Dale Earnhardt Jr. says his team doesn’t have speed to contend for wins

Earnhardt’s final full season has been a struggle and he’ll need to win one of the next five races if he wants to qualify for the playoffs.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. understands the reality that if he’s to make the playoffs in his final season before retirement, then he absolutely needs to win of the one of the five remaining in the regular season. Anything short of a victory, and a postseason berth isn’t a possibility.

But while Earnhardt tries to maintain optimism that a win could materialize over the next five races, he recognizes his Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 team isn’t performing at the level where he can realistically challenge for wins.

“For a lot of reasons we haven’t been able to put it together and have the speed we need in the cars,” Earnhardt said Saturday at Watkins Glen, site of Sunday’s Monster Energy Cup Series race (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN). “We want to go out and win races, it is easy to say that. But, damn, we have a lot of speed to find.

“We have some work to do before the end of the year if we want to feel like we can legitimately contend for a win.”

Earnhardt returned in 2017 completely recovered after missing the entire second half of the 2016 season with concussion-like symptoms. In April, he announced this year would be his last as a full-time competition stating he wanted to end his career on his terms.

NASCAR’s 14-time most popular driver hoped to finish with a flourish, contending for wins and a shot at a first-ever championship. But more often than not the No. 88 team has struggled, lacking the speed to compete against Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch, the three drivers who’ve been the pacesetters for the balance of the season. These three hold the top three positions in the points standings and have led the most laps with a combined six wins.

“They are really strong, they are in a different world, man” Earnhardt said of Truex, Larson and Busch. “It isn’t like we are going to show up and drive around those guys.”

Earnhardt believed his team was making progress in the spring, especially coming off an encouraging fifth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway, but the positivity proved short-lived.

On the year, Earnhardt has only posted four top-10 finishes in 21 races, led all of 24 laps, and eight times has finished 30th or worse. He currently sits 22nd in the standings.

“We had a little speed earlier in the season,” Earnhardt said. “We got through Texas and I felt like that things are where they should be.

“We haven’t really developed any speed through the season as we have progressed through the year,” Earnhardt said. “We sort of have not found anything additional to what we had at the start of the year. A lot of teams have and we are sort of playing catch-up right now.”