Earnhardt’s Season Goes Up In Smoke Because Of Blown Motors

RICHMOND, Va. — Saturday night wasn’t the defining moment of Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s season. He can point to five blown engines and three in the past seven races as reasons he missed The Chase.
The most popular driver in Nextel Cup came up short in the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond Int’l Raceway, facing huge odds in his bid to become part of NASCAR’s 10-race showcase.
Earnhardt’s long night went up in smoke, as the engine in his No. 8 Chevrolet let go five laps from the end. He crept to a 30th-place finish in a race he desperately needed luck on his side.
“We broke another motor, and they seem to fall apart when they plug ’em into my car,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know what it is about it, but we’ve had a good car all year long. I’ll get over it, but my guys work hard all weekend and to see that thing go up in smoke like that, they’re very disappointed.”
So, too, was Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s president of global operations, Max Siegel.
“It’s a very disappointing day,” Siegel said. “This is a very resilient team. These guys are professionals. We’re going to focus and figure out what is going wrong. I’ll work hard to finish out the season very positive.”
As the engine blew, Kevin Harvick was the only driver Earnhardt still had a mathematical chance of catching to earn a Chase berth. But Harvick also was running in the top 10, not far behind Earnhardt.
Earnhardt now carries the label of “also-ran,” or everyone not fighting for the Nextel Cup. He can finish no higher than 13th in points.
“I can turn anything into a positive. I always do,” Earnhardt said. “There ain’t no reason to get all upset and bent out of shape about anything because there’s cooler stuff around the corner. There’s all kinds of things to be excited about, and I’m not just talking about next year. I’m saying every day in life.”
In 2008, Earnhardt will drive Chevrolets for Hendrick Motorsports. He’s leaving for the powerhouse organization having missed The Chase in two of the past three seasons driving for his late father’s company.
But he still has 10 races remaining at DEI, and he has gone the entire season without winning and hasn’t won at all since May 2006 at Richmond.
“I’m going to work really, really hard with my guys,” Earnhardt said. “I promised them that these last several races, no matter what, that we owed it to ourselves to race hard. It would really be foolish and uncharacteristic for my team to sort of skip along the rest of this year and ride it out.
“I want us to feel like when we turn the last lap at Homestead that we worked hard and had good integrity.”