RELATED: Texas race results
FORT WORTH, Texas — Dale Earnhardt Jr. was hot and happy when he climbed out of his No. 88 Axalta Chevy on Texas Motor Speedway’s pit road Sunday afternoon.
Wiping his brow and his neck with a cool towel, Earnhardt smiled and leaned against his car, ready to talk about a hard-fought, fifth-place finish in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. It was his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series top five since a runner-up effort last June at Pocono Raceway.
“We needed this bad,” a smiling Earnhardt said.
Temperatures were in the mid-80s outside the car and much hotter inside during the course of the 334-lap race. Even Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate — race winner Jimmie Johnson — needed fluids after his Victory Lane celebration.
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“It was kind of like a vacuum, pulling air out of helmet going down one side of the track so I just ran with the visor up all day,” Earnhardt said. “I was glad to see that late caution so I could get some Gatorade and cool off a little bit. It was hot.”
Earnhardt talked about being a little more prepared for the weather conditions, thanks to a new physical fitness program he’s been enjoying with the encouragement of his teammate Johnson. Earnhardt said he rode his bike 20 miles on both Friday and Saturday.
“Jimmie rode like 100 miles, though,” he added quickly with a grin.
And while Earnhardt didn’t hoist any hardware this week, he still felt encouraged, back on course.
The fifth-place showing was a marked uptick in performance. He hadn’t had a top-10 finish since returning to competition full time this year after missing the second half of 2016 recovering from concussion symptoms.
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His previous best finish this season was 14th at Phoenix. He also has three finishes of 30th or worse. The Texas result actually vaulted him five positions in the standings to 20th place.
“I figured we’d get one sooner or later, but it’s nice,” Earnhardt said. “I know our fans are pulling for us. Could have finished a little better, but we’ll take a top five.”
The longtime reigning Most Popular Driver in the series readily conceded the result was a perfect send-off for NASCAR’s Easter off-week. Having been out of the car for half of the last season and still struggling for a top 10 coming into April, Earnhardt was visibly encouraged with the Texas showing.
“Confidence is probably half the battle for me,” he allowed. “I need all I can get to have a shot. If I don’t believe in it and have confidence in it, it’s hard for me to go for it and drive with confidence. Me and (crew chief) Greg (Ives) have been talking about that all offseason and yesterday. We talked about getting the confidence on restarts and I think we had it today. He was great at giving me some input to get the car working good.”
Earnhardt said he was certain the showing not only capped a good weekend but perhaps launched a return to form.
“We haven’t had a top-five finish since like four races before we stopped racing last year,” Earnhardt said. “This is great for us and the guys are excited. It was big for us.
“I will say this about our team: We spend a lot of time communicating during the week. With what we’ve been through last year and this year especially, it would have been easy for a lot of those guys to give up and not really keep pulling their work. But we’ve motivated each other.
“We need to be ready when the car is there, and we were today.”