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Earnhardt moving up standings
Consistency, not wins, may be key to making Chase for the Championship
AP Photo
Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrate their LifeLock 400 win.
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Published: June 17, 2008
After a two-year drought, any win is a good win for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
But even Earnhardt conceded that his win Sunday afternoon at Michigan International Speedway may need an asterisk -- *Victory on gas mileage.
That's nothing against anyone who wins on gas mileage, because they're just playing the game better. But Earnhardt's win certainly doesn't look like any big turning point for the Rick Hendrick camp. It was only Hendrick's second Sprint Cup win of the season -- Jimmie Johnson won at Phoenix in April, also on gas mileage.
Earnhardt said that if he had followed the game plan that everyone else did at Michigan, he would have probably finished about 25th.
But then Earnhardt's main goal this season is to make the Chase for the Championship, so consistency and solid runs have meant more to him than victories.
And the win, No. 18 of his career, puts Earnhardt only 84 points behind tour leader Kyle Busch.
Handling has been a major issue for NASCAR's new car, and Earnhardt's was very slow at the start of each typically 80-mile (40-lap) run between pit stops, so he had to play catch-up.
"We just lost so much track position from the leader the first 20 laps of every run, the car being so loose," Earnhardt said. "But I felt we had a top-five, definitely a top-10 car.
"After that last stop we were going to be about six laps short, and I saved six laps of gas. Just real lucky.
"I've got to hand it to Tony (Eury) Jr. (his crew chief) for being a risk-taker. Normally we would not risk the top-five for a possible win because half the time it doesn't work. But we did the right thing."
Eury said that he actually called Steve Letarte, Jeff Gordon's crew chief, and asked if he was going to try to make the last run without a pit stop.
"He's like ‘No, I ain't going for it,'" Eury said.
Gordon's extra stop left him 18th.
"Worst-case scenario, we finish 25th," Eury explained. "So who cares? Go for it.
But then the race went into overtime, which made it even more nerve-racking for Earnhardt and Eury.
"I was like ‘All right, cool, man. No problem, no pressure, just save fuel, and if we don't win, we don't win, no big deal," Earnhardt said. "I wasn't nervous at all, and I'm always nervous in those situations. But I really wasn't, for some reason.
"When the (final, overtime) caution came out, I was dejected. But we've got to try … and we've been beat so many times like this, it feels really good to do it."
But a gas-mileage win, well, it's not like charging to a victory.
"Yeah, I can understand how it might look.… I know exactly what they are going to say Monday," Earnhardt said. "But the hell with it. I got the trophy, I got the points."
And NASCAR finally got a win by its most popular driver, which in a spring filled with turmoil couldn't have come at a better moment.
"If it helps Brian (France, NASCAR's CEO), and he's excited about it, then great," Earnhardt said. "But we've worked so hard to get the win. We've worked hard to be consistent all year -- though I missed the joy of winning.
"I never wondered ‘Man, will I never win again?' I'll be around here for quite a while, and have more opportunities to win. The winless streak didn't frustrate me as much as most people would think. I was so happy to be (at Hendrick's) and so satisfied with how we've run."
Eury agreed: "Winning is a bonus … and I just feel very fortunate. I mean I've been doing this for 14 years, and I've seen a lot of stuff come and go -- and you realize right quick that life is short and you've got to enjoy it while you're here.
"I can remember times this was all I breathe. And then when you lose certain things in your life you learn to understand that racing ain't everything."
For Hendrick, however, the win was big.
"Junior's got a lot of fans, and they ask me the same thing every time I see them: ‘When is Junior going to win a race?'" Hendrick said. "It felt like that was a gun to my head."
■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com<.
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