Despite having so much to talk about, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. have not discussed the obvious: next year.
The second-generation, namesake drivers are teammates and good friends, but according to Truex, their conversations don’t include their inevitable split.
Earnhardt, who in 2003 handpicked Truex to join Dale Earnhardt Inc., is leaving the team after this year. Truex is locked in at DEI and is pegged to follow Earnhardt as its flagship driver.
“We haven’t talked about it a bit,” Truex, the guest on Tuesday’s national teleconference, said of Earnhardt’s planned departure from DEI. “I actually spent quite a bit of time around him since (Earnhardt’s announcement). It is kind of one of those things we don’t talk about. Business is business. We’re great friends. We’ll continue to be. We don’t really for some reason talk about it.”
DEI, which captured the 1998 and 1999 Busch Series titles with Earnhardt, and the 2004 and 2005 Busch championships with Truex, is no longer considered one of NASCAR’s elite teams. DEI won just two Cup races over the past two seasons and is winless this season.
Earnhardt is 13th in the standings and Truex is 16th. The team’s third driver, Paul Menard, has qualified for eight of 12 races and is 38th in the points.
But Truex, 26, is confident that DEI will turn things around, and when it does, he’s going to be the primary beneficiary. But even before that happens, he views the 32-year-old Earnhardt’s departure as a positive.
“I think it will kind of put me a little bit more in the limelight or spotlight,” Truex said. “I think I’ll have more opportunities with some sponsors coming into DEI working with me instead of everybody wanting to come here and work with Dale Jr.
“It’s kind of been a little difficult at times, playing second fiddle to him. So in that aspect, it will open some doors for me, give me some new opportunities, which I look forward to.”
Still struggling
Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip still is on the negative side of the points standings, having failed to qualify for 11 consecutive races since the season-opening Daytona 500.
Waltrip, who was docked 100 points for cheating during the week leading up to the Daytona 500, is 57th (last) in the standings with minus-27 points. He is in his first year of driver/owner for the Toyota-powered Michael Waltrip Racing.
“We will right the ship,” Waltrip, who has started 677 Cup races, said in a release. “What has happened up until this point will not define who we are as an organization. We continue to move in the right direction.”
Vickers celebrates
Waltrip can’t blame his problems on Toyota, which is in its first year of providing engines for clients in all races and chassis in non-Car of Tomorrow events. Not after Brian Vickers drove the No. 83 Toyota to a fifth-place finish at Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.
After starting 26th, Vickers drove to the front and led four times for 76 laps.
“We definitely had a car that could win the race,” Vickers said in a release.
Vickers’ teammate, former Thornton resident and Grand Prix of Denver winner A.J. Allmendinger, finished 31st after recovering from an early accident with Jeff Gordon.
“If we hadn’t have been in that accident with the 24 car early in the race we would have had about a top-20 car,” Allmendinger said.
Footnote
Tyler Walker isn’t expected to progress into Nextel Cup anytime soon, if ever. NASCAR has suspended the Craftsman Truck Series rookie indefinitely for violation of the substance-abuse policy. Walker is 22nd in the Truck standings, having started six of seven races.
SPOTLIGHT: KYLE PETTY
Finally finishes up front
The son of Richard “The King” Petty hasn’t won a race since 1995, and hasn’t finished in the top-20 in the standings since 1997, but the affable veteran produced his strongest run in 10 years Sunday, finishing third in the Coca-Cola 600. Petty, 47 on Saturday, produced his first top-five finish since 1997 on the strength of using good fuel strategy and patience. He moved up to 26th in the standings.
THIS WEEK’S RACE: AUTISM SPEAKS 400 PRESENTED BY VISA
Intensity, banking high
11:30 a.m. Sunday, Fox
Where: Dover (Del.) International Speedway, 1-mile oval; banking, 9 degrees (straightaways), 24 degrees (corners).
Distance: 400 miles, 400 laps.
Records: Qualifying – Jeremy Mayfield (161.522 mph), June 4, 2004; race – Mark Martin (132.719 mph), Sept. 21, 1997.
Last year: Matt Kenseth scored the win, with Ryan Newman on the pole. Jeff Burton won the fall race, with Jeff Gordon on the pole.
ON THE MOVE: J.J. YELEY
Veteran moving up
Yeley moved up five spots in the standings, to 15th, with a career-best third-place finish in Sunday’s Memorial Day classic. The second-year Joe Gibbs Racing driver has two previous career top-10 finishes, at California and New Hampshire last year. Yeley has 54 career starts.
AVG. RUNNING POSITION
(Driver | Races | Avg. pos.)
Jimmie Johnson 12 7.772
Jeff Gordon 12 9.598
Denny Hamlin 12 10.618
Tony Stewart 12 10.992
Matt Kenseth 12 11.223
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 12 12.185
Kurt Busch 12 12.194
Mark Martin 9 12.732
Kyle Busch 12 14.094
Jeff Burton 12 14.752
Carl Edwards 12 15.221
Kevin Harvick 12 15.934
Clint Bowyer 12 16.881
Martin Truex Jr. 12 17.103
Ryan Newman 12 17.891
Greg Biffle 12 18.803
Jamie McMurray 12 19.952
J.J. Yeley 12 21.618
David Stremme 12 22.157
Kasey Kahne 12 22.636
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
