Why is everyone ragging on Junior when he admittedly just had a bad day?

OK...sorry for the length of this, just trying to explain my opinion....

He admitted that the pit stops errors were his fault. He just plain missed his pit the first time. And the second error should be his pit crew to blame since they didn't have him back up into the pit box before starting work.

But in regards to the vickers nudge and subsequent pileup, you can clearly see in the replay that jr had plenty of speed to get around him and was attempting to do so. But vickers came down and forced jr below the double yellow. if he would have let up off the gas too much, he would have gotten stuck down there and been passed by a line of drivers, so he came up right away (matching vickers' speed) to get back in his spot. he just barely clips vickers' rear quarter panel, and vickers looses control and takes out 8 other cars.

most the affected drivers (and media) were talking about two ppl fighting over nothing and blaming jr for the accident. personally, i think vickers should have let the obviously faster car pass him instead of trying to block. they were both a lap down and jr had the room and the speed before vickers forced him below the double yellow. if he would have let him by, instead of "fighting over nothing" the pileup would have NEVER happened.

Yes, before you even ask, I am a junior fan and a senior fan before that. And before that crash, Jr was driving the best i've seen him drive in a LONG time. He was easily making up ground he lost on his earlier mistakes. But, two pit mistakes and vickers being greedy caused him to look like a @ss.

I'd like to know your thoughts? Did you see something different than I did? I may be a fan of his, but that doesnt mean i'll turn a blind eye when he messes up. I watched as they played the replay probably a dozen times and it looked like vickers was (more, but not entirely) to blame.

2009-02-17T09:37:16Z

reds....in his short interview when the race was called, he admitted to making mistakes. And he gave his side of the story. So he didnt just blame everyone but himself. He admitted to some things being his fault, but he didnt think he caused the crash.

Like immediately after this, Darrell Waltrip (back in the studio) made mention of how Jr usually tells it like it happened, no BS or anything, and that he believed that Jr didnt intend to cause anything and that it was most likely just an accident. But then like two mintues later had completely changed his story and was ragging on him.

tanner882009-02-17T09:06:05Z

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its Jr. so everyones gonna make a big deal about it. i agree with you, before the crash he was doing some of the best driving i have seen from him in a while. vickers could of just blocked instead of knockin him over the line( i wouldnt expect him to just let jr pass) and jr could of let off the throttle(even though that would of cost him a lot of seconds and maybe cause another crash). all i saw was a race at daytona...its NASCAR..crashes happen but the matter of the fact is, Jr. caused the big one at the biggest race and a lot of angry drivers and fans want something to gripe about. I say we all get over it and get ready for the race in Cali!

martin_rulz62009-02-17T07:44:05Z

One could say that Elliott, but it also has to be considered the weather in the area was calling for rain, so it was completley unknown whether the race was gonna end in 10 laps, or 30, or anywhere inbetween. It was essentially the last lap for the last 50 laps of the race.

Gibbs, the whole Carl deal back at Michigan was a racing incident as well. Junior had a right to be angry at Carl after the race when Carl damn near took Juniors arm off with his car.

That being said, yeah, I agree Junior had nothing more than a bad day. Had this been any other driver, the scrutiny wouldn't of been as bad. Since this was Jr., that was a different story.

And I agree still with the Vickers deal. Yeah, Vickers should of let him pass, but as I said, considering the circumstances, they were essentially running the last laps the last 50 laps of the race, and the incident was more bang bang than Leffler and Wallaces going out over several seconds. The way Junior did it, if it was intentional, it didnt look absolutley intentional. The way Leffler did it, it was obvious he was looking for blood.

Elliott N2009-02-17T07:34:28Z

My only ragging is about his fans who thought he had the right to force the issue with Vickers at that stage of the race. He could have passed Vickers later and not wrecked some of the cars they did. Both of them were a lap down and acted like they were racing for the lead. He made a bad choice and paid for it as did other teams that had nothing to do with either of those drivers.

b Ryce2009-02-17T08:06:17Z

Because he made some mistakes and he was just impatient, but for no real reason considering he was 1 lap down. Just one of those days I guess. Everybody puts all these high expectations on him and he feels pressure to live up to them, but he can't because he's not as talented as everybody thinks he is, the stats prove it. It's all because of his name, if he didn't have the last name Earnhardt, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

BTW, I'm not a Jr. Fan or Jr. Hater, just calling it like I see it.
Lets go KASEY KAHNE #9

gibbs_20_112009-02-17T07:39:19Z

i would have to say from some of the past races he had blamed someone else for the accidents that he as in and not realize that he may have cause the problem his self. like one time he hit carl and carl came back and done it to jr. jr got all mad at him for hitting him back. so i think that jr thinks that it's okay for him to go off and do those things but no one else could do it or get back at him