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April 19, 2009
Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s Woes Continue in Phoenix
Yet again Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and the #88 team show that they're far from a Championship team. This time during last night's race in Phoenix there was a missed lugnut on a pit stop which put Junior deep in the pack unable to pass and in danger of being lapped due to a non-competitive car. During the caution for the Robby Gordon-Michael Waltrip incident Tony Eury, Jr. made the decision to keep Junior out when most of the rest of the field pitted, always a risky decision but for a while it worked out as Junior was able to twice lead laps for a total of 62 laps. After he was passed by teammate Mark Martin, what seemed like a good decision proved to be a very bad one - Junior rapidly dropped back and appeared to be in desperate need of a pit stop, which had it come under green would probably have put him a lap or more down.
But Junior never got a chance to pit - Casey Mears made himself public enemy #1 to the Junior Nation by running him over on lap 300 which put Junior into the wall. At the end of the race on the cool-down lap Junior made his displeasure known by spinning Casey, which appears to be completely acceptable to everyone including NASCAR who didn't even bother to call Junior in for a chat after the race, but is unacceptable to me. While I understand that drivers sometimes feel the need to send a message to each other or let their emotions get the best of them and lash out, I don't think there's ever an excuse for drivers to use their cars as weapons against each other. It's disappointing to me that NASCAR, likely in the spirit of trying to appease fans and encourage more emotion in the sport - didn't take issue with what Junior did.
Junior is lashing out at the wrong person - Casey isn't the cause of his woes this season. Neither Junior nor his team seems to have their heads in the game as there are constant mistakes and bad decisions. What's a bad sign to me about the #88 team is that there were changes made to his pit crew in an effort to improve their performance on pit stops and there was still a problem. And what makes their issues even more glaring is that the other three Hendrick Motorsports teams are performing at an extremely high level with all of them winning a race this season. If the performance of the #88 team continues to be as bad as it has been not only will they miss the Chase but I can't see them ending up in Victory Lane either.
There's a lot of speculation that Tony Eury, Jr. is going to be replaced as Junior's crew chief - if Rick Hendrick does that he would only be giving in to pressure from the fans and the media not necessarily doing what's best for the #88 team. Junior has stated over and over his preference to work with his cousin and crew chief changes haven't worked out well for for him in the past. So if a change is made and Junior's not in favor of it I can't see the performance of the #88 team improving much. Junior is a talented driver and the #88 team is made up of some of the best people in the garage area but I think they're letting the pressure get to them. So I think the only way for them to improve is going to come from within - they need to somehow block out the distractions and focus on their task at hand - eliminating mistakes, making better decisions, working together well as a team and getting the best possible results.
Posted by silverdsl at April 19, 2009 03:28 PM
Comments
I was listening to Casey's scanner for the last few laps of the race and not watching TV. I couldn't believe when someone said "Did Jr just spin you out?" I was like WTH? Yes, Casey spun Jr out...but it was a racing incident and Casey had apologized right after the accident...he said he wheel hopped it in the corner.
I can't believe that neither one of them were called to the hauler. I even expected Casey to get in a little bit of trouble for passing cars on pitroad to get to Jr to bump him. But not even a chit chat? Dare I say that it had more to do with the WHO involved then the stance that NASCAR wants drivers to show more emotion. Because had it been Kyle Busch doing the spinning, he would haven't even made it into the garage area before NASCAR had hauled his butt out of his car and into the Oval Office.
But there was no doubt that Jr was frustrated and took it out on Casey. And Casey probably was an easy target because of his laid back nature and Jr thought that he would get away with it. But every once in awhile, Casey will show that he won't take no guff from anyone....and I'm sure was surprised when Casey came back at him...much the same way Newman was surprised when Casey confronted him a few years ago in the motor coach lot at Martinsville.
I'm not sure what needs to be done to help Jr...but it needs to start with Jr...he really needs to suck it up and take his share of the blame and get his head in the game!
Posted by: Carol at April 19, 2009 07:35 PM
While I understand that Junior was frustrated I was pretty surprised to find out that he had retaliated against Casey - seems out of proportion to what actually happened. It's not like Casey did it deliberately or anything.
Junior does need to look at his role in the team's issues - if he's not able to do that they're going to have a hard time getting better.
Posted by: silverdsl at April 19, 2009 10:46 PM
Frankly, Jr was lucky Casey spun him out, because at least he could use that for another week as an excuse for his pitiful performance.
It is absolutely ridiculous that they didn't even get a stern talking to or a slap on the wrist....
Posted by: Rachel at April 20, 2009 11:14 AM
Mike Mulhern (not always the most reliable source of information) is reporting on his website that NASCAR will in fact be penalizing Junior and Casey for what happened post-race. But we'll see if that actually happens - I don't remember NASCAR doing much about stuff like that recently so if there's any penalty it'll probably be minimal.
Posted by: silverdsl at April 20, 2009 11:20 AM
A post from Ramsey Poston....NASCAR's PR guy...on a Jim Utter story on That's Racin...
FROM NASCAR: I announced in the media center on Saturday night that there would not be penalties for the 88 or 07. For some reason Mike Mulhern chose to report the opposite. It's the kind of shoddy journalism that gives the rest of the media a bad name and is unfair to the fans and the teams involved.
Ramsey Poston
NASCAR PR
And LOL @ Rachel on the excuse thing....I guess Chocolate Myers said the same thing today on the Sirius radio show he is on.
Thank goodness that Casey didn't get penalized...although I was digging through couches for spare change to help him pay his fine if he did. LOL!
Posted by: Carol at April 20, 2009 07:51 PM