NASCAR: Earnhardt - 'We have closed the gap'

Despite his rough 2016, Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn't take issue with the way the season turned out for his teams.

Two of his JR Motorsports drivers – Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier – battled into the Xfinity Series Championship 4 but missed out on the title won by Joe Gibbs Racing's Daniel Suarez. The Gibbs teams dominated all season, but he told listeners of his "Dale Jr. Download" on SiriusXM Radio's Dirty Mo Radio that JRM certainly caught them by season's end.

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"I was thinking, sitting on the pit wall before the race started, when the season began it was the Gibbs show," Earnhardt said. "They were three-tenths quicker than everybody at every racetrack. And every pole, they won, what 12 in a row. They were just very competitive. I give them all the credit in the world because they certainly have an awesome operation that starts at the top with Joe and JD Gibbs and what they built.

"I was sitting on pit wall thinking, man, we have closed the gap. Here we are sitting at Homestead with two cars in the Chase and we've been giving them a run for their money over the last month or two. Dang if we didn't do that in that race. We were right on their heels. Suarez was great, he's been fast all season, the 20 was a little off. Our guys were right on their heels, man, and I was so proud of that. I was so proud that we put up such a good effort, and dang if we didn't come close. I can't get upset or down about not getting the ultimate prize because I know how hard it is to just be relevant and competitive and I take a lot of pride in that result."

He also expressed pride in teammate Jimmie Johnson for winning a seventh Sprint Cup championship and tying his father and Richard Petty as the drivers with the most titles.

"I think Jimmie did it under really difficult circumstances because of the competition and the Chase," he explained. "They change the rules to this thing every year, and Jimmie would find ways, his team would find ways to still be the best. So you gotta say he earned it, just about every time, driving like a madman.

"I know there'll be a lot of references to my father, which always makes me happy. The offseason will be littered with references and mentions of my dad's accomplishments. After all these years, it's still awesome to see that even when he's compared to another driver like Jimmie or Richard [Petty,] I love the fact that people still recall what he did. And something like this Jimmie has done brings it back to the surface."

As he said a month ago, Earnhardt confirmed that he thinks he's on track to test this offseason – to "shake the rust off" – and drive at Daytona in February.

"All signs point to us being in the car at Daytona," Earnhardt said. "I don't know if anybody had any doubt out there. If you did, looks like everything is going in a great direction for that to happen. There's a couple of small boxes to check, and we'll let everybody know how that goes but looking forward to a very important offseason for me personally, and I'll certainly keep everybody plugged in what's going on."

Team owner Rick Hendrick echoed Earnhardt's timetable last weekend at Homestead, saying " I think sometime in December the doctor's going to give him the final clearance and then we'll get him in a car.

"He feels great," Hendrick said Friday. "Everything's on track. I mean, every step that we supposedly need to go through, we've gone through, and I don't see anything holding us back."