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Earnhardt Jr. contending with 'bizarre' season
By Rea White
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
JASON SMITH / GETTY IMAGES
Dale Earnhardt Jr. just wants a normal race. Certainly he wants to win, but right now, he'd be pleased to finish without incident.
Just look at the recent run the Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver has had. He was running third on the final restart at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday when his wheel came off. He was in the top five at Martinsville a week earlier when his engine gave up. A two-tire stop backfired in Charlotte. An engine failed late at Talladega.
The last time Earnhardt Jr. finished a race the way he was running came at Kansas Speedway, five events ago.
So as he heads into Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Earnhardt Jr. is looking for change.
"I'm not sure how much more bizarre this season can get," he said. "We've done so many good things this year as a team, and I've been given the most consistently fast cars of my career, and the only thing lacking is a victory."
At Texas, a place where he won in 2000 and has seven top-10 finishes in 10 starts, Earnhardt Jr. is confident that can change.
"Texas is definitely a place where we can resolve that problem," he said. "There are so many good memories for all of us at that place - not just the first win - but almost every race since then we've been a top-10 car. We qualify well and we run up front, and even though we destroyed our favorite chassis at Atlanta, we're taking our second-best car that was built just the same way.
"We've led in 90 percent of our races there, and we'll try to push that average higher on Sunday, but mainly we just want to lead that last lap and wash that awful taste out of our mouths."
Mentioned Drivers: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings
Driver Standings after the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500
| 1 | Jimmie Johnson | 6492 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | -108 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | -169 |
| 4 | Kurt Busch | -211 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | -285 |
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | -289 |
| 7 | Greg Biffle | -321 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | -352 |
| 9 | Ryan Newman | -411 |
| 10 | Kasey Kahne | -476 |
| 11 | Carl Edwards | -520 |
| 12 | Brian Vickers | -666 |
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