Quotes from Dale Earnhardt Jr. / Driver, #8 Budweiser Chevrolet:
"I'm not sure how much you can judge from the race at Pocono a few weeks back. We ran well and we were a top-10 car but because everyone could see the rain clouds coming in (the race was shortened to 106 of the scheduled 200 lap distance because of rain), we made a stop for fuel only and everyone in the field was on a different pit sequence when the rains finally came. Let's hope the weather is better this week and we can get the full distance in. We're taking the same chassis we raced at Indy - so I'm excited that we're going in with a car that is obviously fast. We'll work on making sure we can get it to turn down into the corners - that's the key for us at Pocono to be able to pass cars.
"As a team, we're going in with a lot of confidence. We'll try to find out what happened to the engine at Indy. The Bud team is performing really well but we just seem to run into things beyond our control. It's not like we've been struggling - we've been running up front and in contention to win. It feels like a huge jigsaw puzzle; we have it 99 percent complete and it looks beautiful - and then the final piece is missing somehow. If we find that last piece and we don't get hit by something falling out of the sky, we're going to be alright..."
Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at Pocono Raceway:
Previous Starts: 15
Best Start: 5th (June, 2003)
Best Finish: 2nd (July, 2001)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 26th / Fin: 43rd / Blown Engine
Top-Five Finishes: 3
Top-10 Finishes: 4
Laps Led: 89 laps in 4 races led
Top-10 Starts: 2
Average Start: 16.67
Average Finish: 18.33
Career Winnings: $1,414,907
Minutiae:
The most recent Pocono race was delayed by rain, and shortened to 106 laps as rains returned with the Bud team in 12th place. They had run as high as fifth place for much of the abbreviated event... Dale Jr. has now topped three million dollars in prize money for the season, and has now earned more than $45.8 million in prize money in his Nextel Cup career... He has remained 12th in the Cup point standings for six consecutive weeks... The Bud team has qualified in the top-10 in seven of the last 10 race, including four top-six starts in the last five races...
Primary Chassis this week:
#042 - this chassis most recently led 33 laps at Indianapolis, and also finished 14th at Atlanta and 12th at Pocono in June.
Race Details:
Pennsylvania 500 / Pocono Raceway / Long Pond, PA
2.5-mile triangle / 200 laps / 500 miles
Sunday, August 5, 2007
TV: ESPN, 2:00 p.m. ET
Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) / Sirius NASCAR Radio
Online media and fan guide for Dale Earnhardt Jr, and the No. 8 Budweiser team available at www.fingerprintonline.com. (Click on the Budweiser bottle cap.)
Thanks to Jade Gurss 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
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