| |
 |
 |
PREVIEW: DALE EARNHARDT JR.
(NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET)
|
 |
VENUE: MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY (.526-MILE OVAL)
CIRCUIT: NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (RACE 32 OF 36)
DATE: OCT. 19, 2008 (500 LAPS, 263 MILES)
*****
MARTINSVILLE STATS: In 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has scored seven top-five finishes and eight top-10s. He has led 758 laps and completed 98.2 percent of all the laps he's run at the short track (8,353 of 8,506).
FOLLOW THE LEADER: The 758 laps led at Martinsville mark the most for Earnhardt at any Sprint Cup track. Last March, Earnhardt led a race-high 146 laps at the paperclip-shaped oval. This season, Earnhardt has led at least one lap in 20 races for a total of 894.
VIRGINIA TECH GRADS: Darian Grubb, engineering manager for the Nos. 5 and 88 Sprint Cup teams, grew up in Floyd, Va., which is 45 miles northwest of Martinsville Speedway. Grubb earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech in 1998. Fellow Virginia Tech graduate Brian Whitesell, who has been team manager of the Nos. 5 and 88 Chevrolets since 2005, hails from Stuarts Draft, Va.
HENDRICK AT MARTINSVILLE: Hendrick Motorsports has won eight of the last 11 Sprint Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway. In those 11 races, Hendrick teams claimed the pole position six times and recorded 23 top-five finishes. Overall, Hendrick drivers have recorded 16 wins, 48 top-five finishes, 78 top-10s and led more laps at Martinsville than at any other track (5,367 laps). Hendrick Motorsports has posted a top-10 finish in all but six of 49 races there.
FOUR SCORE: During the Sprint Cup Series' most recent trip to Martinsville Speedway in March, all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers finished in the top seven. Earnhardt took sixth, with Jeff Gordon second, Jimmie Johnson fourth and Casey Mears seventh.
NAMES STILL THERE: Fans who registered to "Ride with Dale Jr." at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway still can log onto www.AMPEnergy.com to see where their names appeared on Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevy. Fans should enter the e-mail address they used at registration to find their names.
WIN A BUS: Fans can go to www.AMPEnergy.com to sign up for the "Ultimate Talladega RV" sweepstakes. One lucky fan will win the one-of-a-kind No. 88 AMP Energy-branded bus. Special features include an entertainment system, cooler for AMP Energy drink, custom wheels and autographed Earnhardt memorabilia.
CHASSIS FOR MARTINSVILLE: Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and the No. 88 engineers have chosen Chassis No. 88-440 for Martinsville. This is the same car the team used to finish fourth last month at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.
RACING LEAGUE: Earnhardt and several of his friends, including No. 88 team members Eury, T.J. Majors (spotter) and Jim Jenkins (mechanic), don't save racing for the weekends. They also compete in Earnhardt's DMP Online Racing League. The group, which is by invitation only, has three divisions. Earnhardt competes in the top Buttkicker Live Pro Series.
WARRIOR VIDEO: Fans can visit www.NationalGuardWarrior.com to see Kid Rock's new "Warrior" music video and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage featuring Earnhardt, National Guard citizen soldiers and the No. 88 team. The two-minute video now is airing before movies in select AMC Theatres and includes the song "Warrior," which Kid Rock wrote specifically for the Army National Guard. During the next two months, the video will appear in more than 3,000 theaters and on more than 27,000 movie screens around the country.
*****
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER OF THE NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS (ON THE CHASE.): "We've had stuff go wrong that's out of our hands -- Talladega with that wreck we had nowhere to go and last week at Lowe's with the tire deal. I'm very proud of the way my team has been prepared and how hard they've been working. It's a true testament to how good of an organization Hendrick Motorsports is. I'm just proud of them. Hopefully we can pick it up at Martinsville. This Chase isn't over yet."
EARNHARDT (ON HIS ONLINE RACING LEAGUE.): "Online racing is a hobby of mine. I couldn't get enough racing on Sundays so me and a bunch of my friends -- about 80 of us -- get together and run every other week. We have a lot of fun doing it. It's a good hobby for everybody. We start a new season every six months probably. We've been doing it about eight years, and we have prizes. It's just a fun way to tie my hobbies in and bring my buddies along and include them in some of the cool stuff we do. There's no other racing leagues online that have t-shirts and hats and stuff, and those guys really dig that. In a way it's kind of like a second batch of friends. I've never met half the guys. I can't put a face with a name, but I've known them for eight years and talked to them basically almost every week and never even met them. They're just normal dudes with real jobs."
EARNHARDT (ON WHY HE ENJOYS ONLINE RACING.): "It's just good to be around different people and have some normalcy. 'Cause they'll tell you about their problems and the struggles they have and you're like, 'Man, I've got it made. My problems aren't anything.'"
TONY EURY JR., CREW CHIEF OF THE NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS (ON RUNNING WELL, BUT NOT WINNING, AT MARTINSVILLE.): "We've done really well there. Dale Jr. drives the track really well, but honestly a lot of times it's been about track position. Maybe we haven't qualified as good as we needed to and got the right pit selection and it's cost us a little bit on pit road. It's things like that that have cost us in the past but we've always run real well there so kind of looking forward to getting back there and getting another shot at it."
EURY (ON WHY EARNHARDT IS SO STRONG THERE.): "I think it's just the short track, and it takes a lot of finesse to get around there. He doesn't use that much brake. I think that's his whole deal. He lets the car roll a lot. We have a real good understanding of that track and what it's asking of us as far as forward bite. We have to make the car rotate in the center. You count a lot on your driver to help you out in a lot of situations. That's what we've all grown up on is these little short half-mile tracks, and we understand them very well."
EURY (ON WHAT THE TEAM WILL DO DIFFERENTLY THIS TIME AT MARTINSVILLE.): "There's not a whole lot that changes at Martinsville. You can have brake changes, but the setups don't really change all that much. We used to run a totally different style chassis there. With the new car we've kind of had to come up with a whole new setup. We'll basically just tinker with that, but really it's just into the driver's hands to manage his brakes. We might go up there with a little bit stronger brake package since he was so good on them last time. We will just do small things like that to try to get a little bit better advantage."
*****
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Official Site - www.dalejr.com
Thanks to Amy Walsh for the race reports and recaps.
Courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports.
Media Relations | No. 88 AMP Energy / National Guard Racing
|
| |
|
|