‘Happy’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. All Smiles After Team Unloads Fast Car

There haven’t been too many times in the second half of this season when Dale Earnhardt Jr. has unloaded a fast car right off his No. 88 team’s trailer.

Those instances have been too few and far between for Junior Nation, who have endured a frustrating stretch – as has been the case for their driver.

But Earnhardt Jr. had a good car from the very start on Thursday, and parlayed it to an eighth-place qualifying effort at Charlotte Motor Speedway – his best starting spot in the last 17 races.

“I think it’s a roller coaster every week in this sport – for teams like us, anyway,” Earnhardt Jr. said after his run. “We unloaded comfortable and fast and felt confident in our setup. The car had more speed than that. The car had plenty of grip, plenty of speed.

“The car was so good off the trailer. The first run was really, really great. I had no complaints about the car after the first run.”

While that’s standard talk from the drivers who run up front every week, it’s practically been a foreign language of late for Earnhardt Jr.

It’s likely music to his fans’ ears, though, along with another comment from the sport’s most popular driver: “We’re happy.”

A recent turnaround may have started when the team was selected to participate in a Goodyear tire test at Homestead (the week after Richmond). Earnhardt Jr. said that session helped he and crew chief Lance McGrew work on a better direction.

At Charlotte, Earnhardt Jr.‘s team is trying an experimental setup somewhere between the “alien” one the No. 88 team tried at Fontana and its standard setup.

“I think this is a good opportunity this weekend to try some things we’ve been wanting to try,” he said. “We tried a setup last weekend that is something I’ve never even run or ever considered running before. This won’t be nothing like that; it’ll be more a little more along the lines of things we’ve been contemplating on running. I think it’s a good direction, as far as the setup goes.”

WIth Earnhardt Jr., McGrew and the team all agreeing on which direction to move for the setup, Earnhardt Jr. noted he believes that “attitude is everything.”

“If I falter or struggle in practice or in the middle of the race, or if anyone else on the team has a mental hiccup or a lapse in focus, it can be tough on any team,” he said. “So (I’m) just trying to stay the course and keep your mind going in the right direction and do what’s right. It’s hard though, you know?”

With only six races left, Earnhardt Jr. said he has a goal aside from simply preparing for next year and helping his Hendrick Motorsports teammates win a championship.

“Time is running out on the season, and we’ll just be sitting on our asses doing nothing for a few months,” he said. “(I want to) try to get all the racing I can get out of these last few races, try to be as competitive as we can be. ... Just to get everything you can out of it, wring it out.”

When it comes to his mental approach of late, Earnhardt Jr. sounded somewhat philosophical in describing how he wants to stay even-keeled and balanced.

“Everybody in the garage has the same intentions, but not everybody has the same results,” he said. “A lot of things aren’t necessarily in your control, but you just control what you can and try to stay focused, try to stay aggressive.”