Earnhardt Earned His 1st Victory at Texas; He Could Use Another
It was the spring of 2000 and a career was blossoming. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No.88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevrolet), a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie fresh off winning consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series titles, came to Texas Motor Speedway.
Making only his 12th start in NASCAR’s top series, Earnhardt went to Victory Lane, where he was joined by his father, the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. for a memorable celebration. Earnhardt went on to win twice more in 2000, at the Richmond spring race and, incredibly, in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race — becoming the first rookie to do so.
Of course, Earnhardt was almost immediately considered a “champion in waiting.” Nine years later, the waiting continues, with Earnhardt’s early-season struggles attracting increased focus on his team, in his second season with the highly successful Hendrick Motorsports organization.
Criticism has surfaced this season from both media and at least one rival in the series, Kyle Busch (No.18 Interstate Batteries Toyota). None other than Rick Hendrick himself defended the No.88 team vigorously last week, saying, “I am 100% behind this group. I have no intentions of making any changes. I have all intentions of making it better.”
Said Earnhardt: “We’re just trying to hear out everybody’s opinions on some things we can try or do differently, and if it will help. We’re just working hard to get better … we don’t sit on our tails hoping it’ll turn around on it’s own because it probably wouldn’t happen that way.”
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Hard work paid dividends this past weekend. Earnhardt finished an encouraging eighth at Martinsville Speedway, his best finish of the season. He comes into Sunday’s Samsung 500, up to 16th in the series standings. More reason for optimism: In addition to the 2000 victory at the fast, 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway track, Earnhardt has two Samsung 500 poles — 2001 and last year.
“We have excellent equipment, ” Earnhardt said. “We just have to know what to do with it. We got to get a little bit better, as a team, to compete. The stuff is right there in front of us but man, we just gotta figure out what to do to make it work.”
Edwards Attempting Texas 3-Step, After Last Season’s Sweep
Call it a Texas three-step. Carl Edwards (No.99 Aflac Ford) won both of last season’s NASCAR Sprint Cup events at Texas Motor Speedway, part of his series-leading total of nine victories that fueled his runner-up finish in the series standings. Edwards also won at Texas in the 2005 fall race. His three TMS wins are a series high.
Edwards comes to Texas eighth in the series points but has nonetheless been perceived to be in an early-season slump — much like three-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson was prior to his win this past Sunday at Martinsville.
Edwards has yet to win this season. Compare that with 2008’s late-season rush when he won three of the 10 events in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Maybe he is in a slump. Nonetheless, he’s also solidly in Chase contention and remains a favorite to be in championship contention later on this season.
Clearly, Edwards has taken to Texas since joining the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2004. He has an average TMS finish of 13.9 and a Driver Rating of 102.3 there — third-best in the series.
Edwards has continued Roush Fenway Racing’s TMS dominance that started with victories in the track’s first two NASCAR Sprint Cup events in 1997 and ‘98. Jack Roush leads all owners in TMS wins with seven.
Top 35 Update… Logano Hangs On — And In; Gilliland Drops Out — Barely
Driver Paul Menard and the No.98 Quaker State/Menards Ford team owned by Max Jones came away from Martinsville with the 35th position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup car owner points, after a solid 25th-place run. That gives Menard the last of the guaranteed starting spots for Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.
On the two sides of the top-35 “bubble” are teams accompanied by intriguing, ever-evolving storylines.
Rookie Joey Logano, in the No.20 Home Depot Toyota owned by Joe Gibbs, continues to flirt with falling outside the top 35 — which would force him to qualify on speed, to make a race field. The No.20 is 34th in owner points, only 23 ahead of the No. 98.
The inspiring efforts of David Gilliland, in Kevin Buckler’s No.71 TRG Motorsports Chevrolet, fell off at Martinsville, as Gilliland finished 36th — which is now the team’s standing in the owner points, albeit only three points behind the No. 98.
Nonetheless, Gilliland’s standings is impressive considering the team failed to qualify for the Daytona 500.
“We will have our work cut out for us at Texas,” Gilliland said. “We will get in the show and put the team back into the top 35.”
A key to the 71’s struggles at Martinsville, Buckler said, was that the two Saturday practice sessions were rained out.
“The two sessions we missed would’ve put us way ahead of where we were,” Bucker said. “But every lap this team runs is another step up the ladder to our future in NASCAR.”
2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Car Owner Standings
Rank Driver/Owner (Car #) Points Texas Driver Rating
30 Reed Sorenson/Richard Petty (43) 569 68.4
31 Robby Gordon/ Robby Gordon (7) 485 51.2
32 Sam Hornish Jr. /Bill Davis (77) 324 54.2
33 John Andretti/Teresa Earnhardt (34) 455 28.1
34 Joey Logano/Joe Gibbs (20) 437 25.7
35 Paul Menard/Max Jones (98) 414 59.8
36 David Gilliland/Kevin Buckler (71) 411 66.4
37 Aric Almirola/Chip Ganassi (8) 387 n/a (no Texas starts)
38 Scott Speed/Dietrich Mateschitz (82) 386 39.9
39 Travis Kvapil/Jeff Moorad (28) 323 46.2
40 Scott Riggs/Tommy Baldwin (98) 291 59.6
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