Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn't even sure how he ended up with his third-place finish in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday night.
He did, though, see the run as a step in the right direction.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Getty Images)
Earnhardt started 20th in the non-points race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race came after heavy downpours at the track and with limited practice for any of the drivers. Drivers really weren't sure what to expect in the race.
Earnhardt was racing, too, with perhaps more attention on his team after a post-Dover podcast in which he said, "it's time to start understanding how severe this situation is and really get to owning it" after finishing 32nd then having issues in post-race inspection.
Saturday night, after climbing to his top-three finish in the All-Star Race, Earnhardt discussed reaction to his podcast — and said that the team's ability to adjust in the All-Star Race was a positive step.
"A lot was made about the comments I made in the podcast on Monday," Earnhardt said. "I just want the team to succeed and really like the crew and [crew chief] Greg [Ives], and I think we can do it. We did it last year. We started this year off really awesome and hit a little rough patch, but this week was a great opportunity for us to learn, and I think we did."
Perhaps that showed in the execution of the race as well.
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Earnhardt said he wasn't sure how he managed to pass so many people over the course of the race, but that the cleaner air once he got closer to the front benefited the team.
"Right before the last segment, right at the end of the second segment, I thought we had a great car," he said. "Not as good as [Kyle Larson] and [Kyle Busch], but I thought we had a really good car, much better car than we did the last segment. The last segment we made a couple of adjustments to try to help our car take off a little better and just go on that short run, but it didn't really handle well, so we got tight immediately on the first lap of the last segment the car was pushing.
"I knew we were going to struggle to be able to capitalize on our position to win the race, but we ended up finishing OK."
Now, he's looking forward to the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, a track where he has never won a Sprint Cup points race but has often challenged for the victory. That race runs May 29.
Now, with a shot to get a significant number of laps on the track before the race, he finds himself looking forward to the Charlotte showdown.
"Next weekend it will be great to actually get some practice and actually tune on the car a little bit more," he said.