It doesn’t matter how close you were; we didn’t win,” he said. “Last year’s over. I have the stat sheet. That [win] column has a zero. It doesn’t matter if we were leading off turn four at the 600 or not, it’s still a zero.

“I’m proud of leading off turn four. I’m proud of almost winning a race. But to hang our hat on that is absolutely a waste of time. That day is over, and there wasn’t a trophy at the end of it.”

Earnhardt Jr. said Letarte urged him to change his approach to race weekends last season and that the results of that transformation should give the team a stronger foundation this year.

“He had me filling out forms and giving him information about the car after the races,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I was sitting in on the discussions about the car in the garage area. As soon as I got to the truck in the morning, I never left the garage area until the day was over. I never did that [previously] in my career. I always went back to the bus between practices. And I was never there early.”

Earnhardt Jr., a notorious night owl, initially didn’t care for Letarte’s structured approach – particularly the concept that the driver should be in the garage area at the start of the day’s work.

“He wanted me there early,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I was grumbling about it at first. And he was like, ‘Man, that’s the deal.’ Once we started doing it, I understood it. I found that place to be enjoyable and wanted to be there.

“I don’t think I was realizing my full potential. I think he made me understand those things that I thought were trivial are important to him and his ability to do his job.”

Earnhardt Jr. said he has encouraged Letarte to continue to use a strict approach.

“He deserves a lot of credit,” Junior said. “This is a tough gig for him, and he’s done well with it. The guy he was last year was perfect. The more of that, the better.”

Last year, although Earnhardt Jr. finished seventh in the Chase, he was the only driver in the series’ top 14 without a win.

That must change, Letarte said.

“We were the only team in the Chase with a zero in that column,” he said. “I’m proud to say that because we were in the Chase. We had a very, very good year last year. We want to have a great year this year. The only way to do that is if that column doesn’t have a zero.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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