Despite past results, Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he’s due for good Indy finish
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has not finished three of the last five races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. // LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
INDIANAPOLIS – With three of his last five starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ending with him in the garage before the finish, it wouldn’t be surprising if Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he wasn’t looking forward to Sunday’s Brickyard 400.
But as is often the case with drivers competing in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, the final numbers often don’t tell the whole story.
Last year, Earnhardt Jr. ran in the top 10 for the majority of the race before an engine issue sidelined his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and resulted in a 36th-place finish.
In 2007, he led 33 laps and survived an early altercation that collected several cars before engine problems again forced him out of the race, this time after 136 of 160 laps.
“Hopefully, we’ve learned something since [last year] that will help us improve and have a good race weekend,” Earnhardt Jr. said Friday. “I really like the race track and have fun racing here.
“The banked tracks are a lot more fun as a driver, I think. But the history of this track and the unique shape of it compared to what we usually race on makes it a bit of an interesting change of pace.”
So is he due for a good finish at the 2.5-mile track?
“We’ve run good here … but we don’t have a lot of great finishes. I think the only good finish we had, we stole by taking two tires or not pitting late or something," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I feel like I’m due for a good run.”
Only five active, full-time drivers in this weekend’s race have won previously at Indy, and two of those – Jimmie Johnson (three wins) and Tony Stewart (two) have won the last five. After posting four wins over a 10-year stretch, Jeff Gordon hasn’t celebrated a win here since 2004.
Such success for a handful of drivers, Earnhardt Jr. said, comes from a combination of things.
“Obviously, they enjoy the track and the track suits them,” he said. “They’ve found something unique in the car itself to help them that’s worked for them over the last several years. Normally, it’s a package of both, where the driver feels real comfortable at the track and the team’s putting a good car under them.”
Coming off a disappointing 23rd-place finish at Chicago two weeks ago, Earnhardt Jr. finds himself just 15 points outside the cutoff for NASCAR’s Chase For The Sprint Cup with seven races remaining. He’s 37 points ahead of teammate Mark Martin in 14th.
“We're just trying to dig every lap to get everything we can get at all these race tracks and just see what happens,” he said. “Just taking it one lap at a time, I guess.”
