Earnhardt Jr. Runs Off at the Mouth

Apparently Dale Earnhardt Jr. has continued to carry on throughout the week and throughout the weekend at Dover about the contact between David Reutimann and he at Loudon last weekend. Apparently hurling insults in the garage area wasn't enough for Earnhardt Jr. First thing first: he should take a page out of his Daddy's book and not say a word. File it away in the back of your head and take care of business later. Second, you shouldn't take to denigrating another driver when you're not on top of your game. Earnhardt Jr. telling Reutimann that he needs to "polish up his craft" is like the pot calling the kettle black.

I came across this gem in a David Newton piece on ESPN.com:

Reutimann admitted he made a mistake. He looked NASCAR's most popular driver in the eye and said he was sorry.

But Earnhardt still criticized him after the race and did so again at Dover. Just a guess, but this has to do more with frustration from a disappointing season for Earnhardt than Reutimann, or one wreck.

"He definitely hasn't had the kind of season I'm sure he would like," Reutimann said Saturday. "A lot of us haven't. He obviously had a very good racecar. When you get taken out, that's not going to sit very well with you.

"I can't blame him, but I've been hand-whipped pretty hard this week. … You can only talk about somebody for so long before you get tired of it. That's kind of the point I'm at right now."

For the record, Reutimann didn't comment on how many times Earnhardt has missed his pit stall this season. He also didn't note that he qualified fifth this weekend and his chief critic will start 24th.

Mac McCormick III