Hendrick driver gives honest assessment of where organization is right now
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LONG POND, Pa. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the only driver other than Kyle Busch to win one of the past five NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
However, the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is aware that the four-team organization he calls home has been a bit off in recent weeks, especially compared to that of Joe Gibbs Racing, in its first year of fielding four cars.
“I think you got to be honest with yourself,” Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Pocono. “The Gibbs guys have found more speed. They look like over the last couple of weeks to be a lot stronger and that we’re not on top of the mountain anymore, by ourselves anymore at least. They found some speed and we need to combat that with speed of our own.”
In the past five races, JGR has four wins (all by Busch) and nine top fives. During that same stretch, Hendrick has just one win and three top fives (Earnhardt won at Daytona and has another top-five finish).
And since that win at Daytona, Hendrick Motorsports as an organization has led just two laps in the past three races, while JGR has led 330.
“It’s business as usual as far as I can see,” Earnhardt said. “We definitely understand when we don’t perform well. Last week was frustrating. I don’t think we’ve been too thrilled over the last month about how things have gone for us. From Rick (Hendrick) on down, you get the impression that things need to be better and everyone needs to work harder.
“We have meetings every Tuesday. We had that meeting with the team and then we have a meeting that all the drivers and the crew chiefs are together, Rick’s there. We have that meeting every Tuesday and everybody, whether we are all running great, we talk about how to get better. And if we aren’t running well at all, we talk about how to get better. Even when things are going good, you see areas where you need to keep working. Because you know it cycles in this sport.”
Things do indeed cycle around. Last season, Hendrick won 13 races to JGR’s two. And this season both organizations have six wins. As things stand now, if Busch can get into the top 30 in points by the regular-season finale at Richmond, JGR will likely send all four of its drivers into the Chase. And while Jimmie Johnson and Earnhardt have clinched spots in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne are still looking for that elusive win, although each hold spots in the provisional Chase Grid based on their point positions.
“It’s a never-ending pursuit to build the fastest race car week in, week out,” Earnhardt said. “And it looks like right now it’s a mad scramble to get ready for the Chase. I’d love to be sitting here three-tenths faster than everybody and fighting only my teammates for the win. We need to work a little harder to get a little more and be ready for the Chase to be able to get out there and compete.
“It definitely looks like our competition has improved and so I think we can be honest with ourselves. We definitely aren’t where we want to be. But I’ve seen it before. These guys are working on it every single day trying to find that speed and make that difference back up and put ourselves back to have the advantage on the straightaways and in the corners. I’m not too worried about it. We got the best resources. We got the best bossman, and he doesn’t quit and he doesn’t settle for second. He’s in there pushing everybody everyday.”
The sport’s most popular driver will look to turn the recent fortunes of the organization around on Sunday in the Windows 10 400 (1:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) at Pocono Raceway where he qualified 15th.
Junior has a favorable history in recent years at Pocono, completing the season sweep of both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events last year, and has four top fives in his past five races here. In June, he finished 11th in a race won by Martin Truex Jr, which snapped a five-race win streak at Pocono for Hendrick.
After finishing the opening practice session in 14th place, Earnhardt was a bit disappointed but said the team learned what was needed for race trim.
“We will see what we have (Saturday),” said Earnhardt. “I’m really anxious to get ourselves back into race trim for those practices (Saturday) and see how we can sort our stuff out and see where we really are. We’ve always run good here, there shouldn’t be any issues. We showed up with some issues. I’m anxious to get to work on the car and see where we can figure out where we are going to be and be competitive.”