Earnhardt Jr. Pleased with Health, Sport

During the second day of Daytona’s recent three-day test session, Dale Earnhardt Jr. spent part of his lunch break speaking with the media. Here are some of the highlights:

Are you nervous at all about adapting to the new car?
“Well, I think it is the same for everybody, so I’m not really worried. I think I’m with a great company (Hendrick Motorspors) that excels at times like this when the whole sport is sort of reset. I think that we have a lot of resources, no reason why we shouldn’t come out as one of the better performing teams, especially right off the bat.”

There seemed to be a lot of energy at Daytona’s Fan Fest. Do you have a good feeling about the direction the sport is going?
“Somebody asked me on stage, what I would change about the sport. We get asked that question pretty much every year at a time like this. We used to have a lot of answers for that question. It’s hard to come up with something I would change, something I would do differently nowadays. I’m pretty happy with how things have been. I feel like that the sport is in a good, healthy place. We have a good opportunity to grow. With this car, we have a chance to do something great and really make a big impact.

Are you doing well physically after your concussion last year?
“As far as everything we went through at the end of the season with injuries and all, I feel really good. It was good to get in the car at the end of the year and be able to run a couple of races and get that out of the way. Get any kind of doubts or questions that you personally had about yourself or your recovery out of the way.

Did you ever reflect on what could have been last year?
“I really don’t look back that much. I only look back on the positives when I think about last year. It was a disappointment not to finish as well as we had hoped in the Chase and really go for the championship. We felt like we were a strong enough team at certain parts of the year to definitely do that. We definitely have some unfinished business and feel like we can put forth the same effort and the same results this year.”

(c) 2013 King Features Synd., Inc.

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