RETURNING VICTOR: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, will be going for his second straight Michigan International Speedway win this Sunday. Earnhardt won the Father’s Day NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event in June, marking his first win, third top-five finish and sixth top-10 in his 17th start at the track. Earnhardt has led 124 laps at MIS and completed 98 percent of all run (3,449 of 3,491 laps).
MICHIGAN CHASSIS: Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and the No. 88 engineers have chosen Chassis No. 499 for Sunday’s event at Michigan. This is the same chassis Earnhardt drove to lead 76 laps and finish sixth in the 600-mile event at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May. He scored a 12th-place finish with Chassis 499 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last month.
HENDRICK AT MICHIGAN: In 49 races at Michigan, Hendrick Motorsports has posted four wins, 33 top-five finishes and 64 top-10s.
NATIVE VICTOR: After his win at Michigan International Speedway, Earnhardt became the first native North Carolinian to win a Cup race since Brian Vickers reached Victory Lane at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Oct. 8, 2006. Earnhardt, born in Kannapolis, N.C., snapped the streak that had reached 56 races. Earnhardt is the only North Carolina native with a Sprint Cup win this season.
FOLLOW THE LEADER: Earnhardt has led at least one lap during 17 of the 22 Sprint Cup events this season. Earnhardt has led a total of 663 laps, which is more than he recorded after 22 races in any of his nine full Cup seasons and more than he recorded during his entire 2000 (426 laps), 2005 (169 laps), 2006 (444 laps) and 2007 (433 laps) campaigns.
QUOTES
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER OF THE NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY IMPALA SS (ON MICHIGAN.): “I realize we won the last time out at Michigan, but we need to be racing better overall. Yeah, we rolled the dice and gambled on fuel strategy, but a win is still a win, however you get it, and you’re no less proud. This has by far been my most consistent year, but I really want to be racing for wins every week, not just being competitive.”
EARNHARDT (ON BONDING WITH HIS TEAM.): “I’ve made some good friends on this new team. We know what each other wants and likes, and it’s important to have good relationships. I hope we can win a championship together; this has certainly my best season to date.”
TONY EURY JR., CREW CHIEF OF THE NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY IMPALA SS (ON THE STRESS OF THE CHASE.): “There is a lot more stress in making the Chase than there is in the Chase itself. Most of these tracks in the Chase, you have been to once already this season and have a baseline of what to expect. There are good tracks for us in the Chase, like Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Talladega. There is a lot of stress right now for those guys on the bubble—it’s a dog fight now between 11th to 14th place, and we probably won’t know who gets in until the checkered flag flies at Richmond.”
EURY (ON MICHIGAN.): “Michigan is a flat two-mile oval, and track position is huge there. It could turn into a fuel-mileage race at any time so you really have to be on your toes and be aware of what could happen.”
EURY (ON WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO SWEEP.): “It’s just going to take some luck. I think we’ve got some issues we know we’ve got to fix from the last race. We really lost some track position and hung around in seventh place. We’ve got to beat a couple more cars, and I think we’ve got a pretty good idea. Jimmie (Johnson) ran really well there in the race so we’ll take his notes and bounce them around.”
EURY (ON WHAT HE LEARNED FROM LAST TIME.): “Our car was extremely loose about all day, so we’re going to change some stuff in the rear end and probably change up some spring split in the rear and go with a different shock combination. Those three things right there will be the ones we’ll key on when we go back. We were really happy with our car there other than just being really loose, and it didn’t really get going until too late. Halfway through a run, the car would get pretty good, but we need to get a little bit better on the short run. It was like 20 laps before our car would ever come around. Hopefully we’ve got it tightened up enough to where we can go on the short run and see what happens on the long run.”
EURY (ON THE CHASE CONTENDERS.): “I think they (the bubble teams) get more conservative because they know that things are happening each and every week, and one little miscue can send them away. I think guys are going to be a lot more cautious about their calls. Track position is key. You won’t see those guys take as many chances. There will be somebody who is a longshot sitting outside that might take one, but most of the guys are going to be in the conservative state just because they don’t want to lose anymore than they’ve got. They want to wait on the other team to have that mistake.”
EURY (ON THE DRIVERS SITTING ON THE CHASE BUBBLE.): “The guys on the bubble are pretty nervous. They’re just hoping nothing happens and those guys in front of them trip, so it’s basically a game of who’s going to mess up first. You just gotta hopefully maintain—get top fives, top 10s—and hope those guys have a little trouble. Last year we were sitting right on the edge of the bubble and had a chance and lost three motors. That basically wiped us out, but it kind of helped a lot of guys out. Those kinds of things can’t happen at this stage in the race.”
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