Disappointment for Dale Jr., Hendrick teammates

Mike Hembree, Special for USA TODAY Sports3:56 p.m. EDT June 16, 2013

For the first time in eight years, all four Hendrick Motorsports cars finish outside the top 25

(Photo: Randy Sartin, USA TODAY Sports)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Earnhardt Jr. blows engine while leading the race
• Kasey Kahne blows tire while leading the race
• Jimmie Johnson blows tire while chasing eventual leader Greg Biffle

BROOKLYN, Mich. — On a day in which Ford officials launched into a wild celebration of the car builder's 1,000th victory in NASCAR, it seemed appropriate that the sport's top Chevrolet team members were in the background, licking wounds.

Hendrick Motorsports, which opened the Quicken Loans 400 with four strong cars, ended Sunday at Michigan International Speedway with three of them in the garage and the fourth — driven by points leader Jimmie Johnson — limping home.

Johnson finished 28th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 37th, Kasey Kahne 38th and Jeff Gordon 39th. Johnson kept the series points lead, but Earnhardt Jr. fell three spots to seventh, Kahne fell four to 12th and Gordon five to 16th.

MICHIGAN: Earnhardt Jr. says track can be 'terrifying'

HAMLIN: Cool tribute to Jason Leffler

The day marked an ugly landmark for Hendrick — the first time all four team cars finished outside the top 25 in eight years.

All four Hendrick drivers had potent cars Sunday, and three led laps in double figures. Two drivers were leading the race when trouble hit.

Johnson, whose team struggled with strategy issues and poor pit stops, still had a late-race shot to catch eventual winner Greg Biffle when he pushed his car too hard in the pursuit. He popped a tire with two laps to go and scraped the wall, ending his surge.

"Jimmie, I'm so sorry, buddy," crew chief Chad Knaus told Johnson over the radio. "I totally (messed you up) today. I'm really, really sorry. I'm embarrassed."

Johnson called it a tough day, saying Knaus was too hard on himself.

"Our strategy was throwing some challenges at us today, and we just struggled with maintaining track position," he said. "But we had a fast car, and I could drive up through there, and as soon as I'd get to first or second, a caution would come out and then something would happen again and we'd lose track position.

"But we had a great race car, and I hate having that problem at the end. I had to run the car really hard to get through all those guys and must have worn through that right front tire with two or three to go. It went down going into turn one."

Why Doesn't Dale Earnhardt Jr. Win More NASCAR Sprint Cup Races?

BY 

JERRY BONKOWSKI

 (FEATURED COLUMNIST) ON JUNE 1, 2013

Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. a victim of fate when it comes to winning Sprint Cup races or championships?
Drew Hallowell/Getty Images

Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans are perhaps the most optimistic in sports.

Their driver has won 19 races in his Cup career.During his first six full-time seasons, from 2000 to 2005, plus the first 10 races of 2006, he earned 16 victories.But since the 11th race of 2006, he's managed just three wins in 252 starts—or one win in every 84 races.Certainly not the kind of effort that wins championships.Last season, Earnhardt won his first race since 2008—ironically enough, both came at Michigan International Speedway—which the Sprint Cup series visits once again in two weeks.Does that mean Junior is due for another win there? Why not this Sunday at Dover, or next Sunday at Pocono or at Daytona or Indianapolis next month?

Indeed, why doesn't Junior win more races? Or why hasn't he at least won more since 2006, one year before he left the company his father founded—Dale Earnhardt Inc.—and like LeBron James, who went from Cleveland to Miami, taken his talent from DEI to Hendrick Motorsports?That's one of the biggest ongoing questions in NASCAR—and one that may never be answered.When Earnhardt moved to HMS, he had the promise of the best of everything: the best equipment, the best personnel and arguably the best funding of any organization in the sport.It seemed like it would be a slam dunk that Junior would not only start winning a ton of races, but that championships—with an "s," as in multiple Cup titles—would come in bunches as well.As it turned out, though, it was Jimmie Johnson, not Junior, who won multiple championships: five in a row from 2006 through 2010.And since his move to HMS in 2008, Junior has won just two races in 190 starts, or one win for every 95 races.

He's had three crew chiefs in five-plus years: He brought cousin Tony Eury Jr. with him to HMS, a pairing that lasted less than one-and-a-half years.Then came Lance McGrew, who lasted just over one-and-a-half seasons.And since the start of 2011, Earnhardt has been under the tutelage of one of the best crew chiefs in the game, Steve Letarte.Still, though, Junior, the multi-millionaire and most popular driver in the sport for the last 10 years running, hasn't been able to buy a win even if he wanted to.What's up with that?Earnhardt, now 38 (can you believe he's that old already?), has never lacked for attention. How could he, with a name like that and being the prodigy of his late father, one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history?

But it's what Junior has lacked far too much over the last seven seasons—most notably consistency and momentum—that finds him where he is today:Still searching for his first Sprint Cup championship.And with each season that's gone by, the same guy who won two Busch Series championships in the late 1990s grows further and further away from what he's sought ever since he slid behind the wheel of a race car.

At this juncture, Earnhardt may never win that elusive Cup title. Obviously, his chances get smaller and smaller as each season passes.But his lack of a crowning achievement in the Cup ranks isn't something you can pin solely on Junior. You can't say he ran out of talent, you can't say he doesn't want to win and you most definitely can't say he doesn't want that championship worse than anything in the world.But what you can say is he's perhaps one of the most snake-bitten drivers in the garage when it comes to bad luck and misfortune. And it's there that the real likely reason why he's failed to win a championship resides.

Look at 2004: He spent the first half of the season leading the standings or in second place. Then he had that horrific crash and resulting fire, when he blacked out briefly upon impact while practicing for an American LeMans Series race inSonoma, Calif., suffering severe burns that would plague him for the rest of that year.

End result: While he did go on to win three races after his crash-and-burn episode (part of a career-high six wins in a season), Earnhardt ultimately finished fifth in the final standings.

Or how about 2008: After not having a win for more than two years, he finally came through at Michigan. Expectations were high afterward that he had put the worst slump of his career behind him and that lots of wins would soon be forthcoming.

End result: He would go on to have over 140 more starts before he finally reached victory lane in a Cup car again.

And then there was 2012: In a year in which he had his best overall performance since 2008, Earnhardt not only hovered near the top of the standings for the first 26 races prior to the Chase for the Sprint Cup, he finally won a race again.

End result: But there was a concussion during testing at Kansas in August that he never told anyone about, followed by being caught up in a huge wreck at Talladegaduring the Chase that resulted in a second concussion and forced him to sit out two races, ending his championship hopes yet again.Is Earnhardt cursed? You certainly could make a case for that, based upon some of the crazy things that have happened to him.Even this season, he started out well, ranging from first to fifth through the course of the first 11 races. But as he enters this Sunday's race at Dover, kicking off the second third of the 36-race season, he's dropped back to a season-low of sixth place. He's had three top-five and seven top-10 finishes in the first 12 races, which isn't bad.But when all is said and done, Earnhardt has become somewhat of a forgotten man this season because more attention is once again being focused on Johnson, who has been No. 1 in the standings for the last seven weeks, as well as the resurgence of Carl Edwards, who has spent the last several weeks close on Johnson's tail in second place.But when it comes to Earnhardt, his name has become almost an afterthought already, just one-third of the way through the current campaign.Maybe when you boil it all down, the reason Junior doesn't win more races isn't about him at all, nor his famous name, his team, the organization he races for, the personnel who work with him or anything like that.Nor is it likely a matter of someone pressing too hard or taking too many unnecessary chances.No, maybe the real reason Earnhardt doesn't win more races is that he isn't destined to do so. Ditto for a Cup championship; maybe it's just not in his destiny.Fate hasn't been kind to Junior, from the day he tragically lost his father in the 2001 Daytona 500 to all the trials and tribulations that he's gone through and endured since then.Maybe what we see today and what we've seen throughout his career, particularly his time at DEI, is the best we're ever going to get from one Ralph Dale Earnhardt, Jr.And you know what? There's absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. He's still a good driver in his own right, the sport's biggest fan favorite and a likely first-round inductee when he becomes eligible for the NASCAR Hall of Fame five years after he retires as a driver.What's wrong with all that? Not everyone can be a Cup champion or can win races with the relative ease of guys like Johnson, Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart.Earnhardt has nothing to be ashamed of. He is who he is, and that's pretty darned good. While he may not win as much as he used to, he'll always be looked upon in the hearts of his fans as a winner.You can't beat that.
Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski

FLAG

Daytona Speedweeks kicks off Feb. 14 at Daytona International Speedway and features a 10-day schedule filled with NASCAR racing, capped by the 2013 Daytona 500 on Feb. 24.
Here is some key dates and events to mark on your calendar as the 2013 season begins.

Thursday, Feb. 14

NASCAR Media Day. All Sprint Cup drivers will meet with the media, as well as many Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series drivers.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and other NASCAR stars will be on hand to offer their insight heading into Speedweeks and 2013.
More: Daytona 500 winners | Daytona 500 crashes | Daytona 500 moments

Friday, Feb. 15

The practice garage opens for the first time with practices set for Saturday's Sprint Unlimited scheduled for 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 16

Sprint Cup teams hit the track and begin preparations for Daytona 500 qualifying. The Sprint Unlimited field takes the green flag at 8:10 p.m. (TV: Fox)

Sunday, Feb. 17

Daytona 500 qualifying (two laps, two positions) is set for 1:05 p.m. (TV: Fox)

Wednesday, Feb. 20

Sprint Cup teams return to practice for Thursday's Budweiser Duel qualifying races. Practice sessions are scheduled for 12-1:30 p.m. and 2:30-4 p.m. (TV: Speed)

Thursday, Feb. 21

The Budweiser Duel qualifying races to set the field for the Daytona 500 will begin at 2 p.m. (TV: Speed).
Nationwide and truck teams will practice Thursday morning.

Friday, Feb. 22

Sprint Cup teams practice twice to prepare for the Daytona 500 — 11 a.m.-12 p.m. and 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Truck and Nationwide teams qualify, beginning at 1:40 p.m.
The Camping World Truck Series race is set for 7:30 p.m. (TV: Speed)

Saturday, Feb. 23

The final Daytona 500 practice is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
The Nationwide Series race is for 1:15 p.m. (TV: ESPN)

Sunday, Feb. 24

The 55th Daytona 500 is scheduled for 1 p.m.* Driver introductions will begin at 12:15 p.m. (TV: Fox), followed by the national anthem, the command to fire engines and the green flag a few minutes after 1.

Richard Childress still plans to run Dale Earnhardt’s No. 3 in Sprint Cup

           

WELCOME, N.C. – The way Richard Childress talks, he sounds pretty convinced that Austin Dillon will drive Dale Earnhardt's famous No. 3 in the Sprint Cup Series.
It’s just a matter of when.

Richard Childress said he still hopes to see grandson Austin Dillon bring Dale Earnhardt's famous No. 3 back to Sprint Cup.

MORE: Harvick-Childress relationship | Burton-RCR rumors | Dale Jr. and The King
Last November, Childress said he didn’t think Dillon would drive a No. 3 car in select races in 2013 but it is a possibility when he moves to Cup full time in 2014.
Not much has happened in the last couple of months to change Childress’ mind about bringing back the slanted No. 3 made famous by Earnhardt, the seven-time Cup champion.
“This past season, with Austin running it in Nationwide as much as he did, it’s kind of re-energized a lot of the fans,” Childress said Monday during the Sprint Media Tour stop at his shop. “The fans come up and the cards and the calls and the emails we get, when we said he was going to run the 33 at Daytona, overwhelmingly people wanted to see the 3.
“Who knows? We haven’t made any decisions at this time.”
Childress said it’s probably 85 percent in favor of him running one of his grandsons (Austin or Ty Dillon) in the No. 3 car in Sprint Cup.
“We’ve got people talking about Dale more and that’s what I want to see,” Childress said. “I want to see people never forget who Dale Earnhardt was and the great things he did in the 3.
“If it’s in the family with Austin and Ty or a young Earnhardt someday, who knows?”
This season, Dillon is scheduled to run the full Nationwide schedule and select Cup races, possibly even more than six since he can run as many as he wants this year and still be eligible for the Cup rookie title in 2014.
“Right now we don’t have any plans of running the 3 anytime in the future,” Childress said. “But who knows what may happen between now and the next few months?’

Dale Earnhardt Jr., an engaged driver

January 13, 2013, Kenny Bruce, NASCAR.com

Crew chief Steve Letarte welcomes driver's input, involvement

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. is engaged. Hold off on the congratulations, though.

Make that more engaged.

NASCAR’s most popular driver appears happy in his current relationship, but wedding bells weren’t the topic of Earnhardt Jr.’s conversation during a break in testing Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

It seems the Hendrick Motorsports driver has become more involved in what most drivers see as the day-to-day drudgery of testing.

"The day goes by fast when you are plugged in like that."
-- Dale Earnhardt Jr.

While crew chiefs, crewmen and engineers buzz around Sprint Cup cars during Preseason Thunder, a driver’s workload consists of pushing the car to its limits, then reporting how the car reacted. The process is repeated often as adjustments are made throughout the day.
For drivers, much of their time is spent sitting behind the wheel on pit road, waiting for the opportunity to make a solo run on the track unimpeded by traffic.
Boring?

“Yeah, it can be,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “As a driver, and this is specific to the Daytona tests only, you don’t really have to pay attention to what they are putting on the car, what they change.
“If you don’t ask and if you don’t really get into it, rarely will a crew chief include you in that conversation.”

Now, however, Earnhardt Jr. said he has gotten more involved in what takes place when he isn’t in the car.

“I just plug into what they are doing,” he said of his No. 88 team.
Not only does it give him a better idea of what changes are being made, but why each is being made as well. And that, he said, “helps me because we have been doing this a long time, and something they are doing might dig up a memory of a test or something we tried on some cars back in the DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.) days that worked.

“It’s good for me to be involved as much as I can," he said. “So that helps me get to clicking; the day goes by fast when you are plugged in like that.”
Fourth on the speed chart after Saturday’s final session, Earnhardt Jr. had much to occupy his time. Although involved in a 12-car accident on Friday that sent several teams home a day early, his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet escaped the incident unharmed.

Crew chief Steve Letarte said his driver, whom he has worked with since 2011, “always seems relatively involved, pretty interested in what we’re doing.”

“He’s got quite a knack for speedway racing, so he’s always put his two cents in,” Letarte said. “We’ve had some good speedway cars down here … we just try to back that up.”
The Daytona 500, Letarte said, is a different animal, and additional input from his driver is welcome.
"The other three (restrictor-plate races) are impounds (where only minor changes can be made to the car following qualifying). You just show up and race them. If you survive them, you’ll be pretty good. February’s not like that.”

NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts big wreck during Friday’s test session at Daytona

Stock-car racing’s most popular driver was trying to bump draft with Marcus Ambrose on the back straightaway when he lifted Ambrose 'like a forklift' and turned him into the wall.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Friday, January 11, 2013, 5:51 PM

John Raoux/AP

Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls wreck a 'big mess' and says drafting at Daytona not like it used to be.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - New cars, same results at Daytona International Speedway.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. started a 12-car accident at Daytona on Friday that essentially shut down a three-day test session designed to hone NASCAR’s redesigned cars.
Stock-car racing’s most popular driver was trying to bump draft with Marcus Ambrose on the back straightaway when he lifted Ambrose “like a forklift” and turned him into the wall. Ambrose’s Ford bounced back across the track and triggered a pileup that collected a host of others.
“It was a big mess and tore up a lot of cars down here trying to work on their stuff,” Earnhardt said. “Definitely the drafting is not like it used to be. You can’t really tandem certain cars; certain cars don’t match up well.”
Two of Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne, also were involved. So were defending Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, new teammate Joey Logano, Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex Jr., Aric Almirola and Regan Smith.

Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR

The damaged car of Kasey Kahne after 12-car wreck during Daytona test session.

There were no injuries, but the wreck caused several teams to leave Daytona. At least 10 teams, including Michael Waltrip Racing, Penske Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports, packed up their haulers and headed back to North Carolina.
“It is unfortunate, but sometimes you have to wreck them to learn,” Keselowski said. “The sport is rewinding. That is the important thing to say. The sport advanced to the two-car tandem three or four years ago, and there were certain things you could do then that you couldn’t do in the past without wrecking.
“Now the rules package is back to where we were in the early 2000’s when the fans enjoyed the racing better. We as drivers have to rewind to how we used to drive these cars. This is how you do it. You make mistakes and learn and that is part of it. I might be the guy who makes the mistake next time, so I can’t be mad about it.”
Manufacturers Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota are using new cars in 2013, ones that have unique front ends that make race cars more closely resemble those on the streets and in the showroom.
The new cars have considerably less downforce than their predecessors and perform differently on the track. The previous models had identical designs that made it easier for bump drafting because the front and rear bumpers lined up squarely.
But with redesigned parts in low supply as vendors try to keep up with demands, many teams came to Daytona without backup cars. Drivers took a cautious approach to the test, trying to gain information about speed and handling while hoping to avoid the kind of huge wrecks typically associated with racing in tight-knit packs at nearly 200 mph.
NASCAR asked teams to simulate race conditions Friday by forming the large drafting packs, and there were 18 cars on the track when Earnhardt triggered the big one.
“ You can’t push, which I think is a good thing,” Gordon said. “The bad thing is you can still get to the guy’s bumper, but the cars just don’t line up very well. ... It’s something that is going to have to be dealt with very carefully. You are going to have to be cautious when you do it and do it with the right guys, but most of the time you’re going to need to stay away from it. That is certainly something we learned.”
Backing up Gordon’s sentiments, Earnhardt said the nose of his Chevrolet slid under the rear bumper of Ambrose’s Ford.
“It’s going to take a lot more care and concentration and just knowing kind of what is at stake,” Earnhardt said. “Certain cars you line up OK with and can push fine and for whatever reason mine and Marcus’ car didn’t line

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/dale-jr-starts-big-wreck-daytona-test-article-1.1238536#ixzz2HibDR35I

Dale Earnhardt Jr. getting his own line of potato chips!

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has partnered with KLN Family Brands to create "Dale Jr. Foods," which will distribute four flavors of potato chips. / Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports

 

At this point, 14 years into NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. craze, you'd think every conceivable product known to man already had the driver's name or car number attached to it.
You know, like Dale Jr. pajamas, Dale Jr. bowling balls (seriously) and Dale Jr. pet safety harnesses (no joke!).
There's really nothing else Earnhardt could possibly endorse, except for maybe potato chips or something.
What's that you say? A Minnesota-based company announced Wednesday that it's creating four flavors of Dale Earnhardt Jr. potato chips?
Well, I'll be darned.
According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Earnhardt Jr. has partnered with a company called KLN Family Brands to create "Dale Jr. Foods," which will distribute four flavors of potato chips: Crispy Original, Carolina Barbecue, Zesty Jalapeno and Creole & Green Onion.
You'd have to think Carolina Barbecue would be the best out of those - Junior being a Carolina boy and all that - but Creole & Green Onion also sounds intriguing.
That should pretty much complete the world of Dale Jr. products, unless he decided to endorse a vending machine cheeseburger or something.
What's that you say? That already exists?!
Well, I'll be darned.