Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Earnhardt Finally Warming Up
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has scored consecutive top-10 finishes in his last two races...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted August 31, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is seventh in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Summer has never been the best part of the season for Dale Earnhardt Jr., and this year was no exception for the biggest star in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. But there might be some light at the end of the tunnel for the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS.

After a first half of the season that ranged somewhere between disappointing and disastrous, Earnhardt is warming up. He finished third at Michigan International Speedway two weeks ago and ninth at Bristol Motor Speedway last week, the first time all season he’d earned back-to-back top-10 finishes. That moved him up four spots in the Sprint Cup point standings to 21st.

By now, Earnhardt has no hopes of making the Chase for the Sprint Cup, so the focus is on building for next year. And a good place to do that could be Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of the Pep Boys 500 next Sunday night.

In 20 Sprint Cup starts at the 1.54-mile oval, Earnhardt has one victory, eight top-five and 10 top-10 finishes. His average finish there is 11.650, which trails only teammate Jimmie Johnson (9.125) and Carl Edwards (10.700) at AMS. Earnhardt’s totals for top fives and average finish at AMS match his career bests for any track.

And in addition to his Sprint Cup duty, Earnhardt also will drive his familiar JR Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event on Saturday. Earnhardt, a 22-time race winner in the Nationwide Series, has six starts this season and most recently raced at Daytona International Speedway in July.

Naturally, Earnhardt is looking forward to visiting Atlanta this week, where he will drive an all-new car put together by crew chief Lance McGrew, a car that has never been raced or tested so far.

“We are mathematically out of the Chase at this point so we are watching everybody else and seeing how they are going to do,” said Earnhardt. “We are trying to help our teammates the best we can and support them in their efforts. I think Hendrick Motorsports has several opportunities to win the championship. We are going to try to win some races and help our teammates the best we can.”

The big difference this time around is that the race will be run at night for the first time, which should make an already fast track even faster. Mark Martin, another one of Earnhardt’s teammates, claimed the Atlanta pole in the spring at 187.045 miles per hour, and race speeds should be well up this time.

“We've qualified at Atlanta for years at night, so you are always preparing for that,” said McGrew. “I think it's going to be wicked fast because Atlanta is really, really fast at nighttime. So, I don't really know if you go about it any differently than if it was a day race. It's just the track is going to be faster, and there's going to be more grip. That's pretty much it.”

For his part, Earnhardt said he’s up for it. “I don't think it's going to change too much,” he said. “The track is pretty wore down and will slow down over the long runs, but we will be running some pretty fast speeds the first five or 10 laps on new tires under the lights. That place is really, really fast.”

And it’s wide, too, something the teams like.

“I've always thought Atlanta is such a driver's racetrack because it is so wide and races so wide that there's groove after groove after groove,” said McGrew. “If your car is not good on the bottom, we'll try the middle; if it's not good in the middle, we'll try two-thirds; if it's not good there, try the top. You'll go from the top of one end to the bottom of the other. There's always ability for a driver to hunt a line that helps his car, which I've always liked because, whether you believe it or not, these cars are never perfect. So, you always have to be able to hunt and peck and look for every last little hundredth (of a second) that you can find on the racetrack.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of ?Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,? and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



tom_jensen's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.