If you want great insight into the psyche of a race-car driver, check out Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Periscope feed after a race.
Earnhardt, the 14-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver, had a hugely disappointing Monster Energy All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where his Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet never flashed much speed as he wound up 18th in the 20-car all-star field.
Afterward, Earnhardt pulled no punches about his weekend. As he always is, Earnhardt was brutally frank about his race and his emotions. Here are 12 things he had to say on Periscope after the event.
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His last all-star race
Obviously, Earnhardt had high expectations coming into this race, which he won as a rookie in 2000. “I’ve got to smile to keep from crying, because that was ridiculous,” he said. “Pretty embarrassing. It’s unfortunate, I guess, our last all-star race will be memorable for how bad we ran.”
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Practice
The entire weekend, there wasn’t enough sped in the No. 88. Earnhardt was clear about that. “We unloaded the car and weren’t very fast,” he said. “We were pretty slow, actually. Worked on it quite a bit and really didn’t have a whole lot of practice and just ran out of time.”
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Option tires
Goodyear brought two tires, their regular racing radials and a softer option set that was quicker initially but had more give up. Earnhardt’s team did not use the option tire set, which had green lettering on the sidewalls, in the race.
“Why didn’t we use the green tires? I don’t know,” said Earnhardt. “We put ‘em on in practice and the green tires didn’t go faster. Of course, we were pretty damn screwed up in practice. So I don’t know if that was our problem. Our car wasn’t good whether we put the soft tire or the hard tire on there.”
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The race
At no point in the all-star race did Earnhardt’s car flash any real speed. “We qualified pretty good, but when the green flag dropped, the car just didn’t turn, didn’t handle good,” said Earnhardt. “We couldn’t get in the gas and it would just push up the race track. And it was real slow. Real disappointing. And the hard thing about it, really, is we’ve got to go back there next weekend and run 600 miles.”
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Self-confidence
Understandably, Earnhardt was dejected after the all-star, an event he was won before and usually runs well in. “It really is hard on your confidence to go back there and think things are going to be different,” Earnhardt said. “They’ll be different. Will they be better? Will they be worse? That’s the answers that you just don’t have.”
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Searching for answers
Earnhardt was characteristically blunt about his struggles: “Everybody’s on here asking what the problem is,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know what the problem is. I’m just the driver.”
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Graveyard addition
Earnhardt keeps a collection of wrecked race cars on his property. He now is adding the Stewart-Haas Ford of Danica Patrick that got destroyed as part of the Almirola crash at Kansas.
“One of the guys on the 10 team called me about that,” said Earnhardt, who tweeted on Sunday that the car had arrived at his place.
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Aric Almirola
Almirola broke his back last week at Kansas Speedway and Earnhardt said he’s encouraged that the Richard Petty Motorsports driver is being smart about taking his time to recover.
“He’s good a great head on his shoulders and he’s thinking really sharp in terms of getting himself well,” Earnhardt said of Almirola. “And he’s in good spirits considering everything he’s dealing with. I’m glad to see that he’s going to be fine and he’s going to take his time to get his bones healed up so he can keep digging.”
The upcoming Coca-Cola 600
For NASCAR’s longest race, Earnhardt knows that he and the team have to pick it up. “I worry about going back and being better, being good enough,” he said. “I don’t want to run like that for 600 miles. And I know the team, Greg (Ives, crew chief) and those guys, damn sure don’t want to see the thing run that bad.”
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His Coca-Cola 600 car
Earnhardt said the team would run NASCAR’s longest race with a car from the Hendrick fleet other than the one he drove in the all-star race. “We’re taking a different car than that damn thing I drove tonight,” said Earnhardt. “I hope I don’t ever see that car again. Even if it’s not the car, I got it in my head that I do not like it. I would rather not drive it anymore.”
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The Coca-Cola 600
For NASCAR’s longest race, Earnhardt knows that he and the team have to pick it up. “I worry about going back and being better, being good enough,” he said. “I don’t want to run like that for 600 miles. And I know the team, Greg (Ives, crew chief) and those guys, damn sure don’t want to see the thing run that bad.”
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On his replacement in the No. 88
When he missed the second half of 2016 with a concussion, Alex Bowman and Jeff Gordon filled in for Earnhardt. “Alex Bowman to the 88 next year? Is that what you guys want?” Earnhardt asked. “That would be pretty awesome to see Alex in that car. That’s the plan, I hope. … Yeah, Alex in the 88. That sounds good to me.”
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Parenthood
One Periscope viewer asked Earnhardt and his wife Amy if they had any baby news to announce yet. “Amy is not pregnant. No,” he said.
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