Dale Jr.'s post-Chase healing tool may surprise you

“My fans have never really lashed out or shown displeasure at me. They’ve always been supportive even when they should’ve been lashing out at me and hard on me, but they’ve always had my back,” Earnhardt said Friday from Martinsville Speedway. “That definitely makes all this a lot easier, knowing that you’ve got a lot of people still believing in you, happy with what we did this year and can think positively like that, because that’s how you’ve got to be. I spent a lot of years just taking a bad run and letting it fester in the back of your mind for days and days, and it leads on into the next weekend.

“I’ll say this: Being on Twitter is a lot of things, but I get a real good understanding of where the fan base is through that interaction,” said the Hendrick Motorsports driver. “One thing that surprised me about it is it helps me, the support that I get through that single application single-handedly helps me rebound emotionally, and that’s so important to be able to put something behind you and move on to the next goal or next target. I was never good at really getting through something like that emotionally and getting onto the next thing and being focused, sharp and ready to go.

“If I’m out there racing, the fan reaction is the end result. It’s the win or the loss.”

Earnhardt’s year of promise met its match in the new-look Chase’s Contender Round, where his three races were fraught with pitfalls — a tire-related crash at Kansas, a broken shifter and deficit at Charlotte and a late-race wreck at Talladega. In seemingly a blink, the three-win season was without its ultimate crowning goal.

Still, Earnhardt was matter-of-fact in addressing his Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 crew on the cool-down lap at Talladega, saying he had four trophies left to attain down the season’s home stretch. Combined with the fan support, the new objective has helped to soothe any heartache and stoke hopes of carrying momentum into 2015.

“I had heard all season long that they believed that this was the year, this was it, we’re going to be in it all the way to the end, and to have fallen so short of our goal, I anticipated everyone to be very disappointed,” said Earnhardt, who gave his fans a midweek pep talk in his Dirty Mo Radio podcast this week. “Obviously there was some disappointment, but we’ve got some things to look forward to, still some racing left that they can cheer for and enjoy. We have some changes getting made in the offseason that they can get excited about and anticipate.”

Being relegated to the outside of the Chase picture, Earnhardt now has a new perspective on which drivers might make up the final four for the Sprint Cup Championship on Nov. 16 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. His rooting interests stay close to home, as he has thrown his support behind Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon‘s quest for a fifth title in NASCAR’s top series.

Still, he’s not ruling out any underdog candidates, which could prompt more interest in what’s been a compelling revamped Chase format thus far.

“I think there’s a couple of guys that will sneak in. I think there will be a couple of usual suspects that you would expect,” Earnhardt said. “I believe the Penske cars will be there at Homestead. I hope that Jeff’s there; I want Jeff to win the championship for Hendrick. I want to win all the races but definitely want to do all we can to help Jeff, but I also believe that someone will sneak in there and that will be a positive for the sport because this Chase provides that ability.

“Among a lot of things, it’s working as designed to bring a lot of attention and awareness to each of these races. It’s really brought a lot of storylines and great publicity, but also, when it comes down to who those four are, it’ll say a lot about how important this Chase has been and will become throughout the next several years.”

MORE: