Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t hold back on ‘terrible’ – Sports News
Expectations had been high for Justin Haley when he took over Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet ZL1 from Corey LaJoie late within the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
The 26-year-old was handed the seat on a everlasting foundation for the 2025 season, forming a probably robust trio for Spire alongside Carson Hocevar within the No. 77 and Michael McDowell within the No. 71.
However, whereas Hocevar has repeatedly challenged for wins, being linked with a large transfer to interchange a former champion, and McDowell has repeatedly completed within the highest 15, Haley’s yr has been comparatively tough.
There’s already been huge adjustments behind the scenes after the departure of his crew chief, Rodney Childers, whowho shortly made his emotions clear on Chase Elliott’s crew chief position after calls from some quarters to hitch his No.9 workforce
Through the primary 15 races of the season, Haley has completed within the prime 10 simply as soon as, reaching the highest 15 a additional 3 times whereas he’s failed to succeed in the highest 20 in seven of his final 9 races.
Reflecting on Haley’s stint with Spire, Dale Earnhardt Jr. recalled how final yr, Haley was seen as “a good free agent.”
“He drove for Rick Ware and did some interesting, solid, curious runs in that car, and he has leveraged that into this opportunity at Spire,” he defined on The Dale Jr. Download. “But since he’s been there, it’s been awful, it has been bad.”
Earnhardt defined how he was adamant Haley’s No. 7, which began the season led by 2014 championship-winning crew chief Childers, “Had the potential to be the best Spire car, it has been the opposite.”
Childers left Spire after simply 9 races, later citing chemistry points behind the scenes as his purpose for leaving, when talking with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“It finally [came to] a point where they could kind of tell I wasn’t happy, and I could kind of tell that maybe they weren’t happy,” he defined, through On3. “And it just started falling apart a little bit. And I could sense it a little bit. Maybe a couple of weeks before [parting ways], it had kind of [gotten] quiet around. And anytime it gets quiet, you kind of start wondering, you know?”
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Earnhardt believes Childers’ exit may have “derailed Haley a little bit,” including: “Any time you have a crew chief change mid-season, it’s not awesome. And it hasn’t seemed to have made Haley’s deal much different.
“I saw him flash a little bit at Michigan, he got some track position, but he just…his cars don’t seem like they can do what he needs them to do.”
Off the back of such a poor run, Haley is now set to journey to Mexico City for the Viva Mexico 250 on the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The first points-scoring Cup Series race on overseas soil since 1958, maybe this change of surroundings is strictly what Haley must kickstart his season, particularly provided that he had a strong run at Circuit of the Americas, the one different F1 circuit presently in use by NASCAR, ending sixteenth.
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