Improving the car more important now than highest possible finish
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BROOKLYN, Mich. – Consider the summer stretch of races one long test session. When you've got the fastest car or the strategy falls your way, go for the win.
When you don't, or it doesn't, learn as much as you can. Second or fifth or eighth or whatever, if it's not a win, make it a lesson and move on.
At least that seems to be the approach for Dale Earnhardt Jr., the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series most popular driver and one of 10 drivers who already have a win this season.
His victory earlier this season at Talladega Superspeedway likely guarantees the Hendrick Motorsports driver one of the 16 spots in this year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
He'll still race for wins between now and the cutoff race this September in Richmond. But being as prepared as possible when the Chase arrives is his focus.
Maybe it was Sunday's second-place finish to Stewart-Haas Racing's Kurt Busch at Michigan International Speedway that resulted in his outlook, but whatever the reason, Earnhardt said he "just ain't going to worry about it."
"We've always done well during the first 26 races and never done well in the Chase, so I'm just concentrating on the Chase now that we're locked in," he said.
The No. 88 team, led by crew chief Greg Ives, will still be trying to win as often as cars are on the track, but "(if) we don't win them, it doesn't really matter to me where we finish just as long as we've got fast cars and we're understanding how to get better," Earnhardt said.
The 40-year-old has qualified for the 10-race Chase for four straight seasons and seven overall. But he's cracked the top five in the final points standings just once in recent years, failing to contend for the title with each opportunity.
Perhaps a different approach will provide better opportunities and produce the desired results.
"Over the last several years we've been as good or better than anybody during the regular season and … just haven't showed up in the Chase," he said. "I told my guys after Pocono when we ran 11th with about a third‑place car that I wasn't going to worry about finishes and I wasn't going to worry about trying to get everything I can on finishes. I was just going to go to the track, try to win, try to learn. We need to make sure when we get to the Chase we understand everything we can about the car and how to deliver the best car every week.
"Trying to be as consistent as you can and finish as well as you can, (that) can kind of mask some of your weaknesses, I guess. You can forget that you need to work."
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Sunday's runner-up finish was Earnhardt's eighth top-five of the year. A good long-run car didn't get a lot of opportunities to hit its stride in a race that was interrupted early and often – there were three cautions in the first 54 laps, and red-flag delays due to rain ate up more than two hours of scheduled on-track time.
"When it came to the restarts, we didn't take off as well as the 41 (of Busch)," Earnhardt said. "We saw the same thing at Charlotte, the 78 (of Martin Truex Jr.) and the 41 take off real good. We were just kind of tight waiting on the front to work, don't have the good speed that they have the first three or four laps, and that was the difference, (that) and the 4 (Kevin Harvick) having the trouble he had. He had the field covered. I think on the long run, again, we were one of the best cars."
The on-again, off-again status of Sunday's race was annoying, but didn't hinder the team, according to Ives. Everyone was dealt the same hand.
"I think it was actually good for us," said Ives, 15 races into his first season as a Sprint Cup crew chief. "I think we do a great job as a team trying to stay focused on what it is at hand.
"Dale comes to the pit box and we discuss racing. We're only here to win races, so him coming back and telling us what the car's doing so we can come back and adjust on it where we need to get better and kind of lay out our strategy a bit for him … when that happens, it kind of keeps the team focused on what we need to do."