Dale Earnhardt Jr. roared through the Michigan International Speedway garage, hitting the brakes just as his No. 88 car approached the lift gate of his hauler. The car’s momentum left it skidding to a stop on the lift gate, and he hastily unbuckled his belts and climbed out, dropping his helmet on the roof of the car with a thud.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Upset With Mark Martin After Michigan NASCAR Race, But Calmer After Hendrick Teammates Speak
The Hendrick Motorsports driver stood for a moment, hands on his hips, and stared in disgust at his wrecked machine.
This was clearly the most frustrated he’d been after a NASCAR race in 2011. And it wasn’t just the 21st-place finish that bothered him, but how he ended up with the disappointing result.
“The defining moment,” he said, “probably was getting ran into the wall by Mark.”
On the last long green-flag run of the race, Earnhardt Jr. was gaining ground on teammate Mark Martin when, suddenly, Martin moved up the track and forced Earnhardt Jr. into the wall.
Replays were inconclusive, but it seemed unlikely the typically clean-racing Martin would do anything to jeopardize another driver’s day – let alone a teammate’s.
But Earnhardt Jr. was upset that Martin put both drivers into that situation in the first place.
“If the tables were turned, I’d have been smarter and given him plenty of room,” Earnhardt Jr. said, his voice rising. “He’s older than me, been racing forever, he’s forgot more stuff than I’ll ever know. But still, I take better care of people (on the track) than that.”
If similar circumstances presented themselves in the future, Earnhardt Jr. said, “I’ll still drive on the outside of him; hopefully he won’t run me in the wall.”
Minutes later, about 10 haulers down the row, Martin emerged in a blue t-shirt and seemed surprised to hear Earnhardt Jr. was upset.
“He got up on the outside of me coming off the corner and I squeezed him,” Martin said. “It was an accident. We had an accident.”
Martin said he would have gladly given Earnhardt Jr. racing room – if he’d known the driver was on his right-rear quarterpanel.
But by the time Martin realized it, he said, “it was too late.”
"I had my front wheels cut and I let off the gas, and that's all I could do at that point," he said. "It was my mistake."
Martin then shrugged and held his hands up in a gesture that indicated, 'What else do you want me to say?'
“I don’t have a history of having problems,” he said. “I think we’ll get it sorted out. I feel like I give everybody on the racetrack plenty of respect. I made a mistake.”
It’s rare for Earnhardt Jr. to get publicly upset with another driver, and Martin likely wanted to resolve any ill feelings as soon as possible.
So the veteran driver walked down the row of haulers and glanced to the left upon passing the No. 88, peering inside the open door.
There, Martin saw Earnhardt Jr. talking with crew chief Steve Letarte. Martin stopped in his tracks, went into the hauler and immediately started explaining what happened.
He left after a brief conversation, and Earnhardt Jr. seemed to have calmed down afterward.
“I feel better,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He got tight off the corner – I had the same thing happen to me (earlier in the race). I can’t tell when he’s pushing. I got up on his right-rear quarterpanel, and he got real, real tight up off the corner. He was out of the gas, wasn’t nothing he could do.”
So did Earnhardt Jr. accept Martin’s explanation for the incident?
“Absolutely, yeah,” he said. “Mark wouldn’t lie to me.”
Earnhardt Jr. shifted his weight and took a breath. Though he remained third in points, his emphasis on consistency this season has left him particularly frustrated when his results don’t match the car’s potential.
“I was just pissed off at the end of the race – just mad,” he said. “Cause I want to finish where I’m supposed to finish, and that didn’t happen today, so I was real PO’d about it. But Mark come gave me a good explanation. I believe it, and that’s the end of it.”
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