iarnhardt Junior takes responsibility for engine failure
By Greg Engle, Editor, Cup Scene Daily
Sunday at Watkins Glen turned out to be another round of misery for Dale Earnhardt Junior and the no. 8 DEI team.
Earnhardt Junior surprised many after not being expected to run well at the road course, running as high as second and remaining in the top five for much of the race. He was hoping to at least match his career best road course finish of third.
More importantly, Earnhardt was looking to slip back into the all-important 12th place points’ position, the final cutoff spot for the Chase for the championship. He lost the spot one week prior at Pocono despite finishing a season best second place.
Kurt Busch took over the 12th place after winning at Pocono and Earnhardt look to unseat him Sunday trailing him by a mere seven points.
A blown engine on lap 62 however ended his day early and his hopes to get back into the 12th place spot. Earnhardt was scored 42nd and is now 14th in points, 100 markers away from 12th.
Earnhardt took responsibility for the engine failure.
"I want to thank my crew because we were so much better today than we were all weekend,” Earnhardt said. “We were terrible in practice and that may have been why we blew up. In practice I was hitting some very high revs on the engine during my downshifts, using it to help me slow down into the corners, and that may have been what hurt the motor initially and eventually did us in.”
“I apologized to all my guys because we had a great car today in the race,” he added. “I don't think I've ever driven as hard or as well on a road course, and we easily had one of the four or five best cars out there from my seat. And lemme tell ya, it was a show from where I was sitting.”
The engine failure for Earnhardt was the teams third DNF in the last four races and the fifth of the year.
"It's frustrating to run so well again and then end up here on the trailer with a broken racecar,” Earnhardt said. “It seems like the same scene every week.”
With four races remaining until the cutoff for the Chase for the championship, Earnhardt certainly isn’t giving up knowing anything is till possible.
“Yeah, it hurts us in the points but we can make it up,” Earnhardt said. “This team has been through a lot and I've been through a lot in this business, so we know we can comeback when we're down. We know strange things happen and we could right back in the points in a flash. I'm not giving up and I know those guys there loading up the racecar aren't going to give up. I'm ready to start the race at Michigan (next week's race locale) right now just to get back out there and show how good of a team this is."
By Greg Engle, Editor, Cup Scene Daily
Sunday at Watkins Glen turned out to be another round of misery for Dale Earnhardt Junior and the no. 8 DEI team.
Earnhardt Junior surprised many after not being expected to run well at the road course, running as high as second and remaining in the top five for much of the race. He was hoping to at least match his career best road course finish of third.
More importantly, Earnhardt was looking to slip back into the all-important 12th place points’ position, the final cutoff spot for the Chase for the championship. He lost the spot one week prior at Pocono despite finishing a season best second place.
Kurt Busch took over the 12th place after winning at Pocono and Earnhardt look to unseat him Sunday trailing him by a mere seven points.
A blown engine on lap 62 however ended his day early and his hopes to get back into the 12th place spot. Earnhardt was scored 42nd and is now 14th in points, 100 markers away from 12th.
Earnhardt took responsibility for the engine failure.
"I want to thank my crew because we were so much better today than we were all weekend,” Earnhardt said. “We were terrible in practice and that may have been why we blew up. In practice I was hitting some very high revs on the engine during my downshifts, using it to help me slow down into the corners, and that may have been what hurt the motor initially and eventually did us in.”
“I apologized to all my guys because we had a great car today in the race,” he added. “I don't think I've ever driven as hard or as well on a road course, and we easily had one of the four or five best cars out there from my seat. And lemme tell ya, it was a show from where I was sitting.”
The engine failure for Earnhardt was the teams third DNF in the last four races and the fifth of the year.
"It's frustrating to run so well again and then end up here on the trailer with a broken racecar,” Earnhardt said. “It seems like the same scene every week.”
With four races remaining until the cutoff for the Chase for the championship, Earnhardt certainly isn’t giving up knowing anything is till possible.
“Yeah, it hurts us in the points but we can make it up,” Earnhardt said. “This team has been through a lot and I've been through a lot in this business, so we know we can comeback when we're down. We know strange things happen and we could right back in the points in a flash. I'm not giving up and I know those guys there loading up the racecar aren't going to give up. I'm ready to start the race at Michigan (next week's race locale) right now just to get back out there and show how good of a team this is."
