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Dale Earnhardt Jr. seemed calm and collected for a driver about to make his final regular-season start without his regular crew chief atop the pit box. And that good zen, he insists, actually says a lot about his No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet team.
“I think we’re going to be fine,” Earnhardt said Friday at Richmond Raceway, insisting the back-up plan for his team relies on a lot of competent people — some perhaps getting a prime-time opportunity to shine and to step up.
NASCAR suspended Earnhardt’s regular crew chief Greg Ives for Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400 regular-season finale after Earnhardt’s car was found to have a safety violation (improperly installed lug nuts) after last weekend’s race at Darlington Raceway.
In Ives’ place is longtime Hendrick employee Travis Mack, 34, Earnhardt’s current car chief and a former XFINITY Series championship crew chief at JR Motorsports while working with Chase Elliott.
Earnhardt seemed very confident in Mack’s ability to handle the crew chief duties this weekend.
“I like him a lot,” Earnhardt said. “When we got the news about Greg, I said, ‘I think Travis is the guy you put in charge.'”
Further, Earnhardt said, “I think Travis certainly paid his dues and has a ton of ambition. It’s like you’re pulling the reins on him all the time, saying, ‘Be patient. Your time is coming. You’re going to get these opportunities.’
“He’s just all the time seeking out what he needs to be doing and who he needs to be talking to. He asks for advice all the time. …I’ve worked with him a long time and he’s always been a very productive employee. He takes care of the company which is important.”
Despite his calm demeanor, the 42-year old Earnhardt acknowledged this is a crucial weekend for his team. Ranked 22nd in the points standings – well below the 16th-place final playoff spot – and without a playoff-qualifying win so far, Earnhardt will need to hoist some hardware Saturday night to close out his Cup career with a shot at a title.
He has three wins at Richmond – all in the spring race – and he hasn’t won here since 2006.
He finished 30th here in May, however finished fourth in his last start in this race in 2015 (he missed last year’s race recovering from a concussion).
“It’s competitive as hell out there,” he said. “You’ve got to push as hard as you can.”
Granted, the circumstances the No. 88 team faces this week make that mission more complicated, but perhaps prevailing against the odds is exactly the kind of boost the team could use.
“There’s nobody that fills that the way Greg does, so in the hauler we’ll feel that void and absence,” Earnhardt said. “He has the ability to be that voice of reason and obviously, he’s the leader of the team.
“With that said, I was watching practice and the teamwork and listening to Travis and our second engineer and the guys — and all of them are much more vocal than (they) usually are any other weekend.
“And in my opinion, I plan to give them this advice: ‘I think that’s what they need to be doing every week, even when Greg is here. To be more supportive and active.’
“Everyone on the team has to sort of raise it up a level with the situation we’re in here and I think that’s what we could be doing going forward that will help the whole team.
“It’s been good to see, but I think if Greg were here in the garage to actually see it, he’d think, ‘This is how the guys need to be every week. This is what we need out of every individual every week. No idea is a bad idea – it’s an all-hands on deck kinda thing.”