dpkimmel2001
Team Owner
Some will get it. Some will simply find a way to bash Jr. over it. Sometimes perspective is everything. Nice to read that he's learned from his mistakes.
If these days Dale Earnhardt Jr. seems less combative and more productive on his radio frequency during a race, he says team ownership is to thank for it. Still, that doesn’t make it easy.
On Tuesday’s Dale Jr. Download podcast on Dirty Mo Radio, Earnhardt said mounting frustrations in his car’s performance Sunday at New Hampshire forced him to bite his tongue every lap, fearing that his constructive feedback, at any time, could succumb to self-gratifying, counter-productive soapbox rants.
For much of his career when it came to reporting his car’s status, Earnhardt paid little mind to tone or tenacity. He said it took being a team owner at JR Motorsports to recognize the problem with that method of communicating.
“I’ve been on the pit box during the Nationwide (Series) race, and I’ve learned a lot as an owner listening to drivers over the years, and I’ve seen the crew’s mentality once the driver begins to speak,” he said on the podcast. “When a driver’s complaining, a lot of times the team thinks he’s resigning himself to running like crap. As a team, you don’t want to hear that.
“(On Sunday during the Sprint Cup race) I wanted to complain and complain, but I tried to think about how that changes my team’s attitude when the driver is complaining. … I tried not to really bash on the car too much. I tried to keep thinking how we’re going to grind and grind and fix this thing.”
Earnhardt's No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team climbed to as high as second on Sunday and eventually finished 10th despite starting 28th. Even though he clinched a spot in the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, Earnhardt called New Hampshire not one of the more enjoyable weekends for his team, but suggested they will be reinvigorated for their return in September.
“We need a little bit better racecar when we go back,” he said. “I didn’t enjoy seeing how fast those other guys were, particularly Brad Keselowski. We don’t like to get outran like that. That was just an ass whuppin’. I’m sure that’s going to fire up all the guys at Hendrick Motorsports, and when we go back to New Hampshire I feel pretty confident we’re not going to run like we did.”
from here
If these days Dale Earnhardt Jr. seems less combative and more productive on his radio frequency during a race, he says team ownership is to thank for it. Still, that doesn’t make it easy.
On Tuesday’s Dale Jr. Download podcast on Dirty Mo Radio, Earnhardt said mounting frustrations in his car’s performance Sunday at New Hampshire forced him to bite his tongue every lap, fearing that his constructive feedback, at any time, could succumb to self-gratifying, counter-productive soapbox rants.
For much of his career when it came to reporting his car’s status, Earnhardt paid little mind to tone or tenacity. He said it took being a team owner at JR Motorsports to recognize the problem with that method of communicating.
“I’ve been on the pit box during the Nationwide (Series) race, and I’ve learned a lot as an owner listening to drivers over the years, and I’ve seen the crew’s mentality once the driver begins to speak,” he said on the podcast. “When a driver’s complaining, a lot of times the team thinks he’s resigning himself to running like crap. As a team, you don’t want to hear that.
“(On Sunday during the Sprint Cup race) I wanted to complain and complain, but I tried to think about how that changes my team’s attitude when the driver is complaining. … I tried not to really bash on the car too much. I tried to keep thinking how we’re going to grind and grind and fix this thing.”
Earnhardt's No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team climbed to as high as second on Sunday and eventually finished 10th despite starting 28th. Even though he clinched a spot in the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, Earnhardt called New Hampshire not one of the more enjoyable weekends for his team, but suggested they will be reinvigorated for their return in September.
“We need a little bit better racecar when we go back,” he said. “I didn’t enjoy seeing how fast those other guys were, particularly Brad Keselowski. We don’t like to get outran like that. That was just an ass whuppin’. I’m sure that’s going to fire up all the guys at Hendrick Motorsports, and when we go back to New Hampshire I feel pretty confident we’re not going to run like we did.”
from here
