Dale Jr. "optimistic" after strong showing at Dover

Earnhardt finished where he started in the Apache Warrior 400 — his first top-10 finish since he was sixth at Sonoma Raceway in June.

From the time his crew unloaded the car on Friday, Earnhardt had speed — something he’s been missing for most of his season.

“We probably showed a little bit more speed at different times during the weekend than where we ended up,” Earnhardt said. “I was talking to (Ryan) Blaney last night and he said, ‘man, you guys are so fast.’ And I told him I would just take a top ten after the year that I have had. I know the car was good enough to run in the top five and we showed that at certain points in the race and certain points of the weekend too.

“But the car was good off the truck, we tinkered with it, and I don’t know if we made it a lot better.”

Earnhardt was 12th on the speed chart in first practice on Friday then qualified seventh. He was second in second practice and suffered a 30-minute practice hold for Happy Hour following inspection station woes.

“We had a little trouble with trying to get through (pre-qualifying) tech inspection,” Earnhardt said. “I guess we don’t need to run so good in practice because we had a hard time this weekend and lost a little time in happy hour.

“You know, I like that rule because it was a disadvantage to us. Not an excuse but still it made the weekend a little bit more difficult. So, it’s certainly a good deterrent. Next week we just need to get enough practice. But first off, we need to come off the truck like we did this weekend.”

Earnhardt has just seven races remaining in his final season in the Monster Energy Cup Series. In the first 29 races of 2017, the team has posted just one top five (Texas) and five top 10 finishes. He’s led 37 laps — fewer than he did last season when Earnhardt competed in just 18 races before he was sidelined with a concussion.

But on Sunday, Earnhardt ran in the top 10 all race long. Had it not been for a late stage caution on Lap 88, he would have finished in the top 10 in each stage. Although Earnhardt wasn’t the top finishing non-playoff driver at Dover, Clint Bowyer finished seventh, the No. 88 has an opportunity to be a spoiler in the upcoming weeks.

“I feel like a road course ringer,” Earnhardt said. “It feels good. This team is really a good team and we have just had a lot of odd misfortune and we have ill-prepared ourselves at times. When the car is good, it seems like we have some bad luck. Then there are weekends where we just can’t get the car right. It’s been a pretty down year but hopefully this weekend is the start of some more good runs. I think we will end this thing strong and I am excited.

“I really liked the way we ran at Texas. We were really good there and it just felt like we were a really good car. I still think that has been our best effort so far.”
Still, after two decades of competition, Earnhardt would love to end his Cup career on high note — especially next weekend at his home track, Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“We have been trying some stuff,” Earnhardt said. “If you look at our car and how we have run, I know it’s kind of hard to see, but we ran really good at Darlington and it carried over to Richmond. We had a strong run there and we were really good on the long runs there. We brought some of those same principles to Dover. Some of that stuff can probably carry over.

“I am optimistic that our performance is on the uptick and we will see how it works out for next week.”