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NO. 88 AMP ENERGY / NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET
DALE EARNHARDT JR. - POST RACE RECAP
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POST-RACE RECAP / POCONO RACEWAY
DATE: Aug. 3, 2008
RACE: Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500
START: 12th
FINISH: 12th
POINTS POSITION: 2nd
RECAPPING THE RACE:
A wild-weather weekend at Pocono Raceway ended on fumes as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard team ran out of gas on the final lap and finished 12th in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event.
The No. 88 team started the weekend with one eye on the racetrack and another on the radar, as rainy weather was scheduled to hit the Long Pond area. For that reason, Earnhardt spent part of Friday's practice session working on both his qualifying runs and the race setup. That turned out to be the right strategy because Saturday's practice sessions were rained out.
The team started the 500-mile event in the 12th position. On Lap 1, the No. 29 car wrecked bringing out the first caution flag. Earnhardt, who had advanced three positions to take ninth, decided to stay out on the track. Six laps later, the No. 2 car got loose and spun in front of Earnhardt, sparking the second caution. Earnhardt was fifth at the time and said his car was tight into Turns 1 and 3 and loose into the tunnel turn (Turn 2). He joked with the team and said he 'wasn't as loose as the No. 2 car,' so he opted to stay out on the track.
The handling of the car improved as NASCAR officials issued the competition caution on Lap 20. Earnhardt said the car was loose off all the corners, and the team gave the No. 88 Chevrolet four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Earnhardt returned to the field in ninth-place, but by Lap 38, he radioed to his team that the adjustments weren’t helping -- the car was much looser.
The team pitted under green flag conditions on Lap 53 for four tires and fuel. They also made a track bar adjustment to help with the handling. But on Lap 65, Earnhardt said he was 'now as loose as the No. 2 car was when he wrecked.' The No. 88 team pitted under caution on Lap 67 for two right-side tires and fuel. He went back out onto the track in fourth place and again charged forward. He said the car was a lot better on Lap 71. The team pitted again on Lap 81 to adjust the track bar and add four fresh tires. Earnhardt restarted on Lap 92 in eighth.
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Photo courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports
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Rain was threatening the area, and on Lap 103 the team noted rain just eight miles away on the radar. While running in the lead, the team opted to pit under green on Lap 120 for four tires and fuel. Once the field pitted Earnhardt was third, chasing Carl Edwards and teammate Jimmie Johnson. The team pitted under caution for rain on Lap 128 for fuel only. The race was red-flagged shortly after that for a brief rain shower on the backstretch. Once racing resumed, Earnhardt was in 20th. He climbed to sixth on the first run before pitting on Lap 166 under the green flag. Rain again showered the field a few laps later under caution, but it passed quickly.
The remaining laps were tough on Earnhardt, who commented that his car was so loose he felt as though it would wreck at any time. He held on and was running fourth when the white flag, signaling one lap to go, was thrown. Unfortunately, he ran out of fuel in turn two and had to coast to a 12th place finish. Earnhardt was disappointed in the finish, as the No. 88 Chevy was a top-five car all day long.
Earnhardt remains second in the driver standings after 21 races, leading third-place Edwards by nine points. There are five races remaining before the Chase to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship begins.
NEXT UP: The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will head back to Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International next weekend. The race begins on ESPN at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
QUOTING TONY EURY JR.:
WAS THIS ANOTHER WEIRD RACE DAY? "Yeah. I don't know what happened there at the end. The car got real loose, and he kind of started back pedaling there, but we were sitting there running fourth and kind of minding our own. We should have been a lap- to a lap-and-a-half to the good (on fuel) I thought. It seems like it ran out somewhere over there by the tunnel or somewhere. It kind of caught me off guard. It was one of those deals where we pitted where our window opened for the fuel mileage. We weren't trying to push nothing, kind of weird."
"The No. 24 ran out, and the No. 48 was out when he crossed the line. Those guys were getting worse fuel mileage than we were all day. When we got loose there, we started pedaling the throttle a little bit more and might have used up a little more fuel. That is why you take an average of all-day. Ours was a little bit low on the end."
IS TRACK POSITION MORE IMPORTANT NOW WITH THIS CAR THAN THE OLD CAR? "Very much so. It is very hard to pass with the car. Everybody is kind of struggling. They are needing all the racetrack they can get. That is what it has turned in to. Track position means more than tires, but you still have to have fuel in it to finish."
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Thanks to Amy Walsh for the race recap.
Courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports.
Media Relations | No. 88 AMP Energy / National Guard Racing
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