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A year ago at this time, while driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc., he was doing the chasing from 13th place.
Today, as a member of the Hendrick Motorsports team, Earnhardt sits comfortably within that top 12. He’s in second place with 2,883 points.
While he’s 176 points behind series leader Kyle Busch, he’d need to suffer through five Kyle Petty-like weeks in order to fall out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
Some drivers say that now is the time to gamble, to take chances to improve their Chase positioning. But Earnhardt bristled at the notion he might be more aggressive or try harder to win one of the next five weeks.
“OK, so when am I not going for wins? When is a driver not going for win?” Earnhardt said.
“We don’t go for wins any harder than we always do. I don’t think there is a driver that’s ever driven in this series that ain’t trying to win. I get sick of that. I get sick of hearing about that, whether we try to go for wins harder. We go for them as hard as we can all the time.”
Even with just one victory in the past 78 races, Earnhardt is adamant that winning is truly the only objective.
“I put it on the line, man,” he said. “It’s really no different, regardless of the points and regardless of the time of the season.”
Though he has entered Victory Lane just once this year, winning the Lifelock 400 on June 15 at Michigan International Speedway, Earnhardt nonetheless has been consistent. He has seven top-5 finishes and his average finish is 11.5.
Still, with seven wins, Kyle Busch has been the talk of NASCAR. Earnhardt, wields mega-star status and national endorsement deals, has been flying under the radar.
“Well, I would trade my season with Kyle any day,” he said. “He’s had a great year and won a lot of races. He’s a real amazing talent behind the wheel.
“I would like to have had the type of season he’s had, regardless of where that put me on the radar. I would like to give my sponsors the best opportunity they can get and the most exposure they can get. Winning races is how you do it.”
Earnhardt will tell you that’s also all that truly matters.
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