Quote from DALE EARNHARDT JR. / DRIVER, #8 BUDWEISER CHEVROLET:
About starting the season with two Did-Not-Finish (DNF) results: “We’re not happy about it, but we’re keeping our heads up. We’ve had some rough starts before and came back strong. We were 38th in the points after two races in 2003, and we came back to finish third. It seems like we always get better as the year goes on. Don’t forget, we had back-to-back last-place finishes in the middle of the summer last year and dropped out of the top-10 in points, but we fought back into the Chase when we needed to. As a team, you can’t let it be a distraction – we have to go out and run every lap as hard as possible and not worry about it. This team has always performed well when the pressure is on, and I expect nothing less this week.
“We found out what caused the engine failure at California, and our guys have been busting their (butts) to make sure we don’t have that problem again. The most positive thing we took from California is that we had a car that was really fast. We had a flat tire, but then we came back out and passed Matt Kenseth even with a loose wheel that caused a bad vibration. That shows we have a really good set-up and we’re taking that same chassis to Las Vegas.”
Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Previous Starts: 7
Best Start: 3rd (March, 2000)
Best Finish: 2nd (March, 2003)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 42nd / FIN: 27th
Chassis: #039
Vegas Insiders Say…: Micah Roberts, who provides the race odds for Vegas casinos and other outlets, sent an interesting fact leading into this weekend’s race. In Dale Jr’s 256 career Cup starts, he has recorded back-to-back DNFs four times. Immediately following the three previous scenarios, the Bud team scored two victories and a sixth place finish.
Previous Back-to-Back DNFs and the results at the following race:
1.) Darlington / Bristol March 2000 Next Race: Texas / First Career Victory
2.) Martinsville / Atlanta Oct. 2004 Next Race: Phoenix / Career Win #15
3.) Loudon / Pocono July 2006 Next Race: Indianapolis / sixth place
4.) Daytona / California Feb. 2007 Next Race: Las Vegas / ?!?
Race Details:
UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 / Las Vegas Motor Speedway / Las Vegas, NV
1.5-mile D-shaped oval / 267 laps / 400.5 miles
Sunday, March 11, 2006
TV: Fox-TV, 4:30 p.m. ET
Radio: Performance Racing Network (PRN) / Sirius Satellite 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.)
Budweiser. This is Beer.
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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