Hendrick spending extra time with Junior over radio

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a new radio therapist.

The man doubles as owner of the No. 88 Chevrolet Earnhardt drives for Hendrick Motorsports, and he was put to the test in the middle of Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“
You get somebody with that much respect on your tool box to talk to him, telling him things are going to be all right. It makes a world of difference. I can talk to him until I'm blue in the face -- but when Rick says it, it just comes across different.
”
TONY EURY JR.In a tale that has been repeated often this year, Earnhardt appeared to have the car that was the class of the field at the midway point of the 300-lap event at the 1.058-mile track -- only to suffer through some adversity that forced him to eventually settle for a fifth-place finish.

This time the culprit, according to Earnhardt, was a bad set of Goodyear racing tires that were placed on the car during a pit stop just past the halfway point.

"We put on a set of tires midway through the race and that thing got so loose I couldn't drive it, and we lost a bunch of spots," Earnhardt said. "I've got to thank my pit crew. They got me a bunch back on pit road. They're an awesome bunch of guys. They did a good job to get me a top-five finish."

Earnhardt wasn't so cordial toward his crew or anyone else when he came on the radio after falling all the way from the lead to 10th following the tire change that he found questionable. That's when team owner Rick Hendrick had to come onto the radio to calm him down, continuing a tradition that they began three races ago at Bristol.

Their conversation during a caution that ran from Laps 215-220 went as follows (listen):

"We need a security guard over there watching those [expletive tires]," Earnhardt said. "I can't figure out why we keep [messing] up in the middle of all these races. Every [expletive] time."

Hendrick: "You've got a great car right now. Just take it easy."

Earnhardt: "This is [expletive bullcrap]."

Hendrick: "You got a bad set of tires. It happens."

Earnhardt: "I need to find another series that runs half-distance races."

Hendrick: "You can do this. Talk to everybody about what the car is doing. We can make the right adjustments."

Earnhardt: "I'm [ticked] off. Sometimes you go your fastest when you're [ticked] off. So we'll see."

Hendrick: "Take it out on those guys in front of you."