Dale Earnhardt Jr. noted on Twitter earlier this week that “one of the annoying things about a poor finish on Sunday … waiting all week to get back in the car and redeem yourself.’’
Earnhardt heads to Auto Club Speedway this weekend after placing 43rd at Phoenix International Raceway. The last time he finished 43rd in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race was last year at Texas. He finished second in the following race at Darlington.
While there’s no guarantee of a repeat rebound, Earnhardt said Thursday on “The Morning Drive’’ on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio that he’s gotten better at putting poor finishes behind.
“The sooner that I can talk to Greg (Ives) my crew chief, the more I can talk to Greg … about that particular race, the sooner that I can put it behind us,’’ Earnhardt said on the Sirius XM NASCAR Radio show. “When you walk away from a run like that and you don’t communicate, you carry around a lot of questions, you carry around a lot of disappointment and frustrations.
“The best thing to do is get with Greg, talk to him as much as you can, spend the next couple of days going over everything you did, trying to understand how you can learn from it and, maybe, when you go back to Phoenix, you’ll be much better and try not to make any of the same mistakes that you might have made.
“That makes you feel better. You talk about the next week. You talk about what we’re doing to rebound and how we’re going to go to Fontana and be strong. You sort of get all the kind things that get you fired up and get you excited about the next event (so) you can forget about the past.
“I used to have such a hard time with that. When we’d run bad, I would carry it all the way to the next Sunday to the next event before I’d get in the car and try make another run at it, but it’s gotten better the older I’ve got.’’