Dale Jr admits he wants to stop being the punchline of jokes

It has been a trying season for Dale Earnhardt Jr, even though he's higher in the points than he was a year ago. Although he's shown some improvement it has not been enough to get him in the Chase, which he will miss for the third time in the last four years.

A year from now, the Chase could look differently -- NASCAR has talked of making changes to it and the Chase could be expanded from 12 to as much as 15 or 16 or (who knows) maybe even more? If the field is expanded, it would be the second time that the field has been expanded. Many said the field went from 10 to 12 to make sure the sport's stars got in after Jeff Gordon and Dale Jr.  missed the Chase early on.

If there is a second expansion, Dale Jr. admits he'll feel the burden of some people saying the change would be made to get him into the Chase. Here's what he said after qualifying Friday night at Richmond.

"It's a big burden for me,'' Dale Jr. said. "I want to get behind NASCAR and I do. I believe in whatever they want to do. I love this sport and I love being around it. I like their attitude, they've been real proactive in the last several years. We've been struggling and we sort of put ourselves in that position to be the fall guy or whatever, the scapegoat for all of that.

"If they do extend the  Chase to more cars, a lot of people will say it's because of me, trying to get me into the Chase. We put ourselves in position to be the punchline of that joke and a lot of other jokes to be honest. We've just got to work harder. If they make it 15 or whatever next year, try to do what we can to finish in the top 10 and make that argument a moot point, hopefully.''

When I asked Dale  Jr., how hard it is to find  the light at the end of the tunnel right now, this is what he said:

"Real hard. When I look around the guys I'm sitting near in the points, I think they're good race car drivers and I don't think I'm flailing about in the back of the pack. It's real hard to get better for some reason. We used to win races and then we would run like crap for a few weeks and then win a race and it sort of kept ourselves relevant. We've just been struggling for so many years now. We've been working hard at trying everything.I'm taking everybody's advice that's close and around that sees what's going on and trying to do what I can to be a part of the solution, not part of the problem, but nothing is really clicking right yet. It's not a lost cause. There's some potential with our team. I feel like we've worked hard enough to deserve it. We'll see.

I then asked him how he determines what to listen to and if he worries about listening to too much advice.

Dale Jr said: "You listen to the people that are close and people in the company,other drivers, other crew chiefs. I believe in whatever any of those guys say, all my teammates, all  the other crew chiefs, all the guys in the organization. I work for them.  I'll do whatever they tell me to do and I want to get our team better, so you've got to listen to people around you. I've heard a lot of good information and a lot  of good feedback from people outside of the company and that is good, too. You listen to people that  you've looked up to all your life, since I've been in this sport. Really the people that know the most about it are the people in the organization, so I trust what they tell me.'' 

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