October 1, 2009
By David Kingsley
Dover, Delaware.
The Monster Mile is the same track where Dale Earnhardt Jr. raised the American flag in Victory Lane following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Today, it’s just another stop on the long and painful road towards mediocrity.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished the AAA 400 at the Monster Mile one lap down, in 20th position. It’s another race in the “rebuilding process” for the black sheep team of Hendrick Motorsports. With a season totaling five top ten finishes; Earnhardt Jr. has experienced a season where his cousin/crew chief was fired and replaced with an engineer type crew chief, in hopes to find the missing link between car and driver.
The crew chief wasn’t the only change made on the 88 National Guard team. The driver was asked to change the way he described the condition of the race car as well.
Earnhardt Jr. was expected to revamp his communication style, with new (now not so new) interim crew chief, Lance McGrew. The first race together seemed positive. Earnhardt Jr. was dissecting the corners into four separate parts, just like fellow teammates Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson do with their crew chiefs.
At one point during the spring Dover race, Lance McGrew actually told Earnhardt to just worry about driving the car, and worry less about trying to describe every detail of the car’s behavior. The tandem of Earnhardt Jr. and Lance McGrew finished 12th that day. I’ll have to admit, after listening to the communication between the driver and his crew chief; I was hopeful that there was actually a light at the end of this long dark tunnel. But today, the two have reverted back to the same type of communication of Earnhardt Jr. and Eury Jr., minus the heated arguments.
During Sunday’s race at Dover, Earnhardt Jr. and Lance McGrew didn’t argue on changes to be made to the car. They didn’t debate strategy on how they’ll try to gain track position. Whatever communication they did share relating to the changes made to the car and its current handling conditions, seemed uninspired at best.
During a red flag stop after Joey Logano barrel-rolled his car at least eight times during a multi-car accident early in the race; Earnhardt Jr. decided it was more important to talk to his spotter about his fantasy football team, than to spend a couple of minutes figuring out a game plan with his crew chief.
During the ten minute red flag, Earnhardt Jr. and Lance McGrew never once spoke about what they planned on doing to improve the car’s handling. They never mentioned the changes that have been made to car up to that point in the race and what effect they had on the car.
The only dialogue between the driver and his crew chief was about the relationship between the Washington Redskins winning and how it related to his performance on the track. Earnhardt Jr. claimed that when the redskins lose, he seems to actually run pretty good. But when they win, he struggles on the day. Well, the Washington Redskins lost to the Detroit Lions, so if there was any truth to his theory at all; Earnhardt Jr. should have won this race by a long shot. But instead, he finished 20th at a track where he once won in the old Budweiser Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc.
Lance McGrew made changes to the car that involved track bar adjustments and multiple air pressure adjustments of the inner and outer liner of the tires. The changes actually improved the cars handling by the end of the race. But, it seems like it is a one sided battle. McGrew is making changes for a driver that seems to say the same thing race-in and race-out…“tight”.
“The car is loose in and tight off”.
That’s about as much information that Earnhardt Jr. gives to describe his race car. Basically, watching and listening to Earnhardt Jr., I see a driver without passion. You can’t teach passion and you can’t force someone to become passionate, it just comes naturally.
Unfortunately, a passion to win and to be the best is something Earnhardt Jr. is lacking. In the words of Vince Lombardi, “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
Since Earnhardt Jr. joined Hendrick Motorsports, we’ve all been keeping score, and so far, Earnhardt Jr. is way behind.
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