With seven races left in the Cup regular season things are not looking good for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s playoff hopes in his final full-time season.
Earnhardt is currently 173 points out 16th on the playoff grid and the No. 88 team is already beginning to take big gambles in order to get a win.
Earnahrdt finished 18th Sunday at New Hampshire after he stayed out of the pits on the final round of pit stops. Earnhardt later admitted it was a bad gamble, but said his team would continue to make Hail Mary’s as the regular season wound down.
NASCAR America analyst Kyle Petty said it is not a good position for any team to be in.
“That’s not good for any driver, whether it’s your first season or your last season,” Petty said. “Like (Earnhardt) said, if we don’t have a good enough car, the gambles aren’t going to work. We’re going to have to make gambles. He referred to it as a chase until the playoffs. We’re going to make gambles every week until the playoffs because that’s what we have to do.”
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