From Hopeless To Hopeful? Dale Earnhardt Jr. Mounts Solid Martinsville Run

Two days after seeming pessimistic about his chances for success at Martinsville – and the rest of the season – Dale Earnhardt Jr. was suddenly running up front like he used to, thrilling the Virginia crowd.

Earnhardt Jr. led 90 laps – 19 more than he had led the entire season combined before Sunday – and had a shot at winning until his handling went away late in the race.

Hadn’t he just said there was no reason to believe things would get better?

“I didn’t say there was no hope,” he said. “That was qualifying. ... If we get a half-decent car, I feel like I’m smart enough to stay out of trouble and get a decent finish.”

Running up front ultimately turned out to be somewhat of a tease for Junior Nation, though Earnhardt Jr. still finished seventh – only his second top-10 finish in the last 14 races.

“I love short track racing and I love coming here,” he said, speaking with an air of confidence. “This place has a lot of history. I have a lot of respect for it. I used to not understand how to get around here and then I have been pretty good here for a long time now. I feel pretty good that when I come here I can run good. I like racing here and I like this style of racing.”

Earnhardt Jr. used the word “fun” in describing Martinsville, and that hasn’t been a part of his vocabulary all that often lately.

“The mile-and-a-halfs, when the car is tight, you go in the corner and turn the wheel and wait for it to turn and mash the gas,” he said. “That’s not much (fun). This is where it’s at, right here.”

Midway through the race, Earnhardt Jr. said he felt he had a top-three car and was able to ward off the oncoming Jeff Burton by holding his line. Burton and the other Richard Childress Racing cars experienced drop-off in performance as the runs went on, Earnhardt Jr. said, and “I figured he would (fall back) if I just kept up and was patient out front.”

Ultimately, though, when the sun dipped behind the tall grandstands and left Turns 1 and 2 in shade, Earnhardt Jr. said his car would no longer turn like it did earlier.

“We just didn’t adjust enough at the end – we weren’t free enough at the end – to have the car more competitive,” he said. “But even at the end of that run, we were beating the 31 and the 48. At the start, I was just so tight, they’d just go by me. I was just in the way.”

Though Earnhardt Jr. was happy, he wasn’t exactly going home to celebrate his day. He reiterated his comments from Friday that small glimpses of a turnaround just wouldn’t cut it for his team headed into an offseason.

“This isn’t quite good enough, nah,” he said. “We have to run way better than this. Ever since I quit wreckin’ and we got the right cooling on the front end, I can come in here and get a top-10 unless we have a major, major issue in the setup. I feel pretty confident. That is how I feel. I’m not saying that is reality.”

The same could be said for Talladega, which is perhaps Earnhardt Jr.‘s best track. Fortunately for his fans, Talladega is next week.

“I feel like when I go to Talladega, I always have a shot to win,” he said. “The racing (there) is different these days (because of the new car). Racin’ is different and I gotta learn how to do it, how to get it done.”