Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "I'll just go into each one of these races and take it one lap at a time." Credit: Autostock

Earnhardt Jr. not playing the numbers game

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- If elections officials need a hand in counting ballots this week, don't ask Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Well, sure, he's going to be a little busy racing at Phoenix International Raceway this weekend, but that's not the real reason.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. •   Driver Page •   2004 Stats •   Merchandise •   Article Archive •   Gillette Young Guns Challenge

Earnhardt Jr., fifth in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, has been through these championship battles before. His father won seven titles and contended for several more.

Back then, Earnhardt Jr. counted points and ran the scenarios through his head. He did it so many times his head hurt.

So now that he's 98 points out of the Nextel Cup points lead, he refuses to do it again.

"I can't really focus on where things are and who's where, how many points I need here and there, whatever," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I mean, that gets old anyways. I've been around. Shoot, I watched Daddy deal with championships and I've counted points a million times for him. That just wears you out. It's not much fun.

"What's fun is getting out there and giving her hell, you know, just going at it. That's what we're going to do."

That means Earnhardt Jr. and his team will let the points fall where they may. And he'll surely let someone else count them.

"I'll just go into each one of these races and take it one lap at a time," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I know, No. 1, if anybody on my team is listening, I think they'll agree that we have to run each lap in practice one at a time, find out what the car's doing and have the best car we can have each day.

Two 33rd-place finishes -- two DNFs -- are haunting Dale Earnhardt Jr. Credit: Autostock

"For us to win or have an opportunity to win, we can't get a top-10 any more, we can't get a top-five, we need to win one or two of these races convincingly. We need to lead a lot of laps, lead in all three of them. We need to be in front. If I can finish in the top three in these last three races, I would consider that the best we could have put forth and best effort we could have put forth."

The effort has been pretty solid in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, even if the results haven't lately. The first five races were good, as Earnhardt Jr. finished in the top 10 each time, putting him second behind Kurt Busch.

But Martinsville and Atlanta were disasters, with Junior failing to finish either race and posting a 33rd-place result in both events.

"I was racing for points when we first came into the Chase and we got good finishes and stuff," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We were doing good. Then we went to Martinsville, and the car wasn't any good. We couldn't do anything right. We had a lot of problems. It was pretty much worthless to race for points, you know, after that, when you get back to 125 behind.

CHASE FOR THE NEXTEL CUP •   Inside the Chase •   Superstore: Chase driver gear •   Official Standings •   Expanded access to the Chase on TrackPass

"We had a bad weekend again, yet we gained ground. It wasn't a disaster, you know. But I'm 98 points out and I'm racing four or five guys instead of one or two. You know, really, we've got to race hard."

That's what he was doing in last Sunday's Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway while racing Carl Edwards for third place. But Earnhardt Jr. admitted he was racing a little too hard when he tried to move in front of Edwards off Turn 2.

The result? The two made contact, with Earnhardt Jr. moving up the track into Edwards, sending Junior spinning into the inside wall.

"I was pretty disappointed with the way things went Sunday," Earnhardt Jr. said. "You know, just racing harder than -- I don't know, I guess I raced harder than I should have. I ended up in the wall. But I was kind of having a hard time justifying to myself whether what I was doing was what I was supposed to be doing. It's an age-old question of, 'Well, you should have just got the points or you should have just chilled out.'

"But, man, I had an opportunity. I saw an opportunity to win. We just got my car really good right then. I thought we had a good enough car to challenge Jimmie (Johnson). I knew he was going to get up there and get clean air and I had to really run hard to get there as soon as I could.

"I don't know, just got to racing too hard. Didn't cut Carl any slack. He didn't cut me any slack. You know, that's what you're both doing at that time. Every once in a while, you'll get wrecked.

"But if it happened any other time in my career, I guess it wouldn't be such a big deal. But being where we are in the points chase, it's a pretty big deal to a lot of people."