CUP: Earnhardt Jr. Hopes To Get Handle On Pocono

Sprint Cup

CUP: Earnhardt Jr. Hopes To Get Handle On Pocono

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to turn around his slumping performance...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted June 02, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks over the #88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet. (Photo: Getty Images)

The key for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Pocono Raceway this weekend will be the same as it is for most of the Sprint Cup drivers in the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 – get the car to handle in Turn 2.

Pocono features three distinct turns, and the tight corner over the tunnel that makes up Turn 2 is the toughest.

In some ways, Pocono is laid out much like Earnhardt Jr.’s season – fast and smooth in places, with some tough turns that can cause trouble.

Earnhardt Jr. finished second in the Daytona 500 and later spent five consecutive weeks in the top 10 in points. But with finishes outside the top 20 in three of the last four races, he’s 17th in the standings, 54 points out of 12th. He finished 22nd in the Coca-Cola 600 to drop another spot in the standings.

Pocono isn’t one of Earnhardt Jr.’s best tracks as he has only six top-10 finishes in 20 starts there and has an average finish of 17.4.

“Pocono is one of the more difficult tracks we go to because all three of the corners are so different,” Earnhardt Jr. said in a news release. “It can be tough to get your car to handle good through all three of the turns. The tunnel turn is probably the most challenging corner of the year.”

The turns are so distinct that a driver often cannot have his car working well in all three turns of the triangular track. There is 14-degree banking in Turn 1 going into a 3,055-foot backstretch. The banking in Turn 2 is only 8 degrees and leads into a chute of 1,780 feet before getting to the 6-degree-banking in Turn 3 that leads to the 3,740-foot frontstretch.

“In the past I have always concentrated on Turn 3 because I felt like that one led to the longest straightaway and led to the finish line,” said Lance McGrew, Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports. “But here lately, over the years racing there a bunch of times, the tunnel turn seems to be the make-or-break-it turn.

Cup Crew Chief Lance McGrew (Left) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Right) entered the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season hoping they would turn things around. (Photo: Getty Images)

“You can make some really good passes off the tunnel turn if your car is good there. Dale has managed to get through Turn 3 without it being a problem. Because the three turns are so different, there’s enough lines through Turn 1 that you can make something work, but the tunnel turn, if you are really good through there, you can really carry so much speed through there. It makes such a difference in your lap times that you can pass a lot of people there.”

Despite racing 500 miles with lots of braking and the long straightaway, McGrew isn’t worried about engine issues.

“In the past when we were shifting and everything else, the RPMs got to be so great [but] since they have passed the legislation in NASCAR where they mandate our rear gear, it’s not as challenging on the engine guys,” McGrew said. “It’s challenging to build a broader horsepower curve so the engine pulls good at a low RPM that it comes off the corner and still has power at the top side. That’s probably more challenging to those guys, but you don’t seem to have the valve train issues that we used to have because we aren’t turning the engines quite as hard.”

SceneDaily.com • At 61 Geoff Bodine still wants to race will run Cup race at Pocono this weekend