Dale Earnhardt Jr. encouraged by near-win, wants better communication with crew chief

It wasn’t a win, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. still rejoiced having overcome a minor pit road fire and an inopportune caution to finish runner-up Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway.

Earnhardt possessed speed throughout the Duck Commander 500, but on a night when Toyota drivers dominated -- combining to lead all but 14 of 334 laps -- equaling his season-best result was seen as an encouraging sign.

“We finished up there where we should have,” Earnhardt said. “We need a win. We’d love a win. I know our fans want a win really bad. Trust me, we’re all working really hard and running great every week. ... We’ll go to the next one I guess and try again.”

The first setback Earnhardt experienced Saturday night came near the one-third mark as he was leaving pit road. Sparks off a lug nut ignited fuel that spilled to the ground and as he pulled out of his stall a flash fire erupted underneath the No. 88. The flames quickly burned out and Earnhardt continued without incident.

Later, as Earnhardt was making a routine green-flag pit stop Josh Wise’s single-car accident brought out an ill-timed caution trapping him a lap behind the leaders. As the first driver a lap down, Earnhardt received the free pass but had to restart at the tail end of the field.

With a fast car Earnhardt was able to recoup the lost track position, but his Chevrolet wasn’t fast enough to overpower Kyle Busch, who won by a nearly four-second margin.

“We had a pretty good car -- I think better than Kyle most of the night -- but in the end he had that track position that we didn’t have,” Earnhardt said. “... Kyle put it on them at the end. He ran as hard as he could, and his car was there for him.”

The result on the size of track that predominates the schedule bodes confidence for what’s ahead, Earnhardt said, as 1.5-mile speedways constitute half the tracks in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs.

To maximize the No. 88 team’s potential Earnhardt believes he and crew chief Greg Ives must continue to develop their rapport. Although Ives took over for Steve Letarte, who left to become an NBC Sports analyst, prior to last season Earnhardt feels he and Ives don’t communicate as well as they could.

During one portion of Saturday’s race as Ives was informing him of upcoming chassis adjustments, Earnhardt interrupted and said, “Let me put this in perspective for you” before going into greater detail of what he wanted.

“Sometimes we’re not quite where we need to be on communication as far as if I tell him the car is loose,” Earnhardt said. “I got used to Steve just listening to my tone and knowing exactly what kind of adjustment to make.

“I’ve got to be more descriptive to help (Ives) understand how loose or how tight the car is instead of assuming that he’s knowing what I’m thinking just by the tone of my voice. But we’ll get there.”

How Earnhardt plans to work on that chemistry is by spending more time with Ives outside the track. That was how he cultivated a strong bond with his previous crew chief.

“One of the things that me and Steve did was spend time away from the track,” Earnhardt said. “That’s what me and Greg need to push ourselves to do more of. We’ll get to know each other a lot better than what we’re seeing at the racetrack. We don’t really get to know each other at the track that much because we’re working so hard.”