Dale Earnhardt Jr.: ‘I’m Not Satisfied With Running Poorly’

There’s no question Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had a few bad weeks.

A 32nd-place finish at Richmond. A night of struggles at Darlington. A “complete mess” at Dover, as Earnhardt Jr. said himself. And a disappointing finish in the Sprint All-Star Race.

But Earnhardt Jr. wants to be clear about one thing: He’s not giving up.

“I’m definitely not satisfied with running poorly,” he said Thursday night after qualifying. “I don’t think any driver in the garage is, and I’m no different than any of those guys. I want to run better and it really beats me up pretty bad not to run good. We just find some way during the week to get yourself motivated to come back and try harder.

“We’re trying really hard. It’s unfortunate that we’re not better. There’s nobody laid down. We’re all working really hard.”

That hard work, Earnhardt Jr. said, leaves him optimistic that a turnaround for the No. 88 team remains close. Any day now, the sport’s most popular driver said, he feels like “We can show up and it’ll just be a switch.”

“And there would be (success) right around the corner if we can just keep working hard,” he said.

Earnhardt Jr. fans have voiced their frustration as their driver has fallen out of the top 12 after a solid start to the season, including concerns about how well Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Lance McGrew are working together.

But the driver insisted both he and his crew chief are putting forth their best efforts and added “We aren’t leaving any stones unturned to try and find out where the competitiveness has gone.”

“As we continue to be out-paced by our teammates, between me and Lance we’ve gotten more honest about what we feel like our weaknesses are and what we feel like we need to work on,” he said. “When we do that, we seem to be able to at least work on those ideas and work on those problems. Whether we fix them or not, I don’t know.”

As for this weekend, Earnhardt Jr. said his team spent the day in qualifying trim (he qualified 24th) and can only hope the forecasted rain for Saturday holds off so that McGrew and the crew can work on the car.

“I’ll have to see how the car is Saturday,” the driver said. “Don’t like how the car drove in the All-Star race and I’m sure Lance wants to go another route.”

Overall, despite the rough patch, Earnhardt Jr. said the team has “really done more positive things than we had last year.”

“We can pick that back up on Sunday, 600 miles,” he said.

And for those who may question Earnhardt Jr.‘s effort?

“There ain’t nothing I can do about that,” he said. “I’m not going to argue with them. You can’t change some people’s opinions about you.”