LONG POND, Pa. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a front-runner in the final stages of Monday’s race at Pocono Raceway.
Although he led for only four total laps, he had a strong car that ran consistently all day. Taking the green flag in eighth, the driver battled a tight Chevrolet SS for the beginning stages of the 160-lap event but his No. 88 Axalta Racing team worked hard all day to get the car where he needed it to be.
“We certainly finished better than we should have,” Earnhardt acknowledged following his second-place finish. “Our car wasn't quite a second-place car. We started off really tight and really slow, probably about a 15th-place car. (No. 88 team crew chief) Greg (Ives) and the guys made a lot of changes and made the car better. Don't really know exactly how much better we got it compared to the competition, but we certainly made it more competitive.”
After falling outside the top 20 early in the race, Earnhardt drove his way up through the field and was back inside the top 10 prior to the halfway point of the race. He assumed the lead under caution when the leader pitted and was running just ahead of his teammate and prior leader, Chase Elliott.
“Really we lost the race on the restart,” Earnhardt said of the final Lap 127 restart. “The (No.) 24 and I were racing pretty hard. He was really trying to get his lead back, and he knew if he could get the lead, he was going to win the race. He got me loose a little bit. That slowed us up some. The (No.) 41 got a good run on him and I didn't do a good enough job holding him off.”
Earnhardt said he could have been a little more aggressive toward the end and done a few things differently, however, he was ultimately happy with the effort at Pocono.
“You know, it's a good step in the right direction,” the driver said. “I felt like we could come in here and run good and I think we learned a lot that we can understand how to get better for the next race here.”
And looking forward to several of the upcoming races, Earnhardt is confident that his No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS team will perform strong there as well.
“Obviously it's going to be a different package, but I think we'll run good on that track (Michigan), too, and anticipate having a good run at Kentucky,” Earnhardt said. “We've always done really well on the repaves, so for whatever reason our cars hook up pretty good, or as a driver I just like that.”