The bad breaks for Dale Earnhardt Jr. were both figuratively and literally Monday at Watkins Glen.
After starting 31st in a race that was rescheduled from Sunday due to rain, Earnhardt was making his way through the field and found himself inside the top 25 early in the event. But one of the Achilles heels for the team this season has been mistakes on pit road and that came back to haunt Earnhardt when during a stop on lap 20 he was caught speeding on pit road and penalized by being sent to the tail end of the longest line..jpg)
The day soon went from bad to worse however. On lap 40 as he was entering Turn 10, the brakes on Earnhardt’s Chevy failed. He slid across the track spinning out Reed Sorenson. The No. 88 Chevy continued on through the gravel trap and slammed head on into the tire barrier.
"I mashed the brake pedal going into ten and it just went to the floor,” Earnhardt said. “It braked for just a second and then it was like it blew the line or something. I tried to miss the No. 43 and he turned in the corner and I'm real sorry about that for those guys but there wasn’t nothing I could do. I didn't have any brakes. I was pumping them going through the dirt, just skipping through there, and hit that tire barrier. Luckily it's a safe race track and why we'll be able to run next week."
After it was over Earnhardt said he could tell the brakes were having problems.
" I felt the brakes fading just a little, but when the brakes went, it was like it just blew a line and all the fluid came out,” he said. “A symptom of brake fade wouldn't have anything to do with that in my opinion. I don't know, it's hard to say what happened. I'll get over there and I'll find out.”
Amazingly despite a heavily damaged racecar, Earnhardt’s crew was able to repair it well enough to get him back into the race and avoid a DNF. Had they not done so, it would have been his third DNF in the last five races. Even though he was able to return, Earnhardt was scored 39th, another bad finish in a season full of bad breaks.
“It’s been a tough year, man,” Earnhardt said. “I guess if I sat there and thought about all the bad things and got further down, it would just be a longer time to get back and somehow or another you've just got to have some kind of positive thoughts and pull something out of it to keep yourself feeling like you've got a shot the next weekend and the next weekend. So, we can't give up.”
We can't quit. We've just got to keep trying. I've seen some high spots, but we've had some pretty bad luck. We'll just keep trying."
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Comments
Checking the links on Jayski, I find six articles with Junior in the title. Un-freaking-believable.
This is just my own observations, but I believe Jr.'s problems revolve around the COT. His "bad luck" started when the COT came into being. He has not adjusted to the lack of down force and high center of gravity yet. His father had a similar set of problems when the radial tire was introduced into NASCAR. Eventually though, he came around, and hopefully Jr. will too. His problems on the track always seem to be that he is too loose and can't adjust for it. It seems that those that love a loose race car are fareing better.
Analyze the performance by JR over the last 10 years or so and you will see that his level of talent and ability peaked about midway through that period. He is now riding on Daddy's legacy.
As the OVER-HYPED, OVER-RATED (OVER-PAID?) driver of the #88 car continues his weekly slide in the points standing towards the bottom of the top 35, WHY ISN'T JR. NATION SCREAMING FOR A NEW CREW CHIEF? THE SILENCE IS DEAFING! Have they finally come down off their AMP buzz and woke up to the fact that their AVERAGE AT BEST driver was the problem all along? Really would like to know, what kind of a PITY PASS Na$crap will come up with to get JR. into the BUD Shoot-out next Febuary? Whatever Na$crap SHAMLESSLY comes up with will be pretty LAME!
So much attention on a guy that accomplishes nothing and thrives in mediocrity? I don’t get it? Every race, post race and following day article has to be about JR and what he’s doing (or more appropriately not doing), even though he is never a factor ever! The media and his apologists- it’s getting to the point of embarrassment. Why don’t we concentrate more on what Harvick, Sadler, Mears, Vickers and Truex are doing? They’re certainly the same caliber of driver, and arguably better. But no; none of their last names start with an “E”.
I can hear it now..... as always, NEXT year will be his year. Sure, if you mean 20th in points, then that’s about right.
Completely delusional.
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