Talladega Superspeedway and Dale Earnhardt Jr.: A love affair
For a lot of drivers, a race at Talladega Superspeedway really is just another race. They have to treat it that way, it seems, simply because they hate racing there.
Then there is Dale Earnhardt Jr. His love of the 2.66-mile behemoth known as Talladega started years ago, when his father would bring him to the track. Dale Earnhardt won 10 races at Talladega - which was also the site of Earnhardt's final Cup victory - and the fans loved him.
The love affair with the Earnhardt family continued after Dale Sr. died, with Earnhardt Jr. becoming of object of affection of the Alabama fans.
And the love goes both ways, as Earnhardt Jr. has won five times at Talladega, hoping to make it six in this weekend’s Amp Energy 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
“Well, to me it's special,” Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday. “I don't think everyone gets that sensation going into the race. But to me it's a pretty important place just because my family's done so well there. And the way the fans treat us there make it exciting, make it a place you look forward to. I think that's probably the biggest key, the fans and how they've treated us at that track. It really gets you excited when it's coming up on the schedule.”
Well, it gets some drivers excited. After winning at Kansas on Sunday, Chase For The Sprint Cup leader Jimmie Johnson said, “I'm not looking forward to Talladega, but I'm looking forward to everything else after Talladega.”
Johnson laughed it off, but there is a certain amount of dread that most drivers have heading into Talladega.
But not Earnhardt Jr., it seems.
“My dad was a real good [restrictor-]plate racer, so I loved going to the plate tracks to watch and to be a part of his success,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “You always knew going into Daytona or Talladega, if you were at the track or at home watching, that you were going to have a lot of fun because he always ran well, led laps, made a lot of incredible moves. It just made it a lot of fun to watch.
“Talladega, these tracks are really intimidating when you're young, when you go to them for the first time. They're just very intimidating. It's the biggest tracks on the circuit. So when you're a 15-year-old walking around in the garage area, you see all the preparation that goes into it, you see the speeds those cars are reaching, whatnot, you just get a big amount of respect for it early on.”
So when Earnhardt Jr. made his Cup debut at Talladega in 2000, he wasn’t afraid of Talladega. Respectful, sure, but not fearful.
But when Earnhardt Jr. won in his fourth Cup attempt in 2001, the love affair was secure.
“Obviously winning races at the track yourself, you're going to get a great relationship with the race track and feel good about going back to it because you're having success there,” Earnhardt Jr. said.
“I mean, I probably left that race track just as angry as anybody else. It doesn't always give you what you want. But I think it's such a unique type of style of driving and style of racing, it's neat to switch it up a little bit. It's not so much about how the car handles or how really good your car is, it's about the guy who's making the right moves and teaming up with the right team.
“It's pretty fun to be able to push a friend into the lead, get help from a buddy of yours to get to a lead, things like that going on throughout the day. It's pretty fun, it really is. I like being in the packs. I like being three- and four-wide, making the best of it. I don't know, it's a lot of fun for me.”
Earnhardt Jr. said racing at Talladega is like a four-hour adrenaline rush, something other drivers don’t like to experience. Maybe that gives him an advantage this weekend, maybe not.
But chances are good that Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will be up front during Sunday’s race. And that couldn’t come at a better time for him, as he’s eighth in the Chase and in dire need of a large points infusion.
Earnhardt Jr. is 190 points behind Johnson as the fourth race in the Chase looms.
“I think as far as our position now in the Chase, we just kind of got to go for broke, really throw it out there and take some chances, really take some risks,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I don't know if we can take any more than we're taking now. We can only get what we can get out of the car each weekend.
“At Talladega you can make some pretty ridiculous moves, and some of them pay off, some of them don't. We'll just have to see what kind of position we're in on any given lap to be able to try to take advantage of some things happening around us.”
