Dale Jr. Bummed With 13th-Place Talladega Finish, GWC Rules

Dale Earnhardt Jr. climbed from his car, walked over to a step on his hauler and plopped down, exhausted.

He briefly held his head in his hands, as if he was replaying what had just happened in his mind: A day full of promise at Talladega had been thwarted as he faded to a 13th-place finish.

Crew chief Lance McGrew came and sat down next to him, and the two talked and made hand gestures in the air for a few minutes.

Clearly, there were a lot of what-ifs at Talladega on Sunday.

“When it counted at the end, we just didn’t make the right moves,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Hoped to get some luck, get in the lane that’s going to go at the end and it just didn’t. I take full responsibility for that.

“Just luck of the draw at the end. It’s a lottery. That’s all it is.”

There was a plan for the final laps, but it didn’t work out. Earnhardt Jr. relayed a message to Tony Stewart that the two should work together – as they had successfully done in the draft so many times – but they became disconnected on one of the late restarts.

“I was wanting to work with him pretty bad, because I felt like me and him know what we’re doing,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “And when we work together, we seem to have pretty good results.”

But Stewart was led to the high side by Greg Biffle, and Earnhardt Jr. – knowing the cars behind him would not follow – said he decided it wasn’t the best move. He instead stayed in the middle and lost a few spots, and never sniffed the lead again.

Afterward, Earnhardt Jr. was frustrated and said he wanted to be mixing it up and the front, not losing the “lottery” of the draft and falling to the back because he guessed wrong.

“It’s a lottery,” he said. “Points racing, racing for championships, shouldn’t be a lottery. It’s just chance, so much. It’s not really about someone’s car handling better or somebody’s motor being better. Cars might as well all be kit cars for these two races.”

Along those lines, Earnhardt Jr. said the outbreak of late wrecks meant three green-white-checkered attempts were too many at Talladega and Daytona. Instead, he suggested that NASCAR attempt only one GWC finish at restrictor-plate tracks.

He later slightly backed off by saying it was his own personal feeling because of his frustration, but said of the GWC rules: “It gets expensive, man. We’re in a tough environment economically. I know it’s great to see cars hitting the fence and drivers climbing out, everybody getting excited about the drama that brings. It’s wild to witness something like that. But it’s just not good practice, I don’t think.”

As for the record amount of lead changes, Earnhardt Jr. said the back-and-forth racing was a product of the excessive drag created by the spoiler.

When the leader got out in front of the field, Earnhardt Jr. said, the spoiler would slow the car down enough where the other cars would fly by.

“It was fun, but it was kind of like a carnival ride: After two or three of ‘em, you’re kinda like, ‘Alright, I’m burned out on this,’ you know?” he said. ”...The draft is like a boat wake, and everybody can just fit right in it. Even the guys who are a second slower on single-car runs can run with the pack.

Earnhardt Jr. dropped one spot to eighth in points, 181 behind points leader Jimmie Johnson.