I got this article from The Speed Channel's website, but the article was originally written for Scene Daily.
by Jeff Owens
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a bit of a swagger in his step again and is more confident than he has been in a while after his stirring second-place finish in the Daytona 500.
His fans are also riding high, optimistic that the strong start to the 2010 season is a sign that Earnhardt Jr. and his Hendrick Motorsports team is poised to shake off last year’s disappointment and bounce back from its struggles of the last two seasons.
But Earnhardt Jr. warns that his strong showing at Daytona is no guarantee that his team has solved all its problems and is ready to be a contender every week.
He is optimistic, but cautiously optimistic.
“It's just one race,” says Earnhardt Jr., who charged from 10th to second in the final two laps at Daytona.
“We’ve got a lot more racing to do. It's not your typical style track that we run on all year. If we can go to [California], Vegas, be competitive at any point during [those] races, it would be a little more validation.”
Indeed, the next two races on the Sprint Cup schedule will be a big indicator as to how much Earnhardt Jr. and his crew have improved. He was winless in his second season with Hendrick last year and had just five top-10 finishes en route to a 25th-place result in the final point standings.
Team owner Rick Hendrick has made a commitment to improve Earnhardt Jr.’s team this year and made numerous changes during the off-season, including consolidating the teams of Mark Martin and Earnhardt Jr. so that they share more information and work closer together.
Those changes should have a bigger impact at tracks like Auto Club Speedway in California and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, two tracks where Earnhardt Jr. typically struggles.
The Southern California track is one of Earnhardt Jr.’s worst. In 16 races there, he has just four top-10 finishes and an average finish of 22.1. He finished 39th and 25th in the two races there last year.
At Las Vegas, he has four top-10s in 10 races and an average finish of 17.8.
“I don't like going out west, but it's much easier to go there after you run good somewhere else,” Earnhardt Jr. says.
“I look forward to seeing how we are as a team. [Daytona] is not a true gauge on what the changes are going to do to our team. The next couple race tracks will definitely give us a better understanding of where we are.”
Still, the runner-up finish at Daytona, where he uncharacteristically struggled last year, helps.
“I just hope we can keep it up,” he says. “[Daytona] was a little bit of a handling race. We didn't have too bad a race car, so...
“You can say that it is plate racing, but it really wasn't, most of the week anyways. It was more of who could handle the best.
“I don't know. I feel good about our chances going into the next couple weeks.”
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