Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
It was almost like a dance, ballet of sort on Thursday night. Amelia taking the lead in the capable hands of her leader Dale, followed by grouping a field of other party goers into a line. Okay, so perhaps it isn’t ballet, but rather a congo line. Each person weaving back and forth a little, but sticking to the line. Then a trip to the drink cooler and everything gets mixed up a little before returning to the floor, with someone else taking center stage.
With a pair of stellar dancers on the floor, it pretty much turns into a show-off – in whom has better moves. You have Amelia and Dale making their moves, with the other party trying to follow. Just in one moment, though, they fail to follow and boom, that hands off the lead to Amelia and she takes the victory.
If you think I’m talking about the last party attended, you’re wrong in that matter, as the dance that I speak of refers to racecars at Daytona International Speedway.
Thursday night was a key night in Daytona as the running of the Can-Am Duels took place to set the starting grid for the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Starting from the second spot behind the wheel of the car that he has named Amelia, Earnhardt Jr. battled alongside Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, quickly taking the advantage in the early laps. He would then lead the field around the 2.5 mile oval over the course of the next 38 laps to the point that field went from double-wide battling for position to a single-file train behind him. Though when he made his scheduled pit stop, it was just a tick slower than Denny Hamlin’s, allowing the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to take the lead.
Over the course of the final 20 laps in the race, the fans were treated to a game of cat-and-mouse as Earnhardt worked at setting up the perfect move on Hamlin. He laid back a bit to gain a run, before making a charge, while taking turns ducking high and low in hopes of being able to make the run that stuck.
Coming to the tri-oval in the final laps, he was able to stick the nose of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet underneath Hamlin, snagging the lead. He would then lead the rest of the way en route to scoring his second straight Can-Am Duel victory.
While always considered a favourite on the restrictor plate tracks due to his previous success with now 17 wins at Daytona and five wins at Talladega, it seems more eye are focusing on Earnhardt as the weekend continues to go forth at Daytona. Even his competitors are raving about the speed that he has shown thus far.
“He’s just so good,” Joey Logano commented post-race after finishing second to Earnhardt. “He’s just a great Speedway racer and has a great car underneath him.”
Over the years, Earnhardt has shown that he can make the moves when he needs to, in working the lines and drafts as he needs to. He is able to quickly move from one line to the other, getting to where the push is coming from to take advantage and propel himself forward. Being able to do that comes down to one thing – worrying about yourself and nobody else. Earnhardt says that rather than focus on working with teammates and others, the key is being single-minded in looking to put yourself in the best position to win the race.
That was something that he emphasized to his young teammate Elliott pre-race in telling him, “I’m not going to be helping you tonight. Don’t help me. Don’t worry about where I’m at. If I’m behind you in one of the lines, don’t jump in thinking you’re trying to help me. Do everything you can to keep the lead. Don’t give the lead up no matter what. Don’t worry about me. I’m going to do what I need to do for me, you do what you need to do for you. We’re not out there screwing each other over. You don’t want to do that to your teammate. Rick will be pretty upset about that. You understand what I mean; you just got to be selfish”.
Earnhardt added that well different styles work for different people, the key is following that same mentality in “where you just have to be a selfish jerk”.
Knowing that his aggressive style has worked in the past and having that ability when it comes to the draft, it brings confidence. This year, though, there seems to be an extra era of confidence that comes courtesy of his racecar. Driving a car that he has taken to the plate tracks for the past two years, it seems that the sky is the limit when it comes to success in his mind. Referenced as “something special” in his post-race comments, Earnhardt drove the car to a top-three finish in each of the four restrictor plate races last season, including a pair of wins. He admits that he was nervous about possibly getting involved in a wreck and damaging the car.
“I was so nervous today about tearing the car up because I know how good it is versus what we have. What we have is a capable car in the trailer, but this thing is special. So I’m real excited,” he said. “Hopefully we can get through these next few practices and be able to put the car on the grid on Sunday. Whatever happens after that, I don’t really care.”
Earnhardt admitted that he doesn’t like to get overly confident, but the confidence just seems to keep growing in knowing that he is getting what he wants out of the car.
“When you have a car that you know can do the things that this car can do, you’re willing to take those gambles and risks to pull out and pass and not worry about getting shuffled to the back because you feel like the car is really capable of doing what you’re going to ask it to do every time you make a move,” he said. “It’s just a fun car to drive. Really special car. Rick (Hendrick) leaned into the window. I told him, ‘Whatever happens to this thing from here on out, he needs to keep track of it. Might be one he wants to put in a museum one day because it’s done a lot of good things’.”
With having such a good car underneath him, some wonder whether he should’ve played the route of staying under the radar, but he says “you can’t hold any cards when there’s a trophy out there”. Besides, it has allowed him to get to know the competition that much better. Just because all the stars seem to be aligning to create the perfect scenario for Earnhardt, it doesn’t mean that it will happen that way on Sunday.
“Some of them showed their hand a little bit, too,” he said. “I never really ran with Brad (Keselowski) much as far as 1-2 where I have to defend or try to pass him. That was interesting. He’s very aggressive trying to put together a run pretty much every corner, two or three runs a lap he’s trying to put together. A lot of guys like myself, we kind of wait for whatever to happen, wait for something behind us to propel us into an opportunity to put a run together. That might happen every two or three laps. He’s very active.
“So, you know, you learn about your competitors and learn what they’re doing. I was surprised that we got by Denny. He’s great at plate racing. That’s obvious by his success at this track and Talladega. He’s always towards the front. When we got by him, I was really surprised. Then I was nervous when Joey got to second. Joey is very good too, obviously. He’s pretty aggressive like trying to get the lead. He has a great racecar.
“I was glad to hold them off. But now I’m not too worried about giving away too many secrets. But the car is so good, it’s really hard. When you got such a great car, it’s hard to defend on a pass with a car like that.”
