Junior Confident Engines OK Now

kat2220

kat2220

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Earnhardt Jr. confident engine woes resolved

Dale Earnhardt Jr. says his team has figured out the source of its engine woes and is optimistic heading into Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Both Earnhardt Jr. and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammate Martin Truex Jr. suffered engine failures at California Speedway Feb. 25. Since then, the DEI engineers have worked to discover exactly what the source of the problem was.

"We found out what caused the engine failure at California, and our guys have been busting their [butts] to make sure we don't have that problem again," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The most positive thing we took from California is that we had a car that was really fast. We had a flat tire, but then we came back out and passed Matt Kenseth even with a loose wheel that caused a bad vibration.

"That shows we had a really good setup, and we're taking that same chassis to Las Vegas."

Earnhardt Jr. settled for 40th in that race and his second DNF of the season.

He heads to Las Vegas 41st in the standings after also crashing in the Daytona 500.

Still, he's not too worried about the sluggish start to the year.

"We're not happy about it, but we're keeping our heads up," he said. "We've had some rough starts before and came back strong. We were 38th in the points after two races in 2003, and we came back to finish third. It seems like we always get better as the year goes on."

And sometimes, after slipping midseason, the team surges once more. That's what happened for Earnhardt Jr. in 2006.

"Don't forget, we had back-to-back last-place finishes in the middle of the summer last year and dropped out of the top 10 in points, but we fought back into the Chase when we needed to," he said. "As a team, you can't let it be a distraction. ... We have to go out and run every lap as hard as possible and not worry about it.

"This team has performed well when the pressure is on, and I expect nothing less this week."
 
Call me crazy, but I'm not that confident until I see some results.

Blow engines in testing & weeks later, same problem?
 
I'm not really sure that the problem was related to fuel --- call it a gut feeling. I think it was a parts or mechanical related problem.

Yes, I know Menard's engines were also DEI, but it depends on which batch of parts were used, when the engines were built and who built them. Lots of variables in in-house engines.
 
You'd think he'd tell us.

I'm sure it's not a matter of national security :rolleyes:
 
Now y'all know Teresa slipped some bad parts into the mix so Lil'E would have bad finishes. This way Junyer Nation would take a hit and he'd lose some bandwagon fans causing a ripple in merchandise sales making him think he needed to stay at her price for fear of failing on his own.

Hey, it makes a good conspiracy theory and touches most of the bases...
 
Nascar stepped in and gave him better engines. Guarenteed to never fail.:rolleyes:
 
Well the word on the street is that not only do his new engines have fuel injection but the injectors are able to squirt the blue gel Mikey got caught using. And, they're as big as what the King got caught using...
 
Difference being here that Jr or his team won't get caught doing anything.:p
 
I'm too lazy to go back and search the threads for when we were talking about Lil'E getting a piece of DEI so hopefully y'all will indulge me as I dump my thoughts into this Lil'E thread.

I just got thru listening to BBaker on the Sirius Morning Drive program. And, shock and awe :eek: , his comments have caused me to rethink my position.

I still don't agree that Lil'E should be given control of DEI. But, he should be given complete autonomy of the #8. The bean counters need to sit down and figure what a just and fair distribution of monies between the 8 and the rest of DEI would be and let him make those decisions of how that money should be used. He shouldn't have to go to team meetings and bow to what others want to do to the 8. (I hope some of you haven't fainted).
He would still be under the umbrella of DEI. Sharing the facilities and ideas and personnel to the extent he wanted/needed. I mean there's no need for him to duplicate office staff. But, if he wants to use a different widget than the other DEI cars then he should be able to without DEI having a say so.
IMO, that gives him the best of both worlds. He is the owner of his team within DEI. Then if he wants to take full control he can. Or he can hand control off to Kelly. Or hire someone else to run the day to day. Or even let DEI staff run the day to day.
And Teresa retains control of the bulk of DEI with full authority over the other teams distributed as she sees fit. As to the future and what it brings this arrangement would let everyone have a better grasp of what to expect.
 
Teresa makes money on Lil E too. I don't think she would go for that.
 
BP you are dreaming! That would never work. It could work by giving him a proportunite share of stock that would cover the #8 car in value compared to the whole. But he'd never go for that either. What he said was control or adios.. I would have said the same had it been me. (fat chance)
Betsy:rolleyes:
 
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