RELATED: Dale Jr. signs deal with NBC | Buy tickets for Dover races
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Chris Buescher and Landon Cassill spent their Tuesday conducting a Goodyear tire test at Dover International Speedway.
With six races remaining to set the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff field, Earnhardt is still looking for a regular-season win and is coming off a disappointing 36th-place showing at Indianapolis on Sunday. However, he reiterated he still has full confidence in his Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet crew, and this week he used his vast social media following to defend crew chief Greg Ives from naysayers.
“For folks talkin down on Greg Ives, ya’ll need to shut THAT (expletive) down. He never gave up on me. We are a tight group and will finish together,” Earnhardt posted Sunday on Twitter.
And, he added in a reply, “Maybe it’s not worth mentioning here. But I don’t like anyone implying otherwise. He’s my guy. Extremely talented.”
Earnhardt was asked Tuesday at the Monster Mile about his very public vote of confidence for Ives, and the fact he felt he needed to remind his massive fandom that he stands firmly with his crew for the victories and the challenges.
“We’ve had a difficult year,” Earnhardt said during a break in testing for the upcoming tripleheader playoff weekend at the 1-mile concrete oval on Sept. 29-Oct. 1. “And it was just a little rumbling in the background from fans and they love to target the crew chief. Our struggles are no one individual’s responsibility.
“I think that being my crew chief, we have such a passionate fan base and such a large fan base, it’s a challenging position. I’ve seen that with all the guys I’ve worked with. … They really get picked apart.”
Earnhardt announced Monday he would join the NBC broadcast booth in 2018 after stepping out of the car at the conclusion of the season. And he acknowledged his team has some work to do in the final six regular-season races in order for him to earn a shot in NASCAR’s playoffs.
He’s had only one top-five finish this season and four top 10s through the first 20 races. However, Earnhardt’s team won the pole for the July race in Daytona Beach and two of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet’s top-10 finishes have come this summer.
“We’ve had some pretty difficult results and a lot of opportunity to be frustrated and miserable,” Earnhardt said. “But I don’t want this season to be remembered by my crew chief, myself, or my guys as a miserable time. And the fans have an influence on that. They can definitely ease up a little bit on Greg and realize he’s extremely talented and he’s in that position for a reason.
“He’ll have incredible success beyond my driving career as a crew chief at HMS. … he won a championship with Chase (Elliott) in the XFINITY Series and he won five championships with Jimmie Johnson, as his lead engineer.
“Maybe Twitter isn’t the place to draw attention to things like that, but you just hear chatter over a long period of time. I feel like you have to stand up for your guys. It’s not OK to be a fan and dog the crew. You’re a fan of the team and it’s important they embrace the crew chief, the guys on the crew, the mechanics, the tire changers.
“They’ve got to embrace the whole team.”