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DALE EARNHARDT JR. NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET POST-RACE RECAP/INFINEON RACEWAY DATE: June 20, 2010 START: 24th FINISH: 11th POINTS POSITION: 13th RECAPPING THE RACE: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, matched his career-best finish at Infineon Raceway when he took the checkered flag 11th on Sunday at the Sonoma, Calif. road course. Earnhardt continued his climb in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings, improving one position to take 13th place. He trails 12th-place Carl Edwards by 57 points after 16 races in the 2010 season. Earnhardt lined up 24th for Sunday's 110-lap event and immediately reported to his team that the handling of the green-and-white Chevrolet was good but loose entering Turns 8 and 10. Green-flag pit stops began on Lap 30 with Earnhardt running 30th. Two laps later, crew chief Lance McGrew called his driver to pit road for four fresh tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. The day's second caution flag was displayed on Lap 56 with Earnhardt running 30th. McGrew called his driver to pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure and chassis adjustment, and the No. 88 team sent Earnhardt back to green-flag racing on Lap 60 running 28th. Fifteen laps later, teams started implementing their fuel strategies and cars began trickling onto pit road during the following 10 laps. McGrew knew the handling on the No. 88 Chevrolet was best on short runs and chose to keep his driver on track to have a fresh set of tires during the closing laps. As the field was cycling through the green-flag pit stops, Earnhardt was scored second when the caution flag was waved on Lap 84. During the yellow-flag period, Earnhardt made his way down pit road for the final time and the crew went to work adding fuel, bolting on four fresh tires and making a chassis adjustment. Only a select number of drivers made their way down pit road during the caution and the field went back to green on Lap 87. Earnhardt was scored 21st on Lap 88 but began his forward march. By Lap 100, he cracked the top 10 and eventually crossed the finish line 11th. QUOTING DALE EARNHARDT JR.: EARNHARDT (ON SUNDAY'S RUN.): "It was a good day for us. I think you just do whatever the heck you want on the first part of the race and then you say, 'All right. We need to make it to the end.' The thing about our car is that Lance (McGrew, crew chief) said our car wouldn't go after 20 laps so he didn't want to finish the race with anything older than 20-lap tires. So we kind of did that. It worked out. It was good. I ate up the car a little bit, but not as bad as some people. We didn't really get aggressive until the end. I took care of the car all day, and the brakes were good. The car worked good at the end of the race." ***** Courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports. Media Relations | No. 88 AMP Energy / National Guard Racing ***** Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Official Site - www.dalejr.com |
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