Funny ... it's always the car or the crew chief's fault. Kyle Busch said it best, "Someday you're going to have to wake up and blame the driver." He has no other excuses, he's the only one left to blame.

Trey ~~~~>>>
Dale Jr plainly said he "either had a flat tire or broken axle" while STILL on the race track - something the media has reported incorrectly. It didn't break on pit road during the pit stop!

For not having a spare axle in the pit box - THAT is the crew chief's fault! That speaks volumes to preparation both in the shop and at the track.....

Jimmie Johnson had a "Golden Horseshoe up his A$$" from some media reports. You can bet he had all the spare parts he may have needed and more.....

Trey I so agree with you. It would be nice to take the blinders off and see that Jr just doesn't have what it takes.

I'm so thrilled my guy won! I remember when Jr first came over to Hendrick someone said, "I'm just afraid he's going to show your guys up" LOL that is much to funny.

I'm not sure whats going to help Jr. anymore, his car just didnt seem to have the speed as the others yesterday, I hate to say this but along with I think and have always Lance is wrong for Jr. whos the right 1 I have no idea,but may Jr. needs to take a look at himself & get his life in shape because when your life at home is right sometimes everything else falls in place.

It's hard for Junior fans not to jump all over this. It is only the 2nd race of the season, but really this is race 38 of the same stuff. This is exactly what happened last year. Pit road blunders, unable to fix the car throughout the race, the front runner 5-24-48 cars. It's the same story race after race. And yet, Hendrick said he threw everything he knew to the 88 team in the offseason. Where is the fruits of that? We were ready for some big things to come. Maybe not winning off the bat, but finishing the races, being able to run as good as the teammates. Where is the communition and sharing between teammates? Why is it that Dale is the red headed step child of HMS? Why hasn't Rick pulled a page from Roush or Childress and made a crew swap?

The whole radio exchange during the axle/drive plate problem was horrible and disheartening to listen to. Because it told us that things haven't really changed at all. How can you not have extra parts available? Especially after knowing that Jimmie broke nearly the same piece the week prior at Daytona? The crew were running around lost in the sauce like they had no idea what they were doing. It's unacceptable, not just on Junior's team but any Sprint Cup team. Junior, Lance and Rick should not stand for that at all.

And agreed on the whole pit road speeding penalty. All the drivers were pretty adament that they weren't speeding and how they were speeding but the cars they were running with we not speeding. It's hard for me to accept (and this is not in the Junior context) that if you're coming down pit road with a group of cars going the same speed, if you are speeding, the whole group is bound to be speeding. It's not like on the Interstate where a State Patrol can only pull over one car... NASCAR can't hit that whole group. And like you said, I don't see how the money spent on the cars with all the technology surrounding all the teams can be caught speeding, that they haven't figured out an almost fool proof way of not speeding.

And the media gets on my nerves as well. If the booth had listened to Junior's audio, they would have realized that something broke on the track and not in pit road. The reason Junior tried to leave after his pit stop was because he didn't think for sure it was a broken axle. He thought it might have just been a tire. That's why when he left the tire spun. The part was already broken. It was not broken on the track. I wish the announcers would check their facts before telling us. I would gladly wait the couple minutes for clarification of a problem then them banging into our heads that 'this is the problem; this is the problem', when clearly it was not. Tired of HMS broadcasted as 3 teams instead of 4.

It's hard to see Junior is this position. HMS has never had more than 3 dominent cars. They always used to have only 2. (I only know back when it was Gordon and Labonte) the 25 car was the curse. Seems now the 25 curse has moved onto the 88 car.

The talking heads go after Jr fans because they can't seem to understand why we support him. Here's a hint for them: we support Dale Jr because he's the best driver out there, if he has the equipment to get him to the end -- just as we saw and was evidenced at Daytona.

Hey, Trey. I don't recall a broken axle caused by a flat tire being a driver's fault. Seems to be the same issue that happened to Jimmie J at Daytona. And we don't need Kylie Busch's worn out old quote repeated, considering the source. This year he seems more upset about Danica's news coverage...

Trey - I guess Busch's Addington boot doesn't count then.

You need to go back through all my blogs starting with this one which you must not have read in full re: the axle/drive plate failure. (Note: Not driver error) Last year we had at least 3 brake failures, a track bar installed improperly, transmission issues and engine failure - and that's just off the top of my head.

A driver cannot do anything about his car coming to the track with bad parts, mysterious problems etc.

BTW during qualifying at Fontana he had no brakes at all meaning that someone did not inspect the car properly between practice and qualifying. Another dismissal if that person was on the 48 team.

Gail - LOL that was Kevin Harvick who said -

"Harvick on 48 (48 is good but adds) "They have a golden horseshoe stuck up their ass.'

I loved that comment, he's a straight forward tell it like it is kind of guy!

Lori - as Dale Jr told Marty Smith (paraphrasing) What right do you (media) or anyone else have to tell me what I should do in my personal life?

His personal life has nothing to do with his car parts failures happening at the track - I sound like a broken record but how can he help those things??

If someone can tell me how his personal lie has anything to do with axle/drive plate, brake, engine, trackbar parts failures or crew human error - I would love to know.

jr88freak - you were paying attention! :)

It's up to us to set the record straight - the booth and media tend to jump to their own ""expertise"" aka know it all ex driver/crew chiefs = quick and erroneous conclusions.

The radio transmissions during the axle debacle were troubling to me as well.

We may never know what that should have gone like - I would like to see a contest between teams at the shop given problems like they do pilots in a simulator Westcoastgal8@yahoo.comand see who can solve them the best, and then work on the best one in training for all teams.

Hey Jack

Thanks for your comments - all spot on as usual :)

I agree about shrubie and his jealousy of Danica - he's really fixated on her now as he was Dale Jr the past two years LOL

It should be alll about meeeeeeeeeeeee 'POUT'

Let's go back to Year 1 at HMS for Dale Jr.....

Dale Jr was the TOP performing Hendrick Motorsports car UNTIL Darian Grubb was tabbed to go to the Hendrick satellite team of Stewart-Haas Racing and become Tony Stewart's crew chief in September 2008.

Nobody can blame Rick Hendrick for allowing Grubb to go to SHR - he has a vested interest in selling them cars and leasing engines. However, a person of Darian Grubb's talent has not been put in his former position at the No. 88 team. (team engineer)

The No. 88 team has had mechanical failures ever since Grubb left.

Dale Jr had ZERO confidence in his car before the race Sunday and as things played out, we see why.

Are you listening Rick Hendrick? Put someone of Darian Grubb's quality at the No. 88 team!

BTW, Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 in 2006 with Darian Grubb as his interim crew chief after Chad Knaus was sent home by NASCAR for cheating.

It's amazing to me why most of the media (mainly television) seems to think that Junior is supposed to single handedly save NASCAR. They generated this monster and now they are turning on him. Danica needs to watch out, they will do the same thing to her.
Thanks for the story.
Shell

Hi John,

Thanks for your great comments once again.

I hesitate to say, but will ask, when do we change crew chiefs if the ongoing problems don't change?

It must be embarrassing for Mr H don't you think?

Don't tell Jenna Fryer I asked LOL

I've heard Hendrick gave Stewart carte blanche on who he wanted from HMS to crew his car - EXCEPT Chad. :P

Doesn't Ron Malec have more experience than Lance McGrew? Where is Whitesell the infamous T-Rex guru? Are they working on this problem?

If the answer to the above is yes, then they should all be fired because it looks the same. With so much experience behind him/them they have no excuse for all the car & part failures over the last year and a half.

I'm just sayin, if I were the boss, I'm giving him two weeks notice to get it right or be replaced. No expense would be too great to get the best from somewhere, anywhere if there's no one in house that can get the job done.

Posting this info to keep track of things from the get go this year.......

Problems with the rear axle sent the No. 88 Chevrolet to the garage on lap 186. While he returned after repairs had been made, his day was effectively done.

“We tore up an axle or a drive plate, one of the two happened first,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Down in the center of [turns] 1 and 2, I just got back to the gas and the car felt like it had a flat tire. I don't know. Something's going on there where we're chewing that stuff up and tearing it up. We've got to figure out why that's happening.

“They think it's a material issue, so we'll just have to see.”

Earnhardt Jr. said he felt like he should have come away with a decent finish had it not been for the mechanical problems.

“Looking at the guys around the top 10, we should have been right around that No. 16 car [of Greg Biffle], I think,” Earnhardt Jr. said of the Roush Fenway Racing driver’s 10th-place finish. “It was a tough day.”

Crew chief Lance McGrew said the team had a 10th- to 14th-place car.

“We need to be better than that. It’s kind of hard to tell, though, when you have so many problems,” he said.

After a handful of early-race adjustments, Earnhardt was getting settled in when he was penalized for excessive speed exiting the pits on lap 134. As a result, he lost more track position, and McGrew said that put the team “behind the eight-ball.

“I think the car was decent; we kept working on the car, working on the car, and we actually got the car to where he liked the way it drove,” McGrew said. “But he was so far back in traffic …

“When the rear-end trouble hit, it just chewed the end right off the axle. Not really sure if the problem is the axle or the drive plate. The right side looks brand new and the left side is chewed all to hell. So I don’t really know.”

The finish dropped Earnhardt Jr. from second in the point standings to 16th, and a day that could have given the Hendrick Motorsports team a wealth of information went by the wayside.

Part of the problem, McGrew said, began much earlier than race day.

“I think we learned some but we obviously didn’t learn enough,” he said. “And I think the whole playing the rain game – that hurt us on qualifying day, so then you’re behind. Then we’re switching back and forth between qualifying setup and race setup and back to qualifying setup. Wound up making mistakes and you’ve just got to be better. But I think until we get back in the swing of it, you’re going to have little things that you have to address daily.”

As for Earnhardt Jr., it was a disappointing end to what might have been an otherwise productive day.

"Well, what can you do?” he said. “You just go on home.”

I never said we need to change his personal life but think about it, he stays up half the night playing race games & mw2, he said last week when he goes to the whiskey he needs 24 hours to recover,so when it comes time to race and get up early and be on top of your game as they say hes not and as long as he lives this way it will not get anywhere hes not getting any younger, i know about all the other issuse but it starts with yourself first and thats what he needs to do!

I didnt have time to finish, but you cant alway live life party all the time at not effect work, & racing is work I'm sure all the other H boys don't play games all night long. they get enough rest every night so when it comes time to preform & be there best they can,I think being who he is it wont change theres something holding him back, besides a bad car & crew chief, we cant always blame someone else for Jr.s mistakes, hes never run good at Cali anyways. We all know he can drive Good maybe even greatbut playing video games all night will not help himlife in the fast lane will catch up with him, if it already hasnt. all in all if he was at the top of his game and his crew chief was he would demand there they be the best, and that hole team is not the best be far all the pit crew should be fired look at all the mistakes from last year they made, & yet no one was let go. Why? it it was Chad they would have been how many times did he go in for a pit stop & come out - his spot? not only does Lance need to get on the ball so does he.

His personal life has nothing to do with all the parts failures he has. Obviously someone on that team isn't doing there job again same as last year. The majority of his bad finishes last year were parts failures that amazingly none of his teammates seem to have. It's sad that he does that interview online for his fans to let them know more about what goes in his life but yet some people have to find a reason to criticize him for it. It's his life he's allowed to live it anyway he wants. The parts failures don't come from the pit crew it's the people who build the cars to begin with thats why there wasnt a reason to fire them. Nobody knows what the other drivers at HMS do I'm sure there not perfect either it's just not discussed because there not as popular as Junior. So you can't say how the other drivers are unless you know them personally.

If people have a problem with how he lives his life why not find another driver to cheer for then??. So If he does all that you say about getting himself together mysteriously all the parts failures and wrong changes made to car will all of a sudden be fixed??. Wishful thinking I guess lol...even though I don't agree with you.

If you don't demand perfection it will not happen!

Thanks for your comments Ann - I agree.

Lori - if we tether every driver to his car - we have a robot (with apologies to Matt)

It would seem to me that Denny with his knee injury and Carl with his foot injury would be hurting their on-track performance more than Jr having a beer on an off day.

He did say in another interview that he does NOT or RARELY goes to Whisky River during the racing season.

I also saw where JJ's trainer chided him for having a drink, explaining the way it takes him several steps backwards in his training. Did he drink some of that champagne at Homestead and again at Fontana last Sunday or at any of the 48 races he's won? Hmmmm... I wonder? Nothing wrong with it, don't get me wrong - but I doubt he's a tee totaler either.

Dale Jr is definitely not JJ, MM or JG. He barely resembles their gym fanaticism or the uptown NYC metrosexual persona.

IMO, he is what Nascar used to be - kind of rough around the edges with a few flaws. He's MPD now 7 times, so I'm guessing the fans like that about him.

I am sorry like Ann to see some take one answer from the fan chat and make it the reason for all his problems.

He is entitled to his own life, his choices whether bad or good.

We'll see where it takes all of us this year - I'm not saying you don't have a right to your own opinion. I am saying he also has the right to be his own man too.

No one in the United States come home after a rough day at work and crack open a beer? Do they not pick up a gaming console and play Call of Duty, Modern Warfares, Halo, etc? Do they not sit down at the computer and play World of Warcraft?

What makes anyone think that Dale Jr. is not allowed going home after a rough day at the track and sitting in front of his computer and playing whatever game he so pleases while enjoying an adult beverages?

He puts up with more crap than Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin ever will combined. More pressure rests on his shoulders than Jimmie can even fathom. Ask anybody on that race track - no one wants to switch places with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

He gets it from his fans, the media, NASCAR... "When are you going to win again?" "They've changed everything but the driver so...." "We need Junior to win, so more fans will start coming to the track." "We lost X amount of money because fans aren't buying memerabilia and most of it is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s."

We all have our opinions but none of us can sit here and tell Junior how he supposed to run his life just like he told Marty. We have no idea just how much he is giving to that race car to his team. If he's not getting just as much in return from his pit crew, crew chief, car owner it doens't matter how much he's giving it will never work.

No you have it all wrong on my meaning, who cares really what the hell he does, the point is CONSTANCY! How can ANYONE but at top of their game without it?

Good comments here and appreciate the perspectives, background and info.
I hope Rick H. reads and heeds some of the advice.

It isn't easy to put together the myriad combination of elements to build winning team. It takes time, technical expertise, discernment, money investment, talent, and a dose of luck -- besides the human elements that always bring uncertainty. I hope Jr gets the management attention and team support that is necessary. His many fans deserve it, and expect it!