Published on February 10, 2011 by Kelly Crandall
There must be a sense of déjà vu for Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he enters Speedweeks 2011 at the Daytona International Speedway.
David YeazellHe moves from a shop with the No. 5 of Mark Martin to the shop that holds defending five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. Earnhardt Jr. now inherits cars and team from Jeff Gordon as well as his crew chief, Steve Letarte.
The success of Earnhardt Jr.’s season will be measured by his performance in the 36 Sprint Cup Series events but no race may be more important than this Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout. Coming out of the gate strong with Letarte and setting the tone will be critical for momentum heading into Phoenix, Las Vegas and the first half of the schedule.
Think of Kevin Harvick, who won last year’s shootout and continued to ride the wave through the season, nearly winning the championship. Or even back to Earnhardt Jr. when he won it in 2008, he went on to have one of his best seasons, regardless of the win count, where he stood second or third in points the first half of the year.
He stumbled in the Chase however, and finished 12th. Now, three years later he gets to start fresh again.
The driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet knows what’s in front of him; he’s had to sit home since two days after Homestead when the changes were announced and wait. And wait.
When asked Earnhardt Jr. said he felt like a kid again, knowing what he was going to get for Christmas but having to wait until Christmas day to play with it.
The same could be said about 2008 when he left Dale Earnhardt Inc. for HMS. And much like then, Earnhardt Jr. needs to win soon and Junior Nation desperately needs something to hold onto. They too want wins and results and they want them now.
Saturday is the first and one of the greatest opportunities for Earnhardt Jr.
His second Shootout win in 2008 led many to believe that Earnhardt Jr. was finally going to cash in at HMS. So much so that during his burnout at the start/finish line, Mike Joy stated, “I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship.”
Darrell Waltrip chimed in and said it was the start of something big.
It’s been anything but. Since that 2008 season NASCAR’s Most Popular driver has been off the map: winless, Chase-less and finishing 25th and 21st in points.
Things though, have a way of coming back to you and Earnhardt Jr.’s back on the map with the changes have been made. You can’t escape the déjà vu.
Letarte is in the same boat. When he became a crew chief in late 2005, he was expected to be the man that led Jeff Gordon to his fifth championship. It never happened and like any crew chief, he became the scapegoat by the Gordon fans.
Now he inherits a driver that is also expected to do great things, but listening to Letarte, he isn’t thinking about his goals or legacy. He’s more concerned about his drivers.
This past offseason he made the comment that his motivation was “to show everybody in the world how talented Dale Earnhardt Jr. is … “
That time has arrived, as has the 2011 NASCAR season. The talking and predicting is over and all the work that has gone in over the past two and three months will be hitting the racetrack.
Have Letarte and Earnhardt Jr. hit a winning setup?
The 33rd annual Budweiser Shootout will be the first race run on Daytona’s new pavement. The excitement and intensity won’t have changed from last season no matter how crazy it gets.
For Earnhardt Jr. he’ll be looking for another win at a restrictor plate track. The hope is that the first race on this new pavement doesn’t end the way the last track who was repaved did … where he was spinning through the grass down the backstretch on the last lap at Talladega.