Earnhardt defends crew chief in shaky final season

DOVER, DEL. » Dale Earnhardt Jr. has long reigned as NASCAR’s most popular driver. But he thinks too many of his fans have started airing in 140-character bursts a most unpopular opinion — that crew chief Greg Ives should take the blame for the No. 88’s struggles this season. Not so fast. “We’ve had a difficult year and there’s just been a little rumbling in the background from fans,” Earnhardt said Tuesday. “They just love to target the crew chief. Our struggles are no one individual’s responsibility. I think me and my crew chief, we have such a very passionate fan base, very large fan base, it’s a challenging position for anybody. I’ve seen that, with all the guys that I’ve worked with. They’ve all had to deal with criticism.”

Ives, in his third season with Earnhardt, was criticized during the Brickyard 400 for his decision to send the No. 88 to the pits even though it was good on fuel before the end of the second stage. Had Earnhardt stayed out, he would have come off a restart inside the top five. Instead, he was 24th and soon wrecked out of the race when he connected with Trevor Bayne. Earnhardt’s crew also struggled with lug nuts on one pit stop that cost him several spots in the field.

Earnhardt, who is retiring after the season, shut down criticism of the team on Twitter, where he has 2.1 million followers, writing, “He never gave up on me. We’re a tight group and will finish together.”

“Maybe Twitter ain’t the place to be drawing attention to things like that,” Earnhardt said. “You just hear enough chatter over the course of a long period of time. It wasn’t something that just happened that particular weekend. Sometimes you feel like you’ve got to stand up for your guys. At least let Greg know, it’s not OK I guess, to be a fan, then dog the crew.”

Penske inks Keselowski to multiyear extension

MOORESVILLE, N.C. » Team Penske has locked up 2012 NASCAR Cup champion Brad Keselowski with a multiyear extension.

Keselowski, 33, has driven for Penske throughout his 10-year career in NASCAR’s top series, notching 23 wins and the series title five years ago. His crew chief with the No. 2 Ford, Paul Wolfe, has also agreed to a multiyear extension with Penske. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed Tuesday.

Keselowski has two Cup wins so far this season, at Atlanta and Martinsville, and is sixth in the points standings.

New IndyCar kits get high marks

INDIANAPOLIS » Juan Pablo Montoya and Oriol Servia gave the new IndyCars two thumbs up Tuesday.

They’ll find out soon enough if anyone else agrees with the early reviews. After spending the day testing the sleek, stylish cars on Indianapolis’ 2.5-mile oval, the two veterans left the opening day screening by insisting the cars run even better than they look.

“I think they definitely made the right move at the right time,” said Montoya, the Colombian who won the Indianapolis 500 twice. “I think the core fans will really like the look and, again, I think the racing will be better and allow people to be a lot more aggressive.”

It’s exactly what series officials needed after spending years trying to develop a high-performance aero kit that also had enough fan appeal to keep it through the 2020 season.

With a smattering of fans watching, Montoya and Servia carefully went through the series’ checkoff list and quickly got the cars up to race speed. Montoya wouldn’t say how fast they went, although observers clocked the cars turning laps in about 41.4 seconds or roughly 217 mph.

And neither was pushing it on a bright, sunny day with track temperatures hovering around 130 degrees.

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