Veteran: Saturday at Chicagoland 'was awful,' must improve as Chase goes on
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. got off to a solid, but not spectacular start in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup's Challenger Round at Chicagoland Speedway. Earnhardt spent most of the afternoon in the top 10, ran some of the day in the top five but came away with an 11th-place finish.
The finish itself may have left a little to be desired, but what bugged Junior was the No. 88 team's struggles in practice. Talking on "The Dale Jr. Download" as part of Dirty Mo Radio, Earnhardt lamented the fact the team couldn't find a rhythm in practice.
"To be honest, Saturday was awful," Earnhardt said. "We weren't anywhere we needed to be. We were about two-tenths off of the guys that I thought were going to run well. Two-tenths is a chunk of time, so I was getting very worried."
Junior finished in ninth in the second practice, but dropped to 26th in final practice.
"The third and final practice we had all kinds of problems with the engine and the spark plug. And then we went out there and preceded to stink it up and run all kinds of terrible laps."
For the owner of three wins in 2014, Earnhardt sounded a bit frustrated with the practice struggles.
"We don't practice well. We never do but we always race well. Even if we practice decent, I know it's going to be a great race. Because we always race just fine. We just don't practice, don't qualify well. I don't know why that is. Wish I had an answer for you but trust me, it's an unpleasant experience to have to struggle through practice and worry whether that's a reflection of how the race is going to go."
Earnhardt praised crew chief Steve Letarte and the team's engineers for the work they did from the end of Saturday's final practice to the start of Sunday's MyAFibStory.com 400 and is hopeful he can have a good feeling all weekend long next time out.
"I want it to be good on Saturday. I want to run Saturday and go, 'Man we got a nice car, we got a good car.' "
Earnhardt will enter this weekend's second race of the Challenger Round, the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, ESPN), in fifth place in the standings. In 30 starts at the Magic Mile, Earnhardt has seven top-five finishes and 13 top-10 finishes. In the summer race at Loudon, Earnhardt earned a 10th-place finish.
That type of result would serve Junior well in the Challenger Round, but he knows more is needed as the Chase goes on.
"Maybe this first round we can get by with finishing 11th, but Round 2 you are not going to make it. I know that. We need to improve a little bit there."
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