Dale Jr.: Smooth Daytona bodes well for season

“I’ve got a new crew chief with Greg Ives and a new car chief, Travis Mack,” Earnhardt said on the “Dale Jr. Download” on Dirty Mo Radio. “Got some new engineers and over-the-wall guys. They were all ready to go, and everything went smooth. Every race went smooth. We never had a problem on pit road. Never had a miscommunication.”

Heading to Atlanta (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, FOX), where he has his best average finish (12.3) among NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuits, Earnhardt says an already strong team can even get better.

“I see a lot of areas where we can improve as we get to know each other and understand what each other is looking for and what each other needs out there,” Earnhardt said. “We can get a little better on our communication.

“But the team was really prepared. That says a lot about, not only Greg, but Chad (Knaus) and that whole (48/88) shop. Greg and Chad work real close together, and that says a lot about them being able to prepare those cars and those guys for that week and what they’re going to go through. I was real happy about that. That lets me know that Greg’s the right man for the job.”

Earnhardt enjoyed last Sunday’s season opener and said NASCAR’s rule package put racing back in the drivers’ hands.

“I had a real damn good time in the race (Sunday),” Earnhardt said. “Racing during the day with that package, that little tiny spoiler on the back, that’s the way to do it. Man, the cars are moving around and handling. The drivers are having to really work hard to position themselves to make runs. We were all running three-wide forever without a whole lot of problems.”

The two-time winner of the Great American Race looked back at the move that cost him track position late in the race and how he was able to make it back to the front with a shot to become the first driver in 20 years to win back-to-back Daytona 500s.

“I was in the bottom lane in third and Jimmie (Johnson) was on the outside as the control car,” Earnhardt said of the Lap 182 restart. “When we took off, there was room for me to move up behind Jimmie so I moved up behind him, and I thought I was in line. But the guys behind me jumped to my outside and the guys on the inside that I gave up the position for moved on the inside of me so now I’m in the middle on a restart. We’re not up to speed.

“This is a terrible situation to be in, and everybody just mowed by me and left me in the middle. Next thing I know, I was about 20th to 25th. Looking at nothing but rows of three-wide in front of me with nowhere to go.”

Right before the yellow flag flew for the next caution at Lap 199, Earnhardt explained how he was able to move from 20th back to the top 10.

“Finally with around 10 laps to go, the 51 got loose in the middle of (Turns) 3 and 4 and checked up the whole inside line and the middle line,” Earnhardt said. “The seas parted, and I made a move. I got to the middle, got a good run on some guys and passed a bunch of people. Then the caution came out for the 51 wrecking on the frontstretch, and I was eighth.”

On the final restart of the race for a green-white-checkered finish, Earnhardt said the outside line moved and allowed him to move up to third, where he finished when the race ended with a backstretch wreck on the white-flag lap.

Despite squandering a chance to capitalize on a winning race car last weekend, Earnhardt is looking forward to testing this week in advance of Atlanta’s first March race since 2010.

“We’ve got a couple days off, and we’re going to be practicing Atlanta Thursday, preparing for the race this weekend,” Earnhardt said. “I’m looking forward to getting the rest of this season going. Twenty-six races in the regular season. One down, 25 to go. Try to make that Chase. Get some checkered flags and celebrate some wins.”

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