NEWS & NOTES
AT DOVER: In 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Dover International Speedway, Earnhardt has recorded one win, four top-five finishes and seven top-10s. He has led 366 laps and completed 99 percent of all laps he’s attempted at the Monster Mile (7,922 of 8,004).
POINTS AFTER DARLINGTON: Earnhardt, driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, ranks 12th in the Sprint Cup championship standings after finishing 18th last weekend at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. He is only 39 points away from 10th-place Mark Martin and trails fourth-place Jeff Gordon by 157 points.
A YEAR AGO: The Cup event last May at Dover marked crew chief Lance McGrew’s first time calling a race for the No. 88 team. Earnhardt climbed from his 22nd starting position that day to crack the top 10 by Lap 140. He ran as high as third before crossing the finish line 12th to record his best Dover result in a Hendrick Motorsports chassis.
MONSTER MILE WIN: Earnhardt’s Sprint Cup win at Dover happened on Sept. 23, 2001. The victory, which came in the first Cup race following Sept. 11, was the second of his sophomore season. Earnhardt displayed the American flag during his victory lap to pay tribute to the victims. In that race he started third and led 193 laps.
CHASSIS CHOICE: This weekend, McGrew and the No. 88 crew will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-578 at Dover. Earnhardt last raced this chassis at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in March, when he scored a seventh-place finish. This car first saw action at Auto Club Speedway in February, when Earnhardt finished 32nd.
HENDRICK AT DOVER: In 52 races (159 starts) at Dover, Hendrick Motorsports has tallied 12 wins, 40 top-five finishes, 70 top-10s and has led 4,349 laps. The organization’s 12 victories lead all-time, and nine of those wins were scored by current drivers Jimmie Johnson (five) and Jeff Gordon (four).
QUOTES
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER OF THE NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON DOVER.): “Dover is a fast track, and it’s bumpy. For a mile-long racetrack, it generates a lot of speed. You have to make your car turn good to run on the bottom. The guy that runs the bottom the fastest is going to have a good day.”
LANCE McGREW, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON HIS ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY AS THE NO. 88 CREW CHIEF.): “A lot of building blocks would be the best way to describe it. There’s been some good and some bad. I feel like we are finally getting to a place where I like the structure of the team, the way the guys are working together and how things get done in the race shop. I think we’ve seen flashes of that this year where we have run really, really well. I hate that we had issues at Richmond (Va.) and Darlington. It’s not as long of strides as I would like to have made, but the foundation is very, very good.”
McGREW (ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RACING ON CONCRETE AND ASPHALT.): “Generally the concrete tracks aren’t quite as temperature sensitive, and they are rough. Dover is a real rough racetrack, and there are a lot of small bumps. It’s a challenge all on its own. There’s no other place like it, and it really doesn’t compare to any place else. I don’t feel like we were nearly where we needed to be last year, but we’ve managed to go back to some of those tracks where I felt the same way and run real well this season. I’m assuming that’s going to be the case at Dover. We are doing everything we can to unload with the best product.”
| 
|