Dale Earnhardt Jr. signed a new contract with Hendrick Motorsports this week. But so far, he said, he’d evaluate his tenure at Hendrick as “barely a passing grade.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gives His Hendrick Motorsports Tenure ‘Barely A Passing Grade’
"I'm not content at all, and I feel like I've been given some really good opportunities there and just haven't been able to capitalize on it," he said. "... I'm nowhere near satisfied with what I've accomplished so far."
That’s a major reason Earnhardt Jr. said he’s happy to have signed the five-year contract extension: There’s unfinished business at Hendrick.
“I feel like that motivates me to try to go in there and...accomplish what I want to accomplish with that company,” he said.
Earnhardt Jr. has a decent shot at clinching a Chase berth this weekend at Atlanta, but he’ll need to get his season back on track after what he described as his “typical summer slump.”
“Hopefully we can rebound and it’ll cycle back around at exactly the right time,” he said. “... Hopefully, if we have that opportunity to be in the Chase, we just might surprise some people.”
Though Earnhardt Jr. said his renewal with Hendrick was an “easy” extension, he also said it made him feel fortunate to be with such a good company.
The stress level at HMS is a bit higher than when he drove for his family’s team at Dale Earnhardt Inc., however. These days, a bad race stays with him longer than the years he was surrounded by family friends.
“It was just easier to rebound,” he said. “Now when I have a bad race, I take it home and it’s two or three days until I get over it. I wonder whether I have the right people behind me or if I’ve given them a reason to doubt me. When you’re racing with family, you just don’t have those kind of worries.”
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