Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 14th in his season premiere in CARS Late Model Stock Tour competition, and also his track debut at New River All-American Speedway, but there was more to the results than just the box score.
Characteristic of his first two years since returning to semi-regular Late Model Stock competition, Earnhardt did not qualify well but still felt like he was in position to charge forward in the second half when he was involved in an incident with Landon Huffman on Lap 79 of the 125 lapper.
That sent him from 12th to the rear of the field.
“We qualified bad, and I’m still trying to figure out the secret to get these cars to go fast in qualifying,” Earnhardt told Short Track Scene after the race. “We race fine but I just don’t know how to get the car to find more speed in qualifying. I think I’m just driving the car too hard.
“Anyhow, we start in the back so I had the choice to ride if I wanted to because there was no point in really driving to the front and using our stuff up. We sit there for a while, 40 laps into the race and decided to try to gain 10 spots in each stage, with the competition cautions, and set up pretty good to race really hard for a top-5 or top-10.
“The car was good enough to do that so I was trying to hustle by Landon, because I was getting held up on the inside, and I felt if I didn’t pass him three-wide, I was going to give up all those spots I just got. When you run these tire conservation races, you can’t give up spots, because the passes are so hard to come by.
“So I just think I was a little bit antsy because going three-wide is never a good idea. I’m watching it happen all the time when I’m calling NASCAR races and never think it’s a good idea and here I am, the one doing it tonight.”
Ultimately, Earnhardt said he has a good car and just has to qualify better.
All told, he really enjoyed his first trip to the coastal Carolina bullring and it served multiple purposes for Earnhardt the racer and the dad and husband.
“I’d heard so many great things about this race track,” Earnhardt said. “It reminds me of Myrtle Beach and East Carolina Motor Speedway. It races really fun. I want to come back and give it another shot.
“I think the best thing about the whole experience for me was that my family could come and have things to do. We could go to the aquarium with the kids and Amy all had activities for this weekend in addition to the race track.
“It was the perfect mix of priorities. Like, I would love to race more. I would love to race the full CARS Tour but I got two little girls and all kinds of things going on in my life. This was a good mix to bring them somewhere to experience the weekend but other things around Jacksonville (North Carolina) and so forth.”
Earnhardt’s other planned CARS Tour starts include Hickory on July 27 and Florence on Southern 500 weekend in August. It stands to reason that he will make another start in the South Carolina 400 at Florence in November as well.
