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closeJunior gets little help from his Hendrick friends
JIM UTTER
The Charlotte Observer
Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – By the time Dale Earnhardt Jr. got into position to try and pull out a win in Sunday’s Daytona 500, he found himself all alone.
One by one, Earnhardt Jr.’s new Hendrick Motorsports teammates were forced to leave the track and head to the garage.
Jeff Gordon suffered a suspension failure. Jimmie Johnson got caught up in an accident on Lap 177 of 200. Casey Mears was running in the top five late in the race when he cut a tire and slammed into the wall.
Earnhardt Jr., stayed out twice while other lead-lap cars pitted late in the race, but still managed to finish ninth. That would be Hendrick’s best finish on this wild day at Daytona International Speedway.
“I can’t really remember the last few laps. I was just kind of stuck,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The guys on the outside (groove) made great moves to get there.
“Ryan (Newman) and those guys did exactly what they needed to do to win. They made some good choices at the end and that is the difference between where we finished and where they finished.”
Earnhardt Jr. had been on a roll during his first Speedweeks with Hendrick Motorsports. He took the Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 9 and on Thursday won his Gatorade Duel qualifying race.
"I am real proud of Hendrick and the effort they gave me because I have had a great time this Speedweeks,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I think the year is going to be like that and I am really going to enjoy it.
“We are pretty proud. We are going to build on this. This is a great finish for us to start the season. I think we are going to have a lot of fun this year.”
Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Tony Eury Jr., decided to roll the dice on some pit strategy late in the race. When most lead-lap cars elected to pit under caution on Lap 178, Earnhardt Jr. stayed on the track. He did so again during another caution with 15 laps remaining.
“I would have loved to have had four tires. Then we would have been able to come up back through there,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
“We hadn’t been great all night. We had been OK and we were hanging on really, to fifth place most of the day.
“I don’t think we could have driven up by (Kyle Busch) or (Tony Stewart), the guys that were outrunning us all day. I needed to be in front of them.”
Eury Jr. said with the cautions that fell late in the race, Earnhardt Jr. had more tire wear from green-flag racing on his No. 88 Chevrolet than he had during any other run in the race.
“The first two sets of tires, the right-front and right-rear, had a few blisters on them, but the third time we pitted they were absolutely perfect, and that’s the way they were the rest of the night,” Eury Jr. said.
“We only had 37 green-flag laps on the tires at the end. We were in the same boat we were the rest of the race. I thought track position was more important. I think we were fine.”
While Earnhardt Jr. left with a top-10 finish, the remaining Hendrick teams were left to regroup for next week’s race at California. Johnson finished 27th, Mears was 35th and Gordon 39th.
“We have been working hard at the shop to prevent this kind of thing from happening. It is really a product of the type of suspension in these cars with these bump stops,” said Gordon.
“It is just so hard, especially on a track like this. It wasn’t safe for us to be out there.”