I asked a lot of questions this past weekend about Dale Earnhardt Jr., because as people know, I have been pretty frustrated. I wondered if all this matters to him or not. The best thing of what we are seeing and from what I am hearing is it really DOES matter to him.
Let me state this up front -- I want to be a Dale Jr. fan again. I want to have faith again that he is giving 150 percent. What I am seeing so far this year and what I am hearing is he is doing exactly that. It seems like this new combination of driver/crew chief is working. We are seeing better results so far in the first four races of 2011. That is so refreshing.
It has to give Junior Nation hope that success is just around the corner. Does all the credit go to Junior? Does all the credit go to Steve LeTarte? Does all the credit go to owner Rick Hendrick, who paired these two up during the offseason? I think everyone involved in the No. 88 program has to share the credit.
We hear all the time from the Hendrick camp about how important it is to them to have Dale Jr. be successful. We are seeing that commitment, but more importantly, we are seeing the results. Last Sunday at Bristol saw the No. 88 come ever-so-close to having its third top-10 finish of the season. That was a hard-fought 11th-place finish. That’s not to be taken lightly when you consider what they overcame during the race and the guys he outran.
We know that Dale Jr. does well in the Nationwide series. Don’t forget he is a two-time champion there. We saw that again last Saturday in Bristol. He was two laps down and fought his way back to a top-five finish. He turned right around and overcame being a lap down on Sunday and finished 11th.
Look where he is in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings after the first four races. That is not a gimme. He has had to race hard. Heck, for that matter, anyone in the Top 12 in points right now after four races has had to race awfully hard. He’s had a strong start to the season and the points prove that out.
In the past we all know that the two crew chiefs that Junior respected the most were Tony Eury Sr. and Tony Eury Jr. The reason for that is he knows where they came from. He knew what they had to go through to be successful. Even though they are family, they started at the bottom and it was their work ethic that took them all the way to the top.
Now, not disrespecting the guys that came before him, but maybe Dale Jr. sees those same qualities in LeTarte. I think Steve has done an excellent job showing Dale Jr. that he is willing to work just as hard as Junior is to make this program successful. Now we are seeing the results.
Steve has been on winning teams. He has been through the ups and downs of Jeff Gordon’s career. I think he has an appreciation of how far he can push Junior and how to push Junior to get maximum results. I just think Junior and Steve share a mutual respect for each other. In addition, I think they share a mutual goal. They both want to show everyone that they can do it. This time it just happens they are doing it together, so it makes that bond even stronger.
Being a former crew chief I know all about that. Whenever you come onboard to another team, your goal is to raise the overall performance of that team. Sometimes obviously you have to be realistic of what your goals can be. Any crew chief will tell you “I want to go to Victory Lane.” The bigger question is: Is that realistic?
I think from the Junior side, folks are saying that Rick Hendrick has done everything he possibly can to give Junior what he needs and now it’s time for Dale to succeed. So there’s a desire by Dale to carry his part of the load and reward that faith that Rick has put in him.
It just seems like it is clicking. It’s like Junior and Steve realize they have a long way to go but they are pulling together. They aren’t fighting with one another. They are working together on this. No one is panicking and they are seeing the results.
Consistency is the key for them right now. They can really build something special from simply being consistent week in and week out. Hopefully this weekend in Fontana they will put together another great run. I’m excited for both of them. I think this could be a really special year for both.
