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Earnhardt Jr. hopes the show continues at Richmond
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It’s with somewhat heavy hearts that NASCAR will travel to Richmond International Raceway this weekend.
Legendry motorsports writer David Poole passed away unexpectedly this week at the age of 50. His sudden and untimely loss will cast a pall over those participating in this weekend’s event. But as is tradition with NASCAR when tragedy strikes, the show will go on.
And Dale Earnhardt Jr. hopes the show from last weeks Talladega race will continue.
After a less then stellar season to date, Earnhardt scored his first top-5 finish of the season coming home second in last Sunday’s wild Talladega race.
The finish moved him up four positions in the driver’s points and he heads into Richmond in 15th spot only three markers away from the all important 12th place cutoff for the Chase for the championship.
Brad Keselowski won at Talladega, his first career Sprint Cup victory. Keselowski drives one of Earnhardt’s Nationwide Series cars for JR Motorsports and according to Earnhardt finishing second to a young driver he’s spend time mentoring doesn’t make him feel as though a chance to score his first victory of the year slipped away.
“Maybe if somebody else had won it, you definitely feel like you missed an opportunity until the sun sets on that day.” Earnhardt said. “On Monday you get up and you go, All right, where are we in points? What's the situation looking like? We kind of made some gains and we got to try to keep the momentum going.”
For Earnhardt and the No. 88 team a visit to Richmond might be a great place to keep that momentum going.
Of the 18 career wins for Earnhardt his 17th came at Richmond in the spring 2006 race. Overall he has three wins at RIR.
“I like Richmond a lot,” Earnhardt said. “We always thought we run good there 'cause it's a lot like Myrtle Beach, where I ran a lot in the late models. There's a lot of similarities. It's got a lot of different grooves that you can run. You can move around. I think it puts on one of the more exciting races in the season. It ranks right up there as some of the best.”
As the season has progressed the No. 88 team has worked hard to identify and correct problems that have plagued them and prevented decent finishes. Chief among the difficulties have been pit stops. Sunday at Talladega they showed that problem might have been corrected.
The team won the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award as the No. 88 Chevy spent the least amount of time on pit road -- 255.440 seconds.
"We’ve spent a lot of time and effort to make the AMP Energy/National Guard crew great and this award shows that effort,” said crew chief Tony Eury Jr. “They had awesome pit stops all day at Talladega. I'm really happy for the guys."
If Earnhardt and the crew can overcome the difficulties that have kept them from decent finishes, they may just start to get into championship form.
“We're definitely going to go in there to try to win the race,” he said. “Just like this past weekend, every lap I'll be concentrating on not putting myself in any precarious situation that might not allow me to finish in the top five, if I've got a car that can.”
And while a win at Richmond or anywhere would certainly help the cause, Earnhardt knows that consistent top five finishes are what they really need.
“If we got a real good car,” he said. “We're gonna try to take care of it so we can make sure if we cannot win the race, are not allowed to win the race in some way, we can at least get the points we need to sort of dig ourselves out of this hole we're in.”
Fast Facts
The Race: Crown Royal Presents The Russ Friedman 400
The Date: Saturday, May 2
The Track: Richmond International Raceway (.75-mile D-shaped oval)
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
The Distance: 400 laps (300 miles)
TV: FOX, 7 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN and Sirius Satellite (local station WVAR-AM 1140)
2008 Polesitter: Denny Hamlin
2008 Winner: Clint Bowyer
Schedule: Friday – Practice, 12-1 p.m. and 2-3:30 p.m. – Qualifying, 5:40 p.m.
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