Fourth-place finish gives Earnhardt three straight top-four finishes to start ’14
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LAS VEGAS — It all looks so easy, so effortless, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. and that No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet glide around the race track, snapping up the competition and soaring toward the front of the pack.
Trust crew chief Greg Ives on this: It’s not so simple.
"It’s been a lot of damn hard work," Ives said while walking through the garage following Sunday’s Kobalt 400, pausing to autograph a No. 88 hat. "We work hard. Everybody on the team does. Dale, me, the guys at the shop, the engineers, all those guys. They make it seem easy, but it’s not."
If that’s the case, they’re likely fooling a lot of folks.
Once again, the No. 88 came off the hauler fast, this time in sun-splashed Las Vegas. Once again, it kept that speed on race day. Junior finished fourth Sunday, and it’s his third consecutive top-five to start the year.
It’s the second consecutive year in which Earnhardt’s group has notched that achievement, but this year’s mark was set under the backdrop of change.
Ives is just one piece of a rebuilt No. 88 puzzle as Junior’s first-year crew chief — the over-the-wall crew has three new members, too, yet there hasn’t been a dip in either car speed or stops on pit road.
"I think we were first, second, second (to start the season last year), so we have to step it up a little bit," Junior said with a laugh. "No, Hendrick, overall, has great speed and the engine department is doing awesome. We’re having fun."
Clearly. The veteran has been at-ease this entire season, and for the second year in a row at Las Vegas was pleased with a late-race gamble.
Last year, it was a fuel strategy call that had Junior leading on the last lap, only to go dry on the final circuit and finish second. This year it was a two-tire call on the final round of green-flag pit stops, one that put him first when pit stops had cycled through.
The dominant No. 4 Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick eventually caught and passed Junior, and Earnhardt wound up finishing fourth — he was second at the time of the late pit stop. Still, it was the spirit in which that decision was made and not the subsequent loss of two spots that had Earnhardt excited.
"We didn’t put lefts (tires) on it; made it a gamble," he said. "I like to gamble. I liked the call. I love being aggressive. We weren’t going to drive up there and pass that No. 4. So, we had to take a chance. Second, fifth, fourth, whatever; it really don’t matter if you don’t win."
Wins may be coming soon, though, especially as Earnhardt continues to learn about his ability to adjust the track bar mid-race. After not finding it useful early on this season, he came out even more strongly in favor of it Sunday, making the self-adjusting track bar just another new thing that seems to work for this group.
"We’ve been running the track bar pretty much even the whole race, and at the end there I had it down three inches on right side trying to save my butt," he said. "Maybe it was worn-out lefts, I don’t know. The left side (tires) is new and a little softer compound maybe we just took it a little bit too far."
Maybe, but as his late-race gamble shows, this group would rather take it a little too far than play it conservatively. They have the speed and the skill; it’s those types of decisions, though, that often mean the difference between challenging for a win and, well, not.
"This year, our cars are racing up there," Earnhardt said. "So, we think we’ve got the cars better than we had last year. But I want to win. We’re going to get there."
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