How Will “Team Earntarte” Handle Adversity Heading To Daytona

The Amp Energy, #88, of Dale Earnhardt Jr. came into this weekend 3rd in points with 8 top ten finishes. He had recently been knocking on the door of his first win in more than 3 years while on the cusp of his best season since coming to Hendrick Motorsports.

Of course, the short term prognosis was not so good.

The race this weekend, at Infineon Raceway, is one of the worst races for Dale Jr. He struggles on the road courses, excluding his one Nationwide win at Watkins Glen. His best finish at Sonoma prior to this week was 11th. I am sure he would have gladly taken an 11th and headed to Daytona early.

Instead, he began the race 18th and ran mostly around 20th until, on lap 38, he was on the receiving end of a disagreement between the rear bumper of Brian Vickers’ car and the front bumper of Tony Stewart’s car. Guess who won... Of course, Tony Stewart did – for a while.

I’ll tell you who lost: Dale Earnhardt Jr., not Brian Vickers. Dale Jr. went to the pits and came back out, but on lap 49 he had to go to the garage due to engine failure from overheating. He eventually finished 41st, relegating him to a second straight poor finish due to someone else and a slide to 7th from 3rd in the points.

How did the other two fair? Stewart finished 39th and Vickers 36th after the two had contact later in the race. Amazing, this time the disagreement was between the front bumper of Vickers’ car and the rear bumper of Stewart’s car. Funny how that happens.

Stewart later admitted to “dumping” Vickers in the initial contact because he felt Vickers was blocking him. Something “Smoke”, of course, never does. It’s funny because they all do it. They just tend to do it less to people who will wreck them for it, a talent these two are in the process of proving to each other.

In the meantime, Junior heads into Daytona with a familiar feeling. He had his first finish outside the top 25 and his first consecutive finishes outside the top 20 this year. The question this week will be how the new duo of Letarte and Earnhardt will handle the tough couple of races. Will they come through the tunnel at Daytona eager to race and determined to win, or will Earnhardt slide back to the complaining he did in 2010 if the car is not as strong as he hopes.

There probably are few places the 88 team would rather go when they need a rebound, however. Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports both have excellent records at Daytona, with wins a-plenty. Junior has two wins, himself, at Daytona, but one in particular shows how well he can drive there with a lot on his mind.

In 2001, months after losing his father on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, he powered his way to the front to win the July race at Daytona. He came into the race facing the memory of his father’s death, but also was coming off of 3 straight finishes of 19th or worse.

No, this week is not 2001, and the number on the roof will be 88, not 8. But there are few places Dale Jr. feels at home the same way he does at Daytona.

Homecoming or not, the days leading up to Saturday will be important for Steve Letarte. He will have plenty of people looking to see how he can refocus the team along with the driver. If the past is any indication of how Letarte will do, however, get ready. After all, he has done a pretty good job of righting the ship for the 88 so far…


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