Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes cautious approach heading into Talladega
Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won five times during his Cup career at Talladega Superspeedway.
// Jim Fluharty, NASCAR Scene
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Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr. must be happy to see Talladega Superspeedway on the schedule since it’s the track where he has collected the most wins in his career.
Of course, his last win there came in October of 2004, but Earnhardt Jr. likes the drafting tracks, and Hendrick Motorsports generally runs well in these restrictor-plate showdowns, which should give the team some confidence entering the weekend.
The driver could certainly use it. Earnhardt Jr. has a top finish of 17th in his last eight races, a stretch that includes three finishes of 35th or worse. He has only five top-10 finishes this season, two of them top-fives. He has changed crew chiefs and worked to resolve the issues hampering the team.
A good run would certainly go a long way for this group.
Earnhardt Jr. earned a second-best second-place finish earlier this season at the track, leading seven times for 20 laps.
Still, he heads into the track with a somewhat cautious approach to the weekend.
"Talladega is a unique race track," he said. "It's a great race to watch, and it's a fun race to be in. It does a good job at maintaining excitement in the sport. You will never hear people complaining about the action or the level of racing.
"We always put on a great show, and there's always a lot of drama. It can be dangerous, but we've got a safe race car, and they get safer every year. The track has got a great history, too. We always run good here, and the fans are always great to us, so I enjoy coming here."
Everyone recognizes, however, that there are aspects of Talladega that can be a real guessing game. Known for generally hosting a multicar crash, the 2.66-mile restrictor-plate track is often one where timing plays more of a role in a driver's success than anything else. If a driver is in the vicinity of a crashing car, it's difficult to actually miss getting piled into the incident at this track.
Interim crew chief Lance McGrew is well aware of that possibility, but also of just how well his driver can run at this track. He's just waiting to see whether they can pull off another Talladega victory this weekend.
"You can go there with a strategy if you want to, but it's not going to make a difference in how you finish, I don't think, because you can get wrecked in the back, you can get wrecked in the front, you can get wrecked in the middle,” McGrew said. “You can get wrecked at the beginning of the race; you can get wrecked at the end of the race. It just doesn't matter.
"I'm pretty sure we are going to go there with a strategy of trying to lead every lap and win. I don't think Junior is the kind of guy that likes to ride around in the back and wing it in the end. It's a track that he really enjoys going to, a track that the fans love to see him at and a track that we would love to win at."
