Hendrick spending extra time with Junior over radio (cont'd)

Hendrick's soothing tone seemed to calm Earnhardt, who eventually worked his way past some of the cars in front of him to fifth. Afterward, Earnhardt, Hendrick and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. deemed that a good enough start to the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Earnhardt was fourth in the standings coming into Sunday's Sylvania 300 -- and he was fourth coming out of it. But he gained 20 points on the leaders, as he now trails co-leaders Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson by 50. He was 70 points behind then-leader Kyle Busch entering Sunday.

"We did exactly what our goal was -- to come here and run top five, run strong and lead laps, and that's what we did," Eury said. "So it's disappointing because everybody wants to win every week; but realistically, top-fives every week would make me happy."

Earnhardt added: "I'm happy. I felt like I did a good job and our guys did a good job. It's one of them deals where you go in and all you want to be able to say when you leave is you got what you deserved."

But still, there was that set of tires that infuriated Earnhardt during the race.

Hendrick did his best to talk Earnhardt down from the ledge, but there is some question as to how successful he really was. In any case, he intends to continue playing radio therapist whenever Earnhardt gets ugly toward Eury or the crew or simply life in general if a race steers some adversity toward the No. 88 team's direction.

"If you let things get to you, you will not win this Chase," Hendrick said. "If you turn all the negatives into positives, if you have a bad race and just go back and try to say how can we be a little bit better in every category -- whether it is the chassis, motor, pit crew or whatever -- those are the guys that are going to win it.

"It's just like a basketball game. Guys lead, lead, lead and then choke. You can't choke. That's what I'm trying to get them not to do."

Earnhardt led 79 laps on Sunday, second only to the 96 led by fellow Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson. Yet Greg Biffle won the race in the No. 16 Ford he drives for Roush Fenway Racing.

“

Once I'm on the ledge, it's hard to get me off of it. I don't know if even Rick's got what it takes to do that. I just said what I had to say to appease him, make him think I was calm.

”

DALE EARNHARDT JR.

Earnhardt did not sound repentant for his radio outburst, but then most of his crew -- and even Hendrick -- appear to have grown used to him blowing off steam in that colorful and passionate manner.

"Once I'm on the ledge, it's hard to get me off of it. I don't know if even Rick's got what it takes to do that. I just said what I had to say to appease him, make him think I was calm," Earnhardt said.

"I like getting riled up. It motivates me. I drive better when I'm ticked off, and racin' usually ticks you off."

Nonetheless, Eury said that he welcomes Hendrick's involvement on the radio during races.

"I don't know. It's kind of different -- because if I talk to him, I'm too much like a big brother talkin' to him," Eury said. "So it's nice to have your boss man there, who has a lot of experience and knowledge. Dale Jr. respects him a whole lot. That's what's cool. You get somebody with that much respect on your tool box to talk to him, telling him things are going to be all right. It makes a world of difference. I can talk to him until I'm blue in the face -- but when Rick says it, it just comes across different."

Hendrick added whatever the outside perceptions of Earnhardt's first season with his operation, he contends that it already has been a success. He pointed out that not only has Earnhardt solidly been in the top five in points all year, but he won two non-points races at the beginning of it (a 125-mile qualifying race for the Daytona 500, plus the Bud Shootout) and won his first points race in more than two years at Michigan in June.

"We're actually having fun teasing each other. The fans probably think [Earnhardt] really wants to rip Tony apart; then he gets out of the car and wants to hug him. If [Earnhardt] could just focus, he's got a real shot at this thing," Hendrick said.

"I told him when the race started our objective was to win a race this year. We won three. We should have won a couple of more. Two of them weren't point races. The second objective was to be in the Chase. OK, we're in the Chase. Now we've gotten one [Chase race] under our belt. We've got to be right there in striking distance."

Hendrick intends to be there every step of the way -- on the radio, whenever he thinks he needs to be. He's been playing the role of radio therapist since the Bristol race on Aug. 25.

"I'm going to stay right with him every race," Hendrick said. "I love his enthusiasm and his grit. But I want him to focus in the middle of the race and tell us what the car needs. We're having fun with it. He calls me at the end of the first week we did it and says, 'Hey, I love that. That pumps me up.'

"As long as his fans don't want to lynch me, we'll be all right."