Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver, No. 8 Budweiser team:
What is your focus heading into the final 10 races?
“We’ve still got plenty to race for, and to make ourselves better for 2006. I think we can learn some stuff in these final 10 races that will make us better. But we’re also going to a lot of tracks where we’ve won before like Phoenix, Atlanta, Talladega… and we’ve been consistently good at Martinsville. I’d like to finally win there too. I’m disappointed I didn’t make the Chase, but we’re not throwing in the towel. My fans wouldn’t want me to do that.
What has this season taught you?
“I think I’ve grown more as a driver this year than any of my previous years. It’s been up and down all year – we run good, then bad, then good, then bad, and we’ve never been able to find that consistency. It’s tough having to answer questions about why we’re so inconsistent, because I really don’t have the answers. If I did, we’d be running better. I’ve realized that some years you got it, some years you don’t, and in our case, it’s not because of a lack of effort. My team has worked so hard this year, and I feel like I’ve raced harder this year than I've ever raced before. You think you're doing all you can. I've always felt like I've given 100%, but you're put in certain situations and you find there's more... you find you can do more. You're capable of doing more. Hopefully, I still haven't realized my full potential. I feel like I've got a lot to learn and as a driver I can get a lot better and each year I understand there's more to me than I even thought I had."
Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at New Hampshire Int'l Speedway:
Previous Starts: 12
Best Start: 3rd (three times, most recently Sept. 19, 2004)
Best Finish: 3rd (Sept. 19, 2004)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 3rd / FIN: 3rd / LED: 2 laps
Last Time at Loudon: ST: 24th / FIN: 9th
Chassis: #39 (finished ninth at Loudon in July
and 20th at Richmond Saturday night.)
BUDWEISER QUICK NOTES: In 2005, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the #8 Budweiser team have one victory (Chicagoland Speedway on July 9), five top-fives and 10 top-10 finishes through 26 races. Dale Jr. enters the New Hampshire race weekend 17th in points, 150 points out of 11th position and the $1 million season-ending payout. The Bud team is coming off a 19th-place finish at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday.
NEW HAMPSHIRE TIDBITS: The Bud Team has five top-10s in 12 races at NHIS, most recently a ninth-place finish there in July (Dale Jr.’s second straight top-10 at Loudon and fourth in the last five races). The Brew Crew has fared well on one-mile ovals, scoring top-10s in five of its last six races. Three of Junior’s 16 career victories have come on one-mile tracks – two at Phoenix and one at Dover. This weekend’s Sylvania 300 will mark Dale Jr.’s 210th career Nextel Cup start. NHIS was one of the tracks where he made a cameo appearance in the Nextel Cup Series in 1999, driving a limited five-race schedule while still competing full-time in the NASCAR Busch Series. He won the 1998 and 1999 Busch Series championships.
Race Details:
Sylvania 300
New Hampshire International Speedway / Loudon, N.H.
1.058-mile oval / 300 laps / 317.4 miles
Sunday, Sept. 18, 2005
TV: TNT, 1 p.m. ET start. (Pre-race begins at 12:30 p.m. ET)
Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) and XM Satellite Radio
Bud Pole Qualifying: Saturday, Sept. 17 / noon ET (TNT)
2004 Winner: Kurt Busch
Budweiser. The King of Beers.
Thanks to Jade Gurss and Mike Davis from fingerprint inc. for sending the race reports and updates.
fingerprint inc. -
-- Anheuser-Busch NASCAR Publicity
-- Dale Earnhardt Jr. / No. 8 Budweiser team
blogs and info: www.fingerprintonline.com
www.Budweiser.com |
