{"id":23424,"date":"2019-02-16T17:05:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-16T23:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=23424"},"modified":"2019-02-16T17:59:35","modified_gmt":"2019-02-16T23:59:35","slug":"jeffrey-earnhardt-learning-to-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/16\/jeffrey-earnhardt-learning-to-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Earnhardt learning to lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Jeffrey Earnhardt<\/strong> didn\u2019t win Saturday\u2019s season opening NASCAR Xfinity Series<\/a> race, but his 15th<\/sup>-place finish tied for his second-best finish in the series ever. His 29 laps led was a personal best, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jeffrey Earnhardt, driver of the #18 iK9 Toyota, talks with Joe Gibbs piror to the NASCAR Xfinity Series NASCAR Racing Experience 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

He allowed a slight smile when told of his statistical achievements, but quickly reminded, \u201cWe didn\u2019t lead enough.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t lead the last one and that\u2019s the most important one,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cWe made adjustments because I feel like I was complaining it was too free and we ended up getting it too tight and just struggled after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was getting my butt kicked side-drafting, just lack of experience and I\u2019ll get better at it. That\u2019s the first time I got to go racing up front like that.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Earnhardt \u2013 grandson of the late seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt – started the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 iK9 Toyota on the outside of the front row \u2013 his best career starting position. His 29 laps out front was the most he\u2019s led in his career \u2013 not only for a one race total but eclipsing the seven laps out front total in his previous 66 series starts. Only race winner Michael Annett (45) led more.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s race represented the best opportunity the 29-year old Earnhardt had ever had in the series. He\u2019s competed fulltime in the Xfinity Series only one full season (2014) as he found his way in a sport that his family has established an amazing legacy in.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Jeffrey Earnhardt, driver of the #18 iK9 Toyota, leads during the NASCAR Xfinity Series NASCAR Racing Experience 300 at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 2019 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

He is scheduled to make eight more 2019 starts for the Gibbs team \u2013 a two-time Xfinity Series championship organization.<\/p>\n

Dale Earnhardt Jr.\u2019s team won Saturday\u2019s race with driver Michael Annett, but Earnhardt  also spoke about how proud he was of his nephew.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeffrey\u2019s worked really hard to get where he is today,\u2019\u2019 Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. \u201cHe\u2019s sort of reinvented himself and really applied himself. So it\u2019s built into what you see today. And he\u2019s done that on his own. It\u2019s who he is and authentic and I\u2019m glad he\u2019s in a good race car to go out there and run well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be exciting to see him at the other race tracks throughout the year.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Earnhardt  smiled widely standing on pit road after the race and asked about the huge reception he received from the fans at Daytona International Speedway, a place his grandfather is the all-time winningest driver and a place where his Uncle Dale won two Daytona 500s as well.<\/p>\n

Many of the fans in the grandstands rose to their feet Saturday afternoon as Earnhardt led the field around \u2013 cheering loudly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they were, I hope they were cheering,\u2019\u2019 Earnhardt said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to get out there and lead laps and have the opportunity I got. I\u2019ve been very thankful for every opportunity, but man this one is pretty special.<\/p>\n

His team owner Gibbs was cognizant of the warm reception too. And equally as encouraged by the job Earnhardt did behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just so excited to give him a chance, we\u2019re thrilled to have him in our stuff,\u2019\u2019 Gibbs said on pit road after the race. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be real interesting, I think there\u2019s a lot of fan attention on him. Today we just got trapped in the wrong lane. But it\u2019s going to be interesting as we go forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think he\u2019s got a chance to do a great job, a chance to win a race. We\u2019re thrilled to have him. We love all the Earnhardts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Jeffrey Earnhardt didn\u2019t win Saturday\u2019s season opening NASCAR Xfinity Series race, but his 15th-place finish tied for his second-best finish in the series ever. His 29 laps led was a personal best, too. He allowed a slight smile when told of his statistical achievements, but quickly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":23422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[287,684,16,181],"class_list":["post-23424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-jeffrey-earnhardt","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-xfinity-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/NXS_DIS1_Earnhardt_Gibbs_021619.jpg?fit=4410%2C2940","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-65O","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23426,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23424\/revisions\/23426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}