■ 16 October 2009 | 2:10 PM
Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed his frustartion with his performance, his season and even the rule changes at Talladega.
Here's a transcript of what Dale Jr. said to the media Friday at Lowe's Motor Speedway:
Q: The issues with not being able to finish some races lately
Dale Jr: "I don't know. I don't know. We struggle as a team sometimes and I don't know. I felt pretty good about how we run. We come off of turn 4 at California and Ryan Newman hit me in the left rear quarterpanel and knocked the valve stem out of the tire and I had a flat tire going down the front straightaway and I couldn't go nowhere because I had guys on the inside of me. And Elliott didn't know that I had a flat and neither did the 17 behind him. When they got to me, I couldn't control my car anymore. I was out of air in the tire. That's frustrating. I was really upset. I was really, really upset.
"Last night, we go out and we're top 15 in practice and we went out to try to qualify and we were one of the worst cars here. We don't know why or have any (answer) for it. All the other cars qualified fine and backed their times up in practice and we didn't even get close. We looked ridiculous last night. It's like really one encouraging one day and the next day it's equally discouraging and that gets really old. I'm about to the end of my rope on it.''
Q: What can you do?
Dale Jr: "I've been riding it out but there comes a point where you don't want to ride it out no more. You've just had enogh. It's been a long year. I really dont' want the year to be over with because I like going to the race track every week and racing, but the last several, well, all year, it's been so low. The highs have not been very high and the lows have been terribly low. That's hard to want get back up and try again the next week when you take such a beating. I don't know what else to do.'
Q: What's next? Meet with Rick Hendrick or something else?
Dale Jr: "Well, I don't know what's next. I was thinking about that last night. I don't know what the logical next step would be because we seem to be getting better. We seem to be getting better, but even getting better is not satisfying me at all.
Q: You want to stick with Lance McGrew as crew chief?
Dale Jr.: "I haven't talked to Rick about it. I don't have the credentials to make the call, you know. If I told you I wanted to be with Lance next year, I wouldn't be telling that out of my knowledge of expertise and talent. I'd be telling you because it's fun hanging out with him. Whoever I work with needs to be a dictator, you know what I mean. The most success I had was with Tony Sr. and you know how he runs his ship.
Q: Is Lance not that?
Dale Jr.: I'm not saying that. I just don't think I know. I don't think I'm the guy to leave that decision up to because I wouldn't make the right one. Or there's probably better people to make it, especially in the organziation. There's a lot of smart people around there. I'm just waiting for somebody to make the call. Just tell me. Put the (dang) team together and say this is what you've got and this is what you're going to do next year. Just kind of waiting on that to happen.''
Q: Are you overwhelmed with trying to change yourself?
Dale Jr: "I don't even know what I used to do.
Q: Are you in this period of second-guessing everything?
Dale Jr: No. I've passed all of that. I'm over it to be honest with you. I'm just coming to the race track and climbing into the car and if it goes fast, it goes fast.
Q: Would you like to see the team make a crew chief change, if it's going to do so, in the next few races to help you get ready for next year?
Dale Jr: "I don't think we need to do that. We're getting better with Lance. Nothing is wrong with how's that going for the most part. (Heck), you don't even know if Lance wants to do it. I wouldn't want to do it. Tough job.
Q: So how do you keep your head up?
Dale Jr: "Hopefully, you can finish one. That should do a lot for us if we can finish one. I ain't ready for the season to be over with. I like going to the race track and racing. There's only one guy that is going to be happy at the end of it. Sometimes you've just got to ... you know, I don't know. We just need to run better. It's not happening. It's not happening fast enough.''
Q: Does it help that you've got Martinsville, Talladega and Texas coming up?
Dale Jr: "No. I just want to run better. We're not running good enough. Even when we're creeping inside the top 10 like we were last week, it aint' good enough. It's really frustarting. Just trying to get better. I don't know what the answer is. I've tried to think about what the answer is and I don't know what it is.''
Q: Would you ask for Tony Eury Sr. to be your crew chief?
Dale Jr: "I don't think Tony Sr. would ever be interested in working in the Cup series. It's not a very fun place. You guys know that it takes a lot to be here and it's really, really ... for anybody to work in it around this garage, it's really, really frustrating and realy hard and you really have to commit yourself. He's been out of it and he's seen that's not all there is in life. He has fun where he's at. I don't think he would accept the opportunity.''
Q: You're in a really hard spot, aren't you?
Dale Jr: "Yeah, I feel like I'm in ... I feel like I don't have any ... I feel like I don't have any control, you know, but Rick has been put me in a great position but I haven't made the most of it or for whatever reason we're just not getting it done. So, I don't know what to do.''
Q: What about Danica? What's the latest there?
Dale Jr; "Danica is in Europe, so can't do a whole lot until she gets back. Nothing has changed in a week.
Q: What kind of concerns do you have with Talladega with the recent last-lap crashes there and NASCAR shrinking the restrictor plate?
Dale Jr: "You all know what sells tickets.''
Q: An injured driver doesn't sell tickets.
Dale Jr.: Nobody has got hurt. I don't want to go flipping across the finish line every week. The measures of raising the fences are good, but cars go through them fences, you know, parts go through them. It seems like the smaller the plate gets, the more we wreck, in my opinion. The smaller you make the plate, the more on top of each other we race and the more we're going to wreck. Every time that plate gets smaller, it gets more dangerous in my opinion.
Q: When your dad was in the big one at Dega years ago?
Dale Jr: Which one?
Q: Exactly. (the one where he broke his sternum)
Dale Jr. : I was listening on the radio because Barney Hall called a (heck) of a race. That was just a driver error really that wreck. They weren't in a three-wide battle six rows deep like we run today. The smaller you make the plate, you can't pass. You run three-four (freaking) wide and if you're in the second lane or third lane, you're boxed in, you've nowhere to go. You can't pass. There's nowhere to go. You can't do anything about your position and sit there and ride and hope that you maybe you can push your lane forward. That sucks. That's boring.''
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Jr……..
If I were Hendrick I’d put Eury, Jr. back on the box and free McGrew up for more productive purposes. As long as the 88, in that combo, can hold sponsors and sell merchandise I’d use them to pad the profit and for R&D work. After that I’d release both when their contracts are up. There are plenty of young drivers working for a ride to keep Earnhardt in the seat. Maybe put Patrick in the car. A fresh source of revenue and she couldn’t do too much worse.
But, then again, I ain’t Hendrick.