Dale Jr. relishes top-five finish: "You can only take so much"

Earnhardt rallied for a fifth-place finish in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, ending his six-race streak to start the season without a top-10 finish, the longest of his more than 17-year career in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Earnhardt started 37th and ended up finishing fifth. His 32 positions gained were the most of any driver in the race.

Shortly after exiting his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on pit road, Earnhardt said he knew a good run would come “sooner or later.”

But had his performance to start the 2017 season weighed on his mind?

“It was starting to. You try not to get frustrated but you can only take so much, you know,” Earnhardt said. “It’s important to stay positive.

“Showing that frustration can rub off on the guys (on the team). They need reinforcement on the positive side from Greg (Ives, his crew chief), me and we need it from them. We’ve been communicating a lot the past couple of weeks trying to keep ourselves motivated for when this thing goes right.”

A major improvement

Earnhardt’s previous best finish this season was 14th at Phoenix. Last week, he had a strong car at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, but a pit road speeding penalty sent him to the rear of the field and he got caught up in an accident late in the race.

Earnhardt’s top-five was his first since he finished second at Pocono (Pa.) last June, about a month before he stepped away from his car for the rest of the 2016 season with concussion symptoms.

Earnhardt said the extended time away from his car left him feeling “like he had some catching up to do.”

“I don’t exactly where and I can’t really put my finger on it. The confidence is part of it, just mentally being able to get through an entire race and staying strong mentally,” he said. “The physical part is one but the mental part is another thing.

“When you don’t do it, your mind is not as mentally tough. I felt it today. This was a tough race for us physically and mentally and a good exercise.”

Sustaining is key

Earnhardt’s crew chief, Ives, said the key to the team’s success this season will be to sustain its performance week to week.

“The good performance kind of showed up all weekend. It brings a lot of confidence in what we’re doing,” he said. “We work so well and close with the No. 48 team (of race winner Jimmie Johnson), for us to unload with good speed says a lot.

“A lot of effort went into these race cars, trying to make sure we’re getting better and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. It’s definitely a confidence builder for the whole team. Nobody really got down, but when you keep getting hits and hits and hits and then have bad decisions on my part and maybe Dale’s in the race … when you get those hits, it can waiver your confidence.

“This week, we did a great job hitting it right.”