Enough Fuel Gambles: Earnhardt Jr’s Gotta Out-race ‘em Sunday

by Charlie Turner

I'm Charlie Turner co-host of the syndicated, mostly NASCAR radio show On Pit Row. Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. Oh yeah, Steve is an idiot. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

September 5, 2009 9:32 pm CDT No Comments

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Dale Earnhardt Jr finished third in the just completed Degree V12 300 Nationwide Series race. At the end, Junior stayed out while the other contenders pitted - gambling on saving five laps worth of gas. Five laps!

The problem was, Earnhardt had to tool around Atlanta Motor Speedway about two seconds a lap slower than the dominant Kevin Harvick, who was only about 12 seconds back. With 11 laps left. The math wasn’t that tough.

Rusty Wallace called it a good confidence builder for Junior and his team. I call it a trend that needs to end. Fuel mileage strategies and moral victories when those strategies fail, seem to be what some think are Earnhardt’s best expectations.

Bull.

Dale Earnhardt Jr has really good stats and a history of success at AMS. He needs to strap it up, and tell that no. 88 team of his that he’s going to go out there Sunday night and beat the field. It’s time to show something.

Photo credit: Round girl Jen by BethAnne Heisler for OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR, Nationwide Series

Tagged with: Degree V12 300, Round girl Jen

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

Comments

Got something to say?

Did you know you can log in with your Thunder Lounge account, and have your personal avatar and site link available when you comment at On Pit Row?

Don't have an account yet? Sign-up for free.