NEWS & NOTES
500TH START: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, will make his 500th start in a NASCAR-sanctioned points-paying event this weekend. Earnhardt will be making his 385th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start when he lines up Sunday at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. He also has tallied 115 starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
CAREER STATISTICS: In those 499 starts, Earnhardt has 41 wins, 143 top-five finishes, 221 top-10s, 19 pole positions and 9,911 laps led. With 18 Cup wins, Earnhardt is tied for 37th on the all-time Sprint Cup winner’s list and tied for eighth among active, full-time drivers. In 384 Cup starts, Earnhardt also has 90 top-five finishes, 148 top-10s and nine pole positions. In his 115 Nationwide Series starts, Earnhardt has 23 wins, 53 top-five finishes, 73 top-10s and 10 pole positions. He ranks ninth all-time with his 23 Nationwide victories.
FAMILY TIES: Earnhardt is the only third-generation NASCAR champion, achieved when he won the 1998 and 1999 Nationwide Series titles. He follows his legendary father Dale Earnhardt Sr., a seven-time Cup champion, and his grandfather Ralph Earnhardt, the 1956 NASCAR Sportsman champion.
FOUR MORE: Earnhardt Jr., who will turn 36 on Oct. 10, has four more combined Cup and Nationwide victories than either his father or grandfather scored by their 36th birthdays. With eight more scheduled Cup starts before he turns 36, Earnhardt Jr. already has 18 Cup wins and 23 Nationwide Series victories for a total of 41. Earnhardt Sr. scored 37 total wins (26 in the Cup Series and 11 in Nationwide) by his 36th birthday, which fell April 29, 1987. Ralph Earnhardt did not go to Victory Lane in a Cup or Nationwide event.
FIRST WINS: Earnhardt scored his first Cup and Nationwide series wins at Texas Motor Speedway. He claimed his first Nationwide Series win in 1998 after starting 16th and leading six laps. He went to his first Victory Lane in the Cup Series in April 2000 after starting fourth and leading 106 laps.
FIRST STARTS: Earnhardt made his first NASCAR start in the Nationwide Series on June 22, 1996, at Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Speedway driving the No. 31 entry for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Then age 21, Earnhardt started the event seventh and finished 14th. He followed that up almost three years later with his Cup debut in May 1999. Then, Earnhardt qualified eighth for the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway event, circling the 1.5-mile oval faster than his father and Jeff Gordon – both Cup champions. Earnhardt crossed the finish line 16th.
TOP CHOICE: During the last seven race seasons, fans have selected Earnhardt as the winner of NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver award. Bill Elliott is the only other driver to have achieved this honor in seven or more consecutive seasons. A 16-time winner, Elliott was chosen by fans 10 seasons in a row (1991-2000).
POINTS AFTER POCONO: Earnhardt holds the 14th position in the championship standings. He trails 12th-place by 129 points with five races remaining until the 12-car field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
AT WATKINS GLEN: In 10 Sprint Cup starts at Watkins Glen, Earnhardt has recorded two top-five finishes and three top-10s. He has completed 89.7 percent of all the laps he’s attempted (809 laps of 902 total). The 35-year-old driver has led a total of 46 laps there, pacing 33 laps in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in 2008.
CHASSIS CHOICE: This weekend, crew chief Lance McGrew and the No. 88 team will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-514. Earnhardt last raced this car to an 11th-place finish at Infineon Raceway in June.
SWITCHING UP THE PIT STOPS: During Sunday’s race, drivers will enter pit road from the opposite direction, which is basically like making a pit stop in reverse for the pit crew. To keep the No. 88 crew operating with the same momentum, pit crew coaches Mark Mauldin and Walt Smith decided to swap the front-tire changer and carrier with the rear-tire changer and carrier. This way, they are approaching the car the same way they usually do. The No. 88 team has devoted practice time during the last several weeks to prepare for the 220-mile event.
HENDRICK AT WATKINS GLEN: In 24 races (80 starts) at Watkins Glen, Hendrick Motorsports has tallied six wins, 17 top-five finishes, 30 top-10s and led 443 laps. Last year, Jimmie Johnson earned his first pole position at the 2.45-mile road course
QUOTES
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET (ON MAKING HIS 500TH START.) “I didn’t realize that I was approaching 500. I take a lot of pride in what I’ve accomplished in these past 15 years or so. I’m proud of the two Nationwide championships, the wins in both series and having worked with a lot of talented people. I like that I’m able to do what I do for a living. I’m passionate about racing and it keeps me from having to get a real job (SMILING).”
LANCE McGREW, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY GUARD CHEVROLET (ON WATKINS GLEN VERSUS INFINEON RACEWAY.): “The tracks are way different. The way Sonoma is laid out, it’s very precise and you have to drive it a certain way. It’s not a real fast track. I think that he tends to like a faster-type place. It may just be that he likes one better for one particular reason, but he has had way more success at The Glen.”
McGREW (ON CALLING A ROAD COURSE RACE.): “Your driver doesn’t walk you around every corner on a road course like you would on an oval. It’s more fuel mileage and your driver reporting, for instance, ‘I’m brake-hoping into here, or I need forward bite into here.’ You do what you can do. You are kind of limited because what you do to help a left-handed corner is going to hurt a right-handed corner. You are kind of limited once the race starts and what kind of adjustments you can make that will make a big difference on how the car drives. It normally comes down to speed and strategy.”
McGREW (ON BRAKE AND SHOCK PACKAGES.): “Your brake package is very similar to what you bring to the short tracks because you abuse the brakes a lot so you need a lot of cooling, a lot of pad. The brake cooling package is probably the biggest thing. The other thing really is just drive line, it is so easy to miss a gear on an upshift or a downshift or wheel hop it which sends all that torque back through the drive line, back in to the engine, which is hard on the transmissions, the rear axles. So there are a lot of things from a durability standpoint that you sweat a little bit because if you are going to break something then you are probably going to break it there.”
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