News & Notes
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.
AT DOVER: In 22 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 98.9 percent of all laps he’s attempted (8,709 of 8,804 total) at the Monster Mile.
POINTS AFTER DARLINGTON: Earnhardt, driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy Sugar Free/National Guard Chevrolet, ranks fourth in the Sprint Cup championship standings after finishing 14th last weekend at Darlington Raceway. He is only 47 points away from leader Carl Edwards.
SEASON-TO-DATE STATS: Earnhardt has the third-best average finish this season in the Sprint Cup Series with an average 11.3 finishing position. He also has the third most green-flag passes this season, totaling 1,400.
CHASSIS CHOICE: This weekend, crew chief Steve Letarte and the No. 88 crew will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-649 at Dover. Earnhardt last raced this chassis at Auto Club Speedway in March, when he scored a 12th-place finish.
HENDRICK AT DOVER: In 54 races (167 starts) at Dover International Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports has 13 wins, 41 top-five finishes and 71 top-10s. The organization also has earned eight pole positions and led 4,765 laps. A Hendrick driver ranks first among active drivers in the following categories: Most wins—Jimmie Johnson with six; most top-five finishes and top-10s—Mark Martin with 22 and 30, respectively; most poles - Jeff Gordon and Martin tied with four apiece; and most laps led - Jeff Gordon with 2231 laps led.
APPROACHING 200: With Johnson’s win on April 17 at Talladega, Hendrick Motorsports has earned 196 Cup victories. The organization ranks first in NASCAR’s modern era for wins and second all-time behind Petty Enterprises, which has 268 victories.
ALL-STAR PREVIEW: Later this month, Earnhardt’s No. 88 machine will sport a different look during the NASCAR Sprint All-Star race weekend. Earnhardt’s Chevrolet will feature bright red, orange and yellow coloring with music notes accentuating the side panels. The Dale Jr. Foundation has partnered with the VH1 Save the Music Foundation to enhance the music program at Neal Middle School in Durham, N.C.
Quotes
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY SUGAR FREE/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON RACING DOVER’S CONCRETE SURFACE VERSUS ASPHALT.):
“Concrete has joints in it like a wooden deck, and much like a wooden deck when you don’t treat it well the boards sort of flare up on the ends, and that’s what the joints on the concrete track do. The track gets bumps in those joints, and they’re consistent bumps like when you’re going down the interstate, and it makes the car sort of chatter around on top of those bumps and joints. And, concrete as you run on it gets chalky; it’s difficult to keep smooth or clean. Every time we go out there for the first time, the first few minutes in practice everyone is throwing up a bunch of dirt and dust. There is a crossover on the back straightaway of Dover where they bring a lot of dirt in, driving across it into the racetrack. That sort of circulates around the racetrack until it sort of dissipates and goes wherever it goes. It’s harder than asphalt to drive on, for me.”
EARNHARDT (ON IF THE CONCRETE SURFACE AFFECTS HIS FOCUS.):
“It doesn’t really bother your focus but it does take some extra attention while you’re driving. You have to focus a little bit more on the level of grip you have and getting to the edge of the grip level. Driving the car towards that edge is a little bit harder because of the bumps and the shake and the car just jumping around. It sort of weakens the senses you have about the car and makes it harder for you to read what the car is trying to tell you.”
EARNHARDT (ON FLYING THE AMERICAN FLAG AFTER HIS SEPTEMBER 2001 WIN AT DOVER.):
“We were fortunate enough to win at Dover immediately after 9/11. We were a young team trying to find our own identity, and we were fortunate to pick the win up that day. The guys came over and brought an American flag to the car and we drove it around the racetrack a little bit. It was a pretty cool moment. Whoever had won that race that day was going to do something that day, something similar to that, I was just fortunate to be that guy.
“The fans were really happy to have something to take their mind off of what was going on around the country and NASCAR fans are commonly connected to our military—our military is infused in our sport so it kind of goes hand and hand. You could just tell it was a special moment for them and they felt a lot of pride at that moment—it didn’t matter who the driver was. I just happened to be that lucky guy.”
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