NEWS & NOTES
AT MICHIGAN: In 21 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Michigan, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has recorded one win, two pole positions, four top-five finishes and seven top-10s. He has completed 98.9 percent of all laps he’s attempted (4,048 laps of 4,091 total).
LEADING LAPS: Earnhardt has led at least one lap during eight of his last nine starts at Michigan for a total of 109 laps. Overall, he’s led the field in 13 of his 21 starts at the two-mile oval for 173 total laps.
MICHIGAN WIN: Earnhardt’s June 15, 2008, victory was his first win in a points-paying event for Hendrick Motorsports and his most recent win in the Cup Series. Earnhardt started the race third and led 14 laps on his way to the checkered flag.
DRIVER RATING: According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Earnhardt ranks fifth in the driver rating category at Michigan with a score of 99.1. The driver rating is a formula that combines wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. The driver rating number is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator.
CHASSIS CHOICE: This weekend, McGrew and the No. 88 crew will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-599. Earnhardt raced this chassis to an eighth-place finish at Texas in April and most recently to a 22nd-place finish at the May 30 event at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
HENDRICK AT MICHIGAN: In 52 events (162 starts) at Michigan, Hendrick Motorsports has scored five wins, 37 top-five finishes, 68 top-10s and has led 1,876 laps. During both 2009 events, two Hendrick drivers earned finishes of third or better. Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon finished one-two in the June event, while Gordon and Earnhardt locked up second and third, respectively, in the August race.
QUOTES
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON MICHIGAN.): “Michigan is a fun track. It’s wide, and you’ll find a lot of side-by-side racing. You can move around. If the top doesn’t work then you can run the bottom. I enjoyed running there, and we seem to have had some success there.”
LANCE McGREW, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON WHY MICHIGAN OFTEN COMES DOWN TO FUEL STRATEGY.): “I don’t know. Take, for example, the (NASCAR) Nationwide Series where they’ve changed the length of the race over the years; they did all these things to make it not come down to fuel, but it always seems to come down to fuel. It doesn’t matter how long that last stretch is, somebody is going to try to go on fuel. I think you are seeing some difference at the end of last year and the beginning of this year where the tires are worth more. We came in last year and pitted with tires and drove our way up to third. I think there aren’t a lot of cautions there and there are long green-flag runs. You have to have a strategy for a long green-flag run because you have to count on there not being a caution.”
McGREW (ON MICHIGAN BEING TOUGH ON ENGINES.): “It’s not a place where you are off the gas for a long period of time. We call that ‘hanging RPM,’ which basically means that the engine turns a lot of RPMs for a long period of time and doesn’t get much of a breather in between the time that it is asked to do it again. Generally, it’s a little harder on the valve train. And generally, if you are going to have a problem then it is in the top side of the motor. We try to keep that from happening, but there are lots of things that can ruin your day motor-wise at Michigan.”
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