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In his 15th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race with Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr. visited Victory Lane on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway after starting third and leading 14 laps. Earnhardt’s win—the 18th of his career—is another highlight in an already successful season. In February, he won the Budweiser Shootout and Gatorade Duel at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. He also scored a pole position at Texas Motor Speedway in April.
ON TOP: Earnhardt shares the highest number of top-10 finishes (11) with just one other driver (Carl Edwards) in 15 Sprint Cup races thus far this season. Earnhardt also has the second-highest number of top-five finishes in 2008 with seven overall.
LAPS LED: After 15 races, Earnhardt is in the top five among all Sprint Cup drivers in laps led and miles led. He has paced 541 laps (fourth overall) and 684.70 miles (third overall), while leading laps in all but four events thus far in 2008.
NATIVE VICTOR: After his win on Sunday, Earnhardt became the first native North Carolinian to win a Cup race since Brian Vickers reached Victory Lane at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Oct. 8, 2006. Earnhardt, born in Kannapolis, N.C., snapped the streak that had reached 56 races.
AT INFINEON: In eight starts at Infineon Raceway, Earnhardt has completed 861 of 884 laps (97.4 percent) and led nine laps. He qualified third there last season.
HENDRICK AT INFINEON: Hendrick Motorsports has recorded a top-10 finish in 18 of the 19 Sprint Cup events that have been held at Infineon Raceway. Overall, Hendrick drivers have recorded five wins, 20 top-five finishes and 29 top-10s.
RATING EARNHARDT: Earnhardt has the second-best driver rating in the Sprint Cup Series. After 15 starts, he has a rating of 105.5 out of a possible 150 points. At this time last season, Earnhardt had a rating of 95.3 points.
INFINEON CHASSIS: Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet engineers have chosen Chassis No. 88-514 for this weekend’s race at Sonoma, Calif. The car will make its racing debut this weekend at Infineon.
Quotes
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER OF THE NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS (ON RACING AT INFINEON.): “We ran really good there last year in the Impala SS. We ran decent and finished 13th. I really, really like the track. It’s tough, but I feel like we’re getting better at it each time we go back, and I think we should be pretty good. We tested at VIR (Virginia International Raceway) two weeks ago to make sure the brakes are working good and just to make sure all the bugs get worked out of the setup since it’s our first road course race of the season.”
EARNHARDT: (ON THE RELIEF OF WINNING.): “I’m so happy we won Michigan. I’m happy for my team, Rick (Hendrick), my family and sponsors. This is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, and I couldn’t be prouder. We did some celebrating Sunday night, and it was back to work on Monday. I know we’d love to keep momentum going and turn it around this weekend with a win at Infineon. The guys at the shop have a short week so we’re all going to be tired, but it’s a good tired. I’d rather be busy after a win than anything.”
TONY EURY JR., CREW CHIEF OF THE NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS (ON THE WIN.): “I mean, I’m like Dale Jr. The winless streak had not really bothered me because I’ve seen him lead laps and I’ve seen what he’s capable of doing. We’ve run up front, and we’ve had fast, fast race cars get caught up in accidents and stuff like that. I just feel very fortunate and lucky. I mean, I’ve been doing this for 14 years. I’ve seen a lot of stuff come and I’ve seen a lot of stuff go, and you realize right quick that life is short, and you’ve got to enjoy it while you’re here.”
EURY (ON CHASSIS NO. 88-514.): “It’s actually never been on the track. We took our backup car to Virginia International Raceway two weeks ago, and it did fairly well. We built this brand new car, and it’s strictly a road-course car. There’s not a whole lot you can do to it, but we’ve concentrated on keeping right-side weight on the car. I’m really excited about it.”
EURY (ON EARNHARDT’S ROAD-RACING CAPABILITIES.): “Dale Jr. is a really good road racer. Watkins Glen is a lot better track for him than Sonoma, but he ran well out there last year. Overall, he’s done really well there over the last couple of years. It’s like every time we went out to Sonoma, we could run top 10 and something would happen with 10 to go. When that happens, you can’t overcome it. I think he’s gotten a lot better. He really likes Sonoma, and he’s gotten better over the years so I think we’ll do really well.”
EURY (ON CREW FITNESS.): “It’s a hot, long day (at Sonoma). And the biggest thing is you’ve got two chances to pit. That road course there, you’re probably only going to make two stops, and you can’t have a mess-up. It’s got to be 110 percent with no screw-ups for those pit stops because track position means so much. You’ve really got to be on your A-game and understand, ‘OK do I need to put tires on now and take fuel later?’ That’s what kind of happened last year. You could short pit, which you could basically not make it to the end, so come in seven laps early under caution put four tires on and then come back in and put in three seconds of gas, and you’ve made up 10 seconds. You’ve really got to be on top of your game and we’ll make sure that happens.”
EURY (ON THE TEST AT VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY.): “Basically, we go up there and shake the car down, make sure the brake’s got a good pedal. There’s really not a good road course you can compare (Sonoma) to. There’s a couple of them around here (North Carolina), but basically all we’re trying to do is make sure the steering wheel feels good to him (Earnhardt); you don’t have any kind of caster shake in the front end and the brake pedal feels good. You’ve just got to get the driver in a rhythm of changing gears because they only do it twice a year. It’s more of a simulator for the driver to get ready than for the crew to get the car ready.”
EURY (ON QUALIFYING.): “That’s the first battle, and the biggest thing is we’ll make sure Dale Jr. gets as much track time as he can in that first practice. That’s key. They don’t do it but twice a year so being on that track and being at that road course—that’s everything. We’ll keep him out there and let him run as many laps as he possibly can during that first practice. We’ll make a couple qualifying runs in the end. It’s more of his rhythm, not getting off-course. It’s like we’ve told drivers, if you can just stay on that asphalt, you can get a top-10.”
