Frustrated Earnhardt searching in Contender Round

The mixed results have brought mixed reactions. Good enough to advance to the next round, which begins with this weekend’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas (2 p.m. ET, ESPN), but also average enough to raise some eyebrows.

There haven’t been wholesale changes, a rollout of completely new vehicles yet to be tested or deviations in strategy going into this year’s Chase. Instead, it’s been a mix of the tried and true with the new and improved from crew chief Steve Letarte.

“We’ve had the setups that are not really that far out of the box compared to our teammates, so it’s a bit concerning,” Earnhardt Jr., 39, said. “We don’t really know exactly why we’re not fast or where the speed is at. The cars haven’t driven great and the speed has been down.”

All four Hendrick drivers advanced into the Contender Round, with Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne joining Earnhardt Jr. as the field of now 12 begins the next three-race segment. Points have been adjusted and all 12 start out on equal ground. Such a reset makes the results of the previous week a bit easier to digest, Earnhardt Jr. said.

“You can just forget about the last three races,” he said. “You get a fresh start. That helps everybody’s attitude a lot. We’re kind of out of the hole … a little bit.

“Right or wrong, we get to go into the next race even with everybody and get a great shot at trying to move on. We’re definitely getting every opportunity to stay in the middle of this battle for the championship. Like I said, I’m hoping we can break this streak or slump and get going here.”

He’ll approach the next three races — Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega — with “a new sense of urgency,” he said, and perhaps a more aggressive strategy on pit road when the opportunity presents itself.

But as for the tracks themselves?

“We raced at Kansas in May and that was an awful long time ago,” he said. “I don’t know who you can expect to be quick, how much teams have advanced or learned since the last trip there. We finished fifth, ran third in the race, ran pretty good the last time we were there but the whole landscape has changed as far as competition goes since that last race there. I don’t really know what to expect; I just hope we’re quick.”

Dover wasn’t an anomaly. Combined with Chicago and New Hampshire, and maybe even a race or two before that, it’s bordering on a trend. But while he says the team is “off our game a little bit,” Earnhardt Jr. knows the tools and talent are there to recover.

“The potential for us to run well is there, we know we can do it, we’ve been able to be competitive,” he said. “I just think we need to look around at what we can see is working, try to utilize and lean on that information as best we can. Try to be open-minded.

“Again, we need to be willing to make gambles and risks with our strategy and try to do things that’s going to pay off for us in the long run over a race day. We were really good at making those risks pay off throughout the season and I think that’s going to be part of what we need to do in the Chase and I think Steve feels the same way.”

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