News & Notes
MARTINSVILLE RECAP: Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought the fans to their feet when he took the lead with 21 laps remaining in last Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup event at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Earnhardt started 26th and capitalized on strategy employed by crew chief Steve Letarte to lead 17 laps. Earnhardt crossed the finish line second to record his first top-five finish of the season.
POINT STANDINGS: With his runner-up performance at Martinsville last week, Earnhardt advanced to the eighth position in the Cup championship standings. He trails leader Kyle Busch by 20 points and fifth-place Kevin Harvick by just five points.
PERSONAL BESTS: Earnhardt’s 9.9 average start at Texas is a personal best for him in the Sprint Cup Series. He also ties his personal best in pole positions with two at the 1.5-mile oval. Earnhardt earned the top starting spot at the Lone Star State track in April 2001 and in April 2008, his first start there with Hendrick Motorsports. He also owns two pole positions at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway.
FIRST WINS: Earnhardt earned his first Cup and NASCAR Nationwide wins at Texas Motor Speedway. He was just seven races into his rookie season when he recorded his first Cup win on April 2, 2000, at the Fort Worth racetrack. Then age 25, Earnhardt started the race fourth and led 106 laps on his way to Victory Lane. He recorded his first career win in the Nationwide Series on April 4, 1998.
EARNHARDT AT TEXAS: In 17 Sprint Cup Series starts at Texas Motor Speedway, Earnhardt has scored one win, two pole positions, three top-five finishes and eight top-10s. He has an average starting position of 9.9 and has led at least one lap in 12 of those starts for a total of 446 laps.
LAPS IN THE TOP 15: According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Earnhardt ranks second among drivers in laps run in the top 15 at Texas. During the last 12 races there, the Kannapolis, N.C., native has spent 77.4 percent of the events (3,111 laps of 4,018 total) running in the top 15.
DRIVER RATING: According to NASCAR’s loop data statistics, Earnhardt’s driving rating at Texas is 93, which ranks him eighth among drivers in the last 12 races at the 1.5-mile oval. The driver rating is a formula that combines the following categories: wins, finishes, 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 points 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, Letarte will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-617. Earnhardt last raced this chassis to an eighth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February.
HENDRICK IN 2011: All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers are ranked in the top 12 in the championship standings going into Saturday’s event at Texas. Jimmie Johnson ranks third, Earnhardt is eighth, Mark Martin is 10th and Jeff Gordon is 12th.
HENDRICK AT TEXAS: Hendrick Motorsports has recorded at least one top-10 finish in all but one of the 20 Cup events run at Texas Motor Speedway. During that stretch of 81 starts, Hendrick has earned three wins, 20 top-five finishes and 32 top-10s. Gordon most recently went to Victory Lane there in April 2009.
APPROACHING 200: With Gordon’s win in February at Phoenix International Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports has earned 195 Cup victories. The organization ranks first in NASCAR’s modern era for wins and second all-time behind Petty Enterprises, which has 268 victories.
TOP 10 AGAIN: Hendrick Motorsports has had at least one driver finish in the top 10 during the last 18 Sprint Cup races. The last event when a Hendrick Motorsports driver did not finish in the top-10 was at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 21, 2010. Gordon was the highest finisher with an 11th-place result.
Quotes
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY /NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY.):
“I look forward to going to Texas—it’s a real fast place, and it’s wide. The car needs to move around, and it needs to work in several different groves. Texas has some really, really tricky transitions. The exit off of Turn 2 is a real, real tricky corner—it is real loose off if you aren’t careful.”
STEVE LETARTE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON GOALS FOR THE TEAM AFTER ITS SUCCESSFUL RUN AT MARTINSVILLE (VA.) SPEEDWAY.):
“The goals don’t change. If you let your expectations change with your results, then you are riding momentum and that is one thing we trying not to do this year. We are trying not to have the ups and downs of the roller coaster. Martinsville was great, and it was great to have an opportunity to win. Our goal is to be relevant and to be in the race and that is our goal every week.”
LETARTE (ON THE CHALLENGES AT TEXAS.):
“Texas is an interesting racetrack. It’s a beautiful facility and very, very high speed. There are bumps in the middle of both corners—especially in Turns 1 and 2—and it’s very, very challenging to get over the bumps and be good at that track. Aerodynamics play a huge part because it’s such a fast track so track position becomes very vital.”
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