One of the biggest puzzles in the NASCAR Sprint Cup was Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s lack of success in 2009 while his teammates went onto to victories resulting in a fourth-consecutive championship for Jimmie Johnson, with teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon finishing second and third, respectively.
Teammates sweeping the top three positions in NASCAR’s top division was unprecedented. So on top of the pressure to merely perform Earnhardt is now compelled to perform at the top of the series.
"I want to compete and match the progress and success that the rest of the company's having," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I want to be on that level."
To be fair as team owner Rick Hendrick observed the #88 car of Earnhardt was having better performances in the closing races of the season cut short by mechanical issues or crashes.
Midway in the season Hendrick replaced Earnhardt’s cousin, Tony Eury Jr. with Lance McGrew as Crew Chief in an effort to pump new vigor into the team.
To get to that checkered flag he acknowledged that he’ll have to, consistently, finish high in most races.
And referring to good races cut short he said "I would really like to put together complete races where we're competitive throughout the event and we're able to get finishes that are good finishes, and those are top-fives and wins," said Earnhardt Jr. "Wins are what everybody's out there racing for, but if we could put together complete races without mistakes, without me making mistakes, without issues and problems arising, that's definitely going to signal some progress."
While Earnhardt is making a serious effort to put those results in his record book he says he’s still working on communicating with McGrew.
"I'm been with some great teams and had some good wins and great success at certain periods of time in my career, but it's hard for me to really be able to point out what great chemistry is just yet," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I get along great with Lance and we have a lot of fun. I think that's important, that we enjoy being around each other. We can kind of build in that friendship and learn from each at the race track and our work ethic and our work habits. All that stuff should eventually work itself out.
"I feel like that we're definitely going in the correct direction which is good compared to the direction we were going last year."
Teammates sweeping the top three positions in NASCAR’s top division was unprecedented. So on top of the pressure to merely perform Earnhardt is now compelled to perform at the top of the series.
"I want to compete and match the progress and success that the rest of the company's having," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I want to be on that level."
To be fair as team owner Rick Hendrick observed the #88 car of Earnhardt was having better performances in the closing races of the season cut short by mechanical issues or crashes.
Midway in the season Hendrick replaced Earnhardt’s cousin, Tony Eury Jr. with Lance McGrew as Crew Chief in an effort to pump new vigor into the team.
To get to that checkered flag he acknowledged that he’ll have to, consistently, finish high in most races.
And referring to good races cut short he said "I would really like to put together complete races where we're competitive throughout the event and we're able to get finishes that are good finishes, and those are top-fives and wins," said Earnhardt Jr. "Wins are what everybody's out there racing for, but if we could put together complete races without mistakes, without me making mistakes, without issues and problems arising, that's definitely going to signal some progress."
While Earnhardt is making a serious effort to put those results in his record book he says he’s still working on communicating with McGrew.
"I'm been with some great teams and had some good wins and great success at certain periods of time in my career, but it's hard for me to really be able to point out what great chemistry is just yet," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I get along great with Lance and we have a lot of fun. I think that's important, that we enjoy being around each other. We can kind of build in that friendship and learn from each at the race track and our work ethic and our work habits. All that stuff should eventually work itself out.
"I feel like that we're definitely going in the correct direction which is good compared to the direction we were going last year."