Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(June 19, 2011)
BROOKLYN, Mich.—Dale Earnhardt Jr. couldn’t believe what Mark Martin did in Sunday’s Heluva Good 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Earnhardt already had rebounded from a dropped lugnut on a pit stop that knocked him out of the top 10 and one scrape with the wall, but as he was rallying to get back in the top 10, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Mark Martin pinched him into the wall and Earnhardt finished 21st.
Before talking to Martin after the race, Earnhardt was a little hot at his teammate.
“I try really hard to take care of people and try not to be careless and I don't like putting up with carelessness and that really pissed me off what happened out there,” Earnhardt said. “I got on the outside of Mark, and he just came on up and drove us into the fence off the corner.
“I don't know if his spotter wasn't spotting good or whether he just couldn't see good or what but just ran us slap into the wall. I don't know how else to explain it other than that.”
About 10 minutes later and after talking to Martin, Earnhardt got an explanation he could accept.
“I want to finish where I’m supposed to finish, and that really didn’t happen today, so I was real PO’d about it,” Earnhardt said. “Mark came and gave me a good explanation and I believe it and it’s the end of it. … I got the air screwed up around him and he got real tight off of (Turn) 2 and pushed into the wall.
“He was off the gas when we got together. There was nothing he could do.”
Martin said he made a mistake.
“I don’t have a history of having problems,” Martin said. “I don’t think I have one now. I think we will get it sorted out. I feel like I give everybody on the racetrack respect. I made a mistake.”
Earnhardt was especially angry because he thought he had a top-five car and could have finished in the top 10 even with the earlier hiccup on pit road.
“He didn’t know I was on the outside,” Earnhardt said before talking with Martin. “He come up there, he knew I was up there, but he was just running hard.
“If the tables were turned, I would have been smarter and give him plenty of room than he did me. He is older than me (Martin’s 52; Earnhardt 36), been racing forever and knows a lot more than I’ll ever get or he has forgot more stuff than I’ll never know. Still, I take better care of people than that.”
Even with the incident, Earnhardt remained third in the standings, but he is 27 points behind leader Carl Edwards after entering the race 10 points out of first.
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