Dale Earnhardt Jr. left Pocono Raceway on Monday with a love-hate finish.
Earnhardt hated to finish second to race winner Kurt Busch in Monday’s race, not to mention also losing what may have been the best chance he had to reach victory lane this season.
“I could have been a little more aggressively doing some things
differently,” Earnhardt said. “But we ended up getting tight and not
really having anything anyways right at the end of the race, and (Busch)
saved enough (fuel).”
But at the same time,Earnhardt loved his second-place finish – his best finish since placing second six races ago at Bristol.
Since that Bristol race, he’s struggled with five consecutive
finishes outside of the top 10: 13th (Richmond), 40th (Talladega), 15th
(Kansas), 32nd (Dover) and 14th (Charlotte).
“Yeah, (finishing second) certainly feels better
than finishing 15th,” Earnhardt said. “When you get just a little bit
behind in this series, holy moly, it takes so much work to just regain
what you lost, not really even to have an advantage, just to get back to
where you were. A tenth out on that racetrack is impossible to find.
“It’s a good step in the right direction. I felt like we could come
in here and run good, and I think we learned a lot that we can
understand how to get better for the next race here. I’m looking forward
to Michigan, and obviously it’s going to be a different package, but I
think we’ll run good on that track, too, and anticipate having a good
run at Kentucky.”
Earnhardt is relieved that his slump could be over. He also has high
hopes he can capture that elusive first win of the season, which would
all but guarantee him a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“We certainly finished better than we should have,” Earnhardt said.
“Our car wasn’t quite a second-place car. We started off really tight
and really slow, probably about a 15th-place car. Greg (Ives, crew
chief) and the guys made a lot of changes and made the car better.”
Earnhardt criticized NASCAR for the minimal amount of practice at
Pocono this weekend. While much of the reason was weather-related –
including the postponement of Sunday’s race to Monday – Earnhardt
suggested NASCAR should reevaluate its practice policies for Sprint Cup
teams.
“We just didn’t get any practice,” he said. “The drivers have been
asking NASCAR to take away the morning practice and add a little bit to
the second one to make that Saturday practice an hour and a half, and we
didn’t — it was just an hour.
“It takes you a minute to run around this track. You can’t get but 13
damned laps in practice. I don’t know how you’re supposed to figure out
what your cars are doing. So we came into this race with no idea.
“We made a lot of changes last night. We basically put in an old
setup that worked in the past, and it started off missing the mark
pretty bad, but we worked on it and got it better, and we’ll take the
points. We’ve had a rough month, so this is a decent finish for us.”
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terça-feira, 7 de junho de 2016
Mileage master: Kurt Busch saves enough fuel to win at Pocono
Busch, initially told by his team he was two laps short on fuel, repeatedly toggled his engine to conserve fuel in the final 10 laps.
Still, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver aptly worked his way to the checkered flag and had enough fuel to do a celebratory burnout. Busch led the final 32 laps en route to his 28th career Sprint Cup victory and third at Pocono’s 2.5-mile triangle (his last win there was in 2007).
Team engineer John Klausmeier served as Busch’s interim crew chief and earned his first career win in that role. Klausmeier replaced Tony Gibson, who was on NASCAR suspension after a lug nut violation last weekend.
It was Busch’s first win since Michigan last June (34 starts). It was also a big breakthrough victory for the driver of the No. 41 Chevrolet: Busch leads all drivers in 2016 with 12 top-10 finishes in 14 races.
Earnhardt finished second, followed by Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney.
WHO ELSE HAD A GOOD RACE: Dale Earnhardt Jr. rallied late for his fourth second place of the season (Atlanta, Texas, Bristol, Pocono). … Chase Elliott led a race-high 51 laps – including at the halfway point of the 160-lap event – and finished fourth. “I feel like we had a car that could do it today,” Elliott told Fox Sports 1. “We had a super fast car that could lead all day.” … Brad Keselowski rallied from two NASCAR penalties to finish third.
WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Kyle Busch wrecked with Ryan Newman with 50 laps to go. While Newman was able to continue and finished 12th, Busch was forced to take his car to the garage for repairs. Busch finished 31st. … Tony Stewart had his best starting spot of the season but wrecked with teammate Danica Patrick (32nd) and finished 34th. … Others having rough days included Jimmie Johnson (35th), Austin Dillon (37th), Michael Annett (38th), Brian Scott (39th) and Matt DiBenedetto (40th) – particularly DiBenedetto, who was involved in three incidents before his day came to an end.
NOTABLE: This marked the first race of the season – and the first time since this race a year ago (a 35-race stretch) – where at least one Toyota failed to finish in the top five. Matt Kenseth was the top Toyota driver (seventh), followed by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards (eighth).
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I was like, ‘Whoa, how many laps shy are we?’ They said, ‘Two.’ These are really long straightaways at Pocono, and you have to manage saving fuel as well as maintaining lap time. So many thoughts can go through your head, but I just stuck with the checklist. I just stuck with saving fuel and watching the No. 88 (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) behind us.” – Kurt Busch in a postrace interview on Fox Sports 1.
WHAT’S NEXT: Sunday, June 12, 1 p.m. ET, Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
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