Dale Earnhardt Jr
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Dale Jr., Letarte plan to be aggressive at 'Dega As the Sprint Cup Series rolls into Talladega Superspeedway for the GEICO 500 (Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, ESPN), several drivers are desperate to make a big move and keep themselves in the postseason. One of those drivers is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt Jr. comes into Talladega 12th in the points standings and so far on the outside looking in at the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He is 26 points behind Kasey Kahne, who holds the final transfer spot to the next round. So the surest -- and in all likelihood only -- way for Junior to advance is with a win. With plenty on the line and only two spots locked up for the Eliminator Round, the expectation is for a wilder race than normal. "I think Talladega is going to be pretty crazy -- I expect guys are going to have to take some pretty big chances to continue to move on into the later rounds of the Chase, and Talladega is a track where we are all pretty much on top of each other in the draft and guys are going to have every opportunity to make things pretty interesting, so I expect that race to get pretty wild," Earnhardt Jr. said when asked about the Contender Round finale. The recently turned 40-year-old has had his share of success at Talladega with five wins in 29 starts at the 2.66-mile track, but he has not won there since 2004. He has led laps, though, in all but three of his starts at the Alabama track. And while he won't need to lead plenty, he will need to be leading at the end in order to keep his championship hopes alive. So what is his strategy? "I think you got to get in there and just run as hard as you can and try and take every opportunity you can to just keep moving forward and take every position you can take," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We've thought at times that a more relaxed and patient attitude will be more beneficial, but I haven't really ever had that pay off for me and good results with that race track. The races where I've ran my best is where I've been more proactive and aggressive, trying to move forward and trying to make passes and trying to keep track position, so I think that's what we'll try to do this time." Steve Letarte, Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief for the past four seasons, echoed those thoughts in an interview earlier this week on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's "The Morning Drive." "We're going to be that team that's aggressive. Aggressive with our fuel strategy, aggressive with our pit strategy. Try to keep the lead, try to assume track position does matter at Talladega. Try to be in the lead when it matters and then Dale's gonna have to do his thing and then we're going to have to get some help from the guys behind us. That's the one unfortunate part about speedway racing, is that no matter how good you are, you are going to need some commitment from the people pushing you. That's the scenario we didn't want to have happen, but you know, we're here." Letarte is leaving the No. 88 team after this season to move to the broadcast booth with NBC Sports' coverage of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2015. He says the team knows what has to be done. "I don't think there's anymore pressure than there was going to Charlotte," Letarte said. Dale Jr. called his own shot of winning the Bank of America 500, but a broken shifter derailed his day and led to a 20th-place finish. Letarte added that the No. 88 team's position in the standings lends itself to a go for broke mentality. "The guys that are in, that could fall out, they're going to have a more stressful day, in my opinion, at Talladega than the guys that are way out hoping to get in, because we've kind of made our bed." Should the No. 88 team not advance, Letarte says not to expect them to lay down for the final four races. "We're not giving up by any means," Letarte said. "Even if we fall out at Talladega, we are still not giving up. We race to win and I know the championship was the big buzz all year long and its great, but there's a lot of years you don't race for a championship. There's a lot of guys that miss the Chase. You look at the 42 car, he's not laying down. He's racing to win and I think you're going to see it out of the four teams that don't make it out of Talladega." Earnhardt: "Going to Talladega to try to win" Dale Earnhardt Jr. has no issues with NASCAR's championship format, even as he heads to Talladega Superspeedway on the brink of elimination. A broken shifter at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night dropped Earnhardt to last in the 12-driver field, and he'll need a victory at Talladega to advance to the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. He called NASCAR's new elimination format ''dramatic'' and said Tuesday during a test session at Phoenix International Raceway the system has ''served us well.'' Earnhardt, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski are all in danger of being eliminated from the Chase on Sunday. The three are ranked in the bottom of the standings, and NASCAR now cuts four from the field after every third race. Earnhardt, Johnson and Keselowski combined to win 10 of the 26 regular-season races. Earnhardt, who has three victories this season, is realistic about his chances. He fell into this hole when he had a tire problem while leading two weeks ago at Kansas, and then the mechanical failure at Charlotte made his situation even worse. ''The facts are the facts,'' he said. ''We are going to Talladega to try to win. We'll see what happens from there. We've had two pretty bad races, and we still have a chance to win it. We appreciate that.'' The new format has been credited by the drivers for raising the stakes in the Chase. A win in any round automatically advances a driver, and four drivers will go to the season finale eligible to win the championship. The highest finisher at Homestead-Miami Speedway will claim the Cup. While a driver can save his season with a victory, one bad segment in the Chase can ruin the year. ''No one is safe,'' said Jeff Gordon, teammates with Earnhardt and Johnson. ''Once that race is over, we are going to have a lot to talk about and some surprises that we couldn't have anticipated when the Chase began.'' Heading into the playoffs, it looked as if it might be a showdown between Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports for the title. Now Joey Logano might be Penske's only representative in the third round, while Gordon and Kasey Kahne are currently poised to represent Hendrick, which had four cars in the Chase. There's simply no room for error, Clint Bowyer said. ''One slip up and Dale Junior, he had a flat tire, and he's out of the playoffs,'' Bowyer said. Regardless of what happens, Earnhardt believes the system has created intense competition that will be must-watch racing, even if he's eliminated. ''I think everyone who is a NASCAR fan will be watching that Homestead race just to see how this turns out,'' Earnhardt said. ''I think my fans enjoy racing and will continue to watch. I don't we think drive the ratings that way.'' Eliminator Round clinch scenarios at Talladega Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick have each clinched a spot in The Eliminator Round via their wins at Kansas Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway, respectively. Below are the finishes each driver needs in Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET on ESPN) to guarantee a spot in The Eliminator Round, regardless of the finish of any other driver: Kyle Busch: 24th or better; 25th and at least one lap led; 26th and most laps led Ryan Newman: 19th or better; 20th and at least one lap led; 21st and most laps led Carl Edwards: 18th or better; 19th and at least one lap led; 20th and most laps led Jeff Gordon: 16th or better; 17th and at least one lap led; 18th and most laps led Denny Hamlin: 15th or better; 16th and at least one lap led; 17th and most laps led Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. only control their own destiny by winning Sunday at Talladega. Earnhardt sinks in standings after shifter issue Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn't win Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, thus guaranteeing himself a spot in the next round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He didn't finish well enough to climb out of a hole he landed in after finishing 39th at Kansas Speedway a week earlier. Instead, the Hendrick Motorsports driver found himself trying to battle back from a lost lap caused by a broken shifter, the result of a vibration, barely 140 laps into the 334-lap race. In the end, it was a lost cause. The shifter was eventually repaired but the window of opportunity the 40-year-old needed had already closed. Although he made it back onto the lead lap briefly near the end, a final necessary pit stop dropped him one back. He finished 20th in a race won by fellow Chase driver Kevin Harvick. Earnhardt Jr. will head to Talladega next weekend needing a win or a miracle to remain alive in this year’s title hunt, 26 points behind teammate Kasey Kahne who resides in the eighth, and final, transfer spot. "The vibration broke the shifter in half and it just wasn’t a good night," Earnhardt Jr. said afterward. "The car just wasn’t handling well and the vibration was really giving us a lot of problems." Running ninth at Lap 120, Earnhardt Jr. informed his team of the shifter problem less than 20 laps later, just about the time the field was coming to pit road following the third caution of the race. After multiple pit stops, Earnhardt eventually returned to the lineup 23rd but quickly told crew chief Steve Letarte that the quick fix "didn't work." A cycle of green flag stops cost him a lap to the leader just shy of the 200-lap mark -- because he had only third and fourth gear, his crew had to push his car out of its pit stall to get him back under way. "This isn't what we need to do," he admitted after failing to end in Victory Lane in his 30th opportunity on the 1.5-mile track. Now, it's win Talladega or lose a shot at the championship. "Go out there and win it," he said of next weekend’s Geico 500 at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. "We can do it; we have on there a lot of times. "I know what we need to do. We will just have to build a fast car and hope that we don’t have any gremlins and try to go out there and win it." Letarte, who will depart at season’s end to move into the broadcast booth with NBC Sports, said the team's situation was simple. "Listen, you can’t break parts if you want to win races," he said. "We've just got to figure out why the part broke." The issue was similar to one suffered by teammate Jimmie Johnson earlier this season. "And we made changes to the parts so we wouldn’t have it happen again," said Letarte. But the shifter wasn't the cause of the team's trouble, he said. It was simply fallout from the "phantom" vibration that the team was unable to correct. "We didn't really have it bad in practice but we picked it up today," he said. "Vibrations hurt horsepower, hurt handling, hurt parts. That's probably the root cause and the shifter's probably just the result." While they were able to eventually repair the shifter, the lost lap proved more difficult to overcome. "He started shotgun on the field and drove back to the 31 (Ryan Newman) who I think was running like 11th," Letarte said. "I think you have a nice smooth race and you keep your track position, give yourself an opportunity and we could probably run in the top five with no problem. But you've got to give yourself an opportunity; you've got to stay up there. You can't give up laps." Letarte said nothing has changed in spite of his driver's finishing position at Charlotte. The team will start all over again next week with the same goal in mind. "I don't think a good run here was going to make a difference. You had to win. We had to win here and we didn’t; we have to win at Talladega," he said. "Everybody sounds disappointed that the points system creates that but I would argue that it gives you the opportunity to move forward with a win. Last year, our blown tire at Kansas would have eliminated us (from title contention) as well. "At least we have the chance. You go to Talladega and win and you'll be tied for the points lead leaving Talladega." Five drivers on Chase bubble headed to Talladega There are 12 Chase Contenders heading to Talladega Superspeedway, but only eight Elimination Round drivers will remain when the checkered flag drops in the GEICO 500 (Sunday, Oct. 19, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN). Five drivers are within 26 points of the cut-off spot to advance to the eight-nation Eliminator Round in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. With wins in the first two races of the Contender Round, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick have automatically advanced to the third round. Kyle Busch (+26), Ryan Newman (+21), Carl Edwards (+20), Jeff Gordon (+18) and Denny Hamlin (+17) all look to be in a comfortable position heading into Talladega, barring that they perform consistently well at the Alabama track. Kasey Kahne (+1), Matt Kenseth (-1), Brad Keselowski (-19), Jimmie Johnson (-26) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-26) are sitting eighth through 12th now in the standings and are on the bubble of missing their chance to continue in the Chase at Talladega. Of the drivers on the bubble, Earnhardt Jr. has the best average finish of 15.7 at Talladega. The No. 88 driver has five wins, 10 top-fives and 14 top-10s in 29 career starts. Next best at Talladega on the bubble is Johnson with an average 17.2-place average finish. The six-time NASCAR champion has two wins, six top-fives and 10 top-10s in 25 career starts. Also with two wins, but less starts (11) Keselowski has an average finish of 16.4 along with three top-fives and six top-10s. If the eighth position comes down to a tiebreaker, only the three races in the Contender Round matter. Wins and finishes in the regular season won't, so these five drivers will need to run up front to challenge for the win. If they can't win, they'll need to have more second-place finishes, third-place finishes, etc. than their competitors in order to break the tie and advance. If two drivers have the exact same finishes, the tie-breaker then goes to the driver who scored the best finish first. The new Chase format goes to show that wins are best and consistency is key. It doesn't matter how many wins the drivers have in the regular season or even in the previous Chase round because points reset and wins clear every time drivers advance. If Keselowski, Johnson and Junior want to keep their championship hopes alive, they'll have to bring back what got them into the Chase in the first place: victories. Earnhardt Jr. faces shifter issue at Charlotte Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to make an unscheduled stop on pit road after experiencing issues with his shifter after a caution on Lap 137 of Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He first came to pit road before it was open, sending him to the tail end of the field. The No. 88 crew removed the passenger side window in order to get better access to the shifter, with one teammate half inside the car as he made repairs. Not wanting to go a lap down, Junior headed back onto the track without the issue fixed, and returned to pit road once it opened, falling to 23rd on the restart but staying on the lead lap. "I gotta come back, it didn't work," Junior said after the second stop, where he was penalized for speeding. As he was still able to shift from third to fourth gear, he stayed on the track as his team came up with an alternate plan. "You handle the track," crew chief Steve Letarte told his driver. Earnhardt restarted 22nd, and was last in the Chase standings at the time of the restart. Earnhardt believes he'll win Charlotte to advance One bad race knocked three of NASCAR's biggest names to the bottom of the championship standings, and a repeat Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway will put the trio on the verge of elimination. That's the harsh reality for Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski and six-time and defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson. They combined to win more than a third of the races this season, and their title hopes could end before the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. NASCAR eliminates four drivers from the Chase field after every third race, and Keselowski, Earnhardt and Johnson are ranked 10th through 12th in the field. A win automatically advances a driver into the third round; anything else forces the drivers to depend on next week's elimination race at Talladega Superspeedway to stay in title contention. It's a mathematical longshot to think that Keselowski, winner of five races this season, and Earnhardt and Johnson, who have three wins apiece, can all recover enough to move into the third round. None is concerned about anything but Saturday night's race. But after a solid first practice Friday, Earnhardt was confident. ''We're going to win this race. I really got a good feeling about it,'' he said on his 40th birthday. ''This is what we've got to do anyway to try to get further points and try to win the championship. The car's been great all weekend. Attitude's good. Everybody's excited. The team's working well together. The car's responding well. The car ran some good laps in practice and felt real good.'' Johnson won the Coca-Cola 600 here in May and Keselowski is the defending race winner. Earnhardt won the All-Star race in his 2000 rookie season but has never won a points race at his home track. They are all in a hole right now because of Kansas, the opening race of the second round. Earnhardt had a tire failure while leading, and Keselowski later also had a tire issue. Johnson just had a bad all-around weekend, was in an early accident, and finished 40th. He also was off in qualifying Thursday at Charlotte, where he'll start 21st. ''We are just not where we want to be,'' Johnson said. ''Bottom line. We're working very hard to get there. This sport is not forgiving. What you have accomplished in the past doesn't buy you a damn thing for the present.'' Jeff Gordon, Johnson's teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, cautioned not to count Johnson out just yet. ''I have just seen too many times these guys pull it out and do extraordinary things when they seem to be down and out,'' Gordon said. ''I don't know exactly what is going on right now. I know that those guys are incredibly good and put up a heck of a fight. ''I won't be surprised if they still make it to the next round or are a major threat for this championship.'' Keselowski, who averaged a fifth-place finish in the first round of the Chase and won the opener, said the pressure is intense at Charlotte for the entire Chase field. Penske teammate Joey Logano won last weekend at Kansas to earn the automatic berth into the third round, and his victory extended the streak of Penske or Hendrick drivers winning on every 1.5-mile track this season. ''We're going to do what we normally do,'' Logano said. ''We normally go out there and try to help each other. As a two-car team, we've got to work very tight together to make sure both our cars are fast. I feel like that's something we applied to Team Penske a long time ago.'' But there's little Logano can do come race time to assist his teammate. ''There's only so much you can do on the race track to help your teammate,'' said Logano. ''My goal is still to win. I might be greedy, but I want to win.'' Keselowski is treating Saturday night as if it is the season finale with the championship on the line. He's been there before - in 2012 when he clinched the title over Johnson at Homestead-Miami Speedway. ''There's a lot at stake, but it is every weekend. This is part of the challenge,'' Keselowski said. ''For us, this is a very Homestead-like weekend. We need to perform. This is our last chance to really control our destiny in the Chase for this round, and we want to make the most of this opportunity.'' Dale Earnhardt Jr. calls his shot at Charlotte Feeling good on his 40th birthday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. called his shot in a televised interview after Friday's first practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "We're gonna win this race. I've got a really good feeling about it," Earnhardt Jr. said. Earnhardt Jr. was 11th in the practice session at 188.633 mph and will line up ninth in Saturday night's Bank of America 500 (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Despite being winless at Charlotte in 29 points starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Earnhardt Jr. has been optimistic about his chances to win the race throughout the week. "I'm really excited, actually," Earnhardt Jr. told the media on Thursday. "I was thrilled with how we ran last weekend. Super-fast car, this place is a bit similar. "We obviously know what the situation is with the points and how important it is for us to come in here and win the race. I have been winless at Charlotte in a points-paying race since I started my career, so it's bound to happen sooner or later. I always win at the weirdest times, in the oddest circumstances. So I feel like everything is lining up and feel real good about this weekend." On the season, Earnhardt Jr. has three wins, 11 top-fives and 17 top-10s. He finished 19th here in the spring in the Coca-Cola 600 and has not recorded a top-five finish at the track since 2008. Earnhardt Jr. led 45 laps at Kansas and was running the best he had in the Chase before a cut tire derailed his day and led to a 39th-place finish. With two races remaining in the Contender Round, Earnhardt Jr. is 11th in the standings and 25 points back of the final transfer spot to the Eliminator Round. A Chase driver must be in the top eight in points or have a win to advance to that round. Earnhardt riding high as he prepares to turn 40 The blown tire while he was leading at Kansas is long forgotten. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is celebrating his 40th birthday on Friday and the milestone has turned into a weeklong celebration. It kicked off Monday when longtime girlfriend Amy Reimann successfully pulled off a surprise party that NASCAR's most popular driver never saw coming. Told an appearance on his schedule had been canceled, he planned to go to Charlotte Motor Speedway with Reimann to watch her practice for a charity race. Then she flipped the script. ''She had her (fire)suit and her helmet and we were getting in the truck and the garage door was going up and we're getting ready to drive down here so she can practice,'' Earnhardt said Thursday. ''She said, 'I've gotten you something earlier today' and handed me a little bag and it had a (beer) koozie in it and she said, 'Let's go upstairs, change clothes and go party.' ''I was like, 'I'm confused. What's going on?' I walked downstairs in my basement where all my family and friends (were). They got me, man. It was good. It was real good.'' Earnhardt has spent time this week with close friends and family, received terrific gifts and showed up at Charlotte ready to win a race. Although he won the All-Star race as a rookie in 2000, Earnhardt is winless in 29 career points-paying races at Charlotte. He figures it's bound to happen at some point. ''I always win at the weirdest times in the oddest circumstances. So I feel like everything is lining up and feel real good about this weekend,'' he said. He needs to have a very good Saturday night. Earnhardt's 39th-place finish at Kansas put him in danger of being eliminated from the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. A victory earns an automatic berth into the third round, and anything else makes next week's race at Talladega Superspeedway a gamble. The track is a notorious crapshoot and no driver wants their title chances riding on the Oct. 19 race. ''I knew as soon as we had trouble last week, there's two kinds of approaches and they're both equally as nerve-racking,'' Earnhardt said. ''One approach is to run well and hope that nothing bad happens. The other approach is something has happened, then you really can just kind of go for broke. I feel less pressure now than I did before the race at Kansas.'' Some of that has to do with the memorable week he's had leading into Friday's big day. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has received numerous gifts, and Charlotte Motor Speedway officials on Thursday presented him with a replica of the legends car he drove in his first career race. It's helped overcome the disappointment of Kansas, where he and the No. 88 crew know they had a strong Chevrolet but were sunk when his tire unraveled. ''Definitely being 40 has been an awesome time,'' Earnhardt said. ''This week has been full of surprises and pleasant stuff happening left and right. That probably has a little bit to do with my disposition. But I felt like as soon as what happened happened last week, I sort of had to switch into this (relaxed) mode and get ready for our opportunity here this weekend. I was just so happy with the way that car ran last week and how fast we were.'' Johnson, Junior know the time to win is now Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson says the plan is simple. "Try and take the trophy out of here; really, that solves our problem in the points that we have right now," the Hendrick Motorsports driver said Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Johnson and teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne, along with Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski, enter Saturday night's Bank of America 500 (ABC, 7:30 p.m. ET) on the outside of the cutoff spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. Only the top eight after next week's race at Talladega Superspeedway will advance and remain eligible for this year's championship. Different incidents at Kansas Speedway last week put a kink in their title hopes. Charlotte is an opportunity to win, move on and put aside any concerns about next weekend's trip to Talladega. "If we can't (win), we still need to focus on finishing as high as we can," Johnson, 39, said. "The reason that leaves a little bit of hope is because if you miss the big (wrecks) in Talladega, you could assume some of the other Chasers will be involved in one or two of those and you might have another chance. "It's a fading chance, the position I'm in I believe, but it's still an opportunity and something for us to consider." Johnson won here in May, the first of three wins by the No. 48 team in the span of four weeks. Since then, wins have not materialized and a single mishap threatens to paint Johnson out of the title picture. "We're just not where we want to be, bottom line," he said. "This sport is not forgiving and what you've done in the past doesn't buy you a damn thing for the present. You've got to go out there and earn it and make the most of it. "We've been a third- to fifth-place car. We can finish there and run there but we haven't been a dominant car. We're certainly hoping that when we come to tracks that have been very good for the 48 that we're able to find that little bit, that extra tenth and put us in that position and get our mojo going the right way." Johnson is a seven-time winner at CMS and sports an average finish of 11.2. Earnhardt Jr. is still searching for his first points win at the 1.5-mile facility. Charlotte has not been as kind to the sport's most popular driver. He's won here in 2000 in the series' annual All-Star race and again in 2012 in the Sprint Showdown. But that lack of success hasn't dulled his outlook for racing his way back into contention. "We obviously know what the situation is with the points and how important it is for us to come in here and win the race," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I have been winless at Charlotte in a points-paying race since I started my career, so it's bound to happen sooner or later. "I always win at the weirdest times in the oddest circumstances. So I feel like everything is lining up and I feel real good about this weekend." Unlike Johnson, who had his hands full at Kansas, Earnhardt Jr. was enjoying a strong run last week before a tire problem sent his No. 88 Chevrolet to the garage. He had led 45 laps and was out front when the incident occurred. That performance, he said, gives him confidence going into this weekend's race. "I feel less pressure now I think than I did before the race at Kansas," he said. "Even … if we had run in the top five last week, I think … under the circumstances now I still feel less pressure for some reason -- it's weird. "I just think that we have a shot and I feel good about it. I think our team is good. I think we are good enough. I think we should go out there and win. I believe we will." Remembering when Junior was still just 'Dale' So often, our strongest connections to a person lean on a first impression, an early interaction. I first met Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he was still "Dale," not "Juuuuuuuunior;" before he'd collected the Daytona 500 trophies and the NASCAR Nationwide Series championships, before Junior Nation rivaled the size of some small countries and boasted a frenzied fandom like no other in racing. And when I realized Earnhardt Jr. was turning 40 this week, it seemed implausible. The number sounds so officially adult. Listening to him recently reflect on the past, appreciate the present and size up the future makes you wonder: Can you even imagine walking in his shoes during the last 15 years? A pedigreed son full of promise and pressure was suddenly left to graciously handle unimaginable tragedy; to please and manage a massive fan base with soaring hopes, and then to shoulder the weight of unattainable expectations. Through all this heaped upon him, Earnhardt won two NASCAR national series championships, hoisted not just one but two Daytona 500 trophies and will now celebrate this milestone birthday on Friday as a legitimate and absolutely hard-earned contender for his first Cup title. It's been one helluva ride for Junior. My first handshake and interview with Earnhardt came in a setting that couldn't have more of a contrast to the high-wattage existence NASCAR's mega-star and 11-time Most Popular Driver leads now. It came in the small conference room of a Charlotte chain hotel in 1998 during the traditional preseason NASCAR Media Tour. And the 23-year-old Earnhardt wasn't even the primary focus of the interview session, scheduled to promote the upcoming Busch Grand National season, as the Nationwide Series was then known. Looking a little overwhelmed by his first "media tour," Earnhardt sat quietly at a table by himself, waiting patiently in case any of the handful of reporters wanted a one-on-one interview when the formal portion of the event was over. After nine mostly unremarkable part-time starts, he was set to make his full-time debut in NASCAR's Busch Series driving for his dad. Many of the NASCAR beat writers were in another room interviewing Cup drivers and it seemed like a great opportunity, so one other reporter and I grabbed our tape recorders and notebooks and joined Earnhardt Jr. at a table. I remember him being so thoughtful in his answers and very candid about his life as the son of a sports legend. His father was bigger than life, yet Earnhardt Jr. was quiet, reflecting and shy. In particular, I recall how his face lit up when he spoke about the misnomer that he grew up with a silver spoon. "More like a plastic fork,'' he joked with a huge grin. He spoke fondly about his tough-love childhood -- some time at a military school and days sweeping the floors at his dad's dealership, not test-driving new Corvettes. And you got the idea he was a little rebellious, but absolutely good-hearted. Having covered his father, I figured, "a chip of the ol' block," actually. A couple years later, I remember Earnhardt Jr. showing up for a news conference alongside his dad in Daytona. He was the last to arrive and dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, his baseball cap on backward. Not two minutes after he sat down, his father good-naturedly, but deliberately got up and turned the cap around and gave him a little grief for not wearing a collared shirt. I recall that moment so vividly because it was such a touching father and son moment -- not for the cameras. It was the "Intimidator" just being "dad." Another moment like that occurred high atop Daytona International Speedway. Earnhardt Sr. had just won a race during Speedweeks -- one of the qualifying races he so dominated. Back then, the race winners came into the press box for their interview session, not into the infield media center as they do today. That afternoon, reporters often had to repeat questions to Earnhardt because he was constantly turning around behind him and looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows. He was much more interested in watching his son turn practice laps on the superspeedway below than re-living another win at Daytona, a place where victory seemed routine for him. Earnhardt would talk out loud toward the track, coaching his son each time he whizzed by the start/finish line. And Earnhardt was clearly impressed with what he saw -- flashing a grin so big it made his famous moustache turn up. Two other times I remember a similar expression of pure joy: When Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500 in 1998, and when he joined his son in Texas Motor Speedway Victory Lane when Earnhardt Jr. got his first Cup win in 2000. I've spent a few significant moments with Earnhardt Jr. since and it is striking the way he seems to stay as grounded as ever, while impressively balancing the adoration and critiques. Among a handful of journalists that landed on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier with Earnhardt Jr. (and his then-Nationwide Series driver Brad Keselowski) several years ago, it was striking to see the servicemen and women's awe and excitement that this NASCAR star would travel mid-week to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to sign autographs and shake hands. Earnhardt Jr. was the one, however, offering the thanks. More recently, I spent some time back in Texas Motor Speedway's Victory Lane with Earnhardt Jr. This time, he was standing off to the side watching another son of a legend, his Nationwide Series driver Chase Elliott, celebrate his first ever big-time NASCAR win. There was a lot of pride and personal connection in Earnhardt Jr.'s eyes as he watched the fireworks go off and the 18-year-old do interviews and the hat-swap victory photos. Afterward, Earnhardt Jr.'s advice to Elliott was to take it all in, and to make sure he enjoyed the moment. This is something Earnhardt Jr. knows about. "Definitely accomplished more than I thought I would when I was younger,'' he said last weekend when asked about his upcoming birthday. "I just wanted to make it and being the son of a guy that was so successful, the more success he had it seemed like the harder it would be for me to make it. I would just be sort of a chapter in that whole thing, but I'm real happy with what I've been able to accomplish and who I have been able to work with and the friends I've been able to make." He continued, "The accomplishments as far as just the statistics, it's definitely exceeded my expectations. We are still winning races and running good so maybe we can get a few more wins and have some more fun before it's over. "Definitely having this birthday come up makes you reflect quite a bit back on not so much the decisions or any regrets you have, just the fun stuff you have done and is the next 40 years going to be just as good, because the first 40 were pretty great." Dale Jr.: 'In position to win' at Charlotte Despite finishing 39th and falling to 11th in Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings at Kansas Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is confident that he has the speed and the team to contend for his first series title and win the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC). "I think for sure we had everybody I saw out there whupped that was out there winning those races," Earnhardt Jr. said on the "Dale Jr. Download" released on Tuesday. "I think we can go to Charlotte and do the same thing -- put ourselves in position to win. "If we get the win, we get the win. We get to move on so we're going to go there with that attitude, and hopefully that will produce a positive finish and a good result." In recent weeks, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was frustrated that his car hadn't been competitive in practice, but the No. 88 team had turned a corner at Kansas, according to its pilot. "We had good speed in the last practice," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I've been stressing that we need to be able to run competitive times in practice to really get a good idea how we can adjust the car and improve it for the race and we were able to do that." In the race, Jamie McMurray and others took the high line toward the front while Earnhardt Jr. said he "wanted to run where there was rubber on the race track to help save on any kind of tire wear or tire abuse." Only two years ago at Kansas, Earnhardt Jr. was involved in a crash during a test, so rubber was on his mind on Sunday. "That's the race track where I blew the right front tire and got a very, very bad concussion in 2012," Earnhardt Jr. said. "So (I was) very aware of how touch-and-go and how critical the tires can be at that track, and thought we were doing the right thing by sort of taking it easy." The concussion kept him out of that season's fall Charlotte and Kansas races. "But we were running really fast while we were taking it easy. We were sort of letting Jamie and those guys run where they wanted to. We made some adjustments actually, improved on the handling of the car and got by everybody on one of them restarts and took the lead and just had a rocket. (Our) car was just driving away from everybody." After leading 45 laps, Earnhardt Jr. had a tire failure that wrecked the car that swept Pocono Raceway this year. On Tuesday's podcast, he reassured fans that the car wasn't the only potential winner in their garage. "We know how to make another one like it, so don't worry," Earnhardt Jr. said. Sitting 25 points away from eighth place and the final spot in the Eliminator Round in two races, Earnhardt Jr. also noted his team's positive attitude at Kansas along with the bad luck experienced by Brad Keselowski and Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson will serve him well at Charlotte and Talladega. "…the 2 and the 48 had some trouble," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I don't want to wish bad luck on anybody, but at least we weren't the only one that had trouble (at Kansas). "There's two races left, and anything can happen, so we've got to keep working hard and stay positive, keep our heads up. We went into (Kansas) with a great attitude, and it almost netted us a top-five finish, if not a win." Tough road back awaits these four drivers For the second time in three weeks, Joey Logano woke up to the realization that he and his No. 22 Team Penske outfit are one step closer to Homestead-Miami Speedway and a chance at this year's NASCAR NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. A much harsher dose of reality greeted Logano's teammate Brad Keselowski, as well as Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jimmie Johnson. With two races remaining in the Contender Round of this year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, their chances at advancement are much less likely. Certainly it's not impossible, given the results that brought each of them this far. But the odds that all four find their way out of the points wasteland in which they currently wander aren't good. A win at Charlotte, on tap for this Saturday night, or next week's stop at Talladega Superspeedway, would guarantee any one of the four the right to fight another day. But the math there doesn't add up -- two winners doesn't get four drivers into in NASCAR's Chase. Racing their way back into contention won't be easy. Bad starts in the Chase, regardless of format, have proven to be notoriously difficult to overcome. Under this year's system, it may be even more so. Just ask Greg Biffle or Aric Almirola. Those two struggled in the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway and went on to prove that two races isn't enough time to climb back into the title picture. But a fourth driver, Denny Hamlin, did manage the feat. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was first "on the outside" after finishing 37th at New Hampshire going into the cutoff race at Dover. A 12th-place finish there gave Hamlin new life if not more horsepower. Obviously, the misfortune that struck Kahne, Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr., and Johnson at Kansas could just as easily bite four others at some point during the next two races. A flat tire here, a broken part there. It's hard to make a living or contend for championships, however, based on what could occur. Teams don't set up their cars, tune their engines or plot pit strategy based on what might happen to others. The reality of the situation is that it happened to them, and now they must deal with the consequences. Kahne, eight points out of the top eight, has lived on the edge most of the season, winning late in the year to gain a spot in the Chase and then advancing into the Contender Round by the slimmest of margins. Keselowski, 22 points out of eighth, enjoyed a strong regular season, then promptly won the opening race of the Chase. The team didn't rest on its laurels; Keselowski finished seventh at Loudon and second at Dover while leading 78 laps in each of those races. Earnhardt admitted concern before the start of the second round, acknowledging that his No. 88 team had lost something off its fastball in recent weeks. Still, the sport's most popular driver didn't appear to have too difficult of a time advancing to the second round. Now, he finds himself 25 points out of eighth place. Johnson, the six-time champion, has his back against the wall and there's no other way to put it. He's 27 points out of eighth and those two top-five finishes that he rode into the second round might as well have happened in the season's first two races, for all the good they do him now. A week from today, all four could be back in the title picture and maybe that will indeed be the case. If Kansas was a nightmare, Charlotte could be the Promised Land. Wrongs can be set right when the sun goes down. Talladega is 500 miles of opportunity surrounded by chaos. Who can guess what unfolds there? The four aren't down and out at this point -- just down. But "out" is clearly visible. And it's something none of the four expected to see this soon. Promising run for Dale Jr. hits the wall Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s prospects for a strong start to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup's Contender Round unraveled Sunday with a heavy hit at Kansas Speedway. Earnhardt wrecked while leading in Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400, scraping the Turn 4 wall hard in the 122nd lap as a tire also unraveled to knock him from contention. The 39th-place finish, 63 laps down, left NASCAR's most popular driver with a major deficit early in the three-race elimination stage, 42 points behind race winner and new standings leader Joey Logano. After pulling the No. 88 Chevrolet to the garage for repairs, Earnhardt shared consolations with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, who crashed less than 40 laps earlier, before scratching his head over the problem that dropped him from first to nearly worst. "I don't know; just the whole surface of the tire unwound like a string," Earnhardt said after emerging from the wreck. "It just came off the tire and it popped off the corner. I felt it coming apart through the corner and the surface of the tire is gone. The whole cap came off. Must have been a recap. But I've got to hand it to the guys. Man, that was a great race car. We hadn't been running very good the last several weeks. But man, when we came in here with a great attitude and a great fast car; this is the car that we won Pocono with both times. "It's a good car. Hopefully we didn't hurt it too bad and we’ll just try to go to the next one." Earnhardt's complaint with the three-race stretch in the opening Challenger Round came in large part because of mediocre finishes of 11th, ninth and 17th without leading a lap. The three performances weren't spectacular but were free of major miscues, enough to keep him championship-eligible heading to the Contender Round. Earnhardt's effort Sunday at Kansas was the type to make a convincing opening statement. He led three times for 45 laps with a brilliant show of speed at the front of the pack before disaster struck. "I don't know. I'm going to keep my opinion to myself," crew chief Steve Letarte said over the team radio, trying to diagnose the crash's cause. "We'll just work on it, try to put it back together." "Yes sir, that's all we can do," Earnhardt said. "You boys showed up; I liked it." As Earnhardt slowly crept back to the garage, Letarte asked if he was OK after the severe hit. "I guess my head's back to normal," Earnhardt said, referring to the concussion that sidelined him during for two races during the 2012 Chase. "I can take a lickin'." After the race, as his crew loaded the scraped No. 88 back onto the hauler, Letarte said everything up to that point had gone according to plan with the car that swept both Pocono races this year. "We've been saving this car for this track. It's a repaved, smooth surface a lot like Pocono, a lot like Michigan -- not really track-wise, but surface-wise," Letarte said. "We knew that the first three (Chase) races are very unique race tracks and they don't really carry over. You just have to be OK, and we were just OK, probably worse than OK at Dover, but did what we needed to do. Coming here, I thought we did what we needed to do, too. "I can't ask any more of the team or Dale or pit stops. We came, qualified better than we did all year long, and we were leading, so I don't know what else to do." Earnhardt said in a Friday news conference that he welcomed the new-look Chase format's reset of the points after each three-race round. Now he'll face the other edge of that sword, needing to rally from first-race adversity with powerful results in the next two events to make the cut from 12 drivers to eight. That task starts Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway, then will culminate with the Contender Round finale in two weeks at treacherous Talladega Superspeedway, where the next elimination will take place. "The way the points is, it's gonna hurt, but it is what it is," Earnhardt said. "We'll just have to go to the next race and try to win." Letarte agreed, but said the team's approach won't turn to panic mode. "There's no pressure now," he said. "You know, we need to go try to win. If you don't win, you just try to run in the top two or three, and you hope for some people to have some issues. You always hate for someone else to have some issues, but short of a win, I think that's our best chance now." Junior reflects on 40, shares post-Cup career plans Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns 40 next week, and it’s hard to believe NASCAR’s most popular driver is moving into the latter stages of his career. "I've definitely accomplished more than I thought I would when I was younger," Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Kansas Speedway, site of Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 (ESPN, 2 p.m. ET). "I just wanted to make it and being the son of a guy that was so successful -- the more success he had it seemed like the harder it would be for me to make it. I would just be sort of a chapter in that whole thing." The son of seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt, the younger Earnhardt has always lived in his father’s shadow, even as his own popularity in the sport grew. He has scored 22 career Sprint Cup victories since his debut in '99 and finished as high as third in the points standings. He's a two-time winner of the Daytona 500. Still searching for that first championship, he is one of 12 drivers that remain in contention for this year's title. "I'm real happy with what I've been able to accomplish, who I have been able to work with and the friends I've been able to make," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That is probably the best thing -- the relationships that you create. "Being a part of this sport, there are so many great people in it, no matter what department you talk about. It's just fun getting to know all those people that helped get this thing going and move it from race to race." What he's been able to accomplish on the track, he said, "definitely exceeded my expectations." "We are still winning races and running good," said the driver who won the season-opening Daytona 500 and swept both races at Pocono this season, "so maybe we can get a few more wins and have some more fun before it's over. "Definitely having this birthday come up makes you reflect quite a bit back on not so much the decisions or any regrets you have, just the fun stuff you have done and is the next 40 years going to be just as good? "Because the first 40 were pretty great." And after his Sprint Cup career is over? It's likely, he said, that he'll spend time racing for his own JR Motorsports team, which currently fields full-time entries in NASCAR's Nationwide Series for drivers Chase Elliott and Regan Smith, as well as a third car that runs a limited schedule with various drivers. "I would like to race for that company one day," he said, “so I hope to keep it healthy until that opportunity presents itself. "Whenever I'm done Cup racing (I'd like) to jump in a Nationwide car and do that for a couple of years in my own shop." Dale Earnhardt Jr. Channels David Hasselhoff, Stars as New Knight Rider in Hilarious Funny or Die Clip (Watch) Is Dale Earnhardt Jr. heading to primetime TV?! Nope! Although it may seem that way in the race car driver's new video for Funny or Die in which he channels David Hasselhoff and takes over the starring role in the remake of the NBC television series Knight Rider. Those who are familiar with the hit sci-fi show, which aired from 1982 to 1986, will recall Hasselhoff cruising around in a high-end crime fighting car which featured artificially intelligent technology, fondly referred to as K.I.T.T. But fast forward to nearly 30 years later and the original K.I.T.T. is now out of commission and has been replaced with a Camero along with a woman's voice (Funny or Die's Angela Trimbur). She's emotional, she's testy and she's certainly not a risk taker, although she is seemingly an expert at irritating the heck out of Earnhardt Jr. Unsurprisingly, K.I.T.T. always finds a way to be a buzzkill, whether it's on one of the athlete's dates—"Do you mind if we take an Uber next time?" one woman begs—or at the fast-food drivethrough, where she scolds him for snacking on greasy grub. Of course, the 39-year-old race car driver has had plenty of experiences behind the wheel, but we doubt any have been this troublesome. Here's hoping Siri never gets too sassy (oh, the perils of technology). Why Dale Jr. sent tweets of encouragement Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday that he wasn't pleased with his 17th-place result at Dover, but that it didn't take him long to put his own situation in perspective. In spite of his lackluster performance, the Hendrick Motorsports driver was one of 12 from the initial 16 in this year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup advancing to the second of four rounds that will ultimately determine this year's champion. Knowing the emotions that some who failed to advance were likely dealing with, the Sprint Cup Series' most popular driver took the time to reach out to two fellow competitors through social media, tweeting messages of encouragement to Aric Almirola and AJ Allmendinger. "I was a little disappointed with how we ran but I got to thinking how fortunate I was to be able to move on and there were some guys that were probably taking it on the chin so it set things in perspective pretty quick,” Earnhardt Jr. said. Almirola, driver of the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Ford, won in July at Daytona to qualify for the Chase, but saw his first appearance in the 10-race program take a huge hit when his car's engine expired during the opening Chase race at Chicago. In 2010, Almirola made eight starts for Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports organization in NASCAR's Nationwide Series; the following year he ran the full schedule, finishing fourth in points. "He drove for me a long time ago,” Earnhardt Jr. said, "and I've just always had a good relationship with him. We talked about his performance and his team and I think a lot of his crew chief -- I have a lot of respect for Trent (Owens). "I felt like just letting him know that I thought they were getting things going in the right direction and don't let that disappointment of falling out of the Chase early derail their trajectory. They should be proud and keep digging.” Unable to reach Allmendinger via text messaging, Earnhardt Jr. said he thought tweeting a message of encouragement "was the next best way.” Allmendinger qualified for the Chase with JTG Daugherty Racing, a single-car operation, by winning earlier this year at Watkins Glen International. It was the first Chase appearance for the team, as well as Allmendinger, and came a little more than two years after he was suspended for violating NASCAR's Substance Abuse Policy. Released from Team Penske, Allmendinger completed the required Road To Recovery program established by NASCAR, and returned to competition less than two months later. While sharing the No. 47 ride with former series champion Bobby Labonte in 2013, Allmendinger was named the team's full-time driver for the '14 season. "Back when AJ had his trouble and got suspended, he called around to a lot of different drivers I think, just talking to them, trying to rebuild relationships and rebuild trust,” Earnhardt Jr. said. "Ever since he made that mistake he's done everything else right to get his career back on track. I think he's set a great example on how to handle a situation like that the proper way. He's become a real asset to that team … when he's the driver of that car he improves their opportunities. There are a lot of great drivers in this sport but only a handful that you can put in a car and they ... instantly improve the team.” Earnhardt Jr. said he noticed Allmendinger and the team's struggles this season as they tried to raise their level of competitiveness and qualify for one of the 16 Chase spots. "He seemed to be on an emotional roller coaster all year with his success and trying to get this team going in the right direction,” he said. "Somebody said to me after the (Dover) race that they saw him on pit road and he looked pretty dejected so I just felt compelled to remind him of where he came from, what he's went through and how he should realize the gains he has made personally and as a professional race car driver.” With his team struggling to find the speed and consistency that helped carry him to three wins this season, what possessed Earnhardt Jr. to take the time to reach out to the two? "I just thought it would maybe make them not feel so disappointed about being kicked out (of the Chase) to read something like that,” he said. Drivers at Dover react to Tony Stewart news Two days after grand jury proceedings came to a close in Ontario County, New York, Tony Stewart was back at work Friday, strapped into his No. 14 Chevrolet and making preliminary laps at Dover International Speedway. His return to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition came four weeks ago at Atlanta, but Friday marked his first day at the track without the potential for criminal charges in the accident that killed sprint car driver Kevin Ward Jr. on Aug. 9. While that part of the matter is resolved, Stewart made clear in an interview with The Associated Press that he remains haunted by the events of that dark Saturday night at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park. As Stewart tries to find a new, but forever altered sense of normalcy at the track, the NASCAR community -- which counts the three-time champion known as "Smoke" among its most popular members -- has reached out with thoughts for both Stewart and the Ward family, both before and after Wednesday's announcement of the grand jury's decision. "I don't know if relief is what I had," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR's reigning most popular driver. "I didn't really pay super close attention to what was going on. More or less just letting the process play out, and I feel sadness in my heart for the Ward family. But at the same time you get something in the pit of your stomach that is sort of this frightfulness or this fear for Tony and what he is having to deal with. Just having known him for all these years you can imagine that he is going through something super emotional and overwhelming by a huge measure. "There is sort of a sickness or something in the pit of your stomach for what Tony is going through, but at the same time you never really forget that somebody was killed. There is a family with a hole in their heart and they have got to figure out a way to live out the rest of their lives with this always on their mind. It will have a huge effect on both sides for so many years. It's just super-duper unfortunate." The revelation that Ward -- a 20-year-old driver who won four races on the regional Empire Super Sprints circuit -- was under the influence of marijuana to a degree that would impair judgment, according to authorities, was termed "shocking" by six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. The report also raised the question about restrictions and policing illegal substances at the nation's short tracks, many of which operate without the benefit of a regional or national sanctioning body to oversee such a process. "I guess I don't understand enough about it all and what the repercussions for short tracks would be. Still, first and foremost, I just don't want to ignore the fact that it was a massive tragedy that took place," Johnson said. "The toxicology report is shocking to see. From a friend perspective and worrying about Tony and understanding what he's gone through and how tough this has been on him, I'm sure there is some type of relief that it's kind of done, in that respect. But at the same time, coming back to the Ward family, even in the remarks I read from Tony, I'm sure he feels OK about not having this go any further and there being legal actions. A civil suit is still out there and that can happen for any reason, to anybody in this room. But, the other side of it, still first and foremost on Tony's mind is that it was an accident and his heart is still out for the Ward family. "And I just echo those same things. It's such a tragedy to have these details come out and people potentially forming sides, there's just no good in that. It's just been a terrible accident and we need to pay respect to Kevin Ward Jr., and I don't know how you go on, but just move forward." While Stewart qualified 15th for Sunday's AAA 400 (2 p.m. ET, ESPN), teammate Kevin Harvick carried the torch for the Stewart-Haas Racing team Friday with his seventh Coors Light Pole Award of the year. Harvick said that he couldn't speak for the entire organization's state of mind, but said that he was personally relieved after Wednesday's announcement. "You worry about your friend and the circumstances that are surrounding him and how things could be dictated for the rest of his life," Harvick said. "Just being around and knowing how much it's weighed on him and all the things that he has going on, for me personally, I'm happy for my friend. As far as the team, we've all got jobs to do and have had to press through them, but I'm overjoyed in obviously a devastating situation, but I'm just happy that it's to a point where everybody knows what's happening in the future and start the process of trying to deal with it and move on into some sort of normalcy." Dale Jr. on new Chase: 'This thing is intense' Count Dale Earnhardt Jr. as one that appreciates the new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format. "This Chase, I'm telling you, this thing is intense," Earnhardt said on "The Dale Jr. Download" as part of Dirty Mo Radio. He later added, "I think these rounds are harder than I anticipated." A good portion of drivers in the Chase found some sort of trouble in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Junior had some issues but was able to overcome them for a ninth-place finish. A loose wheel brought Junior back to pit road on Lap 123 and left him a lap down. On the download, the three-time 2014 winner took us through a driver's mindset when that happens. "You're going to have loose wheels, you just are. That's going to happen. Those guys are working their guts out," he said. "They have those air wrenches tuned to do the job as fast as they can and try to cut some time off of the overall stop. In talking to my right front changer, I think that also opens the window for those kind of things to happen so there's a balance there between having a gun that can do the job quickly but also being able to get those things tight every time and being consistent on that. I wasn't too worried about it. I've had loose wheels before. You just gotta understand that the wheel's going to come off eventually. So you need to get your butt on pit road as fast as you can because you can't run well or run in the top 10 if you back it in the wall. You just come down pit road, you're going to lose a little time. Steve (Letarte) was smart to put four tires on it because we were going to lose a lap anyways." The No. 88 team battled back and got the beneficiary of the free pass on Lap 189. "We were patient, we got our (free pass) eventually, it was a little bit late in the race when we got it, but we were able to pass a lot of guys on restarts. Not every restart is going to be awesome but we were able to make a lot of ground up on restarts," he said. Earnhardt recorded 29 quality passes, the third-most in the race, according to loop data. A late restart on the inside hindered Junior's chances for a top-five finish, but overall Junior seemed happy to avoid a big issue that affected other Chase drivers. "After everything that happened, after everything we went through, we dodged a big bullet." The attention now shifts to the final race of the Challenger Round, the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, Sunday, ESPN). In 29 starts at the Monster Mile, Earnhardt has one win, six top-five finishes, 11 top-10 finishes and a pole, which he earned last fall. In the past five races at the 1-mile track, he has finished no worse than 11th place. Junior enters Dover in sixth place in the standings with a 28-point cushion to move on to the Contender Round, a fact not lost on the Hendrick Motorsports driver. "We are going in with a little bit of a cushion, 28 points. If we give up 28 points and don't make the next round, with that kind of finish, I don't know that we deserve to go any further. But that's not what we're going to worry about. We got a good cushion and that makes the whole weekend a lot easier. And we'll try to get on through this round. Try to go out there and win the race. We get to move on to some tracks that I think we have a better shot at to be more competitive at and we'll try to continue to improve on consistency. We've had some good speed so we just got to get the results to match with the way the car's been running. "Hopefully we can avoid all the nonsense. We love to win races and we're going out there to try and win races. Trust me, I want to finish as high as I can. We're working every lap trying to pass cars but as long as we're in that last round with a shot, that's all that matters." Dale Jr. runs out of tires, salvages top 10 If Dale Earnhardt Jr. advances to the next elimination round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, he can thank his team's collective salvage operation on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, not to mention his own ability to drive on old tires. It's a rarity in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but Earnhardt used his entire allotment of tires during the Sylvania 300, in part because there were 15 cautions and in part because he had to change a set during an unscheduled pit stop on Lap 123 after his crew failed to tighten all the lug nuts properly during the previous stop under caution. "We had to put on some real old tires there," Earnhardt said. "We ran out of tires, so that last set of tires we put on had some practice laps on them. We still hung in there and had some good restarts. We had fun and I'm glad we were able to rebound -- that was pretty dramatic there for a while. "Had a little issue on the right-front, which is going to happen. We shook it off and we went back to work. The guys gave me great stops after that, and I'm proud of my team. You're going to have mistakes. I'm going to make mistakes, but nobody really got on anybody. Everybody sort of regrouped and we finished out the day." Though he lost a lap because of the unscheduled pit stop, Earnhardt regained it as the highest scored lapped car for a restart on Lap 193. He rallied to finish ninth and heads to next Sunday's elimination race at Dover tied for fifth in the standings with a 28-point edge on 13th-place Denny Hamlin. And for those who have started to question Earnhardt's viability as a championship contender based on his runs at Chicagoland and Loudon, Earnhardt urges the same sort of patience he showed on Sunday. "I know everybody is looking at us like we are falling off a little bit," Earnhardt said. "But Chicago hadn't been a great track for us, and New Hampshire hadn't either. Dover has. "So I'll be surprised if we don't go down there and be competitive. We were racing for a win there last year and ran pretty good there this year. I look forward to going and having a good car." Dale Jr. frustrated with practice performance Dale Earnhardt Jr. got off to a solid, but not spectacular start in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup's Challenger Round at Chicagoland Speedway. Earnhardt spent most of the afternoon in the top 10, ran some of the day in the top five but came away with an 11th-place finish. The finish itself may have left a little to be desired, but what bugged Junior was the No. 88 team's struggles in practice. Talking on "The Dale Jr. Download" as part of Dirty Mo Radio, Earnhardt lamented the fact the team couldn't find a rhythm in practice. "To be honest, Saturday was awful," Earnhardt said. "We weren't anywhere we needed to be. We were about two-tenths off of the guys that I thought were going to run well. Two-tenths is a chunk of time, so I was getting very worried." Junior finished in ninth in the second practice, but dropped to 26th in final practice. "The third and final practice we had all kinds of problems with the engine and the spark plug. And then we went out there and preceded to stink it up and run all kinds of terrible laps." For the owner of three wins in 2014, Earnhardt sounded a bit frustrated with the practice struggles. "We don't practice well. We never do but we always race well. Even if we practice decent, I know it's going to be a great race. Because we always race just fine. We just don't practice, don't qualify well. I don't know why that is. Wish I had an answer for you but trust me, it's an unpleasant experience to have to struggle through practice and worry whether that's a reflection of how the race is going to go." Earnhardt praised crew chief Steve Letarte and the team's engineers for the work they did from the end of Saturday's final practice to the start of Sunday's MyAFibStory.com 400 and is hopeful he can have a good feeling all weekend long next time out. "I want it to be good on Saturday. I want to run Saturday and go, 'Man we got a nice car, we got a good car.' " Earnhardt will enter this weekend's second race of the Challenger Round, the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, ESPN), in fifth place in the standings. In 30 starts at the Magic Mile, Earnhardt has seven top-five finishes and 13 top-10 finishes. In the summer race at Loudon, Earnhardt earned a 10th-place finish. That type of result would serve Junior well in the Challenger Round, but he knows more is needed as the Chase goes on. "Maybe this first round we can get by with finishing 11th, but Round 2 you are not going to make it. I know that. We need to improve a little bit there." Sponsor expands relationship with No. 88 Nationwide Insurance will increase its involvement with the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team and driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2015, according to a news release from the team. The company, which announced a three-year agreement in May of this year, will increase its primary sponsorship of the No. 88 entry from 12 Sprint Cup races to 21 annually, including the season-opening Daytona 500. Nationwide Insurance, based in Columbus, Ohio, is in the final year of a seven-year agreement as entitlement series sponsor for NASCAR and currently has endorsement deals with Sprint Cup drivers Earnhardt Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Danica Patrick. The company also is the official auto, home, life and business insurance of NASCAR and presenting sponsor of the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. "We're thrilled to be deepening our partnership with the Hendrick Motorsports team," Matt Jauchius, Chief Marketing Officer for Nationwide Insurance, said. "We look forward to seeing Nationwide on the No. 88 for NASCAR's biggest races over the next three seasons. Earnhardt Jr., voted the series' most popular driver for 11 consecutive years and a winner of 22 Sprint Cup races, currently carries primary sponsorship from Diet Mt. Dew and the National Guard, as well as individual events with funding from Kelley Blue Book and Michael Baker International. Nationwide Insurance will also be featured on the No. 88 for this weekend's Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway. "That Nationwide has already elected to grow the sponsorship," said team owner Rick Hendrick, "sends a clear message about the opportunities they see and how well our teams are working together. "It's quickly become a strong relationship, and we're committed to building on that foundation and delivering results in ever facet of the program." The National Guard announced earlier this season that it would end its NASCAR sponsorship involvement at the close of the 2014 season. Hendrick officials, however, say that the Guard sponsorship is scheduled to continue through '15, and that talks about the program are continuing. "Representing the National Guard and its Citizen Soldiers is an extraordinary honor and a source of pride for our entire organization," officials said in a statement released today. "Communication is ongoing with regard to the future of the sponsorship, which is contracted through the 2015 season." Dale Jr. gives Elliott advice on bouncing back Following his post-race celebratory burnout, Kevin Harvick whizzed by the No. 9 of Chase Elliott on his way to Victory Lane, tossing a thumbs up out the window to the NASCAR Nationwide Series rookie and his JR Motorsports teammate. Elliott reciprocated, but it's clear he felt his performance in the Great Clips 300 to benefit Feed The Children at his home state Atlanta Motor Speedway didn't deserve the positive recognition. Saturday's pole winner, Elliott paced the event's first 36 laps before ceding the lead to Harvick, who led the remaining 159 on the way to his third Nationwide win of the season. Elliott noted that he didn’t think anybody could have touched Harvick's No. 5 Chevrolet, but was despondent over his fifth-place finishing position being three spots shy of where the No. 9 probably should've wound up. "I feel like at best we could've finished second and I think if my guys had a driver that knew what he was doing, I probably would've finished second," said Elliott, who left Atlanta with a 15-point lead in the standings over teammate Regan Smith. "Just screwed up multiple times. I wasn't consistent and I didn’t do my job tonight. I just messed up. Complete driver error. Absolutely cannot do that. Unacceptable." With 16 laps remaining, Elliott came in for a green-flag stop but overshot his pit stall. Having to back up, he lost two spots in the process and had to battle back to finish fifth. It's a mistake most drivers have made, but it was still enough to get the 18-year-old phenom down on himself. "I better get my act together before next week or hopefully that doesn't happen again," Elliott added. "Like I said, that's unacceptable on my part." Luckily for Elliott, he has perhaps the best support system around him at JRM, including his team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt, a newcomer to Twitter after his Daytona 500 victory in February, offered a bit of advice for how Elliott can pick himself back up after being so down -- behold the power of social media. "I'd go on Twitter and talk to your fans," Earnhardt said. "They're pretty good at pumping you back up and telling you not to worry about it." Of course, fans can only take a driver so far. At some point, he'll have to face the actual people he feels he let down, namely his NAPA Racing teammates. "I'd talk to your crew chief, all the guys on your team. Those are the people that you feel like you've let those guys down in some way," said Earnhardt, whose JRM drivers have picked up eight 2014 victories. "Have conversations with them throughout the week or even tonight. Anytime I feel like that I've let Steve (Letarte, Sprint Cup Series crew chief) down, I've got to talk to him immediately and get that conversation handled and done and get some sort of reassurance that we're into this together. That kind of thing; that's what you want to hear. "Don't shut down and go hide in a corner. Just talk to people and get to the root of the conversations you just need to have or you're going to eventually have anyways. Just don't wait until the next weekend at the race track to have those conversations." Earnhardt threw in a quick story from his rookie Cup Series season, when he took a provisional pole at Rockingham Speedway, adding "I thought that was the worst day of my life." It's just part of racing, and Elliott will learn that in due time. "There's going to be a lot of races that you don't do everything you want to do right. … He'll have all kinds of days like that." Elliott will have a shot to right the ship less than a week from now, as the series shifts to Richmond International Raceway for Friday's Virginia529 College Savings 250. The last time Elliott raced there? He finished where he felt he should've tonight -- runner-up to teammate Kevin Harvick. Dale Jr.: 'We can still try to get some wins' Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows he and his team will be in this year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver said he doesn't plan to coast through the two remaining races before the Chase begins. "We can still try to get some wins," Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday during a break in testing at Martinsville Speedway. "Those three bonus points for a win going into the Chase, they didn't change that, did they? "We'd like to get some more bonus points if we can. We had a real strong car Saturday night (at Bristol), but anytime you don't finish well you want to kind of re-assert yourself and get the team’s confidence to where it needs to be going into the most important time of the season. So we're going to run as hard as we can." Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 88 team will roll into Atlanta, site of Sunday’s Oral-B USA 500 (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET), second in points and looking for their fourth win of the season. His 39th-place finish at Bristol was his second worst of the season, and was the result of damage from an incident that began with contact between Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. "Atlanta is a track that I love to race on," he said. "We haven't been there since we changed the rule package and I'm excited to see how that changes the style of racing we have there, where the line's going to be, where the speed's going to be. "We're taking a brand new car there, so … it will be updated with all the latest and greatest and see what kind of speed we have." Earnhardt Jr. is one of 12 drivers with one or more wins this season, thus all but guaranteed a spot in the 16-team Chase field. Others are still hopeful, although their opportunities are dwindling. "You have to imagine that if you're outside that window of making the Chase, those guys are going to have to gamble. They've got to," he said. "You've got to try. So you might see some guys do some things that they typically wouldn't do. It's all going to be on pit road. I don't see anybody doing … anything crazy out on the race track … but everybody's going to run hard. I think the racing may remind you of kind of what we saw at Texas between Brad (Keselowski) and Jimmie (Johnson) when Brad won his championship (in 2012). They had a hell of a race there on that last restart. We’re probably going to see some action like that. I hope we do; I think the fans deserve it. It will be a lot of fun seeing some of these guys trying to get their spot in the Chase. "… If you’re at Richmond and one of those guys not locked in and your chances are not looking that great, you've got to do something. It will be interesting to see how far these guys are willing to go to make something happen." All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers – Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne – took part in Tuesday’s test at Martinsville. Gordon and Johnson have a combined 16 wins on the flat, 0.526-mile track. Earnhardt Jr., who has 11 top-fives here, and Kahne are still looking for their first victory at the track. All four teams are scheduled to return for additional testing on Wednesday. Martinsville is the only short track among the 10 stops that make up the Chase, and a place where "you can get yourself into some trouble if you're not careful," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I've had a lot of good runs, just haven't ever won here. This is one of those places that has a lot of history and it would mean the world for me to win here. We've had some cars that have run well, finished in top five several times, just never been that guy. "We're down here trying to find that extra little bit to give us a little bit more dominant of a race car and hopefully give us the edge we will need to come out of here with a win. "We've always had competitive cars, top-five, top-10 cars, just never really had that car that was impressive over the rest of the field, that had what it takes to win here." Hamlin spun out by Harvick, plows into Dale Jr. Denny Hamlin has no problem being wrecked for the lead on the last lap at Bristol Motor Speedway. When the race is 100 laps away from even reaching the halfway point? He has a problem. That was the case Saturday in the Irwin Tools Night Race, when Kevin Harvick turned Hamlin on the frontstretch during Lap 161, sending Hamlin's race-leading No. 11 Toyota spinning up high into Turn 1 in a wreck that also collected Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hamlin went from first place to out of the race for good, the anger boiling in his mind before manifesting itself in the form of a toss of his HANS device toward Harvick's No. 4 Chevrolet. "I'm trying to think of when I've been this mad in the past. Maybe never," Hamlin said after being checked and cleared from the infield care center. "I wish I had some kind of car left so I could show him the favor back. He's a good driver. He knows better. "Mistakes happen in racing. Obviously, I believe Kevin made a mistake." On that, both Hamlin and Harvick agreed. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver quickly apologized for the incident, saying he misjudged the situation. He had been all over Hamlin's bumper for several laps battling for the lead. "It's totally my fault," he radioed to his team. What really stung for Hamlin was that he felt he had one of his best cars of the year. Save for a 24th-place finish at Watkins Glen, Hamlin had a terrific six-week stretch entering Bristol. He's won once this year, back in April at Talladega, and expected to make the trip to Victory Lane on Saturday once he realized how strong his car was. "We had a good run going," Hamlin said. "I thought for sure after the first couple of runs that we were gonna win the race. We were really fast. We were on two tires there and could get away from the pack mostly. "I know Kevin -- I think I know Kevin -- pretty well, and he's not going to just take someone out. I think it was just a misjudge, trying too hard too early when both of us had really fast cars. These short tracks are all about patience. I'm OK wrecking for the lead or getting taken out on the white-flag lap, but at this point? It's a bad situation." Junior's No. 88 Chevrolet incurred heavy damage when he tried to slip by Hamlin along the top of Turn 1. It didn't work, and the sheet metal was peeled all the way back on the left side of his car when he got off the track.Earnhardt, who started 20th, had worked his way into the top 10 after taking two tires on a couple of pit stops. The No. 88 team took the car behind the wall, where Earnhardt was scored 39th after Hamlin was officially ruled out. "The first thing I saw was the No. 11 hitting the inside wall," Earnhardt said when rehashing the event with reporters. "There was a little bit of smoke so it was tough to judge the speed of his car coming back up the track. I thought I could go around the top and be alright, but I guessed wrong." Earnhardt Jr. returned to the race at Lap 266, 103 laps down, in 39th place. He returned to the garage 20 laps later and retired from the race in the same position. It's only his second DNF of the season. He finished 43rd at Texas. Driver intro songs for Irwin Tools Night Race Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "Mountain Song" by Jane's Addiction Earnhardt's trust in team results in top-five finish Dale Earnhardt Jr. felt his tire coming apart. His No. 88 crew didn't see it. Thus began a long, productive conversation over the radio in which crew chief Steve Letarte detailed why he thought Junior should stay out on the track before ultimately leaving the decision solely to the driver, who said he was coming in to pit. "Just go with what you feel," Letarte concluded, "and know that we'll support you 100 percent with whatever decision you make." Earnhardt changed his mind and stayed out -- his tire held up and showed no external damage on his next pit stop. The result of that change-of-mind led to the team's continued off-cycle pit strategy, and a late-race caution on Lap 169 of 200 allowed Junior to stay out. It shot the driver up to sixth-place when the field restarted, and Earnhardt drove up to a fifth-place finish. It was Earnhardt's second top-five in the past three races and it came at a track where the No. 88 struggled in Friday qualifying, not advancing out of the first round and starting Sunday's Pure Michigan 400 from the 25th position. "There's only one guy that knows what the car really feels like, and that's the guy behind the wheel," Letarte said after the race. "We talked about the facts. The facts are that we were in a pit window and the risk would be that we go a lap down. The second thing I wanted him to know that if he feels he has a tire coming apart, then he needs to pit. "We're not at Martinsville. When you're running 200-plus (mph) into the corner, you need to leave that up to him, and I would do that with any driver. And Dale used his best judgment, and fortunately we didn't have a big problem." It's another instance of the symbiotic relationship between this driver and crew chief, the result of which has Earnhardt tied for the series lead with three wins and second in the driver standings, three points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon. It's why Junior was able to compartmentalize what his own ears heard -- his right front tire snapping in Turns 1 and 2 -- and rely on the words and observations of his crew chief. "Yeah, hearing that (over the radio), it gives me a lot of confidence," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I just trust what he says. I really don't worry about it. He's seeing the race from a different perspective. I don't really question his choices, and what he says I go with. "I feel like he's a good strategist and he makes good calls, so he keeps us moving forward. We had some trouble today, and he gave us a strategy to get a top-five." Some of that trouble included an on-track incident with Denny Hamlin in which Junior drove the No. 11 up the track. Hamlin noted he was a "little disappointed" but that the drivers had a post-race discussion on pit road and moved on -- Hamlin's frustrations of not being able to keep up with the Hendrick engines caused his anger, he said. "Yeah, I ran him up the track a little bit early in the race," Junior said, adding that he was trying to pass while avoiding a three-wide situation. "It was way, way early, and he didn't like it too much. I mean, I've been run up the track too, and I didn't like it either." The more tangible trouble came after the No. 88 and No. 42 Chevrolet of Kyle Larson collided on pit road on Lap 22, with Larson exiting his stall as Earnhardt was coming in. Both cars incurred damage, with Junior needing a trip back down pit road. He restarted 39th on Lap 25, having already been in a problematic pair of episodes with the race not even a quarter of the way finished. "Everybody was on pit road," Larson said. "I was leaving my box and looked in my mirror and saw the 27 (of Paul Menard) and somebody else coming to my outside, so I was leaving them room. Then the 88 came out, and we just kind of met right there. It happened really quick." The damage moved the steering wheel around, Earnhardt said, and also dented the quarter-panels. That resulted in his car being loose into the corners the rest of the day. So how did the No. 88 team overcome that one? Much like his driver did when discussing strategy, Letarte said the other party deserved the credit. "We really just acted like there was no damage the rest of the race," Letarte said. "We worked on our car, we called our pit strategy and Dale drove it like it was a perfectly fine car, and I think that confidence led us to a top-five finish." Hamlin takes on Dale Jr. after on-track run-in Denny Hamlin clinched a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Michigan International Speedway, but Hamlin was more concerned with seeking out Dale Earnhardt Jr. following the Pure Michigan 400 on Sunday. Finishing seventh, his fifth top-nine result in the last six races, Hamlin was pleased with his car in the four turns at the 2-mile oval. "I've got a screaming fast car in the corners," Hamlin said in his car early in the race. "It's just blowing everybody away." But on the straightaways, the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing struggled to keep up so he did all he could to find an advantage. "I'm trying to fight -- do everything I can -- to keep up with the Hendrick engines," Hamlin said after the race. "I'm side-drafting down the straightaway, trying to do everything I can. Not things I frown upon when I see other drivers do them. We're trying to do everything we can to keep our track position. "He (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) got a little upset that I was side-drafting and so he kind of crowded me up to the wall in turn four. I was a little disappointed, but that's part of it. You talk about it, get it worked out and move on." Following their pit-road confrontation, Earnhardt, who finished fifth, admitted to moving Hamlin up the track and explained why he did it. "Yeah, I ran him up the track a little bit early in the race," Earnhardt said. "It was way, way early, and he didn't like it too much. I mean, I've been run up the track too, and I didn't like it either." The two Chase-bound drivers will square off again later this week, seeking their second wins in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway (Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC). For Hamlin, it would be a second win in the last three years in August in Thunder Valley. Earnhardt would celebrate the 10th anniversary of his last night race win with a victory. Dale Jr.: Elliott to Cup 'makes great sense' in 2016 Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday that he expects second-generation phenom Chase Elliott to compete full time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2016. As for the teenager, Elliott says he's just enjoying the progress as it unfolds. The questions over the direction of one of stock-car racing's brightest young talents continued to be a burning topic in the garage, even though his career is just 29 NASCAR national series starts old. The fire was stoked earlier in the week when powerhouse team owner Rick Hendrick told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that he expected Elliott to enter a handful of Sprint Cup events next season. Earnhardt did nothing to throw water on the possibilities at Watkins Glen International, saying that Elliott will soon be ripe for a spot in NASCAR's premier series. "I think it makes great sense," Earnhardt said outside his Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 hauler. "You know, two Nationwide seasons, run a little Cup in that second season and go right on into Cup, I think that's the plan. He's running well enough that that seems to make a lot of sense. I wouldn't have expected anything else, to be honest with you." Elliott, moments before final NASCAR Nationwide Series practice, said that his schedule and any potential move up for next season and beyond was far from confirmed. "I think the best word I can come up with is it's 'a thought.' That's going to be my answer for the weekend is it's a thought," Elliott said. "Beyond that, I really don't know. It's kind of out of my hands. I think it's something that Mr. Hendrick has thought about and I know he mentioned it on the radio the other day. So he knows a lot more about it than I do, and I don't ask questions. I just take it a week at a time and beyond that, I'm not sure." Elliott -- the son of NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Bill Elliott -- has produced captivating results in his rookie season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, vaulting to the lead in the points standings with three victories through the first 20 of 33 races this season. He's done so under the watch of Earnhardt's JR Motorsports organization, racing with the No. 9 that his father campaigned for most of his career. Though he's tested Sprint Cup cars from the Hendrick shops in the offseason, Elliott said he isn't rushing his timetable for joining NASCAR's big leagues. "I think you take it as it comes," Elliott said. "Until you go and try, it's hard to say. There's times where I think, 'yeah, maybe we could keep up,' and other days, maybe not. Really until you give it a fair chance it's hard to say at what point you are in your career. So I try to take it a week at a time, I don't ask questions and just try to hope for the best." Greg Ives, who has helped mentor the 18-year-old Elliott as his crew chief at JRM, will move to Earnhardt's No. 88 team at the start of 2015, replacing Steve Letarte. While Hendrick's stable is full at the NASCAR-mandated maximum of four full-time Sprint Cup teams, a fifth part-time car for a prospective rookie would be allowed within the rules. Wednesday night, Hendrick lauded Elliott's poise while saying he hoped to see his career progress to the Sprint Cup level next season. "I said before he ever ran a race, I would put him in a 600-mile race at Charlotte and think he'd finish in the top 15, top 10, because he's so smart," Hendrick told SiriusXM. "He just understands the car and takes care of it. I think he's going to do a super job whenever the time comes. I think we'll surely, probably the second half of next year, we'll probably see him in some races." Earnhardt, in his brief remarks before opening practice, also lamented the loss of National Guard as a primary sponsor at the end of the season. The branch of the U.S. military announced Wednesday that it would cease its backing of all forms of motorsports in 2015. While Earnhardt described having the organization's logo on his cars has been "a huge honor," he acknowledged that the military's allocation of marketing funds has been a source of scrutiny in the nation's capital. "There's been the debate in Washington for several years," Earnhardt said. "Hopefully, we'll be able to continue to represent them. Really have enjoyed it and it's been a great, great seven years. It's been a great partnership. I think it's been very, very effective. Hopefully we can continue to do that." Dale Jr.: 2001 closest I came to quitting Dale Earnhardt Jr., arguably the face of NASCAR, has been one of the cornerstones of the sport for more than a decade. Now picture the past 13 years without the 11-time NMPA Most Popular Driver. In an interview on "The Dan Patrick Show" on Tuesday, Earnhardt revealed that he once thought about quitting the sport altogether. "You know, I think I came … if I ever would have, you know, quit, it probably would have been after my dad was killed in Daytona," Earnhardt said. "That was probably as close as I literally came to maybe thinking about not driving anymore but I don't know that I came that close." Dan Patrick: Your dad, you couldn't have quit. Even as tragic as that was, your dad, what would he have said if you thought about something like that? Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Right. That's why I kept digging. You know, it's never really been an option. You just can't quit what you're doing. You just got to keep trying and you'd never get over it if you give up. It certainly would have been understandable if he decided at the time to walk away, given the circumstances surrounding the 2001 Daytona 500, but what about in his early Hendrick Motorsports days, when he found himself mired in two-year slump that saw a winless No. 88 finish 25th and 21st in 2009 and 2010, respectively? "I just have never really … (quitting) wasn't really an option even when we weren't running good in '09 and 2010," Earnhardt said, before crediting positive changes to his personal life and girlfriend Amy Reimann for his turnaround. "You weren't having fun, you weren't … things weren't working out like you wanted them to, but you weren't going to quit. I'd have never been able to get over that. I would've regretted that for the rest of my life. Speaking of Dale Sr., Earnhardt went a little more in depth about the context behind his text conversation with his mom post-Indy, which he shared on Twitter last week. "I thought it was pretty neat. Mom, you know, she pretty much texts me after practice and after qualifying and she has a comment about what she thought about it and she's never really said (before) you know 'you drove like your Dad' or ' you look like your Dad out there,' " Earnhardt told Patrick. "But she would know. Back when they had women scoring the races or they had people scoring the races, she used to score races for Dad, so she'd been to a lot of races. And she grew up around a racing family so I take her advice or comments to heart. "But she said that I looked like Dad out there, taking a crap car and doing something with it. And I thought that was pretty cool. I said 'you know, you've never mentioned anything like that before, but I thought that was the coolest thing you've ever told me … but my cars are actually all really good.' I wanted to tweet the text, but I needed to clear it up there that the cars were always good. Steve (Letarte) appreciated that, my crew chief. DP: Seriously, is that the best compliment your mom has ever given you? DJ: I think it ranks right up there. DP: Is that the best compliment that anybody could give you? That you drove like your dad. DJ: Yeah. Absolutely. I analyze a lot of film and like a lot of people I thought that he was the best. So, yeah. I think that's an awesome compliment. Unusual situation awaits Dale Jr. and Ives Crew chief changes almost always occur because something is wrong. The car isn't performing as well as expected. The relationship between the driver and the person on the pit box is strained. The race team is torn apart by tension. The vast majority of the time, a crew chief change is an attempt to remedy some underlying problem which is ultimately having a negative impact on performance. All of which makes this looming transfer of power on Hendrick Motorsports' No. 88 program so interesting. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in the midst of his best season in a decade, looking ever more like a championship threat in the wake of Sunday's victory at Pocono Raceway, his third of the year. This team isn't struggling -- it's firing on every possible cylinder, and powered by the relationship between a driver and a crew chief who often seem of a single mind. And yet, that relationship has an expiration date, given that crew chief Steve Letarte is stepping down after this season to pursue a second career as a television analyst. It's a laudable, inarguable move by a dad and a husband who clearly has his life priorities in order, as bittersweet as it might seem to Earnhardt and members of his fan base. But it's also a rather rare occurrence, a crew chief leaving when things are going this well, and it doesn't leave much historical precedence to predict how Earnhardt and Greg Ives may fare together in 2015. No question, all the signs are positive -- as a longtime engineer for Jimmie Johnson and now a crew chief for Chase Elliott in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Ives comes from the same 48/88 shop which has built not one but two powerhouse programs, and he's well-known to Earnhardt given his time at both Hendrick and JR Motorsports. The familiarity and the relationships are clearly there -- although you could have said the same thing about Matt Kenseth and Chip Bolin when the latter took over Roush's traditionally strong No. 17 program prior to the 2008 campaign. The parallels aren't exact, but you still have a team on very good footing -- Kenseth had won at least one race in each of the previous six seasons, won a championship in 2003, and pushed Johnson to the wire for the title in 2006 -- and a crew chief leaving for the right reasons. Robbie Reiser and Kenseth seemed joined at the hip, even more so than Earnhardt and Letarte are today, given that the two Wisconsinites came up racing together on short tracks across the upper Midwest. When the call came for Reiser to move up to general manager, he couldn't say no. His replacement was a natural one -- Bolin, the No. 17 team's engineer through all those winning campaigns, would simply slide over one seat on the box. All the ingredients were in place for a seamless transition -- except, it wasn't. Kenseth went winless for the first time since 2001, finished an uncharacteristic 11th in final points, and at the end of the season all parties agreed that Bolin was better suited as an engineer. Drew Blickensderfer came aboard and oversaw a Daytona 500 victory, but Kenseth -- a very hands-on driver when it comes to the makeup of his race team -- would go through two more crew chief changes over the next year and a half before returning to form with another guy from Wisconsin, in this case Jimmy Fennig. Now, what does all that portend for Earnhardt and Ives? Nothing, really, except to suggest that even what seem to be the best of arrangements can go sideways on occasion. Hendrick is in a better position now than Roush was then, Ives will have more experience calling races than Bolin did, and Earnhardt will have all the resources of NASCAR's best team at his disposal. But Kenseth is as good as they come, and if he can struggle (relatively speaking) in a situation where all the history and all the personal relationships would suggest otherwise, then anyone can. The index case for this kind of breakup might be found back at the Hendrick shop itself -- although one very different from the facility we know today, before the glass and steel showpieces and the pit crew workout area on the main lawn. After 47 victories and on the heels of back-to-back championship seasons, Ray Evernham left Jeff Gordon's program with seven races remaining in the 1999 campaign to lay the groundwork for his own team, which would spearhead Dodge's return to the sport. Gordon hardly missed a beat, winning twice more that season with interim signal-called Brian Whitesell, three the next year with Evernham's successor Robbie Loomis, and then added a fourth title in 2001. Indeed, Gordon wrote the textbook on how to move on after losing a successful crew chief, and could surely serve as a font of advice for his teammate Earnhardt. But that particular situation is a prickly application to today, given that the cars and the inspection processes and even the sport were all so different back then. And for all their success together, Gordon and Evernham had probably run their course. Gordon was no longer a young driver by that time, but a mature competitor with his own ideas, and in less need of such a rigid crew chief. Had Evernham not left, an inevitable separation was probably coming nonetheless. That is certainly not the case with Earnhardt and Letarte, who look like they could keep going for years together if circumstances were different. And recent NASCAR history is full of evidence of how a new crew chief can reinvigorate a driver, from Kenseth and Jason Ratcliff last season at Joe Gibbs Racing, to Kevin Harvick and Rodney Childers this season at Stewart-Haas Racing, to Dave Rogers taking over Kyle Busch's program late in the 2009 season to Letarte pairing with Gordon late in the 2005 campaign. Given the state of his program at present, Earnhardt doesn't need someone to spark that invigoration -- he needs someone to keep it going. Beginning in 2015, that task falls to Ives, who would appear to have all the tools to make it happen -- a strong relationship with Earnhardt, experience atop the box, enough time remaining in this season to familiarize himself with his future driver's preferences, and undoubtedly fast cars. From a personnel standpoint, this is the perfect move for a team that right now is stronger than Kenseth's was in 2008, more cohesive than Gordon's was in 1999, and part of a larger organization more potent than anything NASCAR has seen since the heyday of Petty Enterprises. This should work. This will work. And yet until Ives is on the box making calls for the No. 88 team, the unknowns will linger. Joey Logano took a step forward after crew chief Greg Zipadelli left to become competition director at Stewart-Haas, winning a race with Ratcliff and positioning himself for his current ride with Team Penske. Then there was Bobby Labonte, who along with Jimmy Makar built one of the preeminent teams of its time, winning 19 races and a title in an eight-year stretch. Makar left to become JGR's director of racing operations, Labonte won twice the following season with Michael McSwain -- and never won again. Such a prediction for Earnhardt would be dire and unfounded, given all he's shown over the past two seasons. Regardless of who the crew chief is, the No. 88 team appears too strong to do anything put continue on its current trajectory. But in racing, simulations are one thing. Everything changes when the car hits the track for real. National Guard to end sponsorship deals The National Guard said Wednesday it will end its sponsorship of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and IndyCar driver Graham Rahal, but it is not clear when that goes into effect. Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement it has a contract with the Guard through 2015 and there have not been discussions to change that deal. A spokesperson for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing did not immediately return a request for comment on the status of the Guard’s sponsorship in IndyCar. The Guard said in a statement posted on its website it spent $32 million on its NASCAR sponsorship and $12 million on its IndyCar sponsorship this year. Sen. Claire McCaskill has led a push in Congress to end military sponsorships, calling the funding “wasting a bunch of money.” Junior championship no longer pie in the sky When team owner Rick Hendrick introduced Dale Earnhardt Jr. in June 2007 as the latest addition to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver roster at Hendrick Motorsports, he said all the right things. Hendrick asserted he wanted to help Earnhardt achieve what the legions of fans who comprise Earnhardt Nation crave most -- Earnhardt in Victory Lane on a regular basis and ultimately holding the Sprint Cup trophy. "I can't tell you how thrilled I am and how much pressure I feel," Hendrick said at the time. "He's such an icon. There's pressure because I want to deliver, and there's going to be a lot of people watching." Indeed. People watched. And for the better part of six years, they waited. Driving the No. 88 Chevrolet, Earnhardt won the Sprint Unlimited non-points exhibition race in his maiden voyage for Hendrick in February 2008. That victory only served to heighten expectations. But Earnhardt's only other win that year came in a fuel-mileage race at Michigan. In contrast, the driver Earnhardt replaced, a highly motivated Kyle Busch, won eight of the first 22 races in 2008 for new boss Joe Gibbs. If 2008 was a lean year for Earnhardt, 2009 and 2010 were unmitigated disasters. The No. 88 team produced five top-fives in those two winless seasons combined and finished 25th and 21st in the final standings, respectively. A crew chief change in June 2009, from Earnhardt's cousin Tony Eury Jr. to Lance McGrew, didn't help. The disappointment of 2010 brought another change, as Hendrick made wholesale changes to his driver/crew chief lineup for 2011, pairing Earnhardt with Steve Letarte. Though Earnhardt remained winless in 2011, his fortunes improved. Earnhardt qualified for the Chase and finished seventh in the final standings, collecting a dozen top 10s along the way. Nevertheless, the idea that Earnhardt would win regularly and contend for a championship still seemed more wishful thinking than realistic expectation. After winning Sunday's GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway, Earnhardt said he wouldn't have been surprised if Hendrick had replaced him during the lean years. "We went through struggles, and he had every right in the world to replace me with another driver, and nobody would have said a thing about it," Earnhardt said. "Because we weren't running good enough, and it would have made perfect sense to everybody if he would have went that route." Well, not exactly. Hendrick doubtless knew that the quickest way to become NASCAR's most unpopular owner would be to fire the sport's perennial most popular driver. In fact, in 2011, Earnhardt signed an extension that will keep him in the No. 88 Chevy through 2017. With Letarte on the pit box, Earnhardt slowly began to accomplish what he and Hendrick envisioned together in 2007. In 2012, Earnhardt and Letarte won their first race together, at Michigan. And though they didn't get to the winner's circle in 2013, Earnhardt's performance made a quantum leap. After an engine failure in the first Chase race at Chicagoland Speedway effectively knocking Earnhardt out of the title picture, he rattled off eight top 10s in the next nine races, finishing the season 2-4-3 at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. That was merely a prelude to 2014, Earnhardt's first multiple-win season in a decade. With a victory in the season-opening Daytona 500 and a sweep of the Pocono races, Earnhardt is locked and loaded for the Chase. The peak performance is there, and so is the consistency, making Earnhardt one of the strong favorites to win the championship this year. Make no mistake, Earnhardt has always been a favorite. This year, however, he's more than just a sentimental one -- much more. Junior holds off Harvick for Pocono sweep Dale Earnhardt Jr. realized that it took a bit of luck for him to win at Pocono Raceway in June. But he knew his team was firing on all cylinders Sunday when he completed the season sweep. Benefitting from impeccable pit strategy, Earnhardt led the final 14 laps and a car with the performance to hold off Kevin Harvick on a restart with three laps to go to ring up his third victory of the 2014 season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series GoBowling.com 400. "It wasn't about luck this time," said Earnhardt, who roared past Brad Keselowski in the June race after Keselowski caught a piece of trash in his grill and began to overheat. Earnhardt credited crew chief Steve Letarte and his team for not resting on their laurels at Pocono. "We were determined to go home from the last win and improve the car," Earnhardt said. "Steve and the guys studied and improved the setup. We had a little luck on the win the last time with Keselowski having the debris and we wanted to be in the driver's seat this go-round with a faster car." Letarte said the homework paid off in a faster Chevrolet. "I feel we unloaded a better car for the second Pocono than we did the first Pocono," he said. "You cannot ever assume a winning car is going to be good enough the next week. While we were excited to win (in June) and we'll take it, there was room for improvement, so we worked very hard between that race and this race." The result was Earnhardt's second season sweep of his career (Talladega 2002). He also became the first driver to sweep at Pocono since Denny Hamlin in 2006. Almost from the outset, Sunday’s 400-miler was a battle of pit strategies regarding fuel strategy and tires. Throw in a 13-car wreck that took much of the field out of contention for the final 34 laps and crew chiefs had their hands full. Letarte made the ultimate decision to take four fresh tires with 39 laps to go, then bring Earnhardt back for a splash of gas 10 laps later. "All we needed to get there was a gallon or two while the rest of the guys in front of us needed four tires and a full tank," Earnhardt said "We were on pit road for two seconds in the box and they were in their pit stalls for 12-14 seconds. We were able to leapfrog those guys. We weren't technically leading the race when the (next) caution came out, but we were ahead of those guys on where we needed to be. "It takes a really, really smart guy to understand what to do and take those gambles. Sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don't. I've got a lot of faith in Steve and the strategy he used today gave us the opportunity to get by some guys that we probably weren’t going to pass on the race track." It was the fifth consecutive Sprint Cup victory at Pocono for Hendrick Motorsports, which also had Jeff Gordon in contention for much of the race. Gordon, a six-time winner at Pocono, led a race-high 63 laps. He also became the first driver to lead 1,000 laps at Pocono and passed the 24,000 mark in career laps led in Sprint Cup competition. Joey Logano, who led the first 30 laps, finished third ahead of Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle. Saving fuel, Biffle found himself with the lead after AJ Allmendinger's crash brought out a caution with 21 laps left. But Biffle couldn’t hold off Earnhardt, who took command with 14 laps to go. "I was heartbroken when that caution came out," said Biffle, who thought strategy had given him a fighting chance. "That just killed our day. We had a 20th-place car but got track position and drove our butt off. (If the race stayed green) it was going to be 'Mickey Mouse' –- who would run out of fuel -- unless those guys could catch us." Earnhardt had opened a 2.7-second lead on Harvick when Kurt Busch hit the wall, bringing out another caution that created the final restart. "With Kevin, I'm racing one of the best," Earnhardt said. “That guy is going to get everything he can out of his car. I was anticipating him being right there on the inside going into (Turn) 1. I knew I was just going to have to really get brave, drive it down in there and pray for it to stick." Harvick, who overcame a pit road speed penalty on Lap 96 and found himself 14th after driving over a storm drain in avoiding major damage during the 13-car melee, gave it all he could. "I timed that last (restart) pretty good," Harvick said.. "But I couldn't turn into the corner like I needed to to stay beside him. I thought if I could get beside him going into (Turn) 1 I'd have a chance, but he was a little better than I was in Turn 3." On his way to his Victory Lane celebration, Earnhardt took a phone call from team owner Rick Hendrick. "I just thanked him for how much he changed my life and how he has supported me," Earnhardt said. "I wanted to thank him and make sure he understood how much I appreciated him. I wanted him to know how much it meant to me that I got the chance to drive this car and get a win today." Dale Jr.: 'If you can't hold it, you go' When it's go-time in a race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. puts his foot to the floor. If it's time to go to the bathroom, he just goes. After saying he was relieved that his 2015 crew chief, Greg Ives, was named this week, he was asked about relieving himself in his car. "Well, you do go to the bathroom. Yeah, so if you can hold it, you hold it. If you can't hold it, you go," Earnhardt Jr. told the media on Friday at Pocono Raceway. "It's not too often that this happens because the car is real hot and you sweat a lot and you basically lose all your water weight through sweating. So your bladder never fills up. "If you get nervous, if it's a hot day, and you get real nervous before the race and you drank too much water because you think you are going to dehydrate, you typically end up having to go to the bathroom before you even get the green flag. You just have to be careful not to drink too much water." Although he didn't say whether he had personal experience, Earnhardt Jr. spoke very knowledgeably about the danger in over-hydrating. "All the water you are going to lose and all the water that is in your body is something you put in there throughout the week. If you drink a lot of water right before an activity, it's typically not going to help you." In the end, there's no shame, according to Earnhardt Jr. "But sometimes you make that mistake and you just got to go. Just go it's not a big deal." Earnhardt Jr. relieved by reaction to Ives hire Upon landing at Pocono Raceway on Friday, a confident Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted he's "lookin' for a broom" to complete the season sweep at the triangle track. The confidence may come from his relief over Wednesday's announcement that Greg Ives will be his crew chief in 2015. "The one thing that I was probably most happy about or relieved about was to be able to make a decision and just get it done," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I didn't want to be in the middle of choosing that guy. I kind of wanted to just sit back and watch." In the two days since Ives was revealed as Steve Letarte's successor, positive feedback from inside the walls of Hendrick Motorsports has convinced Earnhardt Jr. that he has the right personnel to continue the success he has seen under Letarte. "Number one, it was great to hear how confident Rick (Hendrick) and Doug (Duchardt, Hendrick Motorsports general manager) and Chad (Knaus, crew chief of the No. 48 car) and all them were in this particular choice," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That gets me excited. I can get right behind that. I already know how good Greg is, but just knowing that Chad and everybody believes in that decision and thinks that we will be even better off than we are today." While his current crew chief has helped raise the No. 88 team to new heights in 2014 with two wins and Earnhardt Jr.'s best championship chance in years, the driver doesn't want to rest on Letarte's laurels as the organization looks to continue its strong momentum into next season. "We are not trying to photocopy Steve and plug in a guy just like him," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We want to try to get better. I think we have in making this decision. "I haven't been able to really talk to the guys yet, but the ones that I have been able to talk with they feel like that is what we have done. We are going to be a better team for it once we get going next year." As an owner, Earnhardt Jr. has gotten to know Ives, who has helped build JR Motorsports into title contender, finishing third last year in the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship with Regan Smith and leading the points this year with Chase Elliott. "I mean it's a big relief to get it off my shoulders and not worry about who we are going to be working with. What kind of personality he is going to be and whether or not we are going to get along or whether he is going to work and whether the chemistry is going to be good and the cars will be fast. I don't have to worry about that. I feel good about it." As a commissioner of two fantasy leagues, Dale Jr. is ready for some football, activating his leagues this week. However, the league he shares with Ives at Hendrick Motorsports, isn't fired up yet. Perhaps it's for the best as he hopes to savor his final 16 races with Steve Letarte and turn the No. 88 team's two wins in 2014 into a storybook title run with his outgoing crew chief. "There is a lot of emotion. Every race gets a little bit harder knowing this is Steve's (Letarte) last year. I know that winding down into the Chase is going to get pretty emotional for both of us." As Earnhardt Jr. seeks the second season sweep of a track in his career, he began the weekend taking things one step at a time with Letarte. "Me and Steve talked about that particular thing is we want to try to get a little bit better in practice so that we have a little more confidence," Earnhardt Jr. said. After spending time on top of the speed charts in Friday's first practice before finishing the session as the top Hendrick car in ninth, the No. 88 team started the weekend on the right foot with a secure future heading into 2015. For Ives and Dale Jr., it started with smack talk Dale Earnhardt Jr. thought he was going to run roughshod over Greg Ives. Of course, NASCAR's most popular driver thought he was going to run roughshod over everyone when he was first invited to join "Hendrick Honchos," the Hendrick Motorsports in-house fantasy football league comprised mostly of executives, engineers and crew chiefs. "When it comes to fantasy football, I've got a little bit of a potty mouth and do a little smack talking," Earnhardt remembered. "I thought I was just going to grab the reins and run the league with my jaw." And he planned to treat Ives, then an engineer on Jimmie Johnson's race team, no differently. What followed was, shall we say, a somewhat original first encounter between Earnhardt and Ives, whom Hendrick announced Wednesday would take over as crew chief for the No. 88 team when current signal caller Steve Letarte departs after this season to become a television analyst for NBC Sports. When it came time for Earnhardt's team to meet Ives' undefeated fantasy squad, the game was on. "I guaranteed a win, and he ended up destroying me," Earnhardt said. "Not only on the gridiron, or the fantasy make-believe gridiron, but also on the message board as well. I found out that I wasn’t the best smack talker in the league, Greg was. So we became buddies after that, and joked around and picked. That seems like such a long time ago. But it's pretty funny now that we're going to be working together. We started off on an really odd foot, I'll say that." From those strange beginnings, a friendship grew. Ives served as Johnson's engineer for seven seasons, and during the latter part of his tenure Hendrick paired the 88 and 48 teams in the same building. When it came time for JR Motorsports -- the Nationwide Series team founded and co-owned by Earnhardt -- to hire a new crew chief for Regan Smith prior to the 2013 season, the call went to Ives. When JRM needed a steady hand to oversee the rookie season of Nationwide driver Chase Elliott, Ives moved to the No. 9 team. And when Hendrick Motorsports went looking for a successor to Letarte, despite what general manager Doug Duchardt termed overwhelming interest from the garage area, NASCAR's top organization once again looked within to find another person with strong ties to Earnhardt, and many of the same qualities as the No. 88 team's outgoing crew chief. "It may not be so obvious, Greg and Dale's relationship," Duchardt said. "But I remember that their relationship began in our fantasy football league with Dale and Greg actually having one of the best smack-talk competitions we've ever had in our league. That's how I knew they had a good rapport. It started back then, and they worked very well together when Greg was team engineer and Dale was driver. And then obviously that relationship grew as Greg was crew chief at JRM and Dale was owner." Ives, part of five championship campaigns with Johnson, called Earnhardt "one of the greatest drivers I'll get to work with." Earnhardt's friendship with his future crew chief is rooted in professional respect. "I have known Greg a long time, admired his understanding of the sport and how he's inspired to move along in his career and take the necessary steps to be successful and get to where he wants to go as a crew chief. That's why I was really excited about his opportunity to be a part of JR Motorsports and get that first opportunity as a crew chief," Earnhardt said. "I've always admired his knowledge of how a car works, and his attention to detail is very, very important. His demeanor and personality is very easy going. I find him a fun guy to be around. Real easy to talk to. We've had a great working relationship for several years. The best part about it, though, is he knows the culture of the 48/88 shop. He knows what that shop's all about. … Not only is he the most talented candidate for the job, it'll also be the most seamless transition." Just as long as smack talk over fantasy football doesn't get in the way. Earnhardt: Hendrick has 'great plan' for Elliott Crew chief Greg Ives may be leaving Chase Elliott's team after this season to move up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. has no concerns about the future of his NASCAR Nationwide Series phenom. "Mr. Hendrick has a great plan for Chase going forward that we all believe in, and those particulars will be filtering out and announced whenever they're ready to be announced. But now's not the time," Earnhardt said Wednesday, referring to Rick Hendrick, with whom he and sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller co-own the JR Motorsports Nationwide Series team where Elliott currently competes. "But we definitely have a lot of things that we're very, very excited about for Chase. We feel like he's got a great opportunity, not only in (2015) to have a great, successful season with whomever's his crew chief, but also this year with Greg and what they have remaining this year. I'm excited to get that information out there, and will do that when the time comes." Ives, who will take over Earnhardt's No. 88 program next year, has won three Nationwide races this season with Elliott, the 18-year-old son of NASCAR Hall of Fame selection Bill Elliott. The younger Elliott leads the Nationwide standings by four points over JRM teammate Regan Smith, whom Ives worked with last season, and led to two race victories. Earnhardt has said he would prefer that Elliott run two seasons in Nationwide, though no formal plans for next season have been revealed. Although many assumed that Ives would help to shepherd Elliott up to NASCAR's premier series when that move inevitably occurred, Hendrick Motorsports general manager Doug Duchardt said no such plan was in place. "Greg's career path began before we had Chase as a driver in the 9 car," Duchardt said. "Greg had shown an interest in being a crew chief, and Rick and (Hendrick competition director) Ken Howes and myself had sat down and talked about what we thought was the best path for him, and we ran that by Dale and Kelley to make sure they were supportive of bringing Greg over to JRM. So that's what we did in 2013." Things changed in January of this year, when Earnhardt's current crew chief, Steve Letarte, announced plans to leave after the season to become a television analyst for NBC Sports. "It became evident pretty quickly that this would be the right person for the job," Duchardt said of Ives, whose pairing with Elliott "wasn't really part of the consideration as we looked at it," he added. While Hendrick finalizes its plans for Elliott for next year and beyond, the short-term focus is in maintaining the integrity of the No. 9 team's run at the Nationwide title. "During this whole process, especially when we introduced Greg's name into the mix, we definitely have respected the situation with Chase, with Greg, and they're racing for a championship this year," Earnhardt said. At the same time, there have already been discussions about Ives staying over for the Sprint Cup race on companion weekends, so he can sit atop the No. 88 box with Letarte and get a head start on understanding his future driver's terminology and preferences inside the car. "I expect that we'll definitely protect his current situation where he's racing for a championship on the Nationwide side with Chase," Earnhardt said. "And we’ll respect that to the utmost. But if possible, if he's able to stay over on Sundays, it would be beneficial to give him the ability to be on the box with us. If that's an option for us to do that, if he can give us that kind of time, we'll do that." Dale Jr. sees potential in part-timer Berry When Josh Berry raced against Dale Earnhardt Jr. online, the youngster never dreamed that it could lead to a chance to drive for the NASCAR Nationwide Series team owner and Sprint Cup competitor. Yet that's exactly what happened. Berry, 23, is scheduled to make his Nationwide Series debut this weekend in the JR Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet when the series travels to Iowa Speedway for Saturday night's U.S. Cellular 250. "There's a series, the Peak Antifreeze Series is what it's called now, it's the highest series on iRacing.com," Berry said of the sim-racing series. "That's where we raced together. We kind of developed a friendship through there, just talking about different things. The racing part of it was not so much. It was just kind of the bridge for us to meet." Berry was competing in Legends cars for his family-owned team in Nashville, Tennessee, at the time, "and it was just me and my dad," he said. Although he "had aspirations to race Late Model or something like that, we just didn't have the financial means to make that possible." JRM officials were looking for a driver to put in the organization's Late Model program, and eventually Earnhardt Jr. made the offer. "I told him that I had a Late Model and I've give him a race if he wanted to come race," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We'd test him first; if he tested well, then we'd race him, and if he raced well then we'd race him again … just one race after another. "Then we ended up winning some races and won a (track) championship." Regardless of how he does at Iowa, Berry said that initial opening has been "life-changing." "It was kind of hard to believe how … it would work out," he said. "In talking to him, it just seemed so simple. 'Oh yeah, you just come over and meet with us; we'll go test,' like (it was) nothing. And … it was a life-changing moment for me, a pretty big deal. 'Holy cow, this is going down.' " Berry has held up his end of the bargain, winning the first championship for the organization in 2012 at Motor Mile Speedway near Radford, Virginia. He already has five wins this season at Hickory Motor Speedway and leads the track's Late Model points standings. "Every opportunity we give him, he's done well, won races," Earnhardt Jr. said. "He works really hard. … He's the guy working on the car. He's working on it, learning himself. "I just think he can do it. I think he's really smooth. I think he understands what driving a car is all about, and hopefully we'll see what kind of potential he's got." That he works on the car is a requirement, Earnhardt Jr. said. Berry started out working in the race shop for JRM, helping with post-race teardown and the assembly of the Nationwide cars during the week. "And then we did the Late Model stuff at night," Berry said. "I'd say three quarters of the guys on the Nationwide team I've worked with here every day. "For the past couple of years I've just been working on the Late Model team. We added a second team last year so pretty much my responsibilities are to maintain and service my Late Model and help take care of the second car." Berry will join full-time JRM drivers Chase Elliott and Regan Smith at Iowa. Elliott, a three-time winner as a rookie this season, leads the points; Smith, who won the season-opening race at Daytona, is second. The No. 5 team, overseen by crew chief Ernie Cope, has won three times this season as well -- twice with Sprint Cup drivers Kevin Harvick (at Richmond and Kentucky) and once with Kasey Kahne (at Daytona earlier this month). Austin Theriault made two starts, in the series' first stop at Iowa and again at New Hampshire. Earnhardt Jr. has made four starts, with the car re-branded as the No. 88, although Cope was only on the pit box for two of those. The team's success isn't lost on Berry, but he said, "You'll always feel … pressure because for someone like me, this is going to be my only shot. "Without major sponsorship behind you or anything like that it really comes down to one race. So yeah, you've got to put some pressure on yourself; really all you can do … is prepare yourself the best you can, which I feel like I've done." For Iowa, Berry's No. 5 entry will feature Tackle Grab, a leading online subscription box service that provides products to the recreational fishing industry. Tackle Grab has also launched a month-long social media campaign called "Rods, Reels and Racing," with the grand prize being a trip to Homestead for the championship weekend to meet the Earnhardts. (Get details here) The team still has openings for future races in 2014, Earnhardt Jr. said, "and if we can get some people excited, we'd love to continue. If he can run well and not do anything totally disastrous, we can think about running him some more. "It's kind of like going back to that Late Model idea of 'we'll run you a race and see how you do, and if we can run you again, we'd love to do it.' He's part of our team and part of our team a long time. We're going to try to take good care of him and try to give him the best opportunity we can." (Video) Greg Ives named Junior's 2015 crew chief Greg Ives has been named crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 team, and will replace current crew chief Steve Letarte after the completion of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Ives currently serves as crew chief for NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Chase Elliott (JR Motorsports). Elliott, contending for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, has three victories and currently leads the series' points standings. The 34-year-old Ives previously worked as race engineer for fellow Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson during Johnson's run of five consecutive Sprint Cup championships between 2005 and 2010. In a statement from the Hendrick organization, team owner Rick Hendrick said Ives was "our No. 1 choice." "This is a talented guy who already has a terrific rapport with Dale Jr. and is a fit with the organization," Hendrick said. "He and Chad (Knaus) had a lot of success together, and all our crew chiefs think the world of him and what he's accomplished. "Greg's proven that he can win races, and he has all the tools to do big things." Ives, a native of Bark Ricer, Michigan, worked alongside Knaus, Johnson's crew chief, as race engineer. Next season, he returns to work in the same shop as the No. 48 team. "This is an incredible opportunity for me and my family," said Ives. "Dale Jr. and I have a great relationship from being in the same shop at Hendrick Motorsports and my time at JRM. "We have a lot left to do this season in the Nationwide Series, but I'm excited about what's ahead and look forward to sharing some wins with JR Nation in the future. I couldn't ask for a better situation than working with one of the best drivers and best teams in racing." Letarte, who will join NBC Sports for 2015 as the network begins coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events, has served as crew chief of the No. 88 team since 2011, helping lead Earnhardt to three wins, including this year's Daytona 500. He spent five-plus years with current points leader Jeff Gordon, winning 10 races together. "I know what Greg is all about and really respect him," Earnhardt said. "He's a strong leader with a cool personality, and we're both competitors who want to win. "It was important to find someone who would fit at Hendrick Motorsports and inside our shop, and he will for sure do that. We got the best guy for the job, and I look forward to working with him next year." Junior discusses Brickyard race strategy With two wins under his belt, 13 top-10 finishes and a second-place position in the points standings, it might seem as if Dale Earnhardt Jr. is primed for his best shot at a victory here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But the Hendrick Motorsports driver, speaking to the media following Saturday's final practice session at the 2.5-mile track, said that isn't the case. "I think I've had some pretty good cars here in the past," said Earnhardt Jr., who will be making his 15th career start at the legendary track. "I've had chances to win in the past and didn't even know it. "I think the first time we came here, we ran in the top three for the first half of the race. We just didn’t anticipate -- didn't realize -- the potential we had." Instead, he finished 13th. That was back in 2000. Since then, he's finished better (he was fourth in '12 and sixth last year), and he's finished worse (in '05, he was credited with a 43rd-place finish after getting punted on a restart). While often compared to Pocono -- where Earnhardt Jr. won last month -- because of its size and relatively flat layout, Earnhardt says it requires a road-course mentality when formulating a game plan at Indy. "You've got to kind of pit the car like a road course," he said. "The left-side tries are very, very hard, so we probably won't change (them) that much. We need to sort of plan our strategy to where we are on pit road the least amount of time on that last stop … your strategy may be more geared toward what you do at a road course where you go ahead and get inside the (fuel) window and get on pit road … get your pit work done and then be done for the rest of the race … try to be the guy that's out front at the end when everybody else comes on down pit road to get their stuff done.” His point, he said, "is we've had good cars in the past and just didn't do the strategy just right. Somebody did it better than us or somebody made it on fuel and won the race or what have you. But we’ve had some good cars here." Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing) and Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick) were fastest in the two practice sessions here this weekend as teams made preparations for Sunday's Crown Royal Presents, the John Wayne Walding 400 at the Brickyard (Sunday, 1 pm. ET, ESPN). Earnhardt Jr. was 24th in the opening session and fifth fastest during an abbreviated final practice. "I think the car is pretty good, it's just real easy to overdrive the car here," he said. "We made a run and it was great, and then the next couple of runs I over-drove the car and we weren't great, so (I've) just got to try to be patient with the throttle and try not to push the car into the corner and get the … front tires sliding too much. "If you're just a little bit tight, you add all that up all the way around the lap and that's a lot of time. You make one little mistake on the straightaways -- they're so long here -- and you can't recover until you get to the next corner. It's costly here if you over-drive the corners." Patience will be the key, he said, and his patience will be put to the test after qualifying 23rd. "This morning, we went out and the track was perfect," Earnhardt Jr. said after failing to advance out of the second knockout qualifying session. "That's why we ran such a good lap. When we run on a track like we got right now, we're just not as fast as we need to be. Cars real, real tight and slow. "Haven't been real happy all weekend. Qualifying's been a problem lately, especially the last couple months for us so just real frustrated, man. We've got to run better than this. We've got to figure out what's going on, and we've got to run better than this. It's getting really frustrating with not turning." • Earnhardt Jr. said talk about who will replace departing crew chief Steve Letarte continues, but to date there's been no "real serious discussion about it. "But I think the people involved in the decision-making have some great ideas, and the conversations are starting to happen, so we’ll see how that sort of works itself out," he said. Letarte announced in January that he would be departing at year's end to take a race analyst role with NBC Sports when the network begins its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race coverage in 2015. The two have won three races together, including this year's Daytona 500. A Brickyard victory would be special, Earnhardt Jr. said, but so would any victory. "Any race I win with Steve this year is very special because of (it being) his last year," he said. "So yeah, we’ll take … a win anywhere. "He's one of … the best on the box when it comes to strategy and this style of race and the way the tires are going to come into play into that, this is right in his wheelhouse. "I think he's going to give us a great opportunity." Troops entertain Junior, Rahal Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Graham Rahal are used to occasional fireworks when drivers get upset at the track. They saw the real thing Wednesday visiting Indiana National Guard troops at Camp Atterbury. They got an up-close look at some of the weapons and explosives used and they honored soldiers who recently committed to the National Guard and others who served in Afghanistan. The two drivers are sponsored by the National Guard, and they loved every moment. ''Oh yeah, they're entertaining us,'' Rahal said after setting off an explosive so big that mud and clay landed nearly 300 yards from the detonation site. ''We're not entertaining them. They're the experts, we're learning from them. It's very cool, very unique.'' Nearly 4,000 troops are in the middle of training at the camp 45 miles south of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Earnhardt will compete at the Brickyard this weekend. He and Rahal, an IndyCar driver, were scheduled to fly to the camp on a Blackhawk helicopter, but thunderstorms altered the plan. The drivers' first stop was with a brigade out of Evansville, where Earnhardt and Rahal fired a big Howitzer. ''Most of the time when we're out here shooting, we don't see anyone out here,'' said Matthew Gumbel, who instructed the two drivers on how to fire the weapon. ''It's great for the spirits of the solders.'' After taking a couple of shots, Earnhardt and Rahal presented the new recruits with replica cars. Earnhardt gave the brigade a signed car hood and Rahal presented a fire suit, and Earnhardt swore in six soldiers who recently committed six years to the National Guard. ''That was really overwhelming because I'm sure that opportunity will never come again,'' the Daytona 500 winner said. ''That was really a unique experience. I had the sign the (script) so I will never forget it.'' The drivers recognized soldiers from the 713th Engineer Company, where they detonated explosives, and did a question and answer session before honoring soldiers from the 219th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade. Earnhardt and Rahal left the base in the Blackhawk helicopter. ''It never gets old being able to come out here and see these guys in their environment,'' Earnhardt said. ''You get a real understanding of what's going on behind the scenes, how they train and how they prepare, and what the commitment is all about.'' For Junior at his best, top-10 is no longer good enough It was "the hardest I've ever worked for a 10th-place finish," said the driver who had just finished 10th for the 21st time in his career. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who first placed 10th in his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Richmond back in 1999, likely meant Sunday's 10th-place finish was a lot of hard work with a semi-acceptable result at the end of a long day. It's doubtful, although possible, that his 10th-place finish in the Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway was indeed the hardest-earned of his career. It was labor intensive, to be sure, with a late caution tightening up the field for one last charge, guys running out of gas before the restart and guys running out of gas after the restart. Inside the top 10 with less than 25 laps remaining, the Hendrick Motorsports driver and his No. 88 team were one of a handful hoping track position would play in their favor and provide a shot at the win. It didn't pan out, for the most part because Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski had the field covered for just about the entire afternoon. Keselowski continued to work his way to the front after pit stops dropped him back in the field. Few others, including Earnhardt, were able to accomplish similar feats. "It was real disappointing not to have the speed a lot of those other guys had," Earnhardt, twice a winner this season, said. "(Keselowski) and the (Joe) Gibbs (Racing) guys, they were all real fast. Hats off to them, because they surely got their cars figured out. It's just real frustrating all day long to be playing second fiddle." Second in points, Earnhardt clinched at least a top-30 points spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. With multiple wins, he's one of at least three Hendrick Motorsports drivers expected to be in the 16-team Chase field -- along with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon -- while teammate Kasey Kahne is winless this year, and currently 17th in points. "It feels great; it's an accomplishment. I'm proud of our team for that," Earnhardt said. "Hopefully we can improve, though, before we come back here." The New Hampshire track will host the second Chase race in September, "so we need to run better than this," Earnhardt said. Crew chief Steve Letarte said based on the previous day’s practice times, “we figured we were about a fifth- to 10th-place (car) … and that's probably about what we had today -- a fifth- to 10th-place car." The difference, he said, was the late caution that slowed the field with two laps remaining and sent it into overtime. The delay resulted in teammate Gordon running out of gas, which altered the positions for the final restart. "If he doesn't run out of gas, we restart on the top (lane) and probably run fourth behind the 42 (of Kyle Larson)," Letarte said. "Restarting on the bottom, green-white-checkers, (we) run 10th. "You can't really look at where anyone finished from about third on back, that's just how restarts go." Gordon, and a handful of others, gambled and tried to stretch their fuel mileage, bypassing pit road for track position during a caution at Lap 249. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Paul Menard and Greg Biffle also stayed out. Letarte said his team considered the option, "but we didn't get very good mileage. We were a long way off. … We wouldn't even have made it to the last caution (at Lap 298). "The race played out just the way we thought it would; the strategy played out just the way we thought it would," he said. "I think it proves that the 2 (of Keselowski) had a superior car that could get back up to the front. If he hadn't been as dominant, the fuel strategy still wins with the 18 (of Kyle Busch), I think." Although the Hendrick organization tested at New Hampshire, Sunday's results were less than expected. The strength of the Team Penske camp didn't go unnoticed. "Absolutely (it's a concern) when someone has that much speed," Letarte said. "But this sport goes through a lot of waves and the Chase is a long way away. "We'll just keep working on our stuff, figure it out, come back and try to be better." Earnhardt agreed "We will keep working," he said. "Tenth place? I'm really disappointed, but I remember when we used to like these." Driver Reports: Previewing the Loudon race 2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is second in the standings with 624 points. Current Chase seed: 2 Past five races: 14th at Daytona, 5th at Kentucky, 3rd at Sonoma, 7th at Michigan, 1st at Pocono. Season stats: 2 wins, 9 top-fives, 12 top-10s. Track history: At New Hampshire, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 13.8 and his average running position is 11.7 over the past nine years. In 29 career starts at New Hampshire, he has seven top-fives and 12 top-10s. Quick hit: It's a little puzzling that Junior does not have a win here, because this is statistically one of his best tracks. A look at the numbers reveals a driver who is more consistent than dynamic, though. His average running position is fifth in the series, but he has trouble closing it out -- he's never finished second at this track, and of his seven top-fives, only one is third-place finish. Dale Jr., Patrick up for Nickelodeon Sports Awards NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick have been nominated for the inaugural Nickelodeon Kids' Sports Awards. Dale Jr. was nominated for "Best Male Athlete," while Patrick for "Best Female Athlete." The two drivers are going up against stars such as Lindsay Vonn, Serena Williams, Tom Brady and LeBron James for the titles. Patrick has won the "Favorite Female Athlete" award at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 2008, 2012 and 2013. The awards will be televised live on Nickeolodeon on Thursday, July 17 at 8 p.m. ET. Fans can vote online here. Wreck, rain deny Earnhardt's Daytona sweep When the caution came out, the No. 88 car ducked onto pit road for a splash of fuel. The move cost Dale Earnhardt Jr. a few spots on the race track, but it would also allow him to run to the finish once the latest pesky shower moved away from Daytona International Speedway. That was the thinking, at least -- until the skies opened and dumped buckets on NASCAR's most famous race track. While Aric Almirola celebrated his first career Sprint Cup Series victory and the first for the storied No. 43 car in more than a decade, Earnhardt's yeoman attempt at rallying from an early accident ended with a 14th-place finish in Sunday's weather-postponed -- and ultimately, weather-shortened -- event. The reigning Daytona 500 champion returned to Daytona with a chance to become just the fifth driver to sweep both annual events at the 2.5-mile facility, following in the footsteps of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson -- who last year was the first person to record that feat since 1982. But the day turned problematic from almost the beginning, when Earnhardt was among 16 drivers involved in an early pileup, twice fell off the lead lap, once lost the draft, and still managed to pull his way back into the mix -- until rain finally ended the event, much to Earnhardt's chagrin. "I want to get out there and see if we can get a good finish. Anybody can still win this race," he said during the delay before the race was called 48 laps from the scheduled finish. "My car is pretty torn up. The left-front splitter looks a little high, and I think the balance on the car is really tight so when I get in the pack and get behind guys real close, I've got to use up a lot of race track on exit of corners. We've got to figure out what we can do to get better there. But hopefully the rain goes away, and we get going. "Anybody can still win it. Anything can happen. There can still be another big wreck. I just don't know how it's going to stack up." After about an hour of waiting out a thunderstorm that initially affected primarily the backstretch, the whole track was drenched and Earnhardt's hopes of getting back out there were dashed. "Well that's that," he wrote on Twitter. "Weather was a real pain in the ass all weekend. Congrats to (Almirola) on his win. Great guy. Deserving. On to NH." Earnhardt started seventh, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Tony Stewart tangled near the front of the pack, igniting a huge accident that impacted a number of strong cars in the race -- the No. 88 among them. "We were going to be fine on that first wreck, but we got run over," Earnhardt said. Still, the damage seemed less severe than it first appeared. "It’s really not that bad," crew chief Steve Letarte reported. "We've just got to get the splitter up." The ensuing stop for repairs forced Earnhardt to lose a lap, but the team remained optimistic. "We didn’t hit anything really hard, we just hit a lot of stuff really easy," Letarte said after the race. "It tore the left-front off, right-front off, and both quarterpanels. But we were getting it repaired piece by piece." Earnhardt got his lap back thanks to a free pass due to a debris caution, although his team continued to make repairs to the car. But Letarte held the car a few seconds too long on one stop, and Earnhardt lost the draft as a result. The driver remained positive -- "I still love y'all," he told his crew as he lingered roughly eight seconds behind the main pack -- and Letarte told him to hold it wide open and wait for another caution. Earnhardt lost another lap, but again got it back on another caution for debris. And being near the back of the field proved beneficial when Kasey Kahne and Joey Logano tangled to spark a massive 26-car melee that vaulted Earnhardt suddenly to 10th. On a weekend when action was interrupted several times by rain, many believed the shower that ultimately ended the race would blow through, and Earnhardt was among those itching to get back on the track. With two victories in hand this season, Letarte pitted for fuel under the ensuing caution, setting up his driver for a potential run to the end. "We're here to win," the crew chief said afterward. "We were close enough to our fuel window that it gave us an opportunity to get opposite from the leaders." They never got the opportunity to put that strategy to use, and Earnhardt was thwarted in his attempt for a first career Daytona sweep -- not that the No. 88 was fixated on that statistic anyway. "It would have been another win," Letarte said. "We'll take another win any way we can get it. It's funny, the fans and the media make a lot about all those little intricacies, like sweeping at a race track or this or that. As a race team, you have no idea. You just go and try to win every week." Driver Reports: Previewing the Daytona race 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is third in the standings with 594 points. Current Chase seed: 2 Past five races: 5th at Kentucky, 3rd at Sonoma, 7th at Michigan, 1st at Pocono, 9th at Dover. Season stats: 2 wins, 9 top-fives, 12 top-10s. Track history: At Daytona, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 13.4 and his average running position is 14.0 over the past nine years. In 29 career starts at Daytona, he has three wins, 11 top-fives, 17 top-10s and one pole. Quick hit: Junior is attempting to become the second driver in consecutive seasons -- and sixth in NASCAR history -- to sweep the two Daytona races. Jimmie Johnson accomplished the feat last year, possibly setting up his Hendrick Motorsports teammate to keep the trend going in-house. It's a realistic expectation. The No. 88 was sparkling in the Daytona 500, and it was among the best cars at Talladega before being foiled by pit strategy. The team won't make that mistake again. TWITTER PRO It's been a little more than four months since Dale Earnhardt Jr. started tweeting, and the two-time and reigning Daytona 500 champion doesn't seem to be losing interest. Junior's Twitter following has grown from 235,000 to more than 700,000 and counting. ''Sometimes I feel like I'm tweeting too much,'' he said Thursday. ''Sometimes I think Twitter has got filters on my account to keep me from seeing all the negative stuff. It's fun. It's been so positive. I really underestimated how enjoyable it would be. I enjoy sharing what I think's cool and what's important to me, and I enjoy seeing that feedback and having that conversational interaction about topics.'' NASCAR's most popular driver had been reluctant to participate in social media for years. But he promised he would join Twitter if he won the Daytona 500. And after winning NASCAR's most prestigious race for the second time in February, he followed through. He's sent more than 3,200 tweets since. ''It taps you into the heartbeat of everything, whether it's what's going on in here or what's going in the garage or what some of the executives are thinking,'' he said. ''It really gives you an idea of what direction everyone is going in. It's pretty neat. I'm having fun with it. I'm just trying not to make any missteps. It's been very positive.'' Earnhardt still embarrassed over Talladega finish It had been 31 years since a driver won both Daytona races in the same season when Jimmie Johnson pulled off the Sprint Cup Series sweep. A year later, his teammate wants to complete the feat. But for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Coke Zero 400, he can't race the way he did at Talladega Superspeedway in May. The Daytona 500 winner went to Talladega thinking he'd win another restrictor plate race, but instead finished 26th in a performance that still haunted him Thursday when he showed up at Daytona International Speedway. ''It's embarrassing man, I hate to talk about it,'' Earnhardt said before the first of two practice sessions for Saturday night's race. ''The way we ran and what I chose to do at the end of the race was just uncharacteristic really of anybody that is in the field trying to compete. I just got really frustrated with the way things were working out for us and lost sight of the overall big picture and what you're out there trying to do and who all is out there depending on you to do what you need to do. I learned some lessons.'' He'll attempt to apply the lessons in the 400-miler Saturday night, where he'll most likely race hard and try to lead much the same way he did when he won the season-opening Daytona 500. The February race had a frantic pace because of a rain stoppage that lasted 6 hours, 22 minutes. When the racing resumed, Earnhardt was determined to win his second Daytona 500. Earnhardt led six times for a race-high 54 laps - all after the rain delay - and ended a 55-race losing streak that dated to 2012 with the win. But at Talladega, he wasn't at all the same racer. Earnhardt led 26 laps early and gambled he'd have no trouble making it back through the traffic when he was shuffled to the rear. When it became clear he had his work cut out for him, Earnhardt opted to take it easy and nurse his Chevrolet home for a clean finish. Fans were livid. ''I think I got real selfish at Talladega and what the result and how the result affected anyone I never took into account,'' he said. ''I really just was out there thinking more about me and what I thought and what I wanted to do and how frustrated I was. ''I forgot that there's a team behind me depending on me and a lot of fans there to see us race and show up to spend their hard earned money. Definitely was a difficult thing to go through.'' Earnhardt has eight wins at plate tracks - four behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for the active-driver lead - and wants another win. Johnson, who goes into Saturday night with three wins in the last six races, believes his teammate has a shot at the sweep. Before Johnson did it last year, the last driver to sweep Daytona was Bobby Allison in 1982. ''If I don't have a chance to win the race, I wouldn't mind if he did,'' Johnson said. ''He's going to be fast. He's going to be strong and have a very good opportunity to win. That stat went 30 years for a reason. It's not easy because in plate racing, anything can happen. He's the one who gave me that phrase about 'If I make it to the white, and you're in the picture, you have a shot at winning.' If he can make it to the white he will definitely be a threat.'' Earnhardt is aware of the ability to sweep, and recognizes how difficult it would be to complete. ''I would love to sweep the races at Daytona because that is a cool thing, but I just love winning here,'' he said. ''To go to Victory Lane here, regardless of what we did in February, would mean a lot to me. I expect that we will try to do the best thing that we can to help us strategy-wise so that we are toward the front.'' Dale Jr. talks strategy, tradition in Daytona return The last time Dale Earnhardt Jr. was at Daytona International Speedway he was busy becoming a Twitter phenomenon, inventing the Victory Lane "selfie" and, oh yeah, winning the Daytona 500. With the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series shifting south to the birthplace of American stock car racing, Earnhardt finds himself in the midst a five-race stretch of supremacy that rivals the start of his 2014 campaign, when he burst out of the gate with the Daytona win and a pair of runner-ups at Phoenix and Las Vegas. This recent string of solid results has resulted in an average finish of 5.0 and includes his first career win at Pocono and top-five at Sonoma, where the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet hadn't fared well in the past. It's another reminder that Earnhardt is enjoying perhaps his best season to date and looks like one of a select few drivers among the championship favorites at this point of the season. With another statement finish in Saturday's Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT) he could further cement his title-contender status. "I'm looking forward to it," Earnhardt said Saturday night after his fifth-place finish at Kentucky Speedway. "Daytona in July, man. Great weather, kind of a laid-back weekend. Hopefully the cars are sliding around a little bit and we're driving them a little bit in this race. … I've won there before, but you love going there. Such a great place. You get a great feeling in your heart when you go there as a driver and as a person involved in the sport. It's just a beautiful facility and a lot of great history there. I really appreciate that about it and that's what makes me look forward to going there." While the 2.5-mile Daytona track is sometimes viewed as one of the easiest to drive, mainly because of the minimal braking and steering, Earnhardt explained that the aging surface is starting to create a more challenging driving experience -- but also a better race. "Every time we go back to Daytona, we anticipate the asphalt sort of giving up more and more and hopefully giving us a bit of a challenge in the corners" he said. "The race itself, even though we've won the Daytona 500 and we've been successful there, the race itself is a challenge and hopefully one that we can succeed at. It's not easy to win those plate races with the way the package works now. You've really got to be out front late and we can't be coming down pit road and giving up track position. We've got to figure out a way to where we're in the lead when there's no more pitting to be done. ... It seemed like in the 500, we had enough race car to really hold off anybody to battle for and keep the lead. We need that lead late in the race instead of being back there, stuck in a box, sort of, in traffic." One of Earnhardt's only missteps this season came at fellow restrictor-plate track Talladega Superspeedway where -- despite leading the second-most laps -- he finished 26th after a late stop for fuel doomed the Hendrick Motorsports driver. Having learned from that mistake, he and crew chief Steve Letarte will likely have a different strategy come Saturday and be ready to roll into Victory Lane once more. "I know we circled that one on the calendar because of the mess that we had in Talladega and how I chose to run that race," Earnhardt said, "So I've got a point to prove when I go back to Daytona, I'm going to drive it up in there and see what happens." Dale Jr. praises team for top-five at Kentucky Dale Earnhardt Jr. did practically nothing of note on the race track leading into Saturday night's Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway. His practice times were uninspiring -- 14th and 19th in the two Friday sessions -- and he qualified his No. 88 Chevrolet a distant 29th. With the exception of 30th at Talladega, it was his worst starting position of the year. How then did the Hendrick Motorsports driver wind up fifth when the checkered flag finally appeared? "I'm proud of my team, man," Earnhardt Jr., 39, said on pit road following the race. "I didn't think we were going to be very good. We weren't good yesterday. I could tell you I didn't have any answers." Fortunately, others did. Crew chief Steve Letarte and the team's engineers came up with a lengthy list of changes to be made prior to the race. Notes from the teams of teammates Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne were studied. "It's not like throwing darts; we had somewhat of an idea," Letarte said afterward. "But still, you don't sleep great changing that much stuff." Earnhardt Jr. broke into the top 20 thanks to a two-tire pit stop just before Lap 30 of the 267-lap event. He was inside the top 10 by Lap 80, again after quick pit work by his crew. He remained there for the remainder of the race. "Those guys were gaining spots for me every stop," he said. "Even when we were taking four tires, we were beating a lot of guys off pit road. They're just a great group and deserve a lot of credit." His final stop came under green-flag conditions, just before the night's sixth and final caution appeared when Aric Almirola tagged the wall. When the race resumed, Earnhardt Jr. was third beecause most of the leaders had yet to come to pit road. Restarting on the inside wasn't an issue (Earnhardt Jr. fell outside the top five on the restart) according to Letarte. "It was a gain," Letarte said of the green-flag stop. "We needed to get our car better on the first couple of laps there. He said he didn't get a great restart, but it looked like it was a little low on grip, too. So that hurt us. But still a top five, we'll take it." His driver couldn't reel in eventual race winner Brad Keselowski, but then again, neither could anyone else. Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Matt Kenseth were second through fourth. It was Earnhardt Jr.'s 12th top-10 finish and ninth top-five. He remains third in points -- both he and teammate Johnson have 594 points while Gordon still leads, now by 24. "I don't know really how good it was," Earnhardt Jr. said of his car. "I just don't feel real comfortable here. I haven't driven a car that I really thought I liked (here), so I don't know what I'm looking for at this place yet." The track might be a bit more bumpy than most, but "it throws everybody a bit of a curveball," he said. "Some people figure it out and some people don't. I'm one of the drivers that appreciate a good, slick race track, a good, old surface." Driver Reports: Previewing the Kentucky race 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is third in the standings with 555 points. Current Chase seed: 2 Past five races: 3rd at Sonoma, 7th at Michigan, 1st at Pocono, 9th at Dover, 19th at Charlotte. Season stats: 2 wins, 8 top-fives, 11 top-10s. Track history: At Kentucky, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 15.3 and his average running position is 13.7 over the past three years. In three career starts at Kentucky, he has one top-five, one top-10 and one pole. Quick hit: Forgot Junior's fluke fiery crash at Texas -- like his Hendrick Motorsports teammates above him in the standings, his speed on intermediate tracks has been there all season. HMS has proven to be a step above every other team with its horsepower in 2014. Having all four of its drivers finish in the top seven this week (like at Sonoma) might be too much to ask. The top 10? It's a feasible, if not reasonable, thought. Johnson, Dale Jr. both up for ESPYs Best Driver NASCAR Sprint Cup Series veterans Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have been nominated for this year's ESPY Awards. Johnson is up for both Best Driver and Best Championship Performance awards, while Dale Jr. is in the running with Johnson for Best Driver. Johnson has won the Best Driver award four times, the first coming in 2008 after winning his third Sprint Cup Series championship. Much like his championships, he has won the Best Driver award consecutively from 2008-2011. Johnson also has won Driver of the Year five times (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013). Johnson is also in contention for Best Championship Performance with NBA Finals MVP and San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, NCAA Tournament MOP Shabazz Napier and World Series MVP and Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz. Although Dale Earnhardt Jr. has never won the Best Driver award, he does have a powerful fan base -- powerful enough to win NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award 11 consecutive years (2003-2013). Fans are able to vote here from now until July 16 at 9 p.m. ET. Fans only get one vote per category so choose wisely. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gets Back on Track for NASCAR Glory Dale Earnhardt Jr. rode into Victory Lane at Pocono Raceway on June 8, enjoying what is looking a lot like the best season of his NASCAR Sprint Cup career. His triumph in that race was his second of the season, meaning he'd already won as many races this year as he had the seven previous seasons combined. And with this year's points system favoring wins much more than consistency, Earnhardt is now a lock to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff that begins in September. Earnhardt is grateful in his celebration. "[When I] thank those guys on my team, I really mean it," he says of his crew. "Especially Steve Letarte — this is his last year." Letarte, Earnhardt's crew chief since 2011, has helped engineer a racing renaissance in his driver. He will leave at the end of this season to join NBC's on-camera lineup when the network begins its NASCAR coverage in 2015. And all the sweat and effort have led to this: a final campaign with Earnhardt that began with a season-opening Daytona 500 win on Feb. 23. As the circuit returns to Daytona July 5 for the midseason race (on TNT), ­Earnhardt — who is more committed than ever to finding enough speed to win ­races — senses a different clock ticking. The 11-time winner of NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award would like nothing more than to add his first Sprint Cup to the mantle. Thanks to Letarte's guidance on the track and at the shop — and, just as important, the steadying influence of Amy Reimann, his girlfriend for the past several years — Earnhardt has come to embrace the ­inspirational power of hard work and ­contentment. And, when the season ends, Earnhardt hopes to finish what he started at the Daytona 500, with Letarte by his side. "Standing in Victory Lane after the Daytona 500, I thought, 'This whole season needs to be like this,'" Earnhardt said at Pocono, two days before his win. "We need to do ­whatever we can to make this season be as good as it can be." There's no doubt in anyone's mind — least of all Earnhardt's — that he is operating in a different gear now. For years, he spoke about a greater sense of maturity in his life as if it were more an aspiration than reality. He displayed a kind of ­impulsiveness that, by his own ­admission, no longer fits a man who turns 40 on Oct. 10. "I find myself looking back in the past at my morals and values and priorities and wondering why I did things a certain way," says Earnhardt, who has done his share of partying at Whisky River, the bar he owns in Charlotte. "It's not so much regret — I had a lot of fun. But some people get it right away and I sat there and was a frat boy for 10 years and didn't mature as quickly as maybe I should have. I look back and it's like a totally different life." Things hit a crescendo when he signed with racing team Hendrick Motorsports before the 2008 season — after ugly contract negotiations over ownership issues with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, ultimately led to his gut-wrenching decision to leave Dale Earnhardt Inc., the company founded by his legendary racer father. Three seasons later, after working with two different crew chiefs, he'd earned a total of one victory in the most ­aimless period of his driving career. That's when team owner Rick Hendrick made the savvy move to switch up his race shops, putting Earnhardt in with perennial champ Jimmie Johnson and then choosing Letarte — who had been Jeff Gordon's crew chief — to work with Earnhardt. ­Earnhardt and his crew became more inclined to share race ­information with Johnson and his powerhouse team, led by crew chief Chad Knaus. Gordon had won 10 races in five and a half seasons with Letarte and had a second-place ranking in 2007, but by 2011, they were not ­always on the same page. Hendrick hoped that ­Letarte's excessively ­positive attitude would rub off on Earnhar "Conveniently, our personalities align well enough and we became friends the first year," Letarte says. "That allowed us to be real honest on the professional side and respect the amount of work we each put in. You have to really believe the other guy is trying as hard as he can." That effort did not come easily. The 2011 season started off poorly; two races in, Earnhardt was suddenly dogged by the idea that nothing might reverse the awful frustrations of the previous seasons. Then, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, something clicked, and he recognized his put-up-or-shut-up moment had arrived. "We were struggling in practice," he says. "And I just thought, 'I need to push all my chips in with Steve. There can't be any reason this won't work. If my guys are there working, I need to be there.' I didn't wanna have any regrets. I knew this was the last straw for me." Inspired by Letarte's calm but firm hand, Junior began a turnaround. "Dale hung out with all of us. We made some changes for that Sunday; we went out and ran solidly," Letarte recalls. "And that was the first time we really believed in ourselves." For more with Dale Earnhardt Jr., pick up this week's issue of TV Guide Magazine, on newsstands Thursday, June 26! Dale Jr. claims personal victory at Sonoma Dale Earnhardt Jr. climbed out of his well-used No. 88 Kelley Blue Book Chevy on Sonoma Raceway pit road, surveyed the random dents and "new" paint job, and told a couple of his Hendrick Motorsports crewmen that this third-place finish here actually felt more like a win. It was Earnhardt's career-best effort on the 1.99-mile road course overlooking Northern California's vineyards and dramatically bettered his previous top finish of 11th. And while Earnhardt humbly credited much of the result to good strategy and fresh tires, it was also one of his more skillful driving exhibitions on a track that most often has befuddled and bewildered him. "I told (crew chief) Steve (Letarte) I think I figured out what the trick is to being a really, really good crew chief is to call the season like it's your last because his strategy is aggressive and a little bit out of the box, and that pays off in most cases because if you do everything everybody else is doing, you're racing a lot more people trying to do everything else they're doing," Earnhardt said, of his "lame duck" crew chief who is off to the NBC television booth next season. "When you do something different and get off the pattern pit-wise, get off the strategy and stuff, it allows you to be a lot more aggressive." It was a trait Earnhardt used effectively on the track as well. And had to. Earnhardt started 17th -- none of the Hendrick Motorsports cars advanced beyond the first session of qualifying -- and doggedly made his way through the field -- sometimes participating in the bump-and-bang that has increasingly characterized NASCAR's brand of road racing. He collided in Turn 7 with one of his good friends, Matt Kenseth, just past the race's midpoint, sending Kenseth's car hard into a tire wall and the former series champ home early and dejected. "My car had the tires and I was able to drive by those guys at the end, but I had an eventful race, and I tore Matt Kenseth's car up pretty bad jumping that curb," Earnhardt said. "I was racing him a little hard there coming out of Turn 7. He probably had the preferred line and I probably should have yielded to him, but I thought I was a little bit faster than him and didn't want to be stuck behind him. "I straddled a curb, and it just lost my car in the air right into his car. I hope he's not too sore today." Kenseth, who like Earnhardt has never won at Sonoma, was obviously frustrated and disappointed, but not angry. " I knew he (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) was on my right side," Kenseth said. "On the restart we were side-by-side and I got him going into (turn) seven and left him plenty of room when we were racing side-by-side. "He tapped me on my right rear and wrecked me. I don’t know if he got out of the groove with his car -- I don’t really know what happened and it doesn’t matter at this point. Unfortunately it ended our day.” Earnhardt also had a little run-in -- literally -- with AJ Allmendinger with a handful of laps remaining. Allmendinger's No. 47 Kingsford Chevy got the worse end of the deal ricocheting off cars while the front-running group raced hard out of the track's famed hairpin turn. "We led a lot of laps today and we were good enough to win the thing no doubt," said Allmendinger, who led a race best 35 of the 110 laps. "It's just disappointing the way our day ended and to leave Sonoma with a car that's tore up." Earnhardt saw the incident as just a typical racing situation. "He wheel-hopped my left rear tire and that spun him out. Other than that we beat and banged a little bit, everything that you normally see here. "I had a lot of fun other than the deal with Matt made me pretty sick. But other than that it was a fun day." He later posted on his Twitter account, "That's the only people I probably pissed off today. I think. Hard to run @RaceSonoma and not have that effect on a few people. #NoIntention." Beyond the usual mea culpa and explanations, Earnhardt will surely feel more good than woeful about his afternoon. He answered more critics than he created. "Aside from holding a trophy, this is like a win for us," Earnhardt said. "We came in here and knew we had a good car throughout practice. I've been in the top-10 in a lot of these races with two or three laps to go but we've just never been able to finish. "So to be clear of the mess and just have an advantage with the tires at the end, there was a lot of confidence. Knowing we were going to be able to wrap it up or feel like we were in good position to wrap it up felt really good." On his way to the airport from the race track, Earnhardt posted this on his Twitter account: ".@DaleJr ran 3rd @sonoma. Said no one ever. Till today. Proud of the #88 team. Great car. Great effort. Cold one in my future." And well deserved. Driver Reports: Previewing the Sonoma race 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is third in the standings with 514 points. Past five races: 7th at Michigan, 1st at Pocono, 9th at Dover, 19th at Charlotte, 5th at Kansas. Season stats: 2 wins, 7 top-fives, 10 top-10s. Track history: At Sonoma, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 22.9 and his average running position is 22.4 over the past nine years. In 14 career starts at Sonoma, his best finish is 11th (three times). Quick hit: Stunningly, this isn't Dale Jr.'s worst track on the circuit if one were to judge by average finish. No, that would be Watkins Glen -- which is of little consolation considering both are road courses. Junior simply has never been able to outmaneuver most of the other veterans here. His finish of 12th last year gave him six career top-15 finishes at Sonoma, and that should be his goal Sunday. Tires take Dale Jr. to top five in Nationwide Dale Earnhardt Jr. called it a good day. Said it was a good finish for the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team at Michigan International Speedway. "That was the way to go," NASCAR's 11-time Most Popular Driver said of a fuel-only pit strategy during the latter stages of Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series Ollie's Bargain Outlet 250. Earnhardt Jr. finished third. Had restarted second. And looked like he would finish fourth. Until race leader Joey Logano had a flat tire. The tires "weren't wearing out," according to Earnhardt Jr., thus the call for fuel only during the final pit stop of the day with less than 40 laps remaining. Differing pit strategy at that point shook up the running order of the race. Logano and Earnhardt Jr. were among those bypassing the tire rack on the last stop. Kyle Larson, who was dominant for a good portion of the race, took tires and restarted 15th; Kyle Busch did the same and was 17th; Chase Elliott fell back to 16th. Those three rallied, but didn't have the time, or the laps, to contend for the win. "The tires were tough, real durable," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We didn't have to put a lot of fuel in the car, so no need to waste time putting tires on. And we got a ton of track position -- went from like ninth or eighth to second. "That was a big deal." The third-place finish was Earnhardt Jr.'s third top-five in four starts this season. Besides an 11th-place result at Daytona in February, he finished fourth at Las Vegas and fifth at Texas. "(The car) didn't have the balance that we had yesterday," he said. "But (we had) real good strategy, and it was a good finish for us. "It just runs so much slower here compared to the (Sprint) Cup car," he said of the Nationwide entry. "Like at Charlotte, I don't think there's that big of a margin between the speeds; here it was almost two seconds during practice. It's just so underpowered; you just drive it right through the corner. "We were running wide open through (turns) three and four today. It just drives easier. The Cup cars seem to be a little bit trickier to balance, to get a good feel." Earnhardt Jr. will start third in Sunday's Quicken Loans 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (1 p.m. ET, TNT) at MIS. Can Dale Jr. overcome Ford's dominance at Michigan? Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going for back-to-back wins, and that's all some folks need to know about the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway. There are, of course, more story lines that will play out on the two-mile track located in the Irish Hills. But the fortunes of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ most popular driver are certainly a hot topic. Made even hotter by his most recent win, which came just at week ago at Pocono Raceway. It was his second victory of the 2014 season, and matched his total win output since donning the Hendrick Motorsports logo in 2008. He has only two seasons with more than two wins, both while racing for Dale Earnhardt Inc. In 2001, he won three times and he took six checkered flags in ’04. In a season that’s seen no one team break out and dominate, can the son of a seven-time champion exceed his fans' heavy expectations? "Definitely, that’s new," the 39-year-old Earnhardt Jr. admitted on Friday at MIS. "That's the new conversation topic for us, but I just want to win the next one. "We have so much fun winning and going to Victory Lane, and last week was so much fun with the feeling that you have inside and that you have for several hours after that. "It’s like the best feeling ever. And I want to do it again; I want to do it now, this weekend." Earnhardt will start third. He is one of 14 drivers in the 43-car field that have won at Michigan. Also among them is Kevin Harvick, who set a blistering pace with a track qualifying record lap of 204.557 mph on Friday. But fast cars haven't always resulted in success for Harvick, competing out of the Stewart-Haas Racing camp. Twice a winner this season (at Phoenix and Darlington), Harvick's No. 4 Chevrolet has been slowed on several occasions this season by one issue or another. If the setbacks are wearing on the driver, he's been able to keep it to himself. "In my career, I've won a lot of races that I probably shouldn't have … and lost a lot that (I) should have won," Harvick said. "But you just have to keep plugging along week by week." Both the good and the bad are only temporary. "Monday morning, you'd better forget what you did last week because you've got to worry about the week coming," he said. The top of the starting lineup is heavy with teams carrying the General Motors banner – four of the top five and six of the top 10. But Michigan's long been considered a Ford track, a fact to which even the GM brass will occasionally, if somewhat grudgingly, admit. The last three races here have seen Ford drivers in Victory Lane. Joey Logano of Team Penske won the last time out, while Roush Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle won the August stop in 2012 and the June race of ’13. Ford and, for a time Mercury, drivers have won more than half of the 89 Cup races contested at MIS. Brad Keselowski, the 2012 series champ, Team Penske teammate Logano and Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards have put Ford in the winner's circle this year. "Certainly the Penske guys are running well with very similar cars," Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush said Friday, "and we've just got to get back to where we need to be. "This business cycles. We’ve had times when we've been the cars to beat for an extended period of time to everybody's frustration, and now we're just struggling to get back to where we need to be." Richard Petty Motorsports' Aric Almirola had the fastest Ford in qualifying, and will start fourth. Toyota drivers, winless since Denny Hamlin's victory at Talladega, will take the green flag from a bit deeper in the field, with Brian Vickers (Michael Waltrip Racing) leading the charge from 10th. Joe Gibbs Racing's Matt Kenseth, second in points, will start 21st. Earnhardt leaves Newman momentarily stranded Ryan Newman made it to Michigan, no thanks to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Newman thought he had arranged a ride on Earnhardt's plane Friday morning. The problem was that Earnhardt forgot about that and left Newman at the Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina. Newman said he arrived before the scheduled 8:30 a.m. departure, but the plane was already gone. He was able to find former NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett's plane and get a ride on that. Earnhardt says the takeoff time for his plane was moved a half-hour earlier because of media commitments. He tweeted: ''Imma pay for this one. I'm hoping and praying that the reason (at)RyanJNewman isn't responding to my text are because he is at 40,000 feet.'' Junior leaves Ryan Newman stranded at airport Ryan Newman, meet Kevin McCallister, the forgotten child in "Home Alone." Dale Earnhardt Jr., possibly still on cloud nine after picking up his second victory of the season last Sunday at Pocono Raceway and not thinking clearly, took off for Michigan International Speedway Friday morning to prepare for a busy weekend ahead. He then realized, once the plane was at approximately 40,000 feet, that he forgot one of his carry-ons: Newman. @DaleJr : Weekend started off on wrong foot. Left @RyanJNewman at the airport. Forgot he was riding with us. Imma pay for this one. It was clear from Junior's Twitter updates he felt bad about the mistake. @DaleJr : I'm hoping and praying that the reason @RyanJNewman isn't responding to my text are because he is at 40,000 feet. Please be at 40,000 feet. When Earnhardt came in for his Friday press conference, it naturally led to questions about Newman's current location and if he'd heard from the driver of the No. 31 Chevrolet. "No, I don't know. Is he here?," Earnhardt asked. "Let me check my phone. Oh, he did (text me). He says, 'I should've texted last night.' I still don't know where he's at." And now, for the explanation as to how this "Home Alone"-esque situation transpired: "This is what happened. And this is the honest truth. On Tuesday he asked me if he could take a ride to the race track, which is common for drivers to do that and we were leaving at 8:30 and that's what it said on my calendar. And then since Tuesday we've added some media to this morning and so my PR guy Mike Hoag moved take-off time to 8 o'clock and I didn't know about it, I didn't look at my calendar and when I got up this morning, I didn't look at the clock, I just got in the shower and went downstairs, drove to the airport and got on the plane. I forgot about Ryan. Even if we were taking off at 8:30 and he wasn't there, I probably would've left him. He should've texted me last night. I think he got a ride. That was unfortunate for sure, but it happens." Newman comes into the media center for his availability later today at 1 p.m. ET, so be sure to tune in to NASCAR Press Pass to hear the Richard Childress Racing driver's side of the story. Dale Jr. presents sponsor with 'super' honor (Video) Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had National Guard as one of his primary sponsor since he came to Hendrick Motorsports for the 2008 Sprint Cup Series season. He also ran a National Guard/Superman paint scheme at Charlotte last month and is running the same paint scheme this weekend at Michigan. So it was only fitting that Dale Jr. inducted his long-time sponsor into the Superman Hall of Heroes. "Inducting the National Guard into the Hall of Heroes just seemed like a natural fit," Earnhardt said. The Superman Hall of Heroes is a place where you can go online to supermanhallofheroes.com and induct someone or something or a group of people that you believe truly represents what a hero stands for. And the Guard, our military fighting for us everyday and protecting our country and our freedoms, represents that to a T." Earnhardt takes great pride and responsibility in representing his sponsor well. "I take a lot of responsibility in representing them and trying to represent them well, trying to help people understand the opportunities that the Guard can deliver and trying to help people understand more about serving in the Guard and what that entails so that they may be able to make that choice for themselves." Watch the video below to see clips of Earnhardt Jr. presenting members of the National Guard with the honor. Dale Jr., Elliotts team up for NAPA ad (Video) NASCAR Nationwide Series rookie sensation Chase Elliott has taken the series by storm this season with two wins. The 18-year-old has an impressive racing background -- his father, Bill Elliott, is a former premier series champion and part of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2015. Chase Elliott drives for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Nationwide Series team, JR Motorsports. The two-time Daytona 500 winner has been very complimentary of the younger Elliott and seems to enjoy serving as a mentor. (Interesting note: "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" won the National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver Award 16 times, most among all winners, and Earnhardt has won the award the past 11 years.) Together, Chase Elliott, Bill Elliott and Earnhardt teamed up for a NAPA Auto Parts commercial. The company serves as the primary sponsor for Elliott's No. 9 Chevrolet. The teaser shows Chase walking between Dale Jr. and Bill Elliott as the hashtag #wheniwas18 appears. The hairstyles Dale Jr. and Bill Elliott are sporting will catch your attention. The full ad is coming soon, according to a JR Motorsports tweet. Driver Reports: Previewing the Quicken Loans 400 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is third in the standings with 476 points. Past five races: 1st at Pocono, 9th at Dover, 19th at Charlotte, 5th at Kansas, 26th at Talladega. Season stats: 2 wins, 7 top-fives, 9 top-10s. Track history: At Michigan, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 13.4 and his average running position is 12.8 over the past nine years. In 29 career starts at Michigan, he has two wins, six top-fives, 10 top-10s and two poles. Quick hit: Coming off the second win of his season, Junior heads to arguably his best track on the circuit. It was at Michigan where he ended long winless streaks in both 2008 and 2012. Given how well he's running and how high his confidence is, Junior is in excellent position to join teammate Jimmie Johnson as drivers with back-to-back wins this year. Any questions? Junior a legitimate title contender Compared to February's emotional, dramatic and much-celebrated Daytona 500 victory, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s maiden trip to Victory Lane at Pocono Raceway on Sunday was modest and business-like. And every bit as significant. It wasn't the big trophy but the small sticker that Earnhardt received and placed above the driver's door that will most affect his immediate fortunes. It simply says "WINNER," and he joins the elite of the elite with two of those stickers in 2014. For those that might have scoffed at his Daytona win because it came on Earnhardt's personal playground -- the restrictor-plate Daytona and Talladega speedways -- the win at Pocono further serves notice that he should be considered a serious player for the 2014 Sprint Cup championship. The two victories bookend one of his best starts to a season. Sunday marked Earnhardt's series-best sixth top-three finish in the No. 88 Chevrolet. He has three runner-up finishes (Phoenix, Las Vegas, Darlington) in addition to his wins. He couldn't have timed his first multi-win season in a decade any better considering the impact and importance on the new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format that rewards winners with a berth in the playoffs. "It's elusive, man,'' Earnhardt conceded about his first two-win season since 2004. This year it is also a game-changer. "We started out the season when we won at Daytona and it made the rest of the year a lot more relaxing, a lot easier, less stress and it makes it fun because you can just go to the race track and just race and not worry about points,'' Earnhardt said. "Now having two wins is going to make it even easier, a lot less stress, a lot less stress on the team and I think that could be a good thing going into the Chase. "I mean, not only are we able to relax right now. … that's got to be positive for our composure and psyche going into the Chase, not having to stress all the way through into Richmond, you know?" It's never been easy for Earnhardt, who has simultaneously created and alienated the largest fan base in NASCAR. Thanks primarily to the massive and vocal "Junior Nation," he is an 11-time Most Popular Driver Award winner. Yet, he gets harshly -- and unfairly -- criticized if he doesn't run up front every week. "I'm turning 40 this year and the overrated talk is way behind me,'' Earnhardt said Sunday. "That used to bother me when I was younger, but when you get old you don't really care anymore about those kind of things. I feel like I'm such a lucky guy to have this second opportunity almost, to be competitive again and so I don't really worry about the detractors.'' In fact, even in the celebratory post-win moments, Earnhardt was able to laugh about his naysayers -- especially those that enjoy the anonymous one-sided banter on Twitter. "I have a lot more fun actually reading that stuff on Twitter than I do a typical normal joke,'' said a smiling Earnhardt. "Some of the stuff the haters say is the funniest stuff. It's really funny." Earnhardt said he has so far resisted the temptation to respond. "I just favorite them and block them. It's so much fun.'' Fun is something Earnhardt has been having a lot of lately. He's always done such a tremendous job of keeping perspective on a NASCAR life and career wrought with so much circumstance. After years of stressing out trying to live up to expectations -- his own and everyone else's -- he has found a formula that is working well at the moment. His success is parlaying itself. The better he does, the easier the approach. The easier the approach, the better he does. While his two wins equals his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson's season tally, Earnhardt isn't quite ready to assume he's replaced the six-time champ as top dog. Yet. "Easy now,'' he laughed when asked if the No. 88 is the new No. 48. "They just came off two straight wins and everybody was about to crown him the champion. Two weeks before they were wondering what the hell was wrong with him, two weeks later he's the best thing on the block. "I don't want to be the 48. I want to be the new 88. We'll definitely continue to work hard and try to win some more races and try to leave our own mark and not a mark similar to anyone else.'' Earnhardt hasn't won back-to-back races since his second NASCAR Nationwide Series championship season in 1999 when he won three straight (Dover, South Boston and Watkins Glen). But he finds himself in prime position to do so. This week's venue, Michigan International Speedway, has historically been one of Earnhardt's best tracks from the first time he turned laps there. He never finished worse than seventh at Michigan in four Nationwide Series starts and won his last two NNS races there in 1999 and 2006. At the Cup level, he has a pair of poles at the super-fast 2-miler and a pair of wins, the last coming in 2012. "A win gives you a lot of confidence, but you know and realize how difficult those are to come by and how competitive this garage is,'' Earnhardt said. "But man, when you win two in a row that sets you apart a bit from your competition. That would be a great thing for us. "Winning races is great, but it's nothing unless you enjoy who you're doing it with and when you can do something great and it's with people you enjoy being around, man it really adds to it, so this is why it's so special right now.'' Dale Jr.'s crew chief sticking by plan to leave He's overseeing Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s best season in a decade, but crew chief Steve Letarte isn't second-guessing his decision to step away from the pit box at the end of this year. Beginning with the 2015 campaign Letarte will become a race analyst for NBC, which returns as a NASCAR broadcast partner next year. And those plans will not change, even though Earnhardt on Sunday clinched his first multi-victory season at the sport's top level since he won six times with Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2004. "You guys only get to see the great stuff, which is a win at Daytona and a win here, but Saturday of Kansas my little girl had her first communion and I was in Kansas," Letarte, who has two small children, said in the media center. "When moments like that happen, it reaffirms why I made my decision. I love my job. I've loved my job for 20 years. I love the people I work with. I consider Dale and some other guys on this team my best friends in the world. The best man in my wedding is on my race team. This is my life. This is how I was raised. But I chose nine years ago, 10 years ago, 11 years ago now to have a family, and when I made that decision, that was not a casual decision, that was a decision for the next -- forever." Letarte, 35, moved from Jeff Gordon's team to a then-foundering program of Hendrick Motorsports stablemate Earnhardt prior to the 2011 campaign. In the time since he's played a central role in reviving the career of NASCAR's most popular driver, who opened this season with a victory in the Daytona 500. But all along, the 13-time race-winning crew chief has made his family the long-term priority. "You know, I feel as much as I love my job, they have to come first," Letarte said. "Six-and-a-half days a week I think I'm really going to love my new job, and there's four hours on Sunday I have no idea how I'm going to replace it yet. So I'll have to find a hobby, I think." With Sunday's win, Earnhardt's second of the year and first at Pocono, the driver of the No. 88 team moved to third in points and tied Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, and teammate Jimmie Johnson for the series lead in victories. Earnhardt wonders if his crew chief's looming departure is one reason for the team's success. "I think that also adds some drive and determination to the team to do the best that they can," Earnhardt said. "That could be dangerous." Earnhardt Jr. passes Keselowski to win Pocono Dale Earnhardt Jr. is having a blast again, with a shared bond with his crew, comfort in his own skin as NASCAR’s most popular driver, even finding fun 140 characters at a time on Twitter. Winning races sure has a way of easing burdens on Junior. Earnhardt turned Brad Keselowski’s trash into Victory Lane treasure, pulling away down the stretch Sunday at Pocono Raceway for his second win of the season and a secured spot in the Chase field. He paired his first career win at Pocono with his Daytona 500 championship for his first multi-win season since 2004. “I feel like I’m such a lucky guy to have this second opportunity again to be competitive,” Earnhardt said. But for as strong as he ran in the No. 88 Chevrolet, Keselowski gift-wrapped this win when he yielded the lead with five laps left in a desperate attempt to clear debris from his grille and cool his overheated engine. Keselowski’s gamble backfired — he couldn’t get the draft needed from the lapped traffic to clear his car and make one final pass for the win on Earnhardt. Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford still had the oomph in the engine needed to finish the race, and he had his second-straight runner-up finish. “It was definitely a mistake because the engine made it,” Keselowski said, rubbing his face. “It probably shouldn’t have.” Junior shook off the rising red gauges in the No. 88 that could have had his car meet a similar fate as Keselowski. “They were still within good reason to stand on it and give it hell,” he said. Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and rookie Kyle Larson completed the top five. Earnhardt gave Hendrick Motorsports three straight wins, following back-to-back victories by Jimmie Johnson. Johnson overcame a pit road accident to finish sixth. Owner Rick Hendrick texted Earnhardt before the race to let him know he would not attend and would see him next week at Michigan. Earnhardt told him, “I’ll drink one for you after it’s over.” Earnhardt stuck to his end of the deal, spraying all types of beverages in a jubilant Victory Lane. Johnson was the first driver over to congratulate him. I don’t have much to do tomorrow,” Earnhardt said, grinning. “Tonight’s going to be a long one.” Earnhardt, long NASCAR’s most popular driver, gave the Pocono crowd plenty of reason to go wild. He was mobbed by almost 100 fans outside the Pocono media centre, screaming his name and clamouring for a picture with the winner. He waved and ducked into a waiting car, whisked away for another party. Maybe the fans should try tweeting at him to earn his attention. A reluctant participant on Twitter for years, Earnhardt warmed fast to the social media site after winning Daytona. He said he underestimated the amount of fun he’d have interacting with fans. He loved the “go get ‘ems” that dot his feed, though it’s the “haters” that he really feeds off. “The real short ones, like, ‘You suck,’ those are the best ones,” he said, smiling. “I just favourite them and block them. It’s so much fun.” Earnhardt’s second win means he is guaranteed to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field. He won for the 29th time in 519 career Sprint Cup starts. “When we won at Daytona, man, it made the rest of the year a lot more relaxing, a lot easier,” he said. “It makes it fun because you can just go to the track and just race, not worry about points.” Junior’s breakthrough was more meaningful because has come in crew chief Steve Letarte’s final season. Letarte, who had a Pocono win with Jeff Gordon, has become one of Earnhardt’s best friends. That tightness off the track just may have sparked the wins on the track. “Maybe that’s why him and I are such good friends, because I might be the only one in the world that doesn’t wonder what it’s like to be Dale Junior,” Letarte said. “He’s a normal guy, he’s a great guy, he’s a great talent. I don’t have any idea what it’s like to be him.” Earnhardt led three Hendrick drivers in the top 10; Gordon finished eighth. Johnson’s bid for a third straight victory was derailed when he connected on pit road with Marcos Ambrose. Coming off wins in the Coca-Cola 600 and at Dover, Johnson was fifth when he pitted under yellow. Johnson hit Ambrose and spun 180-degrees, which forced him to back into his stall for more repairs. He needed two tires, had right-front damage and dropped to 29th on the restart. Busch posted his first top 10 since his win at Martinsville nine races ago. He salvaged a rough day for his team that saw fellow Stewart-Haas Racing drivers Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick drop from contention with various issues. Stewart held the lead and was in great position late to win until he was busted for speeding on pit road and was dropped to 31st. Harvick was running second when had tire trouble. Stewart finished 13th, Harvick 14th, and SHR’s Danica Patrick was 37th after she smacked the wall with 22 laps left. All those mishaps — and one loose wrapper — all made it a race to remember for Earnhardt. “A year or two ago, we weren’t running to seize the opportunity,” Earnhardt said, “and now we are.” Respect clear in showdown between Dale Jr., Barkley (Video) In the world of sports, there are leagues, teams, players, officials, fans, everything. The spirit of competitive nature is alive throughout every one of them, sometimes boiling over into bench-clearing brawls, pre-meditated fisticuffs on the drop of the puck, or even, in NASCAR, brush-ups on pit road after too much beating and banging at Martinsville. Albeit heated at times, every interaction in sports is some form of connection between people; the clash of opposing goals and motives that results in one of the longest-tenured forms of entertainment this world has ever seen. When two of the world's greatest competitors can face off head-to-head for the sake of not only putting on a thrilling show for the fans but also meeting for the first time and showing each other the utmost respect, it's a beautiful thing. We're talking, of course, about the legendary go-kart race between Sprint Cup Series star Dale Earnhardt Jr. and NBA Hall of Famer and TNT "Inside the NBA" analyst Charles Barkley. Barkley mentioned on "Inside" that he wanted to meet Earnhardt Jr., a Charlotte Bobcats Hornets fan, when the Hendrick Motorsports driver appeared on a "Gone Fishin'" graphic the show used when the team was knocked out of the NBA playoffs in April. Earnhardt was happy to oblige and took to his new love, Twitter, to arrange a meeting between the two at the GoPro Motorplex go-karting facility in Earnhardt's adopted hometown of Mooresville, North Carolina. So before the Sprint All-Star Race, two of the biggest stars in their respective sports, one in fame, one in height, girth and fame -- Barkley stands 6-foot-6, 252 pounds -- found themselves set to face off in a showdown in advance of the NASCAR on TNT Summer Series that begins with Sunday's Pocono 400 (1 p.m. ET, TNT) at Pocono Raceway. "Get ready to see two of the best drivers perform at a high level," the 51-year-old Barkley said tongue-in-cheek before admitting, "I'm gonna pull a groin and a hamstring trying to get in and out of this thing." With both drivers being rookies of the 7/10-mile, 11-turn GoPro Motorplex road course, the pair decided to test run the track in a five-lap exhibition race before a winner-take-all three-lap shootout to crown the champion. But there was one catch -- in both races, Sir Charles enjoyed the handicap of needing to complete one fewer lap than Earnhardt to pick up the win. Before they hit the track, however, the two compared stories of their lives on the road, their typical weeks and how an undersized, 14-year-old Earnhardt had big stick-and-ball sport dreams before deciding to stay in motorsports. "I played soccer in high school," Earnhardt explained. "I was only 4-foot-11 when I was a freshman, so I was too short for basketball. I wanted to play football." "No, you don't want to play football, nothing good can happen out there," Barkley said. They even compared how their fire suits fit. "This is like a new outfit right here. When you get a new outfit, it takes time to break it in. ... This thing is adjusting to my body," Barkley said. "I haven't driven a go-kart in probably 30 years. But you know, it's like riding a bike, once you get it you know how to do it." In the first race Barkley probably could've kept the training wheels on, getting smoked off the line and receiving a little bump on his right rear quarter-panel while Earnhardt lapped him -- on Lap 3. "I was just nervous, to be honest with you. I can obviously go fast in the straightaways, but you get nervous going around the corners. My limo driver started yelling at me and telling me I couldn't spin out and he sucks as a driver." With a full race under his belt and questionable advice from Jerry the Limo Driver in tow, things went much better for the Round Mound of Rebound in the main event. He finished his two laps before Earnhardt's three, despite a little bump drafting and a spinout on Lap 2. "I think he tricked me," said Earnhardt. "He went real slow the first race and the next race all of a sudden he's winning. I think he was playing possum there. He's like a pool shark." While it was Barkley who won the race that counted, both drivers had their hands on the trophy in the venue's Victory Lane, holding it high over Earnhardt's head, which equated to around shoulder level for Barkley. As delightfully silly as the race itself was, it was a moment that clearly meant a lot to both men. "The thing is, being from Alabama you automatically become a NASCAR fan, so in any sport I never root for teams, I root for people," Barkley said. "All the jocks are really trying hard, so you pick out guys you like and that's why I'm here today. Like I said, you root for personalities. I'm a big fan of (Earnhardt's) and I really want to thank him for taking the time. "I am so blessed. I've had an amazing life and I get to do really cool things in my life. I'm from a small town in Alabama, everybody knows that. When I told all my friends I was going to come spend time with (Dale), they were so excited." And what's perhaps most exciting for the rest of us? This might not be the final meeting. "We'll settle this another day," Earnhardt said. "I think it's to be continued." Driver Reports: Previewing the Pocono 400 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is fifth in the standings with 429 points. Past five races: 9th at Dover, 19th at Charlotte, 5th at Kansas, 26th at Talladega, 7th at Richmond. Season stats: 1 win, 6 top-fives, 8 top-10s. Track history: At Pocono, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 17.6 and his average running position is 14.8 over the past nine years. In 28 career starts at Pocono, he has seven top-fives, 11 top-10s and one pole. Quick hit: Junior can complete a Hendrick Motorsports sweep, of sorts, on Sunday. In order, the past three Pocono races were won by Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne, leaving Earnhardt as the only remaining member of Hendrick Motorsports needing a win. He's never won at the Tricky Triangle, but he recorded two top-fives there last year. #NASCARWITHDAD: Earnhardts share love of outdoors (Video) Kerry Earnhardt, Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Dale Earnhardt Jr. grew up in the outdoors with a love of being outside carried from generation to generation. "Growing up, granddad (NASCAR Sportsman Champion Ralph Earnhardt) and dad (NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt) handed their traditions down to us … being on the water, in the woods," former NASCAR driver Kerry Earnhardt said. "We like to ride four-wheelers and trail-ride and do things like that as well," NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "So there's a lot of fun to be had out in the woods and outdoors. You just kind of never forget that, those experiences as a little kid." To promote a multi-generational love of the outdoors, the three siblings have created an outdoor lifestyle brand, Earnhardt Outdoors, and partnered with Tackle Grab, an online subscription service for the recreational and sport-finishing industry. "Sharing the outdoors with people and passing that along from generation to generation is important to us," JR Motorsports co-owner Kelley Earnhardt Miller said. "Partnering with Tackle Grab makes enjoying the outdoors just easier and simpler. They provide a very authentic product, quality product. It's innovative, and I think the same is true for the Earnhardts." Tackle Grab Powered by Earnhardt Outdoors will add new brands of fishing products, providing members with the latest industry offerings to meet their fishing needs. According to Experian Consumer Research, Simmons National Consumer Survey in 2010, 25 million NASCAR fans fished over the previous 12 months. The study also indicated that those fans were twice as likely to fish as non-fans. "Tackle Grab is thrilled to partner with the Earnhardt family and Earnhardt Outdoors," Stash Karandanis, co-founder of Tackle Grab, said. "Their family and organization represent the core values we strive for -- family, love of the outdoors, and fishing. With the Earnhardt's help, we will continue to provide our members with the best access to high quality fishing equipment each month." For more information on Tackle Grab's monthly memberships, go to www.tacklegrab.com. Learn about Earnhardt Outdoors' mission to pass along traditions and values to the next generation of outdoor enthusiast at www.earnhardtoutdoors.com. Dale Jr. passionate about NASCAR collecting It turns out Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a pastime that thrills him nearly as much as winning a checkered flag. Earnhardt Jr. has an extensive collection of NASCAR memorabilia, from scaled down die-cast cars to old programs and magazines that detail the sport's long history. He watches online auctions on eBay, and several times a day hits the website on his tablet or smartphone, sees what's available and puts in a bid on things he wants. ''It's something I like doing, done it for years,'' he said. Some bidders have figured out ''Little E'' is in the mix, commenting online, '''I know who this is,''' Earnhardt said. Earnhardt wouldn't estimate how much his collection might be worth. He keeps them in neat boxes at his home. One day last week, Earnhardt said he was in on an auction for a racetrack decal he saw on eBay that had a $6 bid that morning. ''I might go up to nine dollars,'' He said with a chuckle. Earnhardt gets charged up when auctions come down the wire and he's in the mix for an item he really, really wants. ''Yeah, it's like racing, you just have to move on if you lose,'' he said. ''But you feel good when you pick up something that's cool.'' Earnhardt says he also scours auctions for vinyl albums and old magazines. In fact, one of his most prized possessions came courtesy of longtime girlfriend Amy Reimann, who found a pristine copy of Playboy's 1953 edition with the late Marilyn Monroe on the cover. He got it for Christmas. ''I not one who's gets too excited about presents, but that one was special,'' he said. Earnhardt. and eBay Motors are teaming up in the Garage for Good campaign. Earnhardt will drive the No. 88 eBay car in the Nationwide Series event at Michigan International Speedway in two weeks; with each new registered user to eBay Garage through June 30, eBay will donate $1 to The Dale Jr. Foundation, up to $25,000. eBay Motors in the company's marketplace for car enthusiasts and eBay Garage is its online community with over 5 million profiles. Bryan Murphy, eBay Motors general manager, said the company didn't know Earnhardt was a fan until the Hendrick Motosports driver met eBay executives. Having Earnhardt on board for the partnership and a site user is a lift for the organization, Murphy said. ''People like Dale Jr. are just enthusiasts and you can forget these people are famous celebrities,'' Murphy said. ''He's like many of our motors' customers and it's our business to connect people with the things that they love.'' Earnhardt grew up around the sport because of his late father, Dale Earnhardt, and got to know some of racing's all-time greats like Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett and Cale Yarborough during his youth in the garage. Earnhardt Jr. didn't lose that sense of history when he followed his dad onto the racetrack. He said he mostly seeks race programs, NASCAR guides and magazines from decades ago that detail how the sport was run before he became involved. He also likes acquiring programs from races he attended as a boy. When they arrive, Earnhardt says he pores through them and soaks up the information inside. ''It tells me what went on and gives you a sense of racing back then,'' he said. ''They can take you back to when you were there and bring you some good memories.'' Of course, Earnhardt is always on the lookout for collectibles tied his father's career. He's got dozens of black, No. 3 die cast cars nicknamed ''The Intimidator.'' Earnhardt is off to one of his best starts this season. He won the season-opening Daytona 500 and has had eight top-20 finishes in the 11 races since including a 19th at the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night. Earnhardt won't slow down his auction searches, ready to pounce on unique items to add to his collection. ''That's what it's all about,'' he says. ''It's a lot of fun.'' Earnhardt Jr. looks to win NASCAR's longest race Some of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s earliest NASCAR memories came at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and he hopes to add another big one by winning the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night. Earnhardt grew up watching his late father, Dale Earnhardt, race here more than 30 years ago and has long wanted to win NASCAR's longest race as his dad accomplished three times, the last in 1993. ''I want to win a points race here so bad because we live just right down the road,'' Earnhardt Jr. said. He has come close, most notably in 2011 when he broke free from a late restart to take the lead. He got the white flag just fine, then ran out of gas on the front straightaway and coasted through the final turn before Kevin Harvick passed him for the win. Earnhardt finished seventh, his sixth top-10 finish in the Memorial Day weekend race. Earnhardt has won the All-Star race here before, in 2000. He kept the strong showing going a week later when he won his only pole at Charlotte. In the race, though, Earnhardt faded to fourth. ''We've had some good cars, but not anywhere near enough,'' he said this week. ''There are a lot of other tracks where I think, 'Man, we were really close,' or the car was fast enough. But I've never really had a car here that I thought we had it, we were walking away and we gave it away.'' This might be the time, though. Earnhardt is off to one of his most consistent starts. His No. 88 Chevrolet took the season-opening Daytona 500, and he's barely slowed down since. He followed the Daytona win with second-place showings at Phoenix and Las Vegas. He was third in Martinsville, added another runner-up finish at Darlington and was fifth behind winning Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon at Kansas two weeks ago. Most eyes at Charlotte will be awaiting Kurt Busch's arrival after the former NASCAR champion competes at the Indianapolis 500 earlier Sunday. The Double has been a focus heading into motorsports' biggest weekend of the year and Earnhardt is among many NASCAR drivers who will be watching how Busch does. Busch returned again to North Carolina for the final two Sprint Cup practices Saturday. He split time with backup driver Parker Kligerman in the morning session before taking all the laps in the No. 41 in the afternoon. Busch finished 16th fastest in his last practice. He'll start 28th on Sunday. ''The team here's doing a great job of juggling all of this, the logistics of traveling back and forth,'' Busch said. He's got one more Charlotte-to-Indianapolis roundtrip left in his bid to join Tony Stewart as the only drivers to complete all 1,100 miles in both races. Harvick, who with Joey Logano leads NASCAR drivers with two Sprint Cup wins this season, is seeking his third 600 win in the past four. While he was the beneficiary of Earnhardt's dry gas tank three years back, Harvick powered away from Kasey Kahne with 11 laps left a year ago. That was in his last season with Richard Childress Racing. Harvick feels even more energized about his chances to win since moving to Stewart-Haas Racing this season. Harvick believes he's never had as many resources. ''So you just have to ride the wave and try and keep getting better,'' he said. This could also be the week when six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson breaks through for his first win this season. Johnson's been steady if not spectacular all year long, both on the race track and about patiently answering those who question his winless start. ''If I win, then I'm winning too much. If I'm not winning, then it's: 'Why aren't you winning?' So I can't do it right either way,'' Johnson said with a smile. Those worries may be lifting: Johnson will start up front Sunday after capturing his first pole of the season. Earnhardt will start 10th, and he's concentrating on keeping his car in one piece and in contention before hitting that final stretch. If the No. 88 is near the top, Earnhardt knows his desire for a landmark win at a very special track will take over. ''The 600 would be in the top five of my favorite wins if I can get that this weekend,'' he said. Driver Reports: Previewing the Coca-Cola 600 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is fourth in the standings with 368 points. Past five races: 5th at Kansas, 26th at Talladega, 7th at Richmond, 2nd at Darlington, 43rd at Texas. Season stats: 1 win, 6 top-fives, 7 top-10s. Track history: At Charlotte, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 21.9 and his average running position is 19.6 over the past nine years. In 28 career starts at Charlotte, he has five top-fives, 11 top-10s and one pole. Quick hit: This may be the year Junior breaks through for his first-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Charlotte. He has two top-fives in three races this year on 1.5-mile tracks (and he had a strong car at Texas before wrecking), along with the momentum that comes with his perhaps his best-ever start to a season. Nothing would delight the home crowd more. EARNHARDT'S DUMP TRUCK Dale Earnhardt Jr. was frustrated all night with the setup of his No. 88 Chevy. ''Yeah, I've been driving a damn dump truck for two weeks, man. I don't know what's going on,'' Earnhardt said. Dale Earnhardt Jr. races Charles Barkley for fun NASCAR's most popular driver has certified that Charles Barkley is ''not turrible'' behind the wheel. Dale Earnhardt Jr. squared off against the Hall of Fame basketball player in a head-to-head race that will be aired on NASCAR on TNT's Summer Series before the June 8 race at Pocono. Earnhardt was pleased with the meeting but wouldn't reveal details of Friday's race. ''I was really surprised how nice a guy he was,'' Earnhardt Jr. said. ''I really expected him to be a competitor. As a player, he was really fiery and aggressive, getting into scuffles. He was super nice. Really has an appreciation for our sport. Just a real nice guy to be around. ''We'll just have to save the results for later, but you can imagine how it went,'' added Earnhardt, who borrowed Barkley's phrase ''turrible'' to praise the former NBA star's driving. The idea for the race began on social media when Earnhardt landed in one of TNT's ''Gone Fishing'' tweets after the Charlotte Bobcats were eliminated from the NBA playoffs. Barkley mentioned he wanted to meet the driver, and Earnhardt replied on Twitter, ''Heck, I wanna meet Charles!'' It led to Friday's race. Barkley posted a Vine video from the encounter in which he told Earnhardt Jr. he's been a longtime fan and had been trying to arrange a meeting through Hall of Fame driver Dale Jarrett. Earnhardt won't push teen Chase Elliott along Chase Elliott's early success hasn't forced Hendrick Motorsports to speed up its long-term plan for the driver. Elliott has two Nationwide Series wins this year for JR Motorsports and heads into Sunday's race at Iowa Speedway leading the points standings - he's up by one point over Elliott Sadler. Elliott also graduated high school in Georgia on Saturday. The 18-year-old is in the Hendrick driver development program, and JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that's where he'll stay for now. ''I think you just set a plan from the start, and you stick with it,'' Earnhardt said. ''We have a two-year plan, I suppose, that he runs in the Nationwide Series, and I think you just stick with the plan regardless of the success he is having.'' Hendrick Motorsports is currently maxed out with four drivers in its Sprint Cup lineup, so for Elliott to be promoted, either Earnhardt, six-time champion Jimmie Johnson, four-time champion Jeff Gordon, or Kasey Kahne would have to vacate a seat. But JR Motorsports also sold a sponsorship package to NAPA built around the current development plan for Elliott. ''You have the commitments in line with sponsors, so I think it will suit him well to relax and not have to worry about that and just follow the plan that he has had in front of him from the start,'' Earnhardt said. ''He is really young too, so he has a lot of time on his hands and time to get to Cup level to realize that potential, one day.'' In race for $1 million, every position counts When a rookie Dale Earnhardt Jr. won what is now called the Sprint All-Star Race in 2000, the winner's check was $500,000. What did he do with the money? "I don't think I ever saw it," NASCAR's most popular driver said Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. "I was racing for Daddy back then." Indeed, Earnhardt was wheeling a Dale Earnhardt Inc., entry at the time, and the scene in Victory Lane -- a beaming father and son embracing one another -- remains more vivid than the event itself. Now driving for Hendrick Motorsports, the two-time Daytona 500 champion gets a chance at another big check in Saturday night's non-points exhibition, which is comprised primarily of race winners from the past year and pays a cool $1 million to win. "There's a lot of money on the line this weekend, which is basically all we're going to be racing for," Earnhardt said. "But there's a lot to be learned, too, so you try to pay attention to what you're doing, what you're feeling in the car so you can use it next week." That would be the Coca-Cola 600, the marathon event at Charlotte that stands as one of the biggest on the Sprint Cup Series schedule. With no nighttime practices scheduled for a race that begins in the late afternoon and ends under the lights, the All-Star Race might approximate the closest thing to track conditions for the following weekend. But don't let them fool you -- as much as drivers may talk about using the race as a springboard for the 600, the $1 million at stake looms as large as a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror. "The crowd gets jacked up, and of course there is nothing important on the line besides a million bucks," Kyle Busch said. "You just go out there and race as hard as you can." How hard? With no points to worry about, past All-Star races have offered fireworks on the track to rival the pyrotechnics used in the rock-concert driver introductions. The event's early history featured Kyle Petty and Davey Allison wrecking one another at the finish, and Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace feuding over a race that paid $200,000 at the time. More recent years have seen brothers Kyle and Kurt Busch wiping one another out with aggressive racing, and Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch seething at one another in the garage area afterward. This year's format consists of five segments, the first four 20 laps apiece. The finale is a 10-lap sprint that follows a realignment of the running order based on average finish in the opening three segments, and then a mandatory four-tire pit stop. How feisty things get at the finish may hinge on how close other drivers are to the leader in that final 10-lap dash. "I think it depends on how within reach the million dollars really is," Earnhardt said. "If you can reach out and grab somebody, you'll get pretty aggressive for a million dollars. It just depends on whether somebody's within reach. If a guy jumps out that last 10 laps and gets a good lead, what can you do? What are you going to be able to do? If you can run a guy down, it's going to get interesting. If somebody gets within reach of somebody anytime, really in those last 10 laps, it's going to get pretty aggressive between both drivers, I think. You have to hope it's going to be close, unless I'm leading. If we're leading, I hope we're leading by a straightaway. Hope it's real boring." Added Carl Edwards: "I have a feeling if you have a green-white-checkered restart for a million bucks, it's going to be an expensive salvage yard in Turn 1." Next week in the 600, drivers might cede positions to one another during the early stages of the race, knowing they have to hang in there until the finish. In the shorter All-Star event, that tempered approach disappears. "In this race, everybody races each other as hard as they can for every spot the whole race. So that's a little different," said 2004 winner Matt Kenseth. "But when you get down to the end, it's like our typical races -- when you get ready for that final pit stop, you're not giving anybody a spot." Then it comes down to hunting down the leader -- something no one was able to do last year as Jimmie Johnson won by nearly two seconds en route to his second straight and record fourth overall victory in the race. All of which makes Kenseth wonder if a shorter track might prove a better fit for the event than 1.5-mile Charlotte. "A lot of time the leader gets out there in that short 10-lap run and it's just hard for anybody to get to them. It's just this type of racing," he said. "I think there are other tracks where it wouldn't be that way -- you get to some shorter tracks, watch the last Richmond race, or even Bristol as different speeds as the lanes are now. Martinsville. Some of those tracks, certainly you'd have potential for contact and conflicts and conflicts after the race, those type of things. At a track where you're doing 190, 200 (mph) and the aerodynamics are going on, it's less likely for that type of thing to happen." Given that Charlotte has hosted the exhibition since 1987, that seems unlikely at best. In the meantime, the emphasis falls on drivers getting everything they can out of those first four segments, to put themselves in position to challenge the leader -- and go after $1 million in the process. "You need to be up front at the last restart, obviously. You're not going to drive through a handful of guys. As late as it gets in the night, this track, the groove narrows up. It gets faster and faster at the bottom, and there's no time to be gained by stepping up the race track or running the high line like you might here in the afternoon. ... So you need to be in that top three, I think, to have a shot at it," Earnhardt said. "Unless those guys kind of get bottled up banging on each another, and somebody scoots around on a restart real quick, I don't know that you're going to have much of a chance of winning the race. That doesn't sound all that great, but what it does do is make everything in the first several segments count, and it makes you hustle in all those segments to get everything you can. ... The way it's laid out actually really pushes you to work every lap, every single restart. Every opportunity you can get to seize a position, you want to do it." Hendrick, DC Comics team for 'super' promotion (Photo) Unique partnership pairs star drivers with superheroes like Batman, Superman. Earlier this week, we saw Miss Sprint Cup unveil the top 10 vote-getters in the Sprint Fan Vote ahead of Saturday's Sprint All-Star Race, with each driver announced alongside a comic book-like depiction of themselves. That appears to be the theme of the week, as Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday a partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products in conjunction with DC Entertainment in a unique three-year agreement that will allow the team and its partners to develop consumer promotions and original content to engage youth, drive fan excitement and energize licensed merchandise initiatives. WBCP and DCE will work with Hendrick Motorsports and its partners to build on- and off-track programs teaming star drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne with the most recognized characters in superhero lore, including Batman, Superman, The Flash and Green Lantern. “Working with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment will make for an innovative and impactful partnership,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “Adding value to sponsor relationships, developing an even stronger retail licensing platform and engaging with young people are high priorities for us. This collaboration will generate many opportunities in those areas.” The first joint program will come to life around upcoming Sprint Cup Series events at Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 25) and Michigan International Speedway (June 15) where Superman, the world’s first and most recognized superhero, will be featured on Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet SS. Earnhardt Jr. ran a Superman paint scheme last year at Michigan as well, and had a Batman trim on his race-winning car at the track in 2012. The Superman-themed paint scheme will pair the Army National Guard with the Superman Hall of Heroes, a new online gift-giving portal that empowers consumers to honor their personal heroes; those who have made a positive impact on their lives or the lives of others. “We are excited to partner on a long-term program that brings together Hendrick Motorsports’ superhero drivers with the superheroes of DC Comics,” said Brad Globe, president, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “This partnership will allow us to offer NASCAR and DC Comics fans unique experiences that tap into the storylines of our characters and the successes of these four world-class athletes.” ??Potential programs include more co-developed car paint schemes, comic books and digital content incorporating DC Comics superheroes and illustrated likenesses of Hendrick Motorsports drivers. Team partners will have exclusive opportunities to align with upcoming Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Comics-inspired programming and releases.?? All four Hendrick drivers have changed their Twitter avatars to reflect their new comic book looks. “Our partners have activated promotions around Batman and Superman that remain two of the best programs we’ve ever seen at retail,” said Patrick Perkins, Hendrick Motorsports’ vice president of marketing. “We expect similar success with the Superman Hall of Heroes. It’s an excellent fit for the National Guard and a perfect kickoff to our new association with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment." The No. 88 National Guard/Superman Chevrolet SS will be unveiled May 21. Fans can learn more by following Hendrick Motorsports on Facebook and Twitter. Driver Reports: Previewing the Sprint-All-Star Race 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is fourth in the standings with 368 points. Past five races: 5th at Kansas, 26th at Talladega, 7th at Richmond, 2nd at Darlington, 43rd at Texas. Season stats: 1 win, 6 top-fives, 7 top-10s. Event history: Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 9.3 and his average running position is 11.0 over the past nine Sprint All-Star Races. He has one win, four top-fives and 11 top-10s in the event. Quick hit: The hometown driver is a crowd favorite every time he comes to Charlotte Motor Speedway, and nothing would delight the North Carolina crowd more than seeing Junior win the event 14 years after conquering it as a rookie. Junior's recent success means the driver doesn't have to compete in the Sprint Showdown for the second consecutive year, and he's perhaps in a better position to challenge for a win than any time in the past five-plus years. Driver Reports: Previewing the Kansas race 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is fourth in the standings with 328 points. Past five races: 26th at Talladega, 7th at Richmond, 2nd at Darlington, 43rd at Texas, 3rd at Martinsville. Season stats: 1 win, 5 top-fives, 6 top-10s. Track history: At Kansas, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 15.6 and his average running position is 15.1 over the past nine years. In 15 career starts at Kansas, he has one top-five, seven top-10s and one pole. Quick hit: Junior has been uneven at this 1.5-mile track over his career, but his average finish since joining Hendrick Motorsports is 14.8 compared to an average finish of 17.1 before. Plus he has a runner-up finish on a mile-and-a-half oval already this year (Las Vegas), so consider the No. 88 team to have top-five potential. Late stop hurts Dale Jr.'s shot at 'Dega win The cheers from the Talladega Superspeedway grandstands were audible even over the roar of the cars whenever 'Dega's favorite son Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead in Sunday's Aaron’s 499. It was noticeably quieter in the final laps however, when Earnhardt -- a five-time Talladega winner -- was shuffled toward the rear of the field after leading three times for 26 laps on the afternoon and never got to challenge for the win. The television announcers wondered if perhaps he was just biding his time and avoiding one of Talladega’s typical late race "Big Ones." Caution played into it, but Earnhardt said after the race that it was simpler than that. His No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet got mired in traffic and he just ran out of time. "You have to have that track position in the end and we just didn't have it," Earnhardt said. "I knew we were going to be sitting there in 15th at the end and get boxed in or wrecked. "We missed a lot of guys that crashed and didn't tear up our car, so we will go to Daytona with this car and try to manage a strategy where we are not giving up 25 positions in the last 30 laps of the race." After the race, Earnhardt posted a message to his fans on Twitter: @DaleJr : Stuck in the back with no where to go. Disappointed in myself for not figuring out what to do the last 30 laps. Only runner-up Greg Biffle (58 laps) spent more time out front Sunday, but Earnhardt's 26th-place finish was his worst at Talladega in four years. Considering the garage around him was filled with torn-up equipment, the Daytona 500 winner considers his intact race car a consolation prize. "We already got a win," he said. "And I've been in too many late-race wrecks. I didn't want to be no part of it. And there were three or four there we dodged good." A late race pit stop for gas initially moved Earnhardt from the lead pack to the back group and a big move forward never materialized -- his best shot at making his way forward was thwarted by driver Josh Wise. "I didn't know how close we were on fuel," Earnhardt explained. "(Crew chief) Steve (Letarte) didn't think we could make it so we came in and got fuel, but we come out too far behind. "It's hard to drive up through there. The track is three-wide forever. You know they're going to crash and I can't afford to wreck anymore here. So, you've just got to pick your battles. "I felt like we were better off not getting in a wreck and trying to stay back there. And if we had an opportunity to get a run, we took it. But that one we had just got blocked by the No. 98 (Wise) and with two to go, you're not going to get another run." Junior's sponsorship part of Nationwide evolution Dale Earnhardt Jr. will carry sponsorship for select NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races from Nationwide Insurance beginning in 2015, the three-year deal announced by Hendrick Motorsports and Nationwide officials. "We have had a relationship with them for a very long time; it's been successful on both sides," Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. "… We were obviously looking for a good fit and looking for something that would work out well. I can't imagine a better scenario and I think Nationwide is very excited to get going and start working together in the Cup series." Diet Mountain Dew and the National Guard currently sponsor the Hendrick Motorsports driver. HMS officials have been looking for funding to fill out the remaining open slots on the No. 88 Chevrolet. Time Warner Cable, along with Hendrickcars.com, provided sponsorship for five races on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entry last season. "I think it says a lot about the direction Nationwide wanted to go after their involvement in the sport for some time, that they wanted to move forward and do something new with their objectives," Earnhardt Jr. said. "… I think the Nationwide Series currently is very healthy due to what Nationwide has been able to accomplish in the series." According to HMS, the agreement calls for Nationwide to serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 88 team for 12 Sprint Cup races in 2015, and 13 races in ‘16 and ‘17. The company will serve as an associate sponsor in the remaining events each season as well. Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, is in the final year of a seven-year agreement as entitlement series sponsor for NASCAR and currently has endorsement deals with Earnhardt Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Danica Patrick. "Dale Jr.'s personal brand, to me, is characterized by authenticity and sincerity," Matt Jauchius, Chief Marketing Officer for Nationwide Insurance, said in a telephone interview with NASCAR.com Friday. "And those are really two things of the things at Nationwide that we feel represents our company. So we feel very comfortable and really emotionally connected to Dale in our brands and what we stand for. "Now we have a new relationship with (team owner) Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports. I can't say enough about what a first-class organization that is, what a great businessman and good partner Rick Hendrick already is. "Across every aspect you could imagine, it just seemed like a perfect match for us." Jauchius said the move to Cup sponsorship was part of the evolution of the company's involvement in the sport, and likened it to drivers, owners and others that move up through the ranks in the sport. "We thought that journey made sense for us too," he said. "Here we are six or seven years later, we feel -- and I say this with some pride in my team -- we feel like we've established ourselves as a highly credible and respectable sponsor to NASCAR that fans … know we really care about the sport." Jauchius said the company would continue its relationship with Patrick, and was hopeful something could be worked out to continue the relationship with Stenhouse Jr. "She does television commercials, digital advertising, personal appearances, that will continue exactly as you've always seen it," he said. "As for Ricky, his specific contract is up this year. We will not be doing anything on the 17 car next year. … Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is a fantastic young driver. He is a two-time Nationwide series champ. We are actually in discussions with him right now about do we continue some sort of formal relationship next year. We are hopeful and positive that that can occur." Jauchius also said Nationwide would continue its sponsorship relationship with the series' event at Mid-Ohio, and would be open to increasing its involvement with Earnhardt Jr. should the opportunity present itself. "We have deep commitment to that race and obviously to Nationwide Children's hospital," he said of the Nationwide Children's Hospital 200 road course event. " So our plan is to continue sponsorship of that race for the foreseeable future. … "There is nothing written down … but we are very passionate and supportive of this relationship with HMS and with Dale. I would not be surprised if in the future it expanded. "We really respect the National Guard and Diet Mt. Dew … we respect the sponsors right to make their decisions for their brands, but if races open up we'll take a look at it." Dale Jr. picks up primary sponsor for 2015-17 (Video) Hendrick Motorsports announced Friday that the No. 88 team of Dale Earnhardt Jr. will team up with Nationwide Insurance in a new three-year partnership that will pair one of the leading insurance and financial services organizations in the country with NASCAR's most popular driver as a primary sponsor in the Sprint Cup Series. Nationwide, as the exclusive insurance and retirement planning sponsor of Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevrolet SS team, will be a primary partner for 12 Sprint Cup races in 2015 and 13 events in both 2016 and 2017. The company also will be an associate-level sponsor of the No. 88 race cars throughout all three seasons. "I've always enjoyed working with Nationwide and really believe in their products and services," said Earnhardt, whom Nationwide Insurance has featured in national advertising since 2009. "It'll be fun to work with them in a new way, and I know everyone on the team is looking forward to the partnership. They've invested in our sport and built a strong reputation with NASCAR fans, and this opens up doors to do even more great things." Earnhardt, 39, is a two-time Nationwide Series champion and has 20 career points-paying victories in the Sprint Cup Series. The Kannapolis, North Carolina native has earned three consecutive Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berths and is NASCAR's 11-time most popular driver as voted by fans. In 2014, he won his second Daytona 500 and currently is fifth in the standings. "The Earnhardt family has trusted Nationwide for their insurance needs for more than 35 years, and Dale Jr. has a positive impact on our brand's reputation and brings pride to Nationwide members and our associates," said Matt Jauchius, chief marketing officer for Nationwide Insurance. "Expanding that relationship to incorporate the prestigious operations at Hendrick Motorsports and collaborating with Rick Hendrick and his team is a great fit for Nationwide Insurance." "Nationwide is always top of mind when you think of companies that truly leverage the power of NASCAR," said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. "We're proud to welcome them to the No. 88 team and grow their relationship with Dale Jr. Working together, we'll build another program that moves the needle for their business. The opportunities are endless." Driver Reports: Previewing the Talladega race 5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is fifth in the standings with 309 points. Past five races: 7th at Richmond, 2nd at Darlington, 43rd at Texas, 3rd at Martinsville, 12th at Auto Club. Season stats: 1 win, 5 top-fives, 6 top-10s. Track history: At Talladega, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 18.7 and his average running position is 14.6 over the past nine years. In 28 career starts at Talladega, he has five wins, 10 top-fives and 14 top-10s. Quick hit: The loop data shows that only Matt Kenseth runs his car toward the front at Talladega as consistently as Earnhardt, and Junior's five career wins here are the second-most among active drivers. Those five wins came long ago with Dale Earnhardt Inc., though. Earnhardt has been hard-pressed to match his success at 'Dega with Hendrick Motorsports, although he was runner-up in the fall. Driver Reports: Previewing the Richmond race 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is fourth in the standings with 271 points. Past five races: 2nd at Darlington, 43rd at Texas, 3rd at Martinsville, 12th at Auto Club, 24th at Bristol. Season stats: 1 win, 5 top-fives, 5 top-10s. Track history: At Richmond, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 16.8 and his average running position is 15.2 over the past nine years. In 29 career starts at Richmond, he has three wins, nine top-fives, 12 top-10s and one pole. Quick hit: Through eight races, Junior has five top-threes and two finishes of 24th or worse. Which one will it be this weekend? Recent history (two top-10s in the past 10 races) suggests a down weekend, but is it really smart to bet against the No. 88 team this year? A painful career-best for Earnhardt Jr. at Darlington Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn't want to hear it. "Everybody was telling me that I had a 15-car-length lead, and I don't want to hear about that," the two-time Daytona 500 champion said Saturday night. "I'm going to hear about it all day tomorrow, man: 'You almost won it.' They said we had it won with a 15-car-length lead coming into that last white flag when the caution came out on the back straightaway." The yellow flag flew for the 11th and final time at NASCAR's oldest superspeedway when Clint Bowyer got into the back of Kurt Busch, turning the No. 41 car hard into the outside wall and forcing a second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish in the Bojangles' Southern 500. That meant Earnhardt would have to hold off Kevin Harvick on a third restart to close the race, knowing that the driver behind him had four fresh tires to his two, not to mention the most dominant car in the race. In the end, Harvick's four tires made the difference, as the Stewart-Haas Racing driver stormed by just before the white flag dropped for his second victory of the season. Earnhardt was left with a runner-up finish that proved his best career result at Darlington Raceway, a place where he'd never previously been better than fourth. "He was pretty fast," Earnhardt said of Harvick. "I think he was going to drive the (expletive) out of it and try to get there. I was trying not to look in the mirror, just try to run as hard as I could. I didn't know how much speed the car had -- we were on two tires, it was late in the night. You want to drive the car as hard as you can without pushing … and we just were running some laps a lot different than we'd been running all night, really. But feels good to be close." Particularly since Earnhardt once loathed Darlington, to the point where early in his career the track staff presented him with a seashell trophy -- meant to represent the facility's coarse surface at the time -- as kind of a tongue-in-cheek tribute. Even today, NASCAR's most popular driver considers Darlington one of his worst tracks, a sentiment he voiced over the radio once again after the checkered flag fell Saturday night. "Y'all carried me at one of my worst tracks," he told his team. It certainly didn't seem that way Saturday, when Earnhardt was near the front all night and was a serious threat to win here for the first time in his career. Earnhardt had twice placed fourth at Darlington, most recently in 2008, and has suffered through some long stretches of difficult finishes on Harold Brasington's quirky egg-shaped oval. But if you think he was patting himself on the back Saturday night, think again. A 15-car-length lead is tough to get past. "It's a little disappointing to come that close, because I know I don't really run that well here and the opportunities to win are going to be very few compared to other tracks," Earnhardt said. "It hurts a little bit to come that close because we worked so hard to try to win races. Running second is great, but nobody is going to really remember that. But we're proud of it. We're proud of it. And (crew chief) Steve (Letarte), I know he's very proud. "They did a great job giving me a really good car to be able to run that well here. The car was phenomenal. Really proud of those guys' effort. Even though they know where my shortcomings are, they worked their guts out to try to get us the best. Sometimes if I admittedly say this isn't my best track, it's easy to sort of back off, but those guys really push the pedal and give me everything I can to give me the best chance to finish as best I can. They did that tonight. That was a great example of that." The pivotal moment came under what proved to be the third-to-last caution in the race, when yellow flew for fluid on the track with nine laps remaining. Letarte called for two tires, and the No. 88 car came out second behind Jimmie Johnson. Harvick took four tires and restarted third. The race was forced into a green-white-checkered finish after another caution for debris, and after again restarting second Earnhardt jetted out to the lead. He might have stayed there if not for the final caution, which ultimately allowed Harvick to reel him in. "It took three restarts for him to get there. I don't think he wins the first one or the second one with what I consider the best car all night," Letarte said of Harvick. The crew chief also stuck by his two-tire call. "People want to say there's a right or wrong answer, but unless you can say how many guys are going to do it and exactly how many restarts you're going to have, there's never a right or wrong answer." Winning crew chief Rodney Childers said that last caution certainly helped his team's cause. "We got a little bit fortunate there with the caution coming out," he said. "If that wouldn't have happened, we probably wouldn't have won the race. It's hard to say. It's always easy to go back and think about that stuff and what you should have done and shouldn't have done. I think we could have won the race on two tires, and we still won it on four." On a night when Harvick led 238 laps, it was difficult to argue. Just as it was difficult to believe that Darlington is one of Earnhardt's worst tracks, especially after he came so close to winning. "I love this place. I was raised by Jeff Gordon, and he loves this place," said Letarte, a longtime member of Gordon's No. 24 team before taking the reins of Earnhardt's program. "It's a place where we've come and run well, but never put together a whole race. So it felt really good to put together a whole race. And (Earnhardt) is way better here than he gives himself credit for." Junior stays upbeat despite texas debacle A test session at Michigan helped sooth the wounds of Texas, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday at Darlington. That's a lot of mileage logged for an incident that occurred barely a dozen laps into Monday's rain-delayed NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Earnhardt Jr. clipped the grass just off the apron at Texas Motor Speedway, hard enough that the splitter on his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet dug into the ground. His car then shot across the track where it struck the wall and erupted in flames. The incident, which took place just after the field had gone green for the first time due to damp track conditions, resulted in a 43rd-place finish. It also affected the efforts of teammate Jimmie Johnson, whose car was struck by debris that damaged his car's windshield and opened a hole in the front of the No. 48 entry. After a win to open the season, three consecutive top-five finishes and only a week after reassuming the points lead, the Texas miscue was disheartening for the 39-year-old Earnhardt Jr. A day later, however, he and his team were one of several taking part in a two-day Goodyear tire test at Michigan International Speedway. "Just being able to get back in the car and test at Michigan was a big help for me to get past it and to get focused on the next race," he said before practice at Darlington. "This (Southern 500) is a tough event ... we've got some decent runs here but we haven't really come here and had a race that we thought we lost. "This is going to be a tough place to come rebound, but we are going to give it our best. I'm just glad to be back at the track, go ahead and get a race or two in the bank and put it behind us." Fans offered support via Twitter in the aftermath of the Texas incident, but Earnhardt Jr., new to the social media platform this year, said his busy schedule forced him to scale back his participation during the week. "I guess Twitter can be a help in a situation like that," he said. "I mean my fans certainly have your back and tell you to brush it off, don't worry about it. I'm sure there are some people on there saying the opposite, but I didn't see many of those or any of those. "There is a positive and a negative to everything. I didn't really spend a lot of time on Twitter this week because we were working at Michigan. We had some things to do Thursday. Twitter is a bit of a playground and I don't want to horse around if we are not doing good. I don't want to be on there goofing off and making light of the situation because it was a frustrating mistake. It was something I don't take very lightly." Now sixth in points, Earnhardt Jr. is one of several drivers still searching for their first career Darlington win. Sprint Cup teams practice and qualify here today, with tomorrow's Bojangles' Southern 500 scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. ET start. FOX will provide live, flag-to-flag coverage of the event. Dale Jr's team on top in Nationwide Dale Earnhardt Jr. has more than the Sprint Cup series on his mind these days - like trying to win a Nationwide title as an owner of JR Motorsports with drivers Chase Elliott and Regan Smith. Elliott passed Nationwide teammate Kevin Harvick late in the race to win at Texas Motor Speedway last week. It left the 18-year-old Elliott and Smith 1-2 in the drivers' point standings. ''As a company, we're doing what we anticipated we were capable of doing,'' said Smith, part of Nationwide series practice Thursday at Darlington Raceway. ''I don't know, it's not surprising us.'' Smith led in points for 10 weeks last season before eventually falling to third behind champion Austin Dillon. Earnhardt, a NASCAR fan favorite, owns JR Motorsports along with sister Kelley Earnhardt Miller and Rick Hendrick, who Dale Jr. drives for on the Sprint Cup circuit. He said the Nationwide team has steadily grown the past few seasons and believes they've learned how to compete strongly each week. The next race comes Friday night at Darlington. ''We want to win a championship so bad this year,'' Earnhardt Jr. said. ''We feel like we learned a lot last year going through the process with Regan and now we have two teams really capable of getting the job done.'' That's happened so far this season. Smith got the ball rolling with a win at Daytona and has finished in the top 10 the past five races. Elliott, the son of NASCAR great Bill Elliott, won his first career Nationwide race last week as JR Motorsports placed four cars in the top 10. Along with Elliott's win, Harvick's fourth and Smith's 10th, owner Dale Jr. finished fifth in one of his few appearances on NASCAR's Triple-A circuit. Earnhardt Miller thinks those results prove that JR Motorsports has made the right calls on personnel, from drivers to crew chiefs and staff. ''All hands are on deck here at JR Motorsports,'' she said. ''It was extremely rewarding for all four cars to be as competitive as they were during the Texas weekend because so much effort went into preparing.'' Darlington will bring a different challenge, with its slick, tire-chewing surface and its misshapen corners where turns one and two are different than three and four. Smith, still dripping with confidence from his surprise 2011 Sprint Cup win here in the Southern 500, loves returning each year to tackle one of the most difficult layouts on the circuit. ''This really is different,'' Smith said. ''People say it's a cliche when we say we 'race the racetrack' and sometimes it's overused. But sometimes it isn't because that's what you have do here.'' Smith recalled how he and his Furniture Row team decided he'd race the Southern 500 at 80 percent until the final 30 laps or so, see where they stood and then step on the gas until the end. The strategy worked and ever since Smith's had warm feelings about NASCAR's oldest superspeedway. Earnhardt Miller said Elliott's showing in just his sixth career Nationwide race shows the team's belief in his talent was justified. She was also gratified that two great racing families in the Earnhardts and the Elliotts have combined for more success in the sport. ''I just think it's really cool in general to see people like Chase and Ryan Blaney and Jeb Burton and those kids come up through the sport and to be able to get the opportunity to run and do something that their fathers - that's the first time for me that I've kind of lived through that - , to just take it all in and see these kids coming up and doing that,'' she said. Dale Jr. hopes there's even more to celebrate in a few months. ''If everybody keeps their head on straight, let everybody else, all the drivers in the series make all their mistakes, we should be able to be a good situation when we to Homestead'' for the Nationwide finale, he said. Driver Report: Previewing the Darlington race 6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt is sixth in the standings with 228 points. Past five races: 43rd at Texas, 3rd at Martinsville, 12th at Auto Club, 24th at Bristol, 2nd at Las Vegas. Season stats: 1 win, 4 top-fives, 4 top-10s. Track history: At Darlington, Earnhardt's average finish is 12.2 and his average running position is 12.2 over the past nine years. In 19 career starts at Darlington, he has three top-fives and eight top-10s. Quick hit: Junior's ninth-place finish last year was his first top-10 showing at the track since 2008. As one of the circuit's veterans, he has more starts here than most of his contemporaries -- something extra beneficial considering the track's complexity. Dale Jr.: 'We may have 14-20 different winners' On Wednesday at a Goodyear Tire test at Michigan International Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said the Brooklyn, Mich., facility would be a good place for him to clinch a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a second win. Before February's Daytona 500 win made him a virtual lock to make NASCAR's new 16-driver playoff, Earnhardt Jr.'s most recent two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories came at Michigan. "This is a great opportunity for us, I think, because we do so well here," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think two wins definitely will assure you an opportunity to race in the (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series) championship. "We're seeing so many different winners each week that I don't know if one win guarantees you a spot. Definitely makes it a lot easier, but we may have 14-20 different winners this year. You just don't know." Under NASCAR's new Chase format, race winners in the first 26 races who maintain a top-30 points position should earn one of 16 berths. But with seven winners in the season's first seven races, drivers may need a second victory to make the postseason. The last time there were seven different winners in the first seven races was 2003, and the record for different winners to start the season is 10, in 2000. After 26 races in those years, there were 16 and 13 winners respectively. "We've still got great speed, still feel good about being able to run well here," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We just did have some bad luck last year." While leading the Pure Michigan 400 at the track last June, Earnhardt Jr. blew an engine and finished 37th. In August, he led 20 laps before a tire problem sent him into the wall. He finished 36th. "This is one of our better tracks, and our fans will probably say the same," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Having the success here over the last four or five years has given us a lot of confidence when we come here, and I think that's why Goodyear brings us to test. "I enjoy racing here. It's a fun track. The asphalt is really aging well and it's just going to keep getting better and better over the next couple of years." Earnhardt Jr. was asked how quickly new driver-team combinations can come together and become title contenders. He cited the success of a Michigan native and noted a separate fellow winner in 2014 who could contend for his first Sprint Cup title this year. "It just depends on the people," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It can happen right away. Brad Keselowski and his team, they got together quite quickly and were able to win within the first couple of years. "Some teams stay together for several years and don't really get it done. Like (Kevin) Harvick. He had been with RCR for a long time and got close, got close. Was always in the top five in points but never really could get to that next level. And he may do it in the next year or two with Rodney Childers and the information and chassis and motors from Hendrick that they've getting." Earnhardt Jr., who will turn 40 in October, also talked about his future in the sport. "The age thing is pretty crazy because it just flies by," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think I got 10 more years at least to hang around and keep driving, and hopefully I'm that fortunate." Dale Jr. on Elliott's win: 'Enjoy this moment' Less than 48 hours after winning his first NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway -- having schooled the likes of Sprint Cup Series regulars Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth -- 18-year-old Chase Elliott was back in school himself, his first period high school class in Georgia. His breakthrough victory Saturday night in only his sixth start, however, proves Elliott is steadily mastering the learning curve in racing, too. And he's fortunate to be surrounded by two very special teachers in his father, 1988 Cup champ and current NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Bill Elliott, and his team owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., a two-time Daytona 500 winner who also knows a bit about being the son of a racing legend. After Elliott pulled his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet into Victory Lane, his beaming father leaned in the window to share the moment. "I just said, 'Man you've done a heckuva job,' " Bill Elliott recounted, still grinning ear-to-ear. As Elliott hoisted his trophy, glad-handed sponsors and posed for photo after photo against a pyrotechnic background of fireworks and shooting flames, his mentors made a point to stand out of the spotlight. Bill Elliott and Earnhardt were happily content to be spectators watching the 18-year-old learn the victory routine that he will surely be repeating over the years. A couple of times Elliott even had to shout over and cajole his father to join him for a photograph. It was hard to decide who wore the bigger smile. "Now I know what people feel like when they're watching a race, because when you're racing in the car, you don't think through things," said Bill Elliott, who confessed to being so nervous he watched the race from the JR Motorsports team transporter. "You're concentrating so much on your line, the race track, traffic all the stuff going on. "The funny thing about it, though, all the times I watched Chase and as he continued on in go-karts, Legends cars, ... when he stepped into a late model car it's like the light switch turned on. "It took him a little bit to figure out what he wanted. But to turn around and watch him and see all that experience he's done, it's paid off tonight." It was the second time (including Elliott's 2013 Camping World Truck Series win) that father and son had been together in a primetime NASCAR Victory Lane since Bill Elliott's 2003 Sprint Cup Series win in Rockingham, N.C., when Chase was just 7 years old. Even then, Bill Elliott said he realized his son was interested in cars, but he said he consciously tried to take the pressure off any large footsteps to follow. "I remember one guy that was working on the go-kart with him came up and said, 'He's not running the right lane, he's not doing this and he's not doing that,' and I told him, 'Stop, he's only 9 years old,' " Elliott recalled. "I told him, 'Let him have fun. Don't worry about that.' "I always told Chase go at it and have fun. If you don't want to do it, go do something else. You won't hurt my feelings. That's the philosophy he's tried to use his whole career. And as he went on that helped him understand. "Just given the opportunity, I knew the kid could do it." Despite the pedigree and talent, doors didn't just swing open for the younger Elliott. He has had some growing pains, including an early taste of controversy when he collected his first NASCAR national series win in the Camping World Truck Series after last-lap contact with Ty Dillon. Even five months ago, Elliott was unsure if he'd have a full-time NASCAR job this year. But NAPA came on board six weeks before the season started and Earnhardt was able to field a Nationwide Series car -- the No. 9 in homage to Bill Elliott -- for the highly touted rookie already in the Hendrick Motorsports driver development lineage. Even that unintentionally tough lesson of uncertainty was something Bill Elliott considers helpful in the big picture. Enduring and prevailing in the tough times, he figures, will help his son enjoy and appreciate nights like Saturday even more. "The hardest thing about this sport is whatever happens tonight, it's over," Bill Elliott said. "There's going to be ups and downs and you have to experience it, but I do hope I taught him enough over the last number of years with all the ups and downs we've been through in the late models and all the racing we've done, that it's a part of the sport. "I think that all builds character. You're going to have tough races, controversial races, but it's no different than any other driver has had to go through at one point or another. "I gave him an example. I was leading a race in 1990 (at Atlanta) and on my last pit stop my right rear tire guy (Mike Rich) gets killed (in a pit road incident with Ricky Rudd). "I lived with that all winter long. That was the hardest winter of my life. That puts things in perspective. Just to lose a race or wreck a car ... having one of your friends get killed on pit road, that's hard. But it's about being able to put things in perspective. "This is a roller coaster sport. And you look at it and there will be ups and downs ... this will give him good confidence and put him where he needs to be. ... This has come a lot faster than I ever dreamed to be where he's at right now." As he spoke Bill Elliott was constantly looking over at his shoulder, genuinely seeming to enjoy the moment as much as his son and exchanging backslaps and smiling head-shakes with Earnhardt. At one point Saturday night, while Elliott was trading out sponsor's caps for a series of photographs Earnhardt offered to hold onto his driver's cowboy hat -- a gift the track traditionally gives all its winners. As he looked at the hat -- Earnhardt probably remembered that Texas Motor Speedway was the first Victory Lane he ever celebrated in, too -- winning his first Nationwide Series race there in 1998 and his first Sprint Cup race there as well in 2000. As Earnhardt held the hat, he reminded the team's public relations representative to get a Sharpie and write down the date and place of this win on the inside brim. He knew how special this night will forever be, explaining to reporters a little later, "I just wish that I could tell Chase how to enjoy the win." "He's enjoying it and he's happy, but you'll turn around one day and think, you don't realize how precious that moment was and you'll think, 'I wish I would have soaked it all up.' " Earnhardt said. "Just like winning the Daytona 500 (for me) in 2004 versus 2014. That was two different people. I knew this year when we won it, you gotta soak it up because you don't know when it it will happen again. "He's got a lot of races that he will have an opportunity to win in the future and he's going to have a ton of time to celebrate and enjoy himself. "Enjoy this moment and relive it as much as you can because the rest will be fun, but they won't be like this one." Earnhardt out of Texas race after fiery crash Dale Earnhardt Jr. wound up with his first last-place finish in seven seasons Monday after driving his car into the rain-saturated infield grass before it shot across the track and slammed into the wall in a fiery crash. Earnhardt, who was OK after climbing out of the burning No. 88 Chevrolet, took the blame for the accident that happened when he was following Aric Almirola down the frontstretch in the rain-delayed Sprint Cup race. “You can’t run through there the way they have these cars on the ground like that. Just a mistake on my part. I just didn’t know I was that close to the grass, and made a mistake,” he said. “It tears a car up pretty good when you run through the grass.” Jimmie Johnson had damage on the windshield and front left of his No. 48 car from mud and debris after the crash by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Johnson was three laps down by time he got back in the race after his team worked on the car. Johnson also had an issue with a right-side tire. Kevin Harvick completed only 28 laps before a blown engine knocked him out of the race. “Something happened with the engine right after that restart,” Harvick said. “It’s frustrating. I don’t know what else I can say. I didn’t get any indication that anything was going wrong.” The race started with 10 caution laps Monday to make sure the track was dry and suitable for racing. There had been only three laps under full green conditions when Earnhardt, the points leader, drove into the grass. About half of his car was off the asphalt before pushing hard right and across the track. “Just didn’t see the grass. Didn’t know the grass was down there. With the way the A-post is on these cars you can’t really see that good to that angle,” Earnhardt said. The accident guaranteed a 43rd-place finish for Earnhardt. He hadn’t finished last in the field since the 2007 fall race at Phoenix, a span of 222 races. The new rules in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship puts increased emphasis on wins, but Earnhardt already has four top-three finishes this season, including a win at Daytona. Dale Jr.: 'It's kind of like the 3 coming back' In a way, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has experienced all this before -- a decision coming down the pipeline that not every driver or fan may agree with. In December of 2013, it was Austin Dillon resurrecting the No. 3 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. And it was Junior there to assuage detractors and mend any disgruntled feelings that the number was back on the track at all. The 39-year-old took a similar stance Friday at Texas Motor Speedway days after NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that engine changes are coming -- and they likely will bring a reduction in horsepower. "Whatever way they end up going, whatever decision they end up making about the horsepower, it's not a wrong decision -- there's an OK one, and a better one, in my opinion," Earnhardt Jr. said. "But they are going to do (reduce horsepower). It's kind of like the 3 coming back. A lot of people didn't want it to come back. A lot of people were upset, but it still came back. … And I think the reduction in power is coming whether you like it or not." France confirmed as much earlier this week -- "we're going to make that happen" he said when asked about engine modifications -- days after representatives from all three manufacturers said on a conference call that developments were still in the early phase. Sprint Cup Series engines generate 850 horsepower and were unchanged during the 2013 introduction of the Generation-6 car and the new aero package for the 2014 season. It's that grandiose number -- 850 horsepower -- that seems to be a sticking point for those in opposition. "I think something that's cool about Sprint Cup racing is we've got 850-900 horsepower in these things," Joey Logano said when asked about the possible future changes. "That's pretty badass. But, either way, we've just got to make sure we put on a great race for the fans, whether we have three horsepower or 900 horsepower -- make sure it's a great race. If that's the direction we have to go to put on a better race, then so be it." The possibility of decreasing the horsepower, Earnhardt Jr. said, may put a bigger emphasis on the driver. Going to a smaller engine would preserve throttle response and reaction in the gas pedal -- in other words, Junior said, the driver would have more opportunities to influence the vehicle. The end result, he thinks, will be similar to that of Dillon wheeling the Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet onto the track for the first time at historic Daytona International Speedway. Potential tentativeness at first, followed by acceptance. "I choose as an individual to get on the side of being productive in that discussion," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Instead of saying 'we don't need to do it' and trying to fight it, let's try to make sure when it does happen that we do it the right way and give ourselves something to grow into and something that's productive for many, many years to come. It's coming either way, whether we like or not. We might as well think about how we want it to happen and try to have good discussion on making sure we make the best choice we can make for the sport." Driver Report: Previewing the Texas race 1. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 227 points. Past five races: 3rd at Martinsville, 12th at Auto Club, 24th at Bristol, 2nd at Las Vegas, 2nd at Phoenix. Season stats: 1 win, 4 top-fives, 4 top-10s. Track history: At Texas, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 14.4 and his average running position is 11.5 over the past nine years. In 23 career starts at Texas, he has one win, four top-fives, 13 top-10s and two poles. Quick hit: Junior's first start at Texas resulted in his lone victory in the Lone Star State, and he's been searching for his second in the following 22 starts. Earnhardt has finished better in the Texas fall race (day) than the spring race (night) for the past three years, so maybe running in the daytime on Sunday is to his advantage. Dale Jr.'s Daytona 500 victory out now on DVD On Feb. 23, 2014, the 56th running of the Great American Race welcomed Dale Earnhardt Jr., one of NASCAR’s most iconic drivers, back to Victory Lane. To celebrate this historic event, NASCAR Productions created a limited collector’s edition DVD highlighting Earnhardt Jr. as he fought to take the checkered flag at Daytona International Speedway. The DVD is available for purchase on April 1, 2014. Link: NASCAR 2014 Daytona 500 Earnhardt Jr.: That 'Cost me a (expletive) clock' There was a bit of frustration as Dale Earnhardt Jr. attempted to catch the leaders in the final laps of Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. "Cost me a (expletive) clock!" Earnhardt Jr. yelled into his team's radio as he tried to work his way around lapped traffic. At one point he seemed to be catching race leader Kurt Busch and second-place Jimmie Johnson; the traffic, the lack of laps remaining and the small differences in how close the three cars were from a competitive standpoint negated any serious bid for the lead. Instead, he finished third, his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet surviving on a day when many others did not. He’s back atop the points standings, and has now finished third or better in four of this year’s six races. The winning driver at Martinsville earns a grandfather clock. Earnhardt Jr. is still searching for his first. "You couldn't run any harder with the wear we had on the tires," Earnhardt Jr., who led three times for 25 laps, said. “You just couldn't afford to. You saw how the 20 car and the 18 car (of Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch), those guys would run real hard at the lead early in the race, and they set an example for the rest of us to watch out and be easy on that left-rear tire ... it just goes away like a snap. "I couldn't afford to run any harder if I wanted to be competitive on the end of these runs. ... None of the runs went past 80 laps, but typically we see a good long run in the middle of the race, and we were just ready for that." Earnhardt Jr. had qualified 26th, worked his way toward the front shortly before halfway, then stayed out under a round of caution-flag stops to inherit the lead. He was able to remain out front for a bit, but eventually fresher tires would win out. Toward the end of the race, after all the leaders had pitted with less than 40 laps remaining, everyone had fresh tires. It was time to go. "Inside of 38 laps to go I thought everybody was going to go like hell, and we all did and ended up running third," he said. "I think the two guys (Busch and Johnson) in front of me were -- I was losing my car pretty fast there the last five laps so I didn't have anything else to get there. "I got a couple lapped guys gave me the outside instead of the inside. That's their right, but that cost me a little time and maybe some wear and tear on my tires. I thought when we passed the 22 (Joey Logano) we might be able to roll up there and get in the middle of the race for that win, but no, those guys' cars, they were pretty good." Patience, he said, was the key. "When guys were faster, I just let them go and just sat there," he said. "I was real patient all day in saving the left rear (tire) and just waiting until the end (to) see where we'd be. We had good track position." Chevy has not heard from Earnhardt about swap Chevrolet has not received an official request from Dale Earnhardt Jr. to swap race cars with Honda driver Graham Rahal. Earnhardt and Rahal are both sponsored this year by Army National Guard, and Rahal reached out to Earnhardt last week via Twitter to see if NASCAR's most popular driver was interested in swapping cars. The Twitter conversation sparked tons of fan interest, and the guard said it wanted to be part of a swap. But Earnhardt quickly quieted the talk two days later when he said he could not drive a Honda. Chevrolet and Honda are direct competitors in the IndyCar Series. Jim Campbell, the U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports for Chevy, said Saturday the manufacturer would consider any proposal to drive an Indy car from Earnhardt but until then, any talk about a manufacture conflict is premature. ''If we get a proposal, we'll take a look at it and we'll look at it with an open set of eyes. The rest is hypothetical,'' Campbell told The Associated Press. ''Broadly speaking about any Chevy driver that is currently on our roster, if they decided to go race in another category or series, of course we'd love to see them in Chevys. There's no doubt about that. ''In some cases it works out like that, and in some cases it doesn't.'' Earnhardt has driven only Chevrolets since his 1996 NASCAR debut. His two races in sports cars were in a Corvette. He did drive a Pontiac in two seasons of exhibition IROC competition in 1999 and 2000, but all drivers in that series competed in identically-prepared Pontiacs. He's also the owner of a Chevrolet dealership in Tallahassee, and his late father's dealership in North Carolina is still operating. So he predicted Tuesday that getting into Rahal's Honda would be a large conflict. ''Well, he drives a Honda, which is more than just a speed bump,'' Earnhardt said earlier this week. ''If I wanted to drive an IndyCar, I'm sure I could get with Penske or somebody who owned a Chevy and take a couple laps somewhere. But it would have been fun to do that with Graham because of the relationship with our sponsor and the history of our families. ''I look forward to meeting him one day, but I think the fact he has a relationship with a different manufacturer is going to make it challenging - if not impossible - for me to drive that particular car.'' Chevrolet fields cars in IndyCar for both Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi, two owners who also compete in NASCAR and could offer Earnhardt a car to drive. Kurt Busch, who currently drives a Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing in NASCAR, will drive a Honda for Andretti Autosport in the Indianapolis 500. He was encouraged by Chevrolet before completing the deal with Andretti to work with a Chevrolet team for Indy, but the manufacturer ultimately agreed he could drive for Andretti. Andretti was a Chevrolet team, and Busch tested a Chevy for Andretti last year when he first began pursuing the Indy 500. But the organization moved to Honda this year. ''We had a great two-year run with Andretti Autosport and when he did his original test, Andretti was with Chevy,'' Campbell said. ''The conversation started when it was a Chevy team, and it just kept going. We'd certainly have liked to see Kurt in a Chevy for the 500, it just didn't work out.'' Touring 'Juniorland' could leave fans all shook up Will Dale Earnhardt Jr. someday open up his North Carolina home to the public? Dale Earnhardt Jr. has always been a fan of Elvis Presley. Could NASCAR's most popular driver one day follow the King's lead and open his 200-acre property to visitors? Don’t get all shook up, race fans. Earnhardt isn't ready to leave the property -- which includes its own Western town, countless old race cars stashed in the woods, an old Unocal 76 orange ball from Talladega, a dirt go-kart track and even a pair of buffalo named Laverne and Shirley -- quite yet. Elvis may have had Graceland, but Juniorland will have to wait. "Man, I don’t know if it would be very interesting to anybody. I'm sure people would like to see the Western town. The rest of the property is pretty average," Earnhardt said this week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, when he took a spin in a car once owned by Elvis that will be the centerpiece of an automobile fair scheduled for next week at the track. "But that Western town, it's something that I was very proud of, and we’ve been able to use it in different ways here in the last several years, and yeah -- I mean, if people want to come take a look at it, I'm sure that would be a cool thing to do down the road," he added. "And I don’t think I'll live there forever. I'll live there for the next several years, hopefully. But eventually, certainly as my income changes, I'll be downsizing and changing my way of life and my lifestyle quite a bit. That's hopefully several years down the road." Indeed, especially as the two-time Daytona 500 champion appears on the verge of one of his best seasons in years. Still, his property outside Mooresville, N.C. -- dubbed "Dirty Mo Acres" -- is quite the curiosity. There are dozens of old race cars stashed in the woods, vehicles that were first used to mark trails or for target practice. Earnhardt started with the shell of a Nationwide Series backup car he had at Daytona in the early 2000s, and then started calling shops to see if anyone had any junkers they wanted to get rid of. But it's the Western town -- which was named Whisky River well before the bar of the same name opened in downtown Charlotte -- which is the star of the show. There's a barber shop, a jail with real locking cells, a hotel with bunk beds upstairs, even a saloon with a pool table, piano, and real bottles of liquor behind the polished bar. It was all the vision of a driver with a fondness for history, not to mention Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western movies. The inspiration came from a "60 Minutes" episode on Willie Nelson, who bought property in Texas that contained an old Western film set, and had the building fronts filled out into usable structures. Earnhardt built his with wood from the old Cannon Mills in Kannapolis, N.C., his father's hometown. Although it began as a place to hold parties, these days the imitation Deadwood is used primarily for commercial shoots or projects involving Earnhardt's production company, Hammerhead. Over in the house, there's no Jungle Room, but there is a room dedicated to Elvis memorabilia. Maybe one day, fans will get a peek into Juniorland, just as they do Graceland today. Driver Report: Previewing the Martinsville race 2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is second in the standings with 185 points. Past five races: 12th at Auto Club, 24th at Bristol, 2nd at Las Vegas, 2nd at Phoenix, 1st at Daytona. Season stats: 1 win, 3 top-fives, 3 top-10s. Track history: At Martinsville, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 12.1 and his average running position is 11.0 over the past nine years. In 28 career starts at Martinsville, he has 10 top-fives and 15 top-10s. Quick hit: Junior has two different streaks of four consecutive top-10 finishes at the track, the most recent of which came from 2010-2012. His average finish at the 0.526-mile track is 11.0 in 12 races with Hendrick Motorsports, and he has a pair of teammates in Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon who have mastered Martinsville. Top 10 drivers without a Martinsville victory It's the smallest and oldest track on NASCAR's premier circuit, a layout that's been a part of the sport for as long as there's been a sport. Its concession stand hot dogs, grandfather clock trophies and obstinate inside curb have all woven their way into lore. Martinsville Speedway is as much a monument as it is a race track, as immovable a part of the region's scenery as the New River or the southwestern Virginia highlands. No wonder, given that founder H. Clay Earles carved it out of the soil in 1947, a year before Big Bill France organized a gathering of race promoters at a hotel in Daytona Beach. It's the only track from NASCAR's inaugural "strictly stock" campaign of 1949 still on the schedule today. The 130 premier series events it's hosted to date is more than that of any other track save Daytona International Speedway, whose total of 134 is inflated by the fact that Daytona 500 qualifying races counted as points events through 1971. So for generations of drivers, Martinsville has been a mainstay, offering two chances to win on the half-mile every season since 1950. No matter the era, nobody gets shorted on opportunities to take home a Ridgeway grandfather clock. And yet, some of the best drivers in NASCAR -- including a few in the Hall of Fame, or on their way there -- have still managed to go 0-for the paperclip. This in a sport where so many get their start wheeling late model cars on flat short tracks, very much like the facility whose grandstands rise into view as you drive into Martinsville on Highway 220. Richard Petty holds the record with 15 Martinsville victories, while Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon pace active drivers with eight wins apiece. But this list is about the opposite end of the spectrum, and those drivers who don't have a grandfather clock unless they bought one themselves. With NASCAR heading back to one of its oldest and most frequently visited tracks this weekend, here are the top 10 drivers without a Martinsville victory. 10. Greg Biffle: Some drivers excel at Martinsville, and just haven't won there due to a combination of circumstances or bad luck. Others simply never get the hang of the place, and Greg Biffle would seem to fall into that latter category. The Roush Fenway Racing driver has 19 career victories at NASCAR's top level, none of them at Martinsville, where he's never even cracked the top five in 22 career starts. His best finish there was seventh in the fall of 2007, and he's led laps in just three races there -- the most in a single event being all of nine. Biffle has finished every race he's ever started at Martinsville, just mostly in the middle of the pack. 9. Carl Edwards: Biffle's teammate at RFR can relate. With 22 victories at the Sprint Cup level and a couple of championship near-misses, Carl Edwards has certainly asserted himself as an elite driver -- except when it comes to a certain short track. In 19 starts at Martinsville, Edwards has a single top-five finish, that coming when he placed third in the fall of 2008. Perhaps his best run there came in late 2011, when he absolutely needed a strong run at Martinsville to keep pace with championship rival and race winner Tony Stewart, and he led 28 laps en route to an eighth-place result. But still, no victories to date. 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: By all accounts, Dale Earnhardt Jr. should have a room full of grandfather clocks. He came up on late model half-milers not unlike Martinsville, has scored victories at Bristol and Richmond, has short-track racing in his blood. And he's led a ton of laps there -- 868 to be exact, more than David Pearson or Fireball Roberts or Lee Petty. And yet he hasn't been able to break through, despite leading over 100 laps in four different races, and twice finishing second. His best Martinsville race might have been in the spring of 2009, when Earnhardt led 195 laps and wound up third at the end. But still, no clock of his own -- at least, not yet. 7. Kyle Busch: Another head-scratcher, given that Kyle Busch started out racing on short tracks and excels on the half-mile layout in Bristol. But flat Martinsville is a different animal altogether, as Busch's efforts there will attest. In 18 career starts, Busch has posted eight top-five finishes, with a best result of second in the fall of 2012. He's led more than 100 laps three times at Martinsville, and paced 151 in the spring of 2011 before winding up third. Busch is more often than not in contention at Martinsville, which is half the battle, but for now his family's only race victory there belongs to his older brother Kurt. 6. Benny Parsons: The 1973 champion of NASCAR's premier series won at a number of different short tracks over the course of his career in the sport's top division, but Martinsville was never among them. Benny Parsons made 29 starts at Martinsville and finished second four times, including both races in 1977. In the spring event that season he led 83 laps, the most he ever paced in a single race on the flat half-mile layout. But Parsons was often plagued by mechanical issues at Martinsville, failing to finish 11 races -- six of them because of engine failures -- and never claiming a grandfather clock of his own. 5. Matt Kenseth: Given that he came up on the late model tracks in and around his native Wisconsin, you'd think Matt Kenseth would take to Martinsville like a sturgeon to Lake Superior. But for much of his career, that hasn't been the case. In 28 starts at Martinsville the 2003 Sprint Cup Series champion has just four top-fives, and he'd never led more than 26 laps in a single race there until this past fall. But in his first season at Joe Gibbs Racing, with a little help from teammate and Martinsville ace Denny Hamlin, Kenseth led 202 laps there last October in a runner-up performance he absolutely needed to keep pace with Jimmie Johnson in the title race. 4. Ned Jarrett: Columbia, Spartanburg, Birmingham, Myrtle Beach, Richmond -- you name the short track, and Ned Jarrett likely won there over the course of a career that netted premier series championships in 1961 and 1965. Martinsville, though, was another story. Perhaps because he had such a relatively brief career as a full-time driver, the NASCAR Hall of Famer made just 15 starts at Martinsville, leading laps in only three of them. His best finish there was third, in the fall of 1962. Like Parsons, he was no stranger to breakdowns at Martinsville, and it would take until son Dale's win there in 2001 before the Jarrett family finally took home a grandfather clock. 3. Bill Elliott: When it came to Martinsville, Awesome Bill could be strikingly ordinary. Short tracks were never Bill Elliott's strong suit, his only victories on layouts smaller than a mile coming at Bristol in 1988 and Richmond in 1992. Elliott and his race teams often placed more emphasis on the superspeedways where he was at his best, likely one reason he managed just three top-fives in 45 starts at Martinsville. He came close twice, posting runner-up finishes in 1984 and 1994, but led laps in just five races. Martinsville simply wasn't a priority for the 1988 champion of NASCAR's top division, who built his legacy on tracks more suited for speed. 2. Terry Labonte: You'd think a guy nicknamed "The Iceman" would feel right at home on an often-frustrating short track that puts a premium on cool, but that was never quite the case for Terry Labonte. The two-time NASCAR champion made 53 starts at Martinsville, and though he still occasionally competes in the sport's top series, he hasn't raced there since 2004. No wonder -- Labonte managed only 12 top-fives, finishing second three times but never breaking through. In the fall of 1987, he led 119 laps and finished third. In the fall of 1995, he led 164 and finished second. Labonte won at several other short tracks, but Martinsville always evaded him. 1. Bobby Allison: Runner-up finishes six times, including five in a span of six races. Led 218 laps in 1966. Led 266 laps in 1984. Led 379 laps in 1969. Led an unbelievable 432 laps in 1972 -- and still didn't win. Looking at Bobby Allison's statistics at Martinsville, you'd be convinced the guy should own the whole Ridgeway clock factory, much less have a few at home. But no. The 1983 series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer is eighth all-time in laps led at Martinsville (2,192) and somehow went winless there. He dominated the place in the 1970s, but finished second again and again and again, doing everything at Martinsville except reach Victory Lane. At the very least, give the man a hot dog. A ride fit for a King -- or an Earnhardt (Pic1, Pic2) Dale Earnhardt Jr. has driven plenty of different cars in his lifetime, but never one quite like the vehicle he wheeled Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. NASCAR's most popular driver rolled into the track's theatre behind the wheel of a long, black automobile once owned by the King -- and we don't mean Richard Petty. As part of a promotion for the track's upcoming auto show, Earnhardt slid into the seat of Elvis Presley's 1973 Stutz Blackhawk III, the last car the iconic musician drove before his death in 1977. Still with its Tennessee license plate and a few royal scratches and dings here or there, the car has been preserved in the condition in which Presley kept it. "I'm a big fan," said Earnhardt, who has an entire room of Elvis memorabilia in his home. "Knowing how big of an entertainer he was, what he means to so many people, it really meant a lot to me today to be able to drive it." Earnhardt said he became an Elvis fan while spending time at the house of his grandmother while his father was out of town racing. Martha Earnhardt's "whole house was Elvis, from one end to the other," he said. It was full of photos, figurines and other mementos, and Elvis music on the radio all the time. Growing up in that environment, it was natural for the younger Earnhardt to become a fan, and soon enough his own fans were sending him so many Presley souvenirs that he dedicated a whole room of his house to them. Earnhardt said he has "a couple of hundred" albums, and even a cape someone sent him. He even likes Elvis' movies -- such as "Speedway," part of which was filmed at the Charlotte track, though the King of Rock and Roll was never on the property. "My girlfriend loves the movies because of Ann-Margaret and all that stuff," Earnhardt added. "We watch the movies and stuff like that." So getting a chance to wheel Presley's car, which will be the centerpiece of a car show to be held at the track April 3-6, was clearly a thrill. The Blackhawk was built in Italy to Presley's specifications, which included a vertical front grille, whitewall tires, exhaust pipes running down either side, and even a fur-lined trunk. According to Jack Soden, chairman of Elvis Presley Enterprises, the trip to the Charlotte area marked the first time the vehicle has left Graceland since Elvis' passing. Earnhardt said Presley drove the car only a few hours before he died. "It's got his personality written all over it, with the side pipes and the character lines and the interior," Earnhardt said. Riding in the passenger seat Tuesday was Earnhardt's car owner Rick Hendrick, a noted automobile nut who once saw Elvis in concert in Las Vegas. "I've seen pictures of this car. Never thought we'd get the chance to sit in it," Hendrick said. "… I never thought we'd get to touch it or see it, let alone sit in it and drive it. Pretty special." The Blackhawk hasn't been the only car on Earnhardt's mind this week. On the flight home from last weekend's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., Earnhardt took part in an exchange on Twitter with open-wheel driver Graham Rahal, who shares Earnhardt's National Guard sponsor and proposed they undertake a ride swap like the one Jeff Gordon and Juan Pablo Montoya did at Indianapolis in 2003. Although Earnhardt initially seemed receptive to the idea, the manufacturer conflict it would present makes it about as likely as him wheeling the Stutz in this weekend's Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway. "He drives a Honda, which I believe is more than just a speed bump," Earnhardt said. "If I wanted to drive an IndyCar, I'm sure I could get with Penske or somebody who owns a Chevy and take a couple of laps somewhere. But it would have been fun to do that with Graham, with the relationship of our sponsors and the histories of our families. And I look forward to meeting him one day. But I think the fact that he has the relationship with that manufacturer is going to make it challenging if not impossible for me to drive that particular car." Earnhardt emphasized he has no desire to race an open-wheel car, just take one for a spin. His more immediate racing concerns revolve around Martinsville, a half-mile track not unlike those he competed on during his late model days, and a place where he's yet to win at NASCAR's highest level. Adding to the personal significance is the fact that this weekend marks the 30th anniversary of Hendrick's first premier-series victory, which came at Martinsville with a small team that would blossom into the Hendrick Motorsports empire. "I have wanted to win a race there for so long, and trying to get the grandfather clock for my house," Earnhardt said, referring to the Ridgeway clocks Martinsville awards to its winners. "I love short-track racing, and I've gone to races there all my life. That was one of the races we could go to even in the school year while we were kids. Lot of history there, lot of memories there. Had some good cars there, just never been able to get the job done. I'd love to be able to win there." Is there space somewhere near the Elvis room for a grandfather clock? "Absolutely. I got room for a lot of grandfather clocks," said Earnhardt, whose father won six times at Martinsville. "To have one in my house, it's definitely a trophy I grew up around. We had many in our home. I'd love to have one in my house as well." Sunday, he gets another opportunity to take one home. As for the Stutz Blackhawk? As much he loves Elvis, Earnhardt turned the keys back over to the folks from Graceland following his brief, rain-shortened spin Tuesday afternoon. "I don’t know if this is exactly my style," Earnhardt said. "But back then, in the '70s, I bet this was pretty cool." Manufacturer clouds Earnhardt and Rahal swap Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Tuesday he wants to swap race cars with Graham Rahal, but believes it won't be possible because they drive for rival manufacturers. Both drivers are sponsored by Army National Guard this season. Rahal reached out to Earnhardt on Twitter after Sunday's NASCAR race at Fontana, proposing they swap cars in an exhibition. Only Earnhardt drives a Chevrolet in NASCAR, and Rahal's car in IndyCar is a Honda. Because Chevy and Honda are direct competitors in IndyCar, and Earnhardt is so closely associated with Chevrolet, he said he doesn't think the swap is doable. ''Well, he drives a Honda, which is more than just a speed bump,'' Earnhardt said during an appearance at Charlotte Motor Speedway. ''If I wanted to drive an Indy car, I'm sure I could get with Penske or somebody who owned a Chevy and take a couple laps somewhere. But it would have been fun to do that with Graham because of the relationship with our sponsor and the history of our families. ''I look forward to meeting him one day, but I think the fact he has a relationship with a different manufacturer is going to make it challenging - if not impossible - for me to drive that particular car.'' Rick Hendrick, Earnhardt's team owner, was in favor of a swap so long as it was just a test session. Hendrick is friends with Rahal's father, Bobby, the owner of Rahal's IndyCar team. ''I think if he wants to do that, it's fine. Not race, but get out and just play,'' Hendrick said. ''Bobby is a good friend of mine, and I've known him for a long time and I think those kind of things are good for our sport and for the open-wheel guys, too. ''We have the same sponsors, so it all kind of works.'' As for the manufacturer conflict, Hendrick wasn't sure. He noted that Jeff Gordon swapped cars with Juan Pablo Montoya when Montoya was in Formula One, and Tony Stewart swapped cars with F1 driver Lewis Hamilton. ''I don't know really if it's that big of a deal, BMW vs. Chevrolet, Honda vs. Chevrolet,'' Hendrick said. ''I haven't talked to Chevrolet. If (Earnhardt) is really serious about doing it, then we need to talk to them. I'm fine with it.'' Rahal said Tuesday he didn't see a problem with the competing manufacturers. ''We aren't promoting Honda and we aren't promoting Chevrolet,'' he said. ''We're promoting National Guard, so I think it should be about the sponsor and there shouldn't be an issue with the cars.'' Rahal also said he was just throwing out the idea on Twitter to Earnhardt after Rahal attended Sunday's race. His Indy car will have the same stylized number as Earnhardt's does in NASCAR, per the Guard's request, and he had previously said he'd like to partner with Earnhardt on outside projects. ''It's something I really wanted to do. I was surprised he responded,'' he said. ''Of course, I felt with the National Guard that it could potentially I would say happen. Media-wise, for sponsor exposure, I think it would be tremendous for them. But I also thought it would be something that would be fun to do. ''Let's see getting Earnhardt and a Rahal, I think the last time those two names were on the same track were the IROC days with my dad. It would be good to go back out there and see what we could do, have some fun.'' Driver Report: Previewing the Auto Club race 2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. is second with 153 points. Past four races: 24th at Bristol, 2nd at Las Vegas, 2nd at Phoenix, 1st at Daytona. Season stats: 1 win, 3 top-fives, 3 top-10s. Track history: At Fontana, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 20.5 and his average running position is 19.7 over the past nine years. In 21 career starts at Auto Club, he has five top-fives and six top-10s. Quick hit: Earnhardt Jr.'s history at Auto Club Speedway shows this to be one of his weaker tracks, but his showing there has improved dramatically since joining Hendrick Motorsports. Junior shares a shop with Jimmie Johnson, the California king, so he's likely to have gleaned something over the years -- his last two finishes here were third in 2012 and second last year. Tire issues slow Earnhardt's hot start The tone of the alarmed voice over the radio told the story. "Something's broke," Dale Earnhardt Jr. shouted as his No. 88 car suddenly began to shake. Turns out, it wasn't a broken part, but a shredded left-front tire -- one of two Earnhardt suffered Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, in a rain-delayed, day-to-night marathon that brought the season-opening streak enjoyed by NASCAR's most popular driver to an abrupt end. Bidding to tie Richard Petty's NASCAR record of four top-two finishes to open the season, Earnhardt never really got the chance. Despite a strong car early, the tire issues relegated Earnhardt to a 24th-place finish, four laps behind race winner Carl Edwards. It was the first bobble of the 2014 campaign for the Daytona 500 winner, who had finished second at Phoenix and Las Vegas and entered Bristol as the points leader in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. But under a revamped Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format in which Earnhardt's Daytona victory likely guarantees him a berth, the disappointment over the finish was hardly what it might have been. "As long as they're telling the truth about if you win, you're in, you ain't worried about it," he said in the garage area as rain began to fall once again. "You ain't worried about it -- you either win, or you don't win. Second (through) last doesn't really matter. If you don't win, you just go home and try again." Earnhardt's team will certainly go home and investigate what caused two tires to get chewed up. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson had the tread come off a tire before the race was interrupted by a three-hour rain delay, leaving the six-time champion two laps down at the red flag and contributing to a 19th-place result. But Johnson lost a right-front, and according to Goodyear, crew chief Chad Knaus' decision to take only lefts under a Lap 50 competition caution created a high-wear situation on a green track washed free of rubber by rain. Complicating the situation was the fact that the No. 88 car seemed to return to its original form late in the race. "It's frustrating," said Steve Letarte, Earnhardt's crew chief. "I've had cars that eat tires before in my career, but they normally eat them all day. So I don't know how this one miraculously got better. Everybody has the same opportunity when they come to the race track. We've run well for three weeks, and we just couldn't put together a good finish tonight." Earnhardt said he couldn't detect the root issue from the driver's seat -- all he knew was, the car was shaking up a storm. "Tires were just falling apart on the damn thing for a while. So I don't know what else we could have done," he said. "It ran fine the first part of the race, so it ain't the green track, and all that (stuff). So we'll just take it home, make sure nothing's changed in the car. Otherwise, I don't know what happed there. Just tore two left-front tires up, and it won't run at all when that left-front tire came down to the cords." With the finish, Earnhardt fell to second in the Sprint Cup standings, 10 points behind new leader Brad Keselowski. But he remains off to one of the best starts of his career, and having a race victory already in his pocket certainly mitigated the sting felt Sunday night. "It definitely helps. We're just shooting for wins," Letarte said. "I don't think we had a winning car before that, but you never know. Nobody thought the 99 (team of Edwards) had a winning car, and they ended up winning. We just want to be in it and have an opportunity, and we just didn't get to stay in it all day." Driver intro song at Bristol 2014 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Man of Action by Matthew Good Band Dale Jr.'s gambles may continue beyond Vegas Just because it was a gamble doesn't mean it didn't hurt. Dale Earnhardt Jr. saw the showgirls and the Victory Lane celebration in the middle of the Neon Garage area, and thought about how much fun it must be to win at Las Vegas. He may have come up short on a fuel-mileage venture last Sunday, but he still came up short. Even the memory of running out of gas off the final turn at Charlotte in 2011 still stings. "We took a gamble that wasn’t supposed to make it," Earnhardt said, looking back at his runner-up finish a week ago. "I can justify why we didn't win, but to come that close really does disappoint you." And yet, with a Daytona 500 race victory in his hip pocket and a virtually guaranteed berth in the revamped Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, it seems pretty clear -- despite the hurt, he'd do it all over again. Earnhardt's fuel wager a week ago at Las Vegas, where he ran dry on the backstretch of the final lap and saw Brad Keselowski storm past to win, may have been just the first such gamble by drivers who have punched their tickets to the playoff. Sin City may be in the rearview, but teams are still going to roll the dice. That's certainly the case for Earnhardt and his No. 88 group, who with a race victory in hand see no need to play it conservatively. For NASCAR's most popular driver, that means another gamble may well be in the offing this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, where Earnhardt won in 2004. "It's definitely going to change the way people do strategy," he said. "We saw that last week. And at the short tracks, it's definitely going to change the way people race each other. At the short tracks when you can get within reach of each other, you're going to definitely be more aggressive in those situations, for sure." At Bristol, that could mean a few different things. Earnhardt thinks back to his 10th-place finish here last summer, where "we ended up chickening out on the fuel strategy and pitting and giving up all our track position," he said. "With the way things are now, we don’t need to do that. We can go for it, and be aggressive." But it could also mean the return of a once-polarizing Bristol tradition -- the bump-and-run. Again Earnhardt thinks back to last summer's night race at Bristol, where his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne finished second to Matt Kenseth. Under the current format, he wonders if Kahne may have been more willing to use the front end of his car. "If you’ve got a guy running second within reach of the leader and he needs a win, he’s going to do a little bit more than he probably would have done last year, probably be a little more aggressive," Earnhardt said, "and rightfully so." The bump-and-run was once as much a Bristol standard as Ridgewood barbecue, with Jeff Gordon and Rusty Wallace engaging in a few memorable duels and Dale Earnhardt the elder famously rattling Terry Labonte's cage. Changes to the race track, not to mention drivers' mentalities, have caused the tactic to fall out of fashion in recent years -- but now? With a handful of drivers able to go for broke because they already have race victories, and everyone else willing to do anything to get them? "You don’t want to go throw your trash in your neighbor’s yard just for the hell of it, but if you give me a good reason, I might do it," Earnhardt said. "I mean, you want to dump somebody at a race track like this, you’re going to need really good reason to do it. The mentality has changed over the years, and the new system changes that mindset slightly to where if you move a guy out of the way, for lack of a better way to explain it, you can blame the system and move on." Not everyone is convinced the change in format will bring a change of attitudes toward the bump-and-run. "I don't have any plans to be more violent than I have in the past," Ryan Newman said. "Ultimately, you have to manage your race car and manage your race, and you have to have left something at the end. You can beat on guys, but you’re going to get beat back on." "If somebody is on your bumper at most of these race tracks, especially these little tracks like Martinsville (and) here, places like that where you can get moved out of the way … you’re always expecting some type of aggressive move," Matt Kenseth added. "I’m not sure how much that will change. These are all big races to win, and everybody is out there racing hard to win. You never know. You never know what the new system, with the rules and format and all that stuff, is going to bring. I think we just kind of wait and see." With his runner-up finishes at Phoenix and Las Vegas, Earnhardt became the fifth driver in NASCAR's modern era to start the season with three consecutive top-two results. The Sprint Cup Series points leader cautioned, though, that last week's finish was due to strategy -- he would have run between fourth and eighth without it, he said, and never seriously challenged Keselowski for the victory. "We can't get too carried away," Earnhardt said. "We were in position to win, but we did that on a strategy that a lot of people weren't willing to take. We're not going to be able to do that every week. We're not going to be able to turn an eighth- or a fifth-place run into a second- or third- or first-place run every week. So we've got to keep in perspective what happened last week. … We definitely can look at that and be excited that we had a chance to win, but also we need to focus more on how to get better so we're running up front regardless of the strategy were running." That's certainly a possibility at Bristol, a short track the former late model driver at Myrtle Beach Speedway has loved since the beginning, and where he's often performed well. Sunday's race brings another opportunity -- whether by conventional means, or using another strategy move to put himself back in position at the end. "We've got a shot at it, man," Earnhardt said. "We really run good here. I like coming here. We felt really good about our car last time we were here. … We'll be going for it." Driver Report: Previewing the Bristol race 1. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 133 points. Past three races: 2nd at Las Vegas, 2nd at Phoenix, 1st at Daytona. Season stats: 1 win, 3 top-fives, 3 top-10s. Track history: At Bristol, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 9.7 and his average running position is 13.6 over the past nine years. In 28 career starts at Bristol, he has one win, seven top-fives and 14 top-10s. Quick hit: Not only does Earnhardt love the beating and banging that comes on a short track, he's improved his performance on them throughout his career. And with the way he's running right now, why would anyone possibly bet against a top-five? Dale Jr. explains touching father-son Bristol tweet (Photo) When the Sprint Cup Series rolls around to the historic Bristol Motor Speedway each year, it has a special tendency to evoke a certain nostalgic feeling out of drivers and fans alike. As a guy who collects junked cars in his backyard and prides himself on the historical nature of NASCAR -- not to mention someone who talked just last week about how many classic racing photos he keeps on his phone -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. is hardly an exception. Now that he's the biggest thing to hit Twitter since… actually, on second thought, he might just be the biggest thing to ever hit Twitter (sorry, Ellen's Oscar selfie), Junior might be inspired to open up his archive after seeing the handle @NASCARMemories tweet out a photo last week of he and his dad at Bristol in 1981. Earnhardt replied to the tweet, giving the background story of that night and bringing a tear to the collective eye of Junior Nation. Earnhardt Jr. nearly pulls out second win of '14 There was a time when Dale Earnhardt Jr. admits he wouldn’t have taken Sunday's race-ending scenario at Las Vegas Motor Speedway very well. Running out of gas while leading on the final lap hurts, even when you're still basking in a Daytona 500 victory from three weeks ago and still lead the championship standings. "I don't like to run second after getting passed on the last lap no matter if we run out of fuel or just get out-run," Earnhardt said, leaning against his No. 88 Mountain Dew Kickstart Chevrolet on pit road. "We came close to winning, man. You come close to winning and have it yanked away from you like that, it's not easy to accept. "But you have to stay positive. We can't let this be a negative, running second and having a chance to win. Can't let the team get down; we're going to Bristol and need stay positive and productive." It was a lesson Earnhardt learned from a similar situation -- one he handled very differently at Pocono in 2008, with his cousin Tony Eury Jr. serving as his crew chief. "We were supposed to be fine [on fuel] until the end of the race, and then we ran out with like two laps to go and I came in, took my helmet off and bashed a fender on the car and just made a real ass of myself and learned a lot from that experience," Earnhardt said of the Pocono incident. "My team was disappointed in my actions, and my cousin was disappointed in my actions and the way I was. So when we run out of gas now, you know, you've got to try to be positive, because those kind of things -- when you crash, wreck, blow up -- those kind of things, there's an opportunity there for it to be worse, and you make it worse than it is, or for you to try to clean up the mess and carry on. "Throwing a tantrum and getting upset and mad about it don't do any good for your team. They don't feed off of that. If anything, it brings your team down." And this season, no team is more "up" than Earnhardt's. After winning the sport's biggest race in the season opener at Daytona, he's finished runner-up in both races since and holds the Sprint Cup Series championship lead by a point over Sunday's race winner, Brad Keselowski, who has three top-three finishes as well. That place atop the standings, and Earnhardt's victory already almost guaranteeing him a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, plus the fact crew chief Steve Letarte is in his final year with the team before moving to the NBC Sports television booth all created a fitting Las Vegas-style setting for a strategy of doubling down and taking gambles. Earnhardt knew he was probably a lap shy on fuel while leading the field in the closing laps, but he was more willing to roll the dice. "I think everybody has seen that over the last couple of weeks, that this (Chase) format has definitely allowed teams to gamble like we have,’’ Earnhardt said. "You know, it did pay off. Not the ultimate prize, but we did run second. "I felt good about the car and proud of Steve and the strategy that he used to give us a chance to win. We're going to dearly miss that next year and hopefully we are learning what we need to learn in these last couple of years so (the team) can continue calling races as well as he does. "It's disappointing, but at the same time the good Lord has blessed me with a good team and good fortune and a great opportunity." As for Letarte, Earnhardt said the team has not made any decisions about a new crew chief for 2015. In fact, Earnhardt said, it hasn't even been discussed. "There has been none about it," Earnhardt said. "We’ve got a lot of time and I think it’s best not to jump to a conclusion early. Steve’s a great part of that process, let him sort of watch the year unfold and see how the team is and understand what his opinion is on who would be best for that role. "Unless you're really ready to make the decision, it's almost best not to even discuss it because you don't want rumors to start floating around in the shop and people start getting the wrong messages and stuff like that. "When we're ready to make the decision, we'll sit down and we'll make it. And it'll be clear." In the meantime, Earnhardt is enjoying the best start to a season in his 15 years at the Cup level. "When we first got together we'd run our guts out to run in the top 15," Earnhardt said smiling. "Then the next year, we'd run our guts out to run in the top 10 and you wondered when you'd get up to fifth and start running in the top five regularly. "We started doing that that finally last year and so our team just keeps stepping up this ladder. It just makes total sense to me how that process has went, having lived it and having seen the progression. "So the sky's the limit for us, and if we are smart and keep our composure and don't get foolish and don’t get too proud of ourselves … just keep it in perspective, we've got a great opportunity this year to be this competitive every week." Sighting Dale Earnhardt Jr. having lunch with his girlfriend at Sushi Roku in Las Vegas. Dale Earnhardt Jr. aims for the top Dale Earnhardt Jr. said his No. 88 team has run as well as that of teammate Jimmie Johnson, but he doesn’t appear ready to stake his claim to being the best under the Hendrick Motorsports banner. "I think the last 10 races we’ve ran, we’ve been on par with Jimmie," Earnhardt Jr., 39, said of the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. "He’s obviously been the lead horse in the organization for a long time in performance. "I feel like in the last 10 races or so we’ve been on par with him if not a little bit better; obviously in the last 10 races or so we’ve been better, but just in results." For the bulk of his Cup career, which began in earnest in 2002, Johnson has not only been the barometer by which Hendrick teams are measured, but by how all teams in the series are gauged. In addition to his six championships, Johnson has posted multiple wins for 12 consecutive seasons, including a career-best 10 in 2007. Earnhardt Jr., who joined the Hendrick organization in 2008, has by his own admission has "sort of been all over the board, really." "I think in the last seven years we’ve been at the bottom, we’ve been the third, second, first. We’ve been all over," he said Thursday prior to a four-hour test session for Cup teams at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "More often we’ve been in the back half of the four cars (at HMS). We haven’t performed as well as our other three teammates throughout 2009 and 2010, and 2011 we started getting a little bit better." A strong finish to the 2013 season left Earnhardt Jr. fifth in points – his best showing with the team and his best overall since 2006 when he also finished fifth while driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc., the organization founded by his father. A furious start to the 2014 season has seen him win once (he captured his second career Daytona 500 title) and finish second a week later at Phoenix International Raceway. The Daytona 500 victory virtually assures him a spot in this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup while the combined early-season results send him into this weekend’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas with the points lead. Johnson, fifth and sixth in the opening two races, is fifth in the standings while teammates Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne sit third and 18th, respectively. "You can’t sleep on Jimmie," Earnhardt Jr. warned. "He’ll get it going." For Vegas, Dale Jr. will have spotter TJ Majors back this weekend after a one race absence but until Saturday, Earnhardt Jr. will have some help from Regan Smith and former Cup champion Bill Elliott. Much was expected when he made the move to Hendrick, yet it’s been a difficult stretch for the sport’s most popular driver. He went through two crew chiefs – cousin Tony Eury Jr., and Lance McGrew – before finally being paired with current crew chief Steve Letarte. Wins have been rare – before this year’s 500 victory Earnhardt Jr. had only two victories with Hendrick – and consistency had been an issue. That no longer appears to be the case. "It’s a very, very competitive group (at HMS)," Earnhardt Jr. said. "Kasey’s as fast as anybody. Jeff’s got four championships and tons of experience, and (he) wins races. "They raise your game; it’s good to have people pushing you and they definitely push me to be better as a driver and I learn a lot from all three of them." It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Earnhardt Jr., who said he hasn’t been home since winning at Daytona nearly two weeks ago. He’s joined the social media platform Twitter, taken a week-long media tour as part of his Daytona victory. On Wednesday night in Las Vegas, he took part in a sponsor event for Mountain Dew to unveil a new Kickstart paint scheme on his No. 88 Chevrolet. "Everything seems to be (moving) in a positive direction right now," he said, "so (we’re) just having fun with that. The fans are really enjoying it. "… I think that drives us and motivates us when people are happy with how you are doing and want to see you do well, and want to continue to see you do well. … "I’m not working to get more popularity, I’m just trying to go win races and trying to have fun doing it." Driver Reports: Previewing the Las Vegas race Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Standing: Earnhardt Jr. leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 90 points. Past two races: 2nd at Phoenix, 1st at Daytona. Season stats: 1 win, 2 top-fives, 2 top-10s. Track history: At Las Vegas, Earnhardt Jr.'s average finish is 14.8 and his average running position is 14.9 over the past eight years. In 14 career starts at Las Vegas, he has two top-fives and seven top-10s. Quick hit: With five top-10s in the past six races at Las Vegas, history shows Earnhardt Jr. is good bet for a good finish in the Sin City. His torrid start to the season suggests much more is possible, too. No let-up for Earnhardt Jr. at Phoenix So much for thinking Dale Earnhardt Jr. might take the rest of the regular season off. After his historic Daytona 500 victory just a week ago, some purported that Earnhardt may rest on his laurels and coast into NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup. Under the changed format that basically equates to a "win and you're in" philosophy -- new for the 2014 season -- it almost gives Earnhardt and his No. 88 Chevrolet crew the chance to relax and enjoy the flexibility of trying different set-ups and strategies over the course of the spring and summer in preparation for the sport's 10-race playoff. If Sunday's The Profit on CNBC 500 at Phoenix International Raceway gave any indication, that's not the plan at all. "I'd love to have won the race and I'm a little disappointed (we didn't)," Earnhardt said after finishing second to race winner Kevin Harvick. "To come that close, our team is performing so well. We've got a lot of great chemistry and good communication going back and forth and everybody's confidence is very high and everybody's mood and morale is very high, so hopefully we can maintain that and not have any bad luck or make any mistakes and continue to keep working toward winning some more races. If we run second enough, we're bound to at least trip into one or two (wins)." So clearly, the first thing on Earnhardt's mind is still finishing the race ahead of the other 42 cars on the track. On a day in which Harvick's No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet had the rest of the field in a vice grip -- taking the lead on Lap 74 and holding it the rest of the way save for a quick pit stop -- Earnhardt nearly came within reach of winning back-to-back races for the first time in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. Earnhardt said if only he'd had "10 more laps," he thought his 88 car would have caught the No. 4 Chevy, which had been the class of the field practically since they unloaded the haulers. "Those guys were two-tenths faster than everybody all weekend in practice," said Earnhardt, who topped the charts in the first practice before ceding to Harvick for the next two. "They were just phenomenal. To be able to run with (Harvick), as we did all day, was a big confidence builder for us. Even at the end of the race, I thought our laps we put together coming up to the checkered (flag) were faster than him." Earnhardt's excellent run at Phoenix -- a track where his only two wins came in back-to-back years a decade ago (2003-04) -- continues his reign atop the points standings, as he opens the season with consecutive top-five finishes for just the third time in his career (2004, '13). Despite running so well in last year's Chase, the fact that Earnhardt has opened 2014 so strong is a bit of a surprise to even Earnhardt himself. "I was wondering if we were going to carry on the momentum from last year. We were running so good in the Chase. And also with the rules -- the new height rules -- I was wondering where we were going to fall in comparison in performance with the competition. What did people learn over the offseason? Who was going to stand out -- like the 4 car did today and all weekend? It seems like we aren't behind. We aren't where the 4 car is, but we're definitely close and hopefully we can learn what we need to learn rapidly in the next several weeks and get up to par so we can win some races. "There's a couple teams out there that are behind or not quite onto the new package and the new rules, and I'm glad we're doing pretty well and the performance is there for us. Hopefully we can maintain it as we go to a completely different track at Vegas." If Earnhardt and Co. are able to maintain the full-steam-ahead momentum that they've built since the tail end of last year into 2014 and carry that into another solid run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it will be a true measure of the team's consistency and will clearly establish that the team is for real. Earnhardt hasn't historically fared well at the 1.5-mile tri-oval, notching just a pair of top-fives in 14 Cup starts. Still, knowing he's the current chip leader playing at the high-roller table because of his Daytona win, there's a certain relaxed nature to Earnhardt right now that hasn't been as evident in the past. It came into play at Phoenix when it appeared that fuel mileage was going to decide the outcome. "We probably would've gone with the same strategy (had we not won at Daytona) but it was less nerve-racking today. Normally you're just biting your fingernails when (crew chief Steve Letarte) says 'We're two laps short, we've got to find two laps somewhere' and the cautions are coming out and you think you're saving (gas) but you don’t know exactly how much you're saving and it's just really, really nerve-racking. So today when he said that, I was like 'All right, if we run out, we run out. No big deal.' We can gamble and gamble with a better conscience." Everything is falling into place in all the right ways for Earnhardt right now. The only better result at Phoenix would have been if Harvick had slipped up on one of several late restarts, but that's just splitting hairs. With a win in his pocket and his Chase ticket all but punched, some might treat their driver's seat as a La-Z-Boy recliner and kick back until September, but good luck convincing Earnhardt to do that. "I feel good," he said. "I feel like we're really coming around the corner and peaking at the right time this season to try to run for the championship." With a win in hand, Junior can push the envelope Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s victory in last Sunday's Daytona 500 might just be the NASCAR equivalent of a "Get-out-of-jail-free" card. With a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berth all but a certainty thanks to the win, Earnhardt, crew chief Steve Letarte and the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team suddenly are liberated in the approach they can take to the next 25 races on the schedule. And Earnhardt is riding a wave of confidence that swelled mightily during last year's Chase. Just ask teammate Jeff Gordon. "There's no doubt, this sport is so much about confidence and believing in one another," Gordon said. "We've all said that one race doesn't necessarily guarantee anything, but boy, with the new points system, it certainly guarantees a lot. "That allows you to continue to build that confidence and just push the envelope of your setups, your pit strategy, how you're driving ... And with the kind of confidence he has coming from last year, and now off of this race (Daytona 500), you would think that will transfer over to the next several races." If it does, is a championship possible for the driver of the No. 88 Chevy? Gordon wouldn't rule it out. "Now we get to the downforce tracks, and if those guys perform well on these next few tracks, watch out. I think anything is possible." Johnson central to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s rise Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s first race victory with Hendrick Motorsports was a fuel-mileage nail-biter more than five years ago in Michigan, where he cut the engine on and off to save gas in the final laps, and coasted home on fumes. The triumph ended a 76-race winless skid for NASCAR's most popular driver, and when teammate Jimmie Johnson came to congratulate him in Victory Lane, Earnhardt could think of only one thing to say. "I'm a winner," he told Johnson. "I know you are," the then-two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion replied. There are many people who have helped fuel Earnhardt's resurgence, which began in earnest with a strong stretch run to last season, and reached a new high last weekend with the driver's second Daytona 500 championship. There's owner Rick Hendrick, who stood by Earnhardt during a disheartening start to his stint with NASCAR's best organization. There's crew chief Steve Letarte, who helped renew his driver's focus and confidence behind the wheel. And there's Johnson, whose run of success has set the bar at Hendrick and elsewhere, and has become an unfailing friend to and supporter of Earnhardt since even before the teams of the two drivers were housed in the same facility on the Hendrick complex north of Charlotte, N.C. "Jimmie has always been one of my biggest fans," said Earnhardt, a two-time winner at Phoenix International Raceway. "Even before we were in the same shop, you know? I've known him for a very long time, before he was a champion, when he was just getting starting, he was wondering what kind of motorhome to buy. It's been a long road for both of us. He enjoys seeing me do well, and I feel the same way about him. So we've got a great relationship. It's really great to be in the same shop together. We feed off of their success. I think they do the same with us. Hopefully, we can continue that." They would seem an odd couple -- one a six-time champion whose legacy in NASCAR is already ironclad, the other the son of a seven-time champion who is still working to build a legacy of his own. Nothing drives the denizens of Junior Nation into fits quicker than their man finishing second behind Johnson, something that happened three times a season ago. But although their fan bases may exist at polar extremes, the two drivers are close, and have been since Earnhardt first met Johnson at the latter's second NASCAR Nationwide Series start, at Gateway International Raceway outside St. Louis in 1998. Earnhardt won that event, on the way to the first of his back-to-back championships in that series. Johnson, driving then for owner Tad Geschickter, finished an anonymous 15th. When Earnhardt joined Hendrick prior to the 2008 campaign, the dynamic was very different -- suddenly Earnhardt was the one trying to find his footing, and Johnson was the established incumbent with a string of titles to his name. The reciprocal relationship between the two drivers, though, has never changed. "With Junior, I always just kind of reached out to him and let him know I was there if he wanted to talk about race cars, the team or really anything for that matter," said Johnson, a four-time winner at Phoenix, site of Sunday's Sprint Cup Series event. "With his personality, if you're in his face a lot or telling him what you think or almost preaching to him -- telling him what he should do -- it's not going to work out. "In some ways, I've tried to lead by example and just do my thing. He is a very, very observant guy -- especially with what goes on in our shop. That's taken me a while to pick up and understand, how much he pays attention to what I do, how I drive my car, the things I'm interested in, things I focus on. And then being there and answering questions. From there, he has done the rest on his own. Between he and Steve with the relationship they have -- we may have been a carrot out there for the 88 in some respects, but the hard work those two have put in and that team has put in has put them where they are today." Johnson's influence on Earnhardt was evident even this week, when the six-time champ finally convinced his teammate to join the social media network Twitter. But the real game changer came following the 2010 season, when -- on the heels of Johnson's fifth championship, no less -- Hendrick shuffled his race programs, putting Letarte at the helm of the No. 88 and placing Earnhardt and Johnson together in a combined 48/88 shop. Earnhardt had just come off a 21st-place finish in points, and the tactic seemed a simple one -- to hope some of Johnson's success rubbed off on his new stablemate. It took some time, but along the way Johnson and Earnhardt were able to build a day-to-day rapport that enhanced the relationship they had already. "Before that, I was always there for him, but I didn't have the opportunity to connect and talk at the level we do now," said Johnson, who this season is trying to tie the record of seven premier-series titles shared by Richard Petty and Earnhardt Jr.'s father. "Being in the same shop has allowed that to happen. He and I have been friends for a lot of years, well before either of us were racing in (the top division of) NASCAR. I think the time and history there kind of helps take down some of the walls and lets us communicate." In the wake of his second Daytona 500 title, Earnhardt lauded the assistance of all his Hendrick teammates. He said he and Kasey Kahne have been friends since both started out, and he's known Jeff Gordon since his father -- who was a business partner with the four-time champion -- introduced the two at North Wilkesboro Speedway. But there's something about Johnson, and the way he carries himself and his professionalism in crisis situations, that clearly strikes a chord with Earnhardt, and makes him an even bigger believer in himself. "I do feel I'm like as talented as he is. I think I am on the same level," Earnhardt said. "As a driver, you have to feel confident in yourself and believe in yourself. So I think I'd put myself up against anybody in the field. But I think we definitely have a good friendship. I enjoy seeing him have success, because I know where he came from and I know the kind of person he is, who he was, who he is now. I think he feels the same way. We've known each other a long time. A lot of things have happened in that period of time that I think allows us to have a lot of respect and appreciation for each other." DALE JR.’S RIDE Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had quite a ride since winning the Daytona 500 for the second time last weekend, going on a whirlwind tour while receiving numerous freebies, including ribs from a Memphis barbecue restaurant. It was a victory he’ll remember for the rest of his life and one that was wildly popular with his fans, but reality returns this weekend. “The only bad part about winning at Daytona is you go to Phoenix and somebody else wins the next race, then they are getting the ribs,” Earnhardt said with a laugh. “If I can win, I will keep it going, but it would be nice if we had an off weekend there where we it could keep going because so much great stuff happens to you during this week and it’s been great.” An 'awesome' fill-in at spotter for Earnhardt Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who already has had a whirlwind week in the wake of his second career Daytona 500 victory and the accompanying media tour rush that goes along with it, is in line for another great weekend. Perhaps even an awesome one. Earnhardt's No. 88 team spotter TJ Majors is out for the weekend, resting at home with a medical issue and leaving an open spot to be filled by 1988 Cup champion Bill Elliott. Elliott, of course, is affectionately dubbed "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville," a nod to his hometown of Dawsonville, Ga. Elliott will just fill in during practice, while Jeff Dickerson -- who previously spotted for Jeff Gordon and filled in last year at Atlanta for Majors when a similar issue cropped up -- will be on the tower for Sunday's The Profit on CNBC 500 presented by Small Business Fueling America (3 p.m. ET, FOX). With Elliott spotting, Earnhardt Jr. paced the field in the first practice session Friday. Earnhardt started and finished eighth at Atlanta last year, but losing Majors could be a major factor as the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet looks to hold onto his points lead. "(Majors) just hates having to miss it," Earnhardt said Friday at Phoenix International Raceway. "He is a huge part of our team. We have such great chemistry, it's going to be a difficult situation not having him. … (Dickerson) did a great job for us last year. I feel good about the race." The buzz at the track, however, was all about what it will be like having a 16-time Most Popular Driver spot for the driver most poised to break that record -- Junior has 11 awards of his own already collected. "A lot of Most Popular Driver awards right there, like 27 or something like that," Earnhardt said of Elliott, whose son Chase Elliott drives the No. 9 entry for Earnhardt's JR Motorsports NASCAR Nationwide Series team. "We've got Bill Elliott of all people is going to fill in during practice. That is going to be pretty awesome." Earnhardt going fast and furious on Twitter NASCAR's most popular driver won the sport's biggest race last weekend. It may not have been the most exciting news of the week, at least when it comes to fans of Dale Earnhardt Jr. A reluctant participant on Twitter for years, Earnhardt burst into the Twitterverse this week with a flourish of revealing tweets that have given fans insight into his life they never knew before. ''I don't know what I was thinking, why I didn't get on there earlier,'' Earnhardt said from Phoenix International Speedway on Friday. ''It's a great way to tell people things you appreciate and it's instant.'' Earnhardt has had a Twitter account since 2008, when JR Motorsports signed up (at)DaleJr. Earnhardt had no interest in that end of social media at first, so the account sat dormant for years. That changed early Monday morning, hours after Earnhardt won his second Daytona 500 and posted a photo of himself with the trophy: ''Tonight seemed like as good a night as any to join Twitter. How is everyone doin?'' Earnhardt's Twitter account soared once he started typing 140 characters at a time, rising to more than 527,000 followers by Friday. ''It's been a very interesting follow, him getting creative,'' fellow Sprint Cup driver Jimmie Johnson said. ''He must have been watching for afar for a while because he has the lingo down, attacking people, holding up pretty well. He didn't enter as a rookie on Twitter, in my opinion. He's off to a pretty good start.'' It's certainly been entertaining and fairly revealing. Earnhardt participated in a Twitter chat with fans on Tuesday night and kept the tweets rolling this week, up over 130 by Friday morning. Among the revelations he's made on Twitter so far: -He always goes the speed limit, figuring he'd look stupid if he gets a ticket when he's supposed to be a professional driver. -If he had to eat only one food for a month, it would be barbecue. -His favorite car to drive is a midnight blue 76 Chevy Laguna. -The one topping he would want on a pizza is banana peppers. -His favorite style of racing is on short tracks such as Bristol and Martinsville. -Hanging from a fork in a tree near his house is the cockpit of Will Power's IndyCar from the crash in Las Vegas that killed Dan Wheldon. -His favorite color his orange. -His favorite band is the Matthew Good Band. -His favorite gadget is his iPad and JBL speaker. ''I'm still learning. There's still a lot of questions about the software, how to physically use it,'' Earnhardt said. ''I never used it before. It's been fun to interact with the fans ... and it was enjoyable to be plugged in whenever you feel like it. I hope the fans have enjoyed it.'' The fans seem to and so have his fellow drivers, who have tried enticing Earnhardt to join Twitter for years. ''I, among many others have pushed him to do it,'' Johnson said. ''There's been a lot of people on social media, even the people who run Twitter have come to me to put pressure on him over the years and it just was something he wasn't interested in. As sharp as he is, as much time as he spends in the digital world, I knew when he got involved, he would love it.'' He sure seems to be so far. Dale Earnhardt Jr. on 'Sports Illustrated' cover Cover appearance is Junior's fifth overall, and first since 2008 Fresh off his Daytona 500 win, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a new accomplishment to add to his personal list: appearing on his fifth "Sports Illustrated" magazine cover. The cover marks Junior's first appearance on the widely recognized publication since 2008. In addition to reopening some old doors, Earnhardt Jr.'s monumental win at the World Center of Racing seems to have opened some new ones, too. As Junior celebrates his second career Daytona 500 victory, he has opened up in a way that is totally new to the seasoned driver: the Twitter world. Junior seems to have taken a liking to the "Twitterverse" as he interacts with fans and keeps the world updated on his media tour. Earnhardt's "Sports Illustrated" cover is regional and will be available for purchase in the coming days at SI.com. See Dale Jr.'s Sports Illustrated cover below and watch the interview from when Earnhardt visited the "Sports Illustrated" studio just hours after his trip to Victory Lane: (Video, Cover) Dale Jr Joins "Junior Nation" in Austin as Part of Whirlwind Daytona 500 Victory Tour Newly crowned Daytona 500 champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. received a rousing Texas-sized welcome Tuesday as he was greeted by more than 1,000 members of "Junior Nation" at the iconic Scholz Garten restaurant in the state capital of Austin to celebrate his thrilling victory in NASCAR's marquee season-opening race. Fans, arriving as early as 9 a.m. CT and more than seven hours before his appearance, packed the outside commons area and lined the streets and garage decks of downtown Austin as the two-time Daytona 500 champion received a wild ovation while driving the city streets and arriving in a Duck Commander 500-wrapped Team Texas stock car. For Earnhardt Jr., the reception he continuously receives when visiting the Lone Star State ? even when it is more than 200 miles from Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth ? is rewarding even to NASCAR's 11-time most popular driver. "There are a lot of things I like about Texas Motor Speedway," Earnhardt Jr. said. "One of the things I like about TMS, and this is genuine, is the fan support. "When we first built that race track, to be frank, we (NASCAR) were struggling west of the Mississippi to really draw crowds. For whatever reason, when they built this race track, people really latched on to it. It's been a great market for us. It's been very successful. There's a great staff out there that does a lot of cutting-edge stuff and does a lot of unique promotion that you don't see at other places. It makes it a lot of fun to come here. Especially when the fans show their support to the track itself, it makes you want to race in front of them. It makes you excited to be here when they're, in turn, excited to see you." Earnhardt Jr., who has been showered with praise for his thrilling victory in the 56thDaytona 500, may have received his most unique reward of the week. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas President Karen Thompson presented him with the Texas flag that flew over Texas' most iconic landmark ? The Alamo ? the same day as his victory in the Daytona 500. The presentation of the flag was part of a fan friendly event where he posed for photos with fans from a radio promotion, signed a slew of autographs and participated in a Q&A session where he shared his thoughts on relishing his second Daytona 500 triumph. "When I won it early, it was a huge shock," Earnhardt Jr. said of winning his first Daytona 500 in 2004. "The feeling that I had wasn't really joy. It was more relief that I got it out of the way. Then, after another couple years, you wonder if you'll ever win another one. As those years have turned into 10 years, you've really got to wonder if you'll ever feel that again." Earnhardt Jr.'s visit to Austin has been part of a whirlwind Daytona 500 Champion's Tour by NASCAR. His appearance in the Lone Star State came on the heels of media tours in New York and Bristol, Conn., that included an appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" and a stop at ESPN's broadcast headquarters, respectively, and continued today in Los Angeles. Fans were not the only ones packing into Scholz Garten, as all the major media outlets from Austin, as well others traveling from San Antonio and Waco, took advantage of Earnhardt Jr.'s visit. Despite being on the turf of Formula One's new venue in Austin, Circuit of the Americas, Earnhardt Jr. reminded racing fans and the media which motorsports series in the United States and which track in the state of Texas provides the most intense racing action. "I'm here to tell people that they (fans) need to see us race because we put on a better show and as exciting as it is to have Formula One back in the United States, NASCAR is where it's at," Earnhardt Jr. said. "NASCAR is the best motorsports in the country for sure and possibly in the world. To see the best show they need to come to Texas (Motor Speedway)." Legendary Formula One driver Michael Schumacher provided a reason for Earnhardt Jr. to keep tabs on the global series in the past, but since his departure from Ferrari he has found little reason to follow the series. "He was considered one of the best race-car drivers the world has ever seen," Earnhardt Jr. said of Schumacher. "I definitely followed it back then, but ever since then I've not had a personality really intrigue me that runs in that sport. When it comes to sports, even in baseball, basketball, or football, it's the individuals that I latch onto. I pull for particular people to do well. I haven't found the one that I relate to yet." Earnhardt Jr.'s next visit to Texas will be in the more familiar confines of Dallas/Fort Worth when he returns to Texas Motor Speedway for the Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, April 6. Dale Jr. fans come out in force in Texas Texas Motor Speedway hosted Daytona 500 champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Tuesday in Austin as part of a nationwide media tour following his victory in the Great American Race. More than 200 miles away from the Great American Speedway in Fort Worth, fans in the state capital began arriving seven hours before his appearance. The 11-time Most Popular Driver drove into down in a Duck Commander 500-wrapped Team Texas stock car. “There are a lot of things I like about Texas Motor Speedway,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “One of the things I like about TMS, and this is genuine, is the fan support.” The two-time Daytona 500 winner felt the warm embrace of an entire state and indeed the Republic of Texas. From San Antonio, Earnhardt received a Texas flag that flew over The Alamo. The presentation of the flag was part of a fan friendly event where he posed for photos with fans from a radio promotion, signed a slew of autographs and participated in a Q&A session where he shared his thoughts on relishing his second Daytona 500 triumph. "When I won it early, it was a huge shock," Earnhardt Jr. said of winning his first Daytona 500 in 2004. "The feeling that I had wasn't really joy. It was more relief that I got it out of the way. Then, after another couple years, you wonder if you'll ever win another one. As those years have turned into 10 years, you've really got to wonder if you'll ever feel that again." Earnhardt Jr. earned his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Texas Motor Speedway in the seventh race of his rookie season of 2000. His next trip to the Lone Star State will be for the Duck Commander 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, April 6. Looking ahead to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the track, the penultimate race in the Eliminator Round that will whittle title contenders down from eight to four in the new NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, Earnhardt said fans should flock to Fort Worth rather than the Formula One race in Austin the same weekend. “I’m here to tell people that they (fans) need to see us race because we put on a better show and as exciting as it is to have Formula One back in the United States, NASCAR is where it’s at,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “NASCAR is the best motorsports in the country for sure and possibly in the world. To see the best show they need to come to Texas (Motor Speedway).” At Daytona, No. 3 plus No. 88 equaled perfect Late Sunday night, after a rain-delayed marathon of a Daytona 500 had finally come to an end, Austin Dillon was standing next to his car on pit road answering questions about his ninth-place finish when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie abruptly stopped speaking in mid-sentence. He turned and looked at the sight of Rick Hendrick sitting on the window ledge of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race car, the two of them zipping down the frontstretch toward Victory Lane. "Very cool for Dale Jr." Dillon said. "That's awesome, man." Indeed, it was. It was one thing for the No. 3 car to return to NASCAR's top level for the first time in 13 seasons, driven by the grandson of Dale Earnhardt's former car owner. It was another thing for Earnhardt Jr. to win the sport's biggest race in an event that rain pushed into prime time. It was something else for both of those to happen together, on the same night, in a perfect confluence of past and present at Daytona International Speedway. "I think that's awesome to have the 3 back and the 88 win the race," Dillon said, referring to Earnhardt's car number. "That's very cool." The No. 3 led the first lap and the No. 88 led the final one, bringing full circle a race loaded with significance for two drivers whose personal relationship helped make the return of the elder Earnhardt's former number a reality. It was Earnhardt whom Dillon called to first ask for permission to bring the No. 3 back to the sport's top level. It was Earnhardt, shaped by the loss of his father, who provided advice and mentorship to Dillon as the younger driver climbed the ladder through the sport's national divisions. Together they helped engineer a near-seamless return for one of NASCAR's most iconic car numbers, which Dillon drove to the Coors Light Pole last weekend and to a top-10 finish Sunday night. And for all of it to be capped by Earnhardt Jr. winning his second Daytona 500 a decade after his first -- there was something poetic about it, something unmistakable even amid the brightness of NASCAR's most popular driver winning NASCAR's biggest race. "I'm really happy for Junior, because he's really handled this whole bringing the 3 back with so much class and elegance," Gil Martin, Dillon's crew chief, said in the garage after the race. "He's supported the whole thing the whole time when other people haven't. He's been probably one of the No. 1 supporters of this whole thing, and that says a lot about him. And I think it says a lot that he knows so much about this sport and the history of it. So for him to win (Sunday night) -- if we couldn’t win, I couldn’t think of a better candidate." Dillon had been the talk of the first half of Speedweeks, and not just by bringing back the No. 3, but by being fast in it -- the 23-year-old won the pole in the same car that had topped the board in testing a month earlier. He led the first lap, dropped back in the field, and weathered an adventurous night before surging to ninth at the end. Meanwhile, Earnhardt was at the front, engaged in a riveting duel with a handful of other contenders, the threat of looming inclement weather leading all of them to brawl lap after lap like it was the final circuit of the race. Third-place Brad Keselowski called it perhaps the hardest-fought Daytona 500 ever, and from the outside, it certainly looked like it. At the end, though, Earnhardt simply was too much, at last snapping that spate of runner-up finishes at Daytona -- three in the past four years -- with a trip to Victory Lane to match the one he made in 2004. Parked on pit road, Dillon watched the ensuing celebration unfold, a smile on his face. The No. 3 had started it, the No. 88 had finished it, and given all the connections between the drivers involved, it all added up to perfect. "I think there's a lot of special things from (Sunday night)," said Richie Gilmore, chief operating officer at Earnhardt Childress Engines, and a former executive at Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- the team founded by the elder Earnhardt, and where Dale Jr. started his career. "The 3 coming back was a big night. Junior getting the win, I think it very special for a lot of things." Indeed, Earnhardt Jr. was key in helping to build public support for the return of the No. 3, his immediate blessing removing perhaps the biggest potential road block to its reappearance at the sport's top level. To Dillon, the number had always been something of a family heirloom -- Childress had used it in his driving days, and Austin had worn it on his baseball jersey before embarking upon championship campaigns on the Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series. On qualifying day, Dillon embraced the idea of him and Earnhardt potentially sweeping the front row. That didn't happen, so the two drivers bookended Speedweeks instead. "That is pretty cool. That is really cool," added Mike Dillon, Austin's father and RCR's general manager. "Especially the way that Junior could have made or broken this deal. He's really been supportive. I'm probably happier for him winning the race, because he really has supported this. Because he could have made a difference in how everybody else accepted this, and probably whether or not we brought it back. That is cool that he won the race." The significance wasn't lost on Earnhardt Jr., who said he thought about holding up three fingers as he rolled down the straightaway celebrating his victory. He decided not to, wanting the spotlight to remain on people like Hendrick and his crew chief, Steve Letarte. Even so, Earnhardt's ease with his father's old number being back on the race track was evident, particularly in the wake of his biggest race win in a decade. "It felt so comfortable all week for that number to be back," Earnhardt said. "I'm happy with that situation. I'm happy for Austin. You guys (in the media) have gotten to know him over the last couple years. He's got a great head on his shoulders. He appreciates the history of the number. He appreciates not only what it meant as an Earnhardt fan, but what it meant for his family. It means something entirely unique to him separate of my father. I appreciate that, and I'm happy for him and Richard. They're really enjoying that experience together. That's got to be something special, grandfather and grandson, to be able to do that together. I'm very comfortable. I had not thought about it once all week, because it just seems right." It's easy to see why. According to Gilmore, Earnhardt and Dillon have a solid rapport that stems not just from the rookie driver turning to a close family friend for advice, but also the veteran's willingness to act as the kind of mentor he himself sorely needed following his father's fatal crash at Daytona in 2001. "I think he and Austin have a great relationship," Gilmore said. "… Junior is going to be 40 this year, and it's something for him to take that role and give him advice. Junior, he lost his dad at a time when Junior was looking for advice. He had just gotten into the sport, and we were here, and I remember Junior going out and talking about his dad, and telling him that his race car was pushing. (Earnhardt Sr.) told him, 'It ain't pushing. It's air.' Listening to their conversations, he didn't have all that time, and I know he enjoys telling Austin those things and mentoring him, and the other young kids in this garage. I think he likes that senior role." Mike Dillon, himself a former national-series driver who made one Cup start, can see it as well. "Austin communicates with (Earnhardt) a lot, about a lot of different things about the business," he said. "And I tell him to call those guys and ask them, because they’ve gone through it and made the mistakes, so why wouldn't he use them? If you’ve got him there, and if they're willing to talk to you and help you, why wouldn't you use them?" For all the goodwill that flowed through the garage area Sunday night, there was still some dissatisfaction in the RCR camp, which had consistently the fastest cars of Speedweeks yet did not win a race. In the Daytona 500, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman were caught up in crashes -- the latter after some contact with Dillon -- and Martin Truex Jr., whose Furniture Row Racing team is a Childress affiliate, lost an engine before a six-hour rain delay pushed the bulk of the event into the evening. So in the end, Dillon was the team's lone remaining hope. And yet, with Earnhardt spinning donuts and the crowd erupting in jubilance, it would have been difficult to imagine a more fitting conclusion Sunday night even if the draft had somehow swept that No. 3 car to victory. "I almost think if the 3 would have won (Sunday night), it would have been like when Junior first got in it -- too much pressure, too quick," Gilmore said. "I think what Austin's talked about a lot is, 'I'm a rookie this year, and if I finish top 15 in points, that’s my goal.' He's got realistic goals, and is a real smart kid, and I think that might have been too much pressure too quick." Dillon certainly seemed content with it all. "It was a great finish. Dale Jr. and won, and (I got) a top 10. I'm really happy," he said. From start to finish, these Speedweeks at Daytona were all about two drivers and two organizations bound together by a single number, and the end result was a celebration in which both sides took immense satisfaction -- even if only one of them could win. "I don’t think," Gilmore said, "you could ask for a better night." France: Dale Jr. 'determined' to make Chase NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France told SiriusXM NASCAR's Tradin' Paint on Monday that the sanctioning body was "thrilled that we got off to a good start" after a competitive Daytona Speedweeks. "Our fans were the big winners (Sunday) night," France said. "I'm thankful we got everything in and things played out the way that they did." After a six-plus hour rain delay, NASCAR Air Titan technology allowed drivers to get back on track and complete the Daytona 500. France said, "When we resumed, the racing got a lot harder for everybody." With a new playoff format rewarding winning in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, new standards for racing were set at Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR Loop Data showed new track bests for green flag passes (11,977) and green flag passes for the lead (177). The old marks were 9,574 and 170, respectively. "Our greatest moments (have been) by drivers who did what they needed to do to win races," France said. "Our job is to provide a rules package and format that incentivizes that, to bring that out." "That was two-, three-wide the entire way. For Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) to have mixed it up -- there were a lot of lead changes late in that race -- to win against probably the top 10 or 15 guys in the business, that was about as determined an effort as I've seen. Unbelievable on his part." France compared Earnhardt Jr.'s efforts to Tony Stewart's 2011 Chase. In the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Stewart beat Carl Edwards for his third Sprint Cup title. Stewart "just refused to lose that championship," France said. "Had to win the race to win it all, and he did. Went from last to first. That's still one of the great performances I've ever seen, but (Earnhardt Jr.'s performance in the Daytona 500) was very close to that." The new NASCAR Chase Grid rewards 16 race winners in the first 26 events who are also in the top 30 in points with a berth in the playoffs. France said the new format ratcheted up the intensity in the season-opening race. Earnhardt "had more determination than anybody else on that night," France said of NASCAR's 11-time Most Popular Driver who claimed his second Great American Race win and likely a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. "He gets to let it loose. He can go after wins ... He can go be aggressive as he wants. That's a cool thing for our fans." "We expect contact, especially on short tracks or all over the place when it's late in the race and you have a faster car, we expect for drivers to do what it takes to win races and you saw that a lot," France said. "This win-and-get-in is going to change the way people race." And the competition isn't limited to race day. While rain shortened Coors Light Pole Qualifying in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and canceled Keystone Light Pole Qualifying in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, France looks forward to the new group qualifying format on the one-mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway this weekend. "It'll be on full display in Phoenix this weekend," France said. "It adds a whole other dimension. We really like it. I think the fans can appreciate that. It's just more action. All the cars are out there. You're trying to run the fastest lap. On the other hand, you've got to know that tires and strategy at different stages are going to determine (the pole-sitter)." Close competition was the hallmark of the first weekend of points racing. In the Camping World Truck Series Nextera Energy Resources 250 on Friday, Kyle Busch beat Timothy Peters by .016 seconds, the eighth closest finish in series history and closest series finish at Daytona. In Saturday's Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300, the .013-second differential between winner Regan Smith and Brad Keselowski was the seventh closest finish in series history and second closest series finish at the World Center of Racing. Just how big is Junior's Daytona 500 win? Want to know how blissfully, genuinely, truly happy Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in the immediate wake of his second Daytona 500 victory Sunday night? Two days after hoisting his Daytona trophy, he actually concluded a teleconference with NASCAR reporters by telling them how much he enjoyed the call; a sentiment the press doesn't hear very often from athletes. But it sounded like the same Earnhardt who less than 48 hours earlier greeted those same reporters by walking in the press room door for his winner's interview just after midnight wearing a huge grin and interrupting the quiet work room by shouting out a cheer. "Bet that doesn't happen too much in here does it," he joked. It was raw emotion and leftover adrenaline and exactly the kind of reaction that lures and captivates us. Winning the Daytona 500 is a really, really big deal. When the sport's biggest star wins it, well ? you can only imagine. Before heading out on a national press tour for interviews that included a "Late Show With David Letterman" appearance to celebrate his win and its massive impact on the sport, Earnhardt officially joined Twitter in the early morning hours of Monday. His un-manned, but years-ago fully-claimed @DaleJr Twitter account had 213,000 followers before he even sent his first Tweet. Now, it's more than doubled that in less than 24 hours. He still isn't following anyone else, but said that's just because he's "been too busy" to make his selections. There are plenty shamelessly pleading their case now. As of mid-afternoon on Tuesday, he had only written 10 tweets ? most were accompanied by "selfies" he took with his cell phone camera. One of those was of him standing in front of the statue of his father, the late seven-time Sprint Cup Series champ Dale Earnhardt, located outside of Daytona International Speedway. A source of complete unfathomable heartbreak when his father was killed there on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, the sport's most famous track is also a continued source of triumph for Earnhardt Jr. Those there that day can't forget that Sunday afternoon watching with a helpless and gutted feeling as a then 26-year old Earnhardt Jr. hurriedly parked his car, scrambled out its window and jogged down the entire length of pit road frantically searching to find out what had happened to his dad moments earlier. And yet, in the months and years afterward, Earnhardt Jr. always insisted he held no grudge toward the town or the track for the accident. Overall, it's been a source of more happiness than sadness for him. He's always chosen the fond memories. And there have been plenty. In addition to the pair of Daytona 500 wins, he has a July Cup win in 2001 and seven finishes of third or better, including three Daytona 500 runner-up showings in the past five years. His win Sunday in the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet, however, is especially significant because it takes the pressure off what must be hugely strong shoulders for the first time in recent memory. Perhaps for the first time since he's raced at NASCAR's Cup level. His happiness is reflective and indicative of that. In the short term, this win likely earns him the first berth into the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup field and it lets him go about his final season paired with crew chief Steve Letarte in a more unbridled fashion. It wouldn't surprise if he turns this special moment into a career season. That's often it how it works in sports. The rest of us could only guess how hard it must have been holding up a legacy -- the high expectations under bright glare -- being Dale Earnhardt's son and namesake. But Earnhardt has always seen his background as a blessing and admirably handled his circumstances -- the doubters, the believers, the fanatical and the fuddy-duds. The skeptics would say, sure he won one Daytona 500, when would he get another? Sure he's made three consecutive championship Chase fields, but when would he again. Now. The answer is now. "I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am and thankful I am that (team owner) Rick Hendrick didn't give up on me, that they believed in me, were trying to find ways to make the chemistry work regardless of what anybody said, regardless of what the critics were saying when everybody was saying I was finished, whether I was going to do anything ever again," Earnhardt said. "I've been pretty vindicated, but I'm in a good place now. I got my priorities in better shape. I feel like we're embarking on a season that could be something really special for me." Earnhardt has always been gracious taking the good with the lumps. But he conceded Tuesday he hopes this effort under the brightest spotlight will help remind people of his dedication to the sport -- not just as the perennial Most Popular Driver, but as someone extremely driven. "When we weren't running good, I think people underestimated how much I cared about performance," Earnhardt said Tuesday. "When you look at the critics and you look at their comments, aside from people saying I was overrated, they would always say I didn't have killer instinct that I didn't have the stuff that I needed to drive to win a championship. That I didn't want it bad enough. "I was never bothered by being called overrated, because it's such a broad term. When people really pick at your determination, your drive, your hunger, that bothered me more than anything else did because I grew up around the sport and I love it to death." That is on full display this week. The grin hasn't left his face and there is an unmistakable spark and vibe. Even if you aren't part of Junior Nation -- an Earnhardt fandom larger than the population of some small countries -- it's hard to begrudge him this win and what it could do to set this season apart. "If you look at how happy I was Sunday after winning the race, you'll know how bad I want to win, you'll know how much winning means to me and you'll know from now on that there's no questioning my killer instinct or drive, whatever term you want to use." Earnhardt on whirlwind tour after Daytona win Dale Earnhardt Jr. is all over the place. No time at all to process the significance of his second Daytona 500 victory. Earnhardt has been traveling almost non-stop since he won NASCAR's premier race Sunday night. He made a couple of national TV appearances before arriving in Austin for a stop on behalf of Texas Motor Speedway on Tuesday afternoon. NASCAR's most popular driver snapped a 55-race losing streak dating to 2012. He also won the Daytona 500 a decade ago. ''When I won it early, it was a huge shock,'' Earnhardt said at a restaurant in downtown Austin. ''The feeling that I had wasn't really joy. It was more relief that I got it out of the way. Then, after another couple years, you wonder if you'll ever win another one. As those years have turned into 10 years, you've really got to wonder if you'll ever feel that again.'' Earnhardt got his answer last weekend, when he led six times for a race-high 54 laps after a rain delay of 6 hours, 22 minutes. He was the runner-up three of the last four years at Daytona International Speedway, where his father was killed in an accident on the last lap of the 2001 race. ''I want to think I have an idea of what the value of that win is, but it's hard to measure,'' Earnhardt said. ''I did a poor job of measuring when I won it the first time. I was younger and I thought, 'Man, this is a big deal.' And before I knew it, we were at another track trying to win another race and forgetting about Daytona. I just missed it.'' Earnhardt's slump-busting victory also was a big one for NASCAR. ''That's our Michael Jordan, our Tiger Woods,'' Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said. ''He realizes he's in his late 30s. He's gotta do it now. I don't mean to put any more pressure him but, he doesn't have to do it this year, but he's got to do it soon. The window isn't very large.'' Earnhardt also made good this week on his promise to join Twitter if he won the Daytona 500 again. He tweeted early Monday morning: ''Tonight seemed like as good a night as any to join Twitter. How is everyone doin?'' The tweet had a 2XDaytona500 hashtag and included a photo of Earnhardt with the trophy. He had almost 500,000 Twitter followers by Tuesday night. ''I felt like I was very genuine and believed in myself. I think they appreciated that and my down-to-earth personality,'' Earnhardt said. ''When I started racing, I really was adopted by (my father's) fan base and had a huge fan base before I really had any accomplishments to really justify it. I walked on my toes for a while because I wasn't him. I wasn't a carbon copy of him. I was someone completely different.'' The Austin stop was a strategic one for Earnhardt and NASCAR. The city is home to the only Formula One course in the country. ''That's why I'm here,'' Earnhardt said. ''To tell people to see us race because we put on a better show. NASCAR is where it's at.'' Dale Jr. receives congrats from favorite NFL team Dale Earnhardt Jr. might've been the Washington Redskins' most famous fan even before the Hendrick Motorsports driver took home his second Great American Race trophy in 10 years. But now that Junior is a two-time Daytona 500 champion, there's no question he is. The Redskins found a way to thank Dale Jr. for his unwavering support -- especially after a 3-13 campaign in 2013 -- by making a video of a few players offering their congratulations to NASCAR's most popular driver. There's been no word on whether or not former Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs offered his congratulations to Junior, but we're going to go ahead and assume he didn’t -- considering his Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin finished runner-up to Earnhardt. Watch the video below to see Junior's favorite team congratulate him: Video. Junior's full Daytona 500 press conference Junior's full Daytona 500 press conference: Video. Earnhardt relieved after 2nd Daytona 500 win There was a moment late in the Daytona 500 when Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a moment to catch his breath. It was clearly his race to lose and the tension ran thick through Junior Nation, all the way into his car. Steve Letarte, the crew chief and cheerleader who had rebuilt Earnhardt’s crumpled confidence and returned him to a championship contender, used the moment under caution to settle his driver. "Having fun?" Letarte asked over the radio. "Yeah, but it’s the big prize, man. It’s hard to enjoy it," Earnhardt said, before he paused. "I’m enjoying particular pieces of it, but the entire experience is driving me crazy." That’s the albatross that was strapped to the back of NASCAR’s most popular driver as closed in on his second Daytona 500 victory. It had been 10 years since he won his first 500, and after three runner-up finishes the last four seasons in a race that had caused his family so much heartache and joy, the moment was overwhelming. There’s so much pressure on Earnhardt, who entered the season-opening showcase mired in a 55-race losing streak dating to 2012. He’d won just two races since joining mighty Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, and as he closes in on his 40th birthday, he is still searching for his first Cup championship. It’s been openly stated by the suits at NASCAR that when Junior wins, NASCAR’s popularity surges. So under that theory, if he could just get it together, the days of flat television numbers and sagging attendance would certainly spike. That’s a lot of pressure to put on one guy, and it hit him as he readied himself for the homestretch Sunday night. "It’s a big race and you want to win it so badly, and your team wants to win so badly," he said afterward. "You realize at that moment that there are countless people watching on television and there are countless people sitting in the grandstands with your shirts and hats on, and your team is over on the pit wall and your family back home — there are so many people pulling for you and want to see you win. It’s a heavy weight." This time, he delivered. He emerged from a rain delay of more than six hours with the strongest car in the field. As other drivers struggled to keep busy during the lengthy break, Earnhardt said his concern was not consuming too much of the junk food stored in his motorhome. He knew what he had in the No. 88 Chevrolet. "I knew it was something special," he said. "I knew we had enough race car. I was a little bit nervous because the pressure was on me because there was plenty of car to do it." Earnhardt handled every challenge over the final 50 miles. He shook off Greg Biffle, the peskiest foe, and then Carl Edwards. Lined up for a two-lap sprint to the finish, he found himself next to one-time protege Brad Keselowski, who had a car almost as strong as Earnhardt’s. But Earnhardt had teammate Jeff Gordon on his bumper to help on the final restart, and once he cleared Keselowski it was essentially over. Moves made by other drivers in the pack ruined Keselowski’s pursuit and Denny Hamlin stormed through the field but didn’t have the help he needed or enough laps to mount a proper charge. Hamlin, who won two races earlier in Speedweeks and was going for the trifecta, was dejected with second place. But he noted the significance of the victory. "Any time an Earnhardt wins at Daytona," he shrugged. The late Dale Earnhardt won 34 races at Daytona International Speedway, but his only 500 victory came in 1998 in his 20th try. He was killed in an accident on the last lap of the 2001 race, triggered while he tried to protect a 1-2 finish for Michael Waltrip and his son, who both drove for him. Conspiracy has followed Earnhardt Jr. since his father’s death as fans wondered if some of his biggest career moments were freebies from NASCAR during a time of mourning. Third-place finisher Keselowski believes Daytona 500 win No. 2 cannot be challenged. "I think this particular race, there’s no drama. There’s no feeling I think anybody could legitimately have that there’s voodoo magic that he won," Keselowski said. There was only euphoria. NASCAR’s favourite son won the biggest race and earned the first spot in the playoffs under a new championship format that rewards winning. Hendrick Motorsports got at least one week of respite from fans wondering why Earnhardt never wins. And Earnhardt, at least for this week, got to remove that albatross. And after finally joining Twitter, he rewarded his fans — more than 400,000 despite only four tweets — by posting a Monday morning selfie, standing in front of the statue of his father at Daytona: "Look who I ran into at the Daytona Experience. Dad’s Happy!" Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 'This is our year' Appearing remarkably refreshed in spite of limited sleep, and with the prospect of a weeklong media tour staring him in the face, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he believes the time has come for he and his team to rise to the occasion. "I think it’s our time. This is our year," the two-time Daytona 500 winner said Monday morning during the annual champion’s breakfast at Daytona International Speedway. "Every year we’ve gotten marginally better," said Earnhardt Jr., now a 20-time winner in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. “It just seems that we would continue to do that this year. We ain’t got far to go before we’re one of the best teams, if we’re not already. "Being able to start the season with a win certainly solidifies my belief in our team. We ended last year finishing second (at Homestead); we were one of the best teams in the Chase, one of the more competitive teams when the season wrapped up. If we just continue on our path to improving, we don’t have far to go. We should be winning races. That’s the way I felt in the offseason. Then we come right out of the gate and win one." The victory certainly put Earnhardt Jr. in a strong position. With NASCAR’s new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format all but guaranteeing race winners a spot in the 10-race playoff, the road for the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team, led by crew chief Steve Letarte, suddenly got a lot smoother. Sunday night’s win in the season-opening event snapped a 55-race winless streak by the sport’s most popular driver. But that doesn’t mean Earnhardt Jr. is easing off the throttle anytime soon. "I’m going to fight every week," he said. "We’ve got a great opportunity to be already in the Chase. Going off last year’s points system we would have won the championship, so we know under this current format that we can do the job. So I feel real good about it." Letarte, who will leave the pit box to join NBC in the television booth next season, said getting the win out of the way early could make for a much less stressful final year. "I think this is going to make a much more relaxing summer hopefully with the new points system and all, and we can go out and get some wins," he said. "This race is such a big deal. … You grow up in racing and the Daytona 500, maybe the Indy 500, maybe Le Mans, that’s like the three that’s the world of racing. To think we have the chance to win it, the whole thing’s pretty surreal. "I mean, what races do you still celebrate the next day? You have a breakfast, and keep getting trophies and jackets. I’m just proud of the team that we’ve assembled, they’re a great group of guys (and) they deserve most of the credit. They built a great race car, Dale drove a great race." Team owner Rick Hendrick signed Earnhardt Jr. prior to the 2008 season and has felt the brunt of the Junior Nation wondering when its driver was going to contend for wins and titles. Winning the Daytona 500, he said, buys him a bit of a reprieve. "I get six days that the Earnhardt fans don’t ask me 'when’s he going to win again?'" Hendrick said. "So I’ve got a vacation until Phoenix." Hendrick called the 56th running of the Daytona 500 "a perfect race." "He drove the wheels off the car every lap, Stevie called the perfect race, pit stops were perfect, T.J. (Majors) did a unbelievable job up there spotting. "I think back to the first (time) when we came down here and (Earnhardt Jr.) won the qualifier and then the Shootout and we thought we were going to win the 500. But (last night) was a great night, great for the sport, great for the fans and I’m glad to be a part of it." • How did the most recent Daytona 500 winner spend his evening? "I was taking pictures and doing media until 3 (a.m.) or so probably," Earnhardt Jr. said of his media obligations. "The team was having most of the fun. When I got over there they were out of 'spirits' so we found some more. We just sat around and talked about how cool it was, just punching each other in the shoulder until about 4. Then I had to hang it up. I was hitting the wall. I knew I needed to at least get an hour (sleep) before I could come up here and talk with any kind of sense. And I knew I had a long day. "The guys got to have some fun last night but we probably won’t really be able to hang loose, raise hell until we go home or we go to Vegas. Most of the crew will travel from Phoenix to Vegas so we might have some fun out there." • Following today’s breakfast, Earnhardt Jr. headed to New York City for more media obligations, and will travel to Bristol, Conn., for appearances on ESPN. From there, it’s on to Austin, Texas, Las Vegas and then on to Phoenix for the season’s second race. "I’m looking forward to it," he said. "I’m going to enjoy it. We won a big race and we put a lot of effort into it. And I’m going to make sure everybody hears about it." Junior follows through on vow, joins social media (@DaleJr) Dale Earnhardt Jr. joked he would join Twitter if he won the Daytona 500. After winning NASCAR's most prestigious race for the second time Sunday night, he followed through on his promise. NASCAR's most popular driver tweeted early Monday morning, ''Tonight seemed like as good a night as any to join Twitter. How is everyone doin?'' The tweet had a 2XDaytona500 hashtag and included a photo of Earnhardt with the trophy. Earnhardt had been reluctant to participate in social media, but JR Motorsports had grabbed the (at)DaleJr Twitter handle for him several years ago in the event he changed his mind. The account had over 235,000 followers even though he had never sent a tweet before Sunday night's victory. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Wins Second Daytona 500 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won the Daytona 500 for the second time Sunday, ending a 55-race losing streak. After the 39-year-old North Carolina native crossed the finish line in his No. 88 Chevrolet, he was met with congratulatory messages from fellow drivers and celebrity fans. "The world is right, right now—Dale Jr. just won the Daytona 500," Jeff Gordon said. "That's a sign it's going to be a great season." Earnhardt, Jr. was understandably overwhelmed with pride. "Winning this race is the greatest feeling that you could feel in this sport besides accepting the trophy for the championship," the NASCAR star told ESPN. "I didn't know if I'd ever get the chance to feel it again and it feels just as good." The driver held off Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski, 10 years after his first Daytona 500 win. The race was initially stopped after about 45 minutes due to rain, leading to a delay of more than six hours. After his big victory, Earnhardt, Jr. could barely contain his excitement: "This is amazing. I can't believe this is happening. I never take this for granted, man because it doesn't happen twice, let alone once." His girlfriend, Amy Reimann, admitted that her nerves were at an all-time high before Earnhardt, Jr. emerged victorious. "On a scale scale of 1-10, I was about a 20," she told USA Today Sports. Calling the big event "the biggest win of [Earnhardt, Jr.'s] career," Reimann said, "He's just come so far that it just means more to him now. He's worked really hard for this and waited a long time for this to happen again. It's just a lot of pressure for him [to win], so this is extremely exciting. He feels like it's not real." Dale Jr. all but punches first Chase ticket Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his second Daytona 500 victory on a long, soggy Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, securing NASCAR's biggest race on its grandest stage. But he also likely punched his ticket for another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series prize in the season-long fight. Earnhardt became the first winner in the new format for determining the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason format, virtually assuring the sport's 11-time Most Popular Driver a berth in the playoffs. NASCAR expanded the Chase field to 16 drivers during the offseason, making a victory in the 26-race regular season a near-clincher for the 10-race Chase. "Yeah, (now) we don't have to think about it," said Earnhardt, who placed fifth in the 2013 Sprint Cup standings. "If everyone is telling the truth, and we've won a race, we're going to be in it. ... We're going for the jugular this year." The Chase format will also include three stages of eliminations, culminating with a four-driver shootout in the season finale this November at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But the more immediate impact of the offseason changes were felt in Victory Lane at Daytona. NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France reminded the 43 contestants in the pre-race drivers' meeting that more long-term goals were at stake in in the season-opening event. "Not only is this the most important day for NASCAR, the Daytona 500," France said, "it's also the first chance, the first opportunity to punch your ticket for our version of the playoffs." Earnhardt laid first claim to a playoff berth. Fifteen more spots are up for grabs in the regular season, starting next Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, 3 p.m. ET on FOX. Dale's day: Earnhardt Jr. wins Daytona 500 It took most of a day to get it in, but only one short slice of a moment to determine the outcome. In a race that was delayed more than six hours by rain, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the 56th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. The 39-year-old, strong for most of the final half of the race, held off Denny Hamlin for the win, surviving a two-lap dash set up after a multicar crash in Turn 3. A winner of the series' premier event in 2004, Earnhardt Jr. had finished second in three of his last four Daytona 500 attempts. Another crash erupted on the final lap, but the mayhem was in the leader's rearview mirror as he crossed the start/finish line. Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards were first through fifth on the final restart but Hamlin, a winner of The Sprint Unlimited and his Budweiser Duel qualifying race, muscled his way to second on the final lap to finish behind Junior. Keselowski, Gordon and Johnson rounded out the top five. At the stripe, Earnhardt Jr. was ecstatic. "Hell yeah! Whooo! What a day! Unbelievable!" he screamed over his team’s radio. Out of the car? "Winning this race is the greatest feeling you could feel in this sport," he said. "… This race car was awesome. … We can fight off battles after battles. We got a little help from Jeff on that restart. "This is amazing. I'll never take it for granted." A power move coming out of the fourth turn with 21 laps remaining pushed Edwards into the lead, with Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Johnson and Greg Biffle rounding out the top five. Kenseth had moved into second a lap later, with just 20 laps remaining. With 18 to go, it was Earnhardt Jr. showing the power move, pulling the outside line around Edwards and into the lead. The fifth caution of the race flew on the ensuing lap, however, as 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne spun and careened off the wall to set up a 13-lap shootout. With 10 laps remaining, Earnhardt Jr. remained out front with Johnson, Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Keselowski trailing. Kurt Busch spun coming to the tri-oval and momentarily became stuck in the grass at the entrance to pit road. But no caution appeared, and the race remained under green. But the yellow did appear at Lap 195 when a six-car melee unfolded in Turn 3. Ryan Newman, Justin Allgaier, Parker Kligerman and Cole Whitt were among those involved. "This race car was awesome," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We showed them all night long how good a car we had, and it's because of these guys right here (his team) putting it together in the shop. We could fight off battles after battles. We got a little help from Jeff (Gordon) to get away on that (last) restart and tried to take care of it from there." The calmness of the race's opening was long gone by the time the race resumed following the long red-flag period, with three-wide racing the order of the day. A 13-car crash erupted at Lap 146, set off by contact between Harvick, Aric Almirola and Brian Scott. Danica Patrick, a leader earlier in the race, appeared to take the hardest hit as her No. 10 Chevrolet was clipped by Almirola and hit the wall nose first. Coors Light Pole winner Austin Dillon was also involved. With rain once again threatening, most everyone hit pit road for service with Biffle getting out front first. Moments later, Dillon was involved in a second multicar accident, when contact between the Richard Childress Racing driver and fellow Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Kyle Larson sent Larson spinning in front of traffic. Dillon -- who again kept his car on the track -- would finish ninth. Before the chaos, the race had been tight, but clean. At the quarter post, it was Hamlin out front and Kasey Kahne tucked inside. At the halfway point, it was Paul Menard, Johnson, Earnhardt Jr., Harvick and Keselowski running first through fifth, respectively. Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, still seeking his first Daytona 500 victory, saw his chances take a major hit when the No. 14 developed fuel intake issues, going a lap down after pitting at Lap 102. Unable to correct the problem, Stewart's crew eventually pushed his car to the garage with barely 70 laps remaining. He returned to finish 35th. The race was stopped at 2:13 p.m. ET, with officials bringing the cars to pit road and displaying the red flag after just 38 laps had been completed. Rain remained in the region throughout the day, but after six hours, 21 minutes and 40 seconds, the track was dry and cars had pulled off pit road. Earnhardt Jr. wins rain-delayed Daytona 500 Through rain and wrecks, on Daytona’s longest day, this was a drought Dale Earnhardt Jr. was determined to end. NASCAR’s most popular driver won the Daytona 500 on Sunday night for the second time — a decade after his first victory — to snap a 55-race losing streak dating to 2012. The victory ended a streak of futility at Daytona International Speedway, where he finished second in three of the previous four 500s. "Winning this race is the greatest feeling that you could feel in this sport besides accepting the trophy for the championship," said Earnhardt, who climbed from his car in Victory Lane and hugged every member of his Hendrick Motorsports crew. "I didn’t know if I’d ever get the chance to feel it again and it feels just as good." As he crossed the finish line in his No. 88 Chevrolet, the few who withstood a rain delay of 6 hours, 22 minutes screaming their support, Earnhardt euphorically radioed his crew, saying: "This is better than the first one!" He was met by Rick Hendrick after his victory lap, and the team owner climbed into the driver’s window for a ride to Victory Lane. "The world is right right now — Dale Junior just won the Daytona 500," teammate Jeff Gordon said. "That’s a sign it’s going to be a great season." Rain stopped the race about 45 minutes after it began for a delay of more than six hours. When it resumed, Earnhardt dominated at the track where his father was killed in an accident on the last lap of the 2001 race. He led six times for a race-high 54 laps — all after the rain delay — and seemed to have it under control until things got chaotic near the end. There were 42 lead changes and four multi-car accidents as the field closed in on the checkered flag. An accident with seven laps to go triggered by pole-sitter Austin Dillon, driving the No. 3 — Earnhardt’s father’s number making its return to the Daytona 500 for the first time since 2001 — set up a final two-lap shootout to the finish. Earnhardt got a great jump past Brad Keselowski on the restart, and had Gordon behind him protecting his bumper. But Denny Hamlin came charging through the field and Earnhardt suddenly had a challenger with one lap to go. Then an accident farther back involving former winners Kevin Harvick and Jamie McMurray brought out the caution and the win belonged to Earnhardt. "We could fight off battle after battle. We got a little help at the end there from Jeff to get away on the restart," Earnhardt said. "This is amazing. I can’t believe this is happening. I never take this for granted, man because it doesn’t happen twice, let alone once." Hamlin was second in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, followed by Keselowski in a Team Penske Ford. Hendrick took fourth and fifth with Gordon and last year’s race winner, Jimmie Johnson, in what quickly became a company-wide celebration. "He’s been knocking on the door of the 500 for a lot of years. He got it done tonight — did an awesome job," said Johnson, who beat Earnhardt to the finish line a year ago. The win means Hendrick already has one of his four drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Under the new win-and-get-in format announced last month, Earnhardt is now eligible to race for the title and can spend the next 25 races preparing for the post-season. "We might be in the Chase — I ain’t going to worry about that," Earnhardt said from Victory Lane. "Trust me, man, we’re going to have a blast this year." Rain wreaked havoc on the event for the third time in six years, and this year’s race was stopped after 38 laps as a strong storm blew into the area. The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning in the area and advised people to take shelter, and fans fled from the grandstands. NASCAR rolled out the track drying system Air Titan for several failed attempts over the delay. It was the only on-track activity for more than six hours, but there was plenty of behind-the-scenes fun as drivers desperately tried to stay entertained. David Ragan made a pizza run in his firesuit, Hamlin played basketball, Clint Bowyer answered fans questions on Twitter and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s crew practiced tornado drills. It hit absurd levels as Fox Sports tried to fill the air time with a replay of the 2013 race that hundreds of thousands did not understand wasn’t a live broadcast. Social media exploded with congratulatory tweets for last year’s winner, Johnson, who posted on his account: "I hear I won the #Daytona500? Haha! I also have friends confused and texting congratulations to me." Fellow drivers had fun with the widespread error, too. "Wait a minute! I’m confused, did (at)JimmieJohnson win or not?" Bowyer tweeted. Plenty of fans on Twitter were confused throughout the replay, tweeting along as if the race was live. Deadspin ran some of them under the headline, "Scores Of Idiots Don’t Realize Fox Is Airing Last Year’s Daytona 500.""Congrats (at)JimmieJohnson amazing," tweeted Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s senior vice-president of racing operations. Piling onto the strange story line, Fox’s rain-delayed coverage was sponsored by the movie "Noah," which opens March 28 and stars Russell Crowe as the title character who builds an arc to save creation from a massive flood. When the cars finally got back on track, Earnhardt took off. He had some challenges, particularly from the Roush Fenway Racing duo of Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards, but he managed to break free every time it mattered. Dale Jr.'s Daytona 500 triumph still resonates Did it really all happen 10 years ago? Difficult to believe, given how vividly the details still stand out. That red and white car with the No. 8 on the side, pulling away over the final 20 laps. The vehicle spinning through the infield grass and parking at the start/finish line. The driver sitting on the ledge of his window opening, facing the crowd and thrusting his arms skyward before being swallowed by a tide of crewmen sprinting over from pit road. The President of the United States, who earlier in the day had given the command to start engines, calling to offer congratulations. A decade ago? Really? "You never forget exactly what that day is like," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said of his Daytona 500 triumph in 2004. "We come here every year and it all floods back to you as soon as you come back for Speedweeks each season. It's very fresh, and you're constantly reminded, I think, by just what goes on during Speedweeks, how important that victory is and how much you would like to get it again. It's definitely fresh." And yet, not even NASCAR's most popular driver can halt the unstoppable march of time. Indeed it was 10 years ago when Earnhardt scored -- to this point -- his lone win in the Great American Race, a watershed moment for someone who carried the weight of expectation and family history along with him each time he slid behind the wheel. Driving one of the best restrictor-plate cars in recent memory, battling a string of mishaps that had denied him victory, competing in the inescapable shadow of his father's triumphs and tragedy on the same 2.5-mile track -- it all reached a crescendo in 2004, when Earnhardt Jr. at last broke through and recorded the biggest victory of his career. Given all that, the emotion that followed was inevitable. As Earnhardt dropped his window net and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. fought back tears in a television interview. Crewman Jay Guarneri, who now works for Danica Patrick's team at Stewart-Haas Racing, was the first member of the Dale Earnhardt Inc. crew to embrace the driver in what quickly became a group bear hug. Later in the press box, Earnhardt told the media that he felt his father -- who had won his own Daytona 500 six years earlier to the day, and had perished in a final-lap crash at the same facility in 2001 -- had been riding along with him. It was joy, wistfulness and relief all rolled into one. It's easy to forget now, but to that point Earnhardt Jr. had battled the perception that he wasn't mature enough or focused enough to be a serious contender at NASCAR's top level. Among the fan base, there was talk of too many magazine covers, too many MTV appearances, too many parties in the basement bar known as Club E. His Daytona 500 victory was the beginning of the end of all that, kicking off a six-win season that remains one of the best of his career. "I think anytime you win at Daytona it's special, but I think for him, with the memory and the history of his family, it was definitely special," said Richie Gilmore, chief operating officer at Earnhardt Childress Engines who was an executive at DEI a decade ago. "But I do think it took pressure off him. He was kind of following his dad's footsteps a little bit -- he was winning everything here, the Shootout, the 150s, and not getting that win in the 500. ... And then we came back and won that race in 2004, and that took pressure off him. You could see it, from just the media side and getting that behind him. It was a big load." Indeed, entering 2004, Earnhardt Jr. had built a litany of frustration at Daytona that was beginning to resemble that of his father, who weathered 20 years of close calls and mishaps before winning the Great American Race. In 2002, Earnhardt Jr. had one of the strongest vehicles in the field until running over a piece of debris from teammate Michael Waltrip's car and shredding a tire. In 2003 he looked unstoppable, winning what is now the Sprint Unlimited, his qualifying race and the NASCAR Nationwide Series event, putting himself in position to become the first driver ever to sweep Speedweeks -- until a faulty alternator drained his battery in what proved a rain-shortened Daytona 500. The next season, though, the stars finally aligned. Earnhardt was edged by Dale Jarrett in the season-opening exhibition, but won his qualifying event and once again asserted himself as the driver to beat in the 500. On race day the atmosphere was charged by the presence of George W. Bush, the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR event since Ronald Reagan had been in Daytona for Richard Petty's 200th career victory in 1984. Air Force One swooped down over the backstretch to land at an adjacent airport, and amid a notable security presence, the commander in chief gave the order to start engines. This time there were no mishaps, and with 20 laps remaining Earnhardt surged past Tony Stewart to the front. "It was just a matter of time," Stewart, still looking for his own Daytona 500 victory, said that day. "When he decided he was ready to go, he went." Earnhardt stayed out front for the rest of the race, taking the checkered flag before a jubilant sellout crowd. The Earnhardts became the third father-son combination to win the Daytona 500, following Lee and Richard Petty and Bobby and Davey Allison. For good measure Earnhardt Jr. went out and claimed the rain-postponed Nationwide race the next morning. But it was the 500 that had everyone buzzing, including the champion. "I wanted to come down here and win," Earnhardt said that day. "Maybe all those things that happened in the past is what made us work harder, to try to win this race more than any other. I'm not ashamed to say I put more emphasis on coming down here and winning this race, just because of what I've been through down here." Perhaps no one would have understood that more than his father, who placed his own emphasis on restrictor-plate races even though there were just four each season. The Intimidator and car owner Richard Childress had made plate racing their specialty, fine-tuning superspeedway cars months in advance, and compiling a record of success at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway as a result. When the elder Earnhardt formed his own team, he carried that same importance with him -- and built DEI into a restrictor-plate powerhouse no team has been able to replicate since. The foundation of Earnhardt Jr.'s Daytona 500 victory was his father's unshakable belief that restrictor-plate races were the events that mattered most. Between 2001 and 2004, Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip combined to win an astounding 11 of 16 points races on plate tracks. "Counting qualifying races and 500s and 400s, the (finishes at Daytona) are staggering," Waltrip remembered. "It's like 1-1-1-2-1-3. They're numbers that you just don’t see. And the reason behind all that, in my opinion is, that's Dale. He knew the importance of a fast car at Daytona, and that was the culture he built at DEI. We were going to have the best speedway cars, and anything else was unacceptable. When he left us, everybody just took that to heart." How did they do it? This was the era before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, after which the focus of many teams shifted more toward the final 10 events of the season. Gilmore said DEI had a dedicated restrictor-plate program, which not every team did. And Earnhardt, Childress and fellow team owner Andy Petree were ahead of their time in forming a technical alliance -- known as "RAD," combining the first initials of the three men involved -- to share aerodynamic information. Although such things are commonplace in the garage today, a coalition like RAD was a groundbreaking concept in the early 2000s. "It was almost, at that time, like some of the mega-teams do now," said Petree, now an analyst for ESPN. "You see Hendrick now has a relationship with Tony Stewart. They bring all that stuff in-house. So they're doing a little bit of that now, but back then we were really the biggest game in town when it came to aerodynamic development, and DEI, they applied it probably better than most. … I think that was a big part of it, and they had the other pieces of the puzzle that really enhanced their effort, I think mainly in the engine department." And then there were the drivers involved. "No matter where they were on the race track, they found each other and were dedicated to each other," Gilmore said of Earnhardt Jr. and Waltrip. "We put all those things together, and it was such a dominant force when we came to Daytona and Talladega. No matter what differences we had as a company, those two were teammates no matter what. And they stuck together, and it was unreal." The connection was instinctive. "During that whole run, Dale Jr. and I never sat down and said, 'All right, what's the plan?' And I'm not exaggerating. We never had one conversation," Waltrip remembered. "We knew that we knew how to get to the front, and we knew that when we got to the front, what our responsibility was. And we just did it. ... There was no plan for us. We just winged it." Earnhardt Jr.'s 2004 campaign represented DEI at its peak. But in a sport where the competitive balance is constantly in motion, no organization can stay on top forever -- and indeed, Hendrick Motorsports took the lead in the restrictor-plate game beginning the next season, while DEI eventually fragmented amid a power struggle. Earnhardt joined the Hendrick organization in 2008, but has yet to recapture the magic on plate tracks that he enjoyed at DEI. Although he's finished second in the Great American Race in three of the past four years, Earnhardt hasn't won a plate event since that 2004 season, when he followed his Daytona triumph with one at Talladega in the fall. "He hasn't lost anything as far as his ability to race these restrictor plates," said former crew chief Larry McReynolds, now an analyst for FOX Sports, "... but we have so many more drivers today that I think are truly good restrictor-plate racers." Indeed, "it's so hard to win in this sport, and we're all so close together. I can't say it's surprising," Roush Fenway driver Greg Biffle said of Earnhardt's drought. And in fairness, Earnhardt has remained a perennial contender at Daytona, his savvy in the draft evident each time his No. 88 car competes on the high banks, his confidence still strong each time he drives through the tunnel. He led 14 laps in his qualifying race Thursday, and will start ninth in the Daytona 500. "Nothing to be ashamed of," Earnhardt said of his recent record. "I still feel like that we run well enough at these tracks for me to continue to come into them with confidence, and just in myself regardless of the car. I still feel like I do restrictor-plate races well, understand how the draft works rather well, and enjoy racing at them. You know, I hope that is always the case. It's a different challenge every time you come back, and that makes it enjoyable." For the time being, though, it's that 2004 victory that continues to stand out. It was one of those special days at Daytona, and it continued up in the press box during the winner's media session, when Earnhardt was unexpectedly handed a cell phone. On the other line was President Bush, who had left the track just past the halfway point of the event. Earnhardt casually chatted with the leader of the free world as a few hundred reporters eavesdropped on one end of the conversation. "Most exciting race of my life," Earnhardt told the president. "Glad to see you today. Take it easy." And with that, all the misconceptions about the younger Earnhardt -- that he didn't take his career seriously enough, that he lacked focus, that he was resigned to battle the same demons at Daytona his father once did -- vanished into the Florida night. The Dale Earnhardt Jr. who finished that Daytona 500 was not the same driver who started it, and even 10 years later, the emotions generated by his biggest career victory still feel familiar today. "I had a lot of satisfaction, a lot of relief, and a lot of pride," Earnhardt remembered. "Certainly, definitely walked around with my chest out for a while. And you still carry that with you after all these years. That will last forever. You never forget about it." NASCAR debuts next evolution of creative campaign "Machine" Click here to view the English language spot. Click here to view the Spanish language spot. “Heroes” Click here to view the English language spot. Click here to view the Spanish language spot. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: The lead is the place to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows exactly where he wants to be in the closing laps of Sunday's Daytona 500. He wants to be up front, without question. If that seems obvious, remember that the lead hasn't always been the best place to be when approaching the checkered flag in the Great American Race. But Earnhardt is weary of runner-up finishes -- he has run second in three of the last four season-opening races -- and he'd prefer to take his chances from the top spot in the running order. "As far as trying to win one of these races, or not run second again, I think we need to be up front," Earnhardt said Thursday during a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Daytona International Speedway media center. "We're not far enough toward the front. When we've run second, we've come from third or fourth or fifth or sixth those last few laps. "You're not going to win the race from back there. You might run second, but you aren't going to win. You need to be leading the race. I would much rather be leading the Daytona 500 inside of five laps to go than be anywhere else." Earnhardt doesn't think the wild wrecks that interrupted Wednesday's first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice constitute an indicator of the nature of Sunday's race. "I think just saying '500 miles' changes everybody's demeanor and everybody's approach to that race," Earnhardt explained. "Those wrecks in practice definitely surprised me and surprised a lot of people, and I hope it's just a product of a lot of cars trying to get out of the draft, cars blending in and cars put in a bad position that they couldn't get out of." Driver Reports: Previewing the Daytona 500 Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88) - Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet Last year: Earnhardt Jr. finished fifth in the standings with 2,363 points. 2013 season stats: 10 top-fives, 22 top-10s, 2 poles. Track history: At Daytona, Earnhardt's average finish is 14.1 and his average running position is 14.5 over the past eight years. In 28 career starts at Daytona, he has two wins, 10 top-fives, 16 top-10s and one pole. Quick hit: Will Junior breakthrough? The veteran has two career wins at Daytona (one of which is a Daytona 500 triumph), both with Dale Earnhardt Inc. during the team's period of restrictor-plate mastery. He's finished runner-up in the 500 for two consecutive years and three of the past four years, and his average finish in the 500 over the past eight years leads the Cup Series. The No. 88 team knows how to be in contention at the end, which is nearly as great an achievement as winning itself. Dale jr., Jimmie Johnson Google+ Shoppable Hangout WATCH AND SHOP HERE, FEB. 20 AT 2 P.M. ET. Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr., will be the first athletes to host a Google+ Shoppable Hangout on Thursday, Feb. 20 at 2 p.m. ET. Join them to ask questions about the upcoming season and to shop for your favorite NASCAR gear in plenty of time for the 56th running of the Daytona 500 at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday. To find out more information about the event, visit the Hendrick Motorsports site, and check out the video here. No hard feelings between Dale Jr., Ambrose That darn bent steering. "He bent the steering in my car," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "I couldn’t steer very good." NASCAR's most popular driver said it with a wry half-smile, after contact with Marcos Ambrose put the No. 88 car into the frontstretch wall and ended Earnhardt's pursuit of a victory in the season-opening Sprint Unlimited exhibition at Daytona International Speedway. Earnhardt repaid the Australian with a side-to-side bump as both cars rolled down the backstretch, and then headed to the garage to park his Chevrolet a handful of laps from the finish. Bent steering? Please. "Nah, we were just having fun," Earnhardt confessed. "And his car was already torn up, so it didn't get hurt any worse than it already was. He was trying to go, and I know he was trying to do what he thought he needed to do, and so was I. … But we were just having fun. No big deal. I wasn’t trying to spin him out or nothing. His car was pretty tore up, so was mine. I like Marcos. We get along good." The accident ended a strong bid that saw Earnhardt lead the 75-lap race with 12 circuits to go, backing up the speed he had shown by topping the board in practice one day earlier. But on a night defined by mechanical mayhem -- reigning Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson sailed into the wall early, and contact between Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano resulted in a nine-car wreck that whittled an already exclusive field down to just nine vehicles -- Earnhardt was hardly immune. Earnhardt was drafting ahead of Ambrose and began searching for lanes around the cars in front of him when the Richard Petty Motorsports driver moved to the outside. The resulting contact pinched Earnhardt into the wall, crumpling the right side of the No. 88 car to the point where it was too damaged to continue. "Just miscommunication," said Earnhardt, who finished ninth. "I didn't know he was there. Been in the same situation before. It's nothing new." Earnhardt originally said the wrecked vehicle was his backup car for the Daytona 500, but his Hendrick Motorsports team later confirmed it was not. Ambrose, who was able to stay on the track and finish seventh, was effusive in placing the blame on himself. "Just feel bad for Junior," he said. "I feel really sorry for what happened there. I was just trying to help him, really. I was just trying to give him a push, and I'm not sure if he moved to side-draft me and came back across. Unfortunately, it ruined his night and really ruined mine, too. So yeah, we'll take our lumps here. Sorry to Junior Nation. I didn’t mean to do it. I'll try to help him in the 500." Ambrose also understood the reason behind the post-crash bump. "It's OK," he said. "Junior's a great guy, and he's been great to me in the sport, and I've never had any hard feelings with him. It was unnecessary to get in the fence in the first place, so no drama. I'll try to find him and apologize a little bit. Hope he's not too mad." He certainly didn't seem it in the garage area, as his crew scrambled around his wrecked car. "We had a good car, and were just having some fun," Earnhardt said. As crazy as the race was, he added, he liked the fact that drivers could get runs on one another. But openings in the draft apparently close up quicker than they used to -- perhaps one reason behind the big wreck, sparked when Kenseth came down into Logano -- and the side-draft poses more of a challenge. What does that portend for the remainder of Speedweeks? "It's going to be lots of wrecking," Earnhardt said, "because of the way these cars side-draft, and you get stalled out beside each other and you sort of get packed up around each other, and the guys behind you are either going to push you or go around you. It's just going to cause a little bit of trouble, and we saw it tonight. But this race has always been expensive, so it's no real surprise what we saw tonight." The Great American Race could be different, though, because of its daytime green flag. "The Daytona 500 will be a great race, because it's hot, greasy, and more of a challenge on the handling package," Earnhardt said. "You’ve got to drive the car more, and it's a bigger challenge when you run these races during the daytime." It certainly looked like a handful Saturday night, when Earnhardt's crash capped a series of accidents and left Ambrose looking to apologize in person. "I'm going to try and find him later on if he wants to talk to me," Ambrose said. "But yeah, it's just what happens here in a race that only counts to win, and we're all trying to push to the front. And unfortunately, it was just a bad day." First-time NASCAR sponsor joins Earnhardt's No. 88 With the season upon us and the 2014-opening Daytona 500 right around the corner, Hendrick Motorsports announced Thursday that it has added Kelley Blue Book as a full-time sponsor of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s No. 88 Chevrolet SS NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ride. The vehicle valuation and information source has signed on for a two-year agreement, providing the company prominent brand placement on the No. 88 throughout the Cup schedule in a full-season associate sponsorship, with one event each season featuring Kelley Blue Book as a primary sponsor. "Kelley Blue Book's sponsorship in NASCAR is the next step in communicating our brand strength and recognition as a vehicle valuation pioneer and leader for new-car shopping and research," said KBB vice president of operations Steve Lind, whose organization will be making its first foray into NASCAR team sponsorship. "By supporting successful race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports, coupled with NASCAR's brand equity, we will reach even more consumers with our message -- providing helpful, transparent information on KBB.com to help car shoppers make the best decision possible."?? Earnhardt, 39, has posted 19 career victories in Sprint Cup Series competition, including the 2004 Daytona 500. The Kannapolis, N.C., native has earned three consecutive Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berths and has been voted by the fans as NASCAR's most popular driver 11 times. He finished the 2013 season fifth in the championship standings with a career-best 22 top-10 finishes. ?? "I'm looking forward to our partnership with Kelley Blue Book," said Earnhardt, who will drive the No. 88 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet SS at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway on June 22. "As a car enthusiast and dealership owner, I've trusted them for years for vehicle valuation and information. It's exciting to work with a partner that's new to the sport, and I'm proud Kelley Blue Book will be on board with the No. 88 team for their debut season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series."?? Earnhardt isn't the only one excited to have the popular automotive organization on board. "On the dealership side, we've worked with Kelley Blue Book for many years," said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports and chairman of Hendrick Automotive Group. "NASCAR is a terrific marketing platform for their products and services, and it presents new opportunities for our companies to work together. We're excited to welcome a new partner and team them with an incredible spokesperson in Dale Jr. It's a great combination with the potential to grow even more."? Danica, Gordon headline FOX's Daytona bash Danica Patrick and four-time premier series champion Jeff Gordon will welcome fans to a two-day, pre-race party at Daytona Beach as part of a primetime special titled "Daytona 500 Bash At The Beach." A one-hour special of the event will air at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 22 on FOX. The Daytona 500 is the next day, with the race scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET and coverage beginning at noon ET on FOX. The two-day, pre-race party at Daytona Beach will celebrate the Great American Race like never before and take "an entertaining look at just how big the Daytona 500 is, with special features and a light recap of the most exciting storylines from 2013," according to a FOX Sports release. Patrick and Gordon will be joined by FOX Sports' Charissa Thompson and Danielle Trotta. Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Miss Sprint Cup and other VIP guests are slated to be interviewed backstage by Trotta. Grammy award-winning artist Cee Lo Green will be the musical headliner for the inaugural event. Miami Heat disc jockey DJ Irie will also provide a musical backdrop for the festivities. In addition, the fan-viewing party also includes autograph sessions with NASCAR drivers and VIP guests, as well as a gaming lounge highlighted by the Oculus Virtual Reality technology simulating NASCAR driving, a social media concierge and free giveaways for the people in attendance. For Dale Earnhardt Jr., winning is the final step He feels the burn whenever he sees one of those season-in-review videos, the kind featuring a montage of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers and their accomplishments over the past year. The images blend from one into another, but so many are the same -- celebratory burnouts, sprayed champagne and fluttering confetti, trophies lifted high overhead. There's often one exception, though, and it leaves Dale Earnhardt Jr. eager to get back to the race track and set things straight. "All the shots of you are just walking around on pit road, or doing something other than standing in Victory Lane," he said. "And that's very motivating." Indeed that was the case in 2013, when Earnhardt's best season in a decade was missing just one thing -- a race victory. While NASCAR's most popular driver has undoubtedly shown improvement as his tenure with Hendrick Motorsports has progressed, race wins remain a glaring omission. Last season Earnhardt placed fifth in points, recorded a career-best 22 top-10 finishes and took a giant leap toward returning to elite status -- and yet, he still went winless for the fourth time in the past five years. There were plenty of close calls, including five runner-up finishes and a third-place result in a season finale he led until 24 laps remained, all of it bolstering hopes that a breakthrough may be imminent. This may be the final season Earnhardt works with Steve Letarte before his crew chief heads to the television booth, and he may be operating under a new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format that places an emphasis on victories over everything else. But for the driver of the No. 88 car, there remains an unshakable belief that the dam is about to give way. "Where I am as a driver in the past couple of years, I think I am on the verge of breaking through and having possibly one of my best seasons. Maybe it's just the stars aligning or fate that they're making these changes, and maybe we just have the type of season we need to have to be the guy in Homestead holding the trophy. So with the trajectory our team has had, we're peaking at the right time to battle for a championship," Earnhardt said. "I never felt, even when they changed the Chase the first time, I never felt they would change the format and how you won it would change. I always feel like the best car, the guy who runs the best, the guy who is the most consistent, wins the most races or what have you -- the guy who is the guy will be the champion. Still feel that way, even with the new rules. … If we do what we need to do and keep getting better, we're going to have a shot. We're going to be there. We're going to be one of those four guys at Homestead." Heady words indeed from a driver who has two race victories since moving to Hendrick in 2008, and hasn't been in contention for the title on the final weekend since his days at Dale Earnhardt Inc. Even so, Earnhardt and Letarte look back on all those runner-up runs a season ago -- three of them to the No. 48 car of Hendrick stable mate and reigning champion Jimmie Johnson -- and see them as evidence of how close they really are. "We're getting close. We're working hard. And trust me, no one wants to win more than me and Steve," Earnhardt said. "That's what our goal's going to be this year, is to win more races. And if we keep doing what we're supposed to do, and what we've been doing, which I know we will, we're going to do that. It's inevitable." Although Letarte isn't necessarily a believer that momentum carries over from season to season -- cars and rules change, never more than for 2014 -- lessons can still be learned. The good news for the No. 88 team is that the shortcomings of last year were situational rather than systemic -- the car showed speed all season, and Earnhardt continued to show patience and maturity under his crew chief. The team's plan of rolling out its best cars for the Chase unquestionably paid dividends, and in retrospect Letarte wouldn't change it. There were no major pieces lacking, only a move here or a bit of strategy there. "We've just been second a lot," Letarte said. "We've been second to the 48 a bunch, which is a great thing, because we know what equipment is beating us. It's a frustrating thing, because you know what equipment is beating you. But it's better to run second to the 48 than third to the 48. We're proud of the runs we made, and there were a couple that I thought we had a really good shot at, and they didn't come to fruition. And we don't just push those to the side. We analyze them. We look at Homestead and say, 'Why didn't we win?' That’s not a, 'Hey, what did you do wrong, what did I do wrong?' It's, 'What can we do better?' … I think everyone is willing to take responsibility in getting better, and that's a special group." Still, the lack of winning can take its toll. "It really motivates you and ticks you off," Earnhardt said. And Letarte will admit, his team can get frustrated -- they are competitors, after all. But unlike fans who may moan and wail after the No. 88 car comes up short yet again, within the race team it's those second- and third-place finishes that keep optimism alive. "Is everybody disappointed and has frustration because we want to win? Absolutely. We care too much about our job to not want to win. That's why we race," Letarte said. "But I don't think that running close and not winning has been a detriment. I think it's been an improvement that's forced us to continually improve. I look at it that way. I would be concerned if you ran second and everybody got down and you thought it was a detriment the next week. I've seen it as the opposite. You go and you run second, I think they're more fired up to get to the next week, because we feel we have a shot to win." At some point, though, the wins have to come, particularly given how the Chase has been revamped to award the majority of playoff berths to race winners, and how those who reach Victory Lane will have a decided advantage in advancing through each round. Although NASCAR has said Earnhardt would have won the title in 2013 had the new format been applied to last year's results, it's impossible to know if everyone involved would have raced the same way given the change in circumstances. Regardless, the No. 88 team is making no assumptions. To take the last remaining step, from fifth in points to true championship contenders, there's only one thing left to do. "You have to win. It's that simple. You have to win races," Letarte said. "… I think winning, it's kind of like a star quarterback. There are some great quarterbacks who have some great stats, and there are quarterbacks that win. And we have a lot of great stats, but to consider ourselves a championship contender, my personal belief is, you must win to be a championship contender. There are too many great teams not to." For Earnhardt, the idea of winning races in 2014 isn't just a hope -- it's a belief. The confidence over the potential the coming year holds is evident in his voice. He can envision the cracks in that dam, and if the breakthrough does indeed come, he might not be seen holding just any trophy in the next season-in-review video he watches. He might be holding the biggest one of them all. "To win the championship, we as a team definitely need to win races regardless of the format," Earnhardt said. "We ran second a lot last year, and that felt great. It was a statement for us personally that what we're doing is working, and we're getting closer to that goal. I think we're right there. I think we're right around the corner. This is the year. Maybe this is the year." Dale Jr. will leave crew chief decision to others When it comes to determining who his new crew chief will be beginning in 2015, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wants to be in the room when the discussions are taking place. But he'll leave the ultimate decision up to others within his Hendrick Motorsports team -- owner Rick Hendrick foremost among them. Earnhardt's current crew chief, Steve Letarte, is leaving after this coming season to become a race analyst for NBC Sports, which returns as a NASCAR broadcast partner beginning in 2015. Although Earnhardt and Letarte have won just one race in their three years together to this point, they've helped revive a once-flagging No. 88 program that finished fifth in final points -- Earnhardt's best-ever standing at Hendrick -- in 2013. The duo hopes to build on that this season, during which decisions on a successor to Letarte will eventually have to be made. And although Earnhardt will work most closely with whomever the new signal-caller is, he feels others -- like Hendrick, team general manager Doug Duchardt, and Jimmie Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus -- are better suited to make the call. "I know we'll have these conversations in the middle of the year, or whenever Doug and Rick and those guys want to start having them, and I want to be in the room having those conversations. But Rick was smart enough to put me and Steve together. Doug has his finger on that company as well as anybody. Chad knows the culture inside the race shop. Steve knows the culture inside the race shop. Steve knows what makes me tick, and what makes that team tick. And those are the guys who need to get together and have that conversation," Earnhardt said. "I'd love to be in that room, but I wouldn't have the intelligence and expertise that they have to make that decision. They (have) a certain perspective that's unique to be able to do that. I really want to trust what they think. I don’t know what I would have a big impact on at this point. It's so fresh still, we haven't even looked in that direction yet." Indeed, Hendrick said in the immediate aftermath of Letarte's decision last month that a call on a replacement would likely wait until late in the year. In more recent days, he's stood by that timetable. "I don't plan to make any decision right now," the team owner said. "I mean, we've got a whole year to race. We've got a deep bench if you look at the guys we have in the organization, and guys throughout the Nationwide Series and everything else. It's definitely going to take the right fit. All of our guys, Dale will be involved in that decision and Chad, who's in that shop, but we're going to try to run as well with Steve Letarte until the end of the year, and then we'll make that decision." And Hendrick said he would welcome any input from Earnhardt. "He has a lot of confidence in us to make the right decision," the owner said, "but at the same time, the chemistry has got to be there, and we want him involved." Traditionally, Hendrick had made such moves in-house, or looked to those with previous ties to the organization. Letarte moved to Earnhardt's program from the team of Jeff Gordon, whose current crew chief Alan Gustafson previously worked on Hendrick's No. 5 team. Although Knaus worked at Melling Racing immediately prior to becoming Johnson's crew chief, he had been a member of the No. 24 crew under Ray Evernham. "We're in a great organization where we have a lot of great people to lean on, and I'm sure we'll look inside the organization first to see if we find that guy," Earnhardt said. "I want to get excited about what 2015 looks like, I want to get excited about what that change is going to be like, and how that team can get better, and what effect that can have on us as far as performance goes. But I'm going into the last season with Steve, who I love to work with, and I want to really enjoy that moment that is the whole season." Although Evernham is expanding his consultant work with Hendrick to include some areas of racing operations, he has reiterated countless times that he has no desire to return as a crew chief. And while the organization would appear to have internal candidates such as No. 48 car chief Ron Malec and JR Motorsports crew chief Greg Ives, there are no early indications as to who Earnhardt's next crew chief might be. Letarte believes the ultimate decision will rest with Hendrick, who was behind the personnel shuffle following the 2010 season that paired him with Earnhardt in the first place. "I have my opinions on all of it, I'm sure at some point I'll have my opportunity to sit down with management," said Letarte, who in 2015 will join an NBC booth that also includes 21-time race winner Jeff Burton and announcer Rick Allen. "That's really Rick's decision. He knows how to replace people the best, and I want to be around to answer questions, because he might need some questions answered to make his decision. But I think he knows what everybody needs once he gets those questions answered." Earnhardt sees the looming change as an opportunity to ultimately make the No. 88 team better. "Steve will tell you that as well," the driver said. For the moment, though, he has confidence in his organization to make the right decision on a successor, and he has faith that he and Letarte can make their final season together a memorable one. "I'm in a good position. If you’ve got to change something as big as a crew chief, I'm in a great organization that can make that change and make it seamless. I'm in a shop with the 48/88 team where the culture is amazing. I know whoever comes in and handles that job will have all the resources needed to have success. Part of me wants to get excited about that and what that looks like and start to figure that out, but there's a job at hand, and that's this season," Earnhardt said. "Me and Steve have an opportunity to wok together one more year. I really enjoy working with that guy, so I feel lucky to have one more year to work with him before he goes off and does his own thing in the broadcast booth. I'm excited for him to have something he's looking forward to, as a friend, and everything's going to work out. I'm a believer that everything happens for a reason, and I know it's gong to be great for him, and I believe it's an opportunity for our team to get better as well." Expansion, Eliminations highlight Chase changes The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup format has been tweaked and adjusted in the 10 seasons it has been used to determine the sanctioning body’s Sprint Cup champion. Thursday, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France announced a major overhaul for the 10-race format, one that will see the field expanded from 12 to 16 teams, with three shootout-style rounds culminating in a single championship-determining event among the final four remaining competitors. "We have arrived at a format that makes every race matter even more, diminishes points racing, plus puts a premium on winning races, and concludes with a best-of-the-best, first to the finish line showdown race -- all of which is exactly what fans want," France said. "We have looked at a number of concepts for the last three years through fan research, models and simulations, and also maintained extensive dialogue with our drivers, teams and partners. The new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will be thrilling, easy to understand and help drive our sport's competition to a whole new level." Under the new format, the 16 available qualifying positions for the Chase will be awarded to those drivers that have at least one victory through the first 26 races, as long as he or she is in the top-30 in points and has attempted to qualify for each of the season-s previous points races. If more than 16 drivers earn at least one win, only those highest in the standings (with at least one win) following the 26th race would advance. However, should the points leader after 26 races be winless, he or she would be awarded the 16th and final Chase position. Only twice in the history of NASCAR have there been more than 15 winners in the first 26 Cup races (1961 and 2003). If fewer than 16 drivers have at least one win, all remaining positions to fill the grid would be determined based on points standings. The 16 drivers qualifying for the Chase will have their points reset to 2,000 points, and will be seeded based on bonus points (three per win) earned prior to the start of the Chase. The nine races leading up to the season-ending event are divided into three individual rounds consisting of three races each. Chase eligible drivers posting at least one win in each of the rounds will continue to advance. Remaining available positions will be determined and seeded based points earned during each round. Points for those in the Chase will be reset prior to the start of each round with all drivers starting the round with the same amount of points. Drivers not in the Chase will continue to earn points under the current non-Chase points format. The Challenger Round -- Opens the Chase and consists of races at Chicagoland, New Hampshire and Dover. Twelve of the 16 drivers will advance from this round. A win in any of the three races automatically advances the driver to the next round, with remaining positions to be determined based on points earned during the round. The 12 Chase drivers advancing will be seeded based on points earned through the three previous races and will have his or her points total reset to 3,000 points prior to the start of the next round. The Contender Round -- Consists of races at Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega. Eight of the 12 drivers will advance from this round. As in the previous round, a win in any of the three Contender Round races automatically advances the driver to the next round, with remaining positions to be determined based on points earned during the round. Points totals will be reset at 4,000 points for those advancing. The Eliminator Round -- Consists of races at Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix. Four of the eight drivers will advance from this round to earn a berth in the season-ending Sprint Cup Championship (final) round. Eliminator Round winners automatically advance, with the remaining position or positions determined by points earned in the three races. The four drivers that advance into the final round will have their points total reset to 5,000 following the Phoenix race. Sprint Cup Championship -- The highest finishing driver at Homestead among the four eligible drivers will win the Sprint Cup championship. While bonus points for laps led will be awarded through previous rounds, no bonus points for laps led will be awarded in the final race. Finishing position in the final race will determine the champion. For those Chase drivers that fail to advance out of an individual round, their points total will be reset at 2,000 points at the conclusion of that particular segment. They will continue to earn points based on finishes in the remaining races, with no further adjustments. Thus, a driver that fails to advance out of the initial Challenger Round could earn enough points to finish as high as fifth in the final points standings. He or she would finish no worse than 16th based on the initial points reset. NASCAR announces Chase for the Sprint Cup format change NASCAR announced a new championship format today that will put greater emphasis on winning races all season long, expands the current Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field to 16 drivers, and implements a new round-by-round advancement format that ultimately will reward a battle-tested, worthy champion. “We have arrived at a format that makes every race matter even more, diminishes points racing, puts a premium on winning races and concludes with a best-of-the-best, first-to-the-finish line showdown race – all of which is exactly what fans want,” said Brian France, NASCAR chairman and CEO. “We have looked at a number of concepts for the last three years through fan research, models and simulations, and also maintained extensive dialogue with our drivers, teams and partners. The new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will be thrilling, easy to understand and help drive our sport’s competition to a whole new level.” Changes announced by France to the championship format include: - A victory in the first 26 races likely will guarantee a driver a berth in the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup -- a change that will put an unprecedented premium on winning a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race all season long - Expanding the Chase field from 12 to 16 drivers, with those drivers advancing to what now will be known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase Grid - The number of championship drivers in contention for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship will decrease after every three Chase races, from 16 to start in the Chase Grid; 12 after Chase race No. 3; eight after Chase race No. 6; and four after Chase race No. 9 - The first three races of the Chase (27-29) will be known as the Challenger Round; races 30-32 will be known as the Contender Round; races 33-35 will be the Eliminator Round and race No. 36 will be the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship - A win by a championship-eligible driver in any Chase race automatically clinches the winning driver a spot in the next Chase round - Four drivers will enter the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship with a chance for the Cup, with the highest finisher among those four capturing the prestigious NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title. Eligibility for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup The top 15 drivers with the most wins over the first 26 races will earn a spot in the Chase Grid -- provided they have finished in the top 30 in points and attempted to qualify for every race (except in rare instances). The 16th Chase position will go to the points leader after race No. 26, if he/she does not have victory. In the event that there are 16 or more different winners over 26 races, the only winless driver who can earn a Chase Grid spot would be the points leader after 26 races. If there are fewer than 16 different winners in the first 26 races, the remaining Chase Grid positions will go to those winless drivers highest in points. If there are 16 or more different winners in the first 26 races, the ties will first be broken by number of wins, followed by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver points. As was implemented in 2011, prior to the start of the Chase, all Chase Grid drivers will have their points adjusted to 2,000, with three additional bonus points added to their total for each win in the first 26 races. Advancement Model during Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup After the third Chase race, the Chase Grid will be left with 12 drivers. After the sixth Chase race, the field will drop to eight drivers, and following the ninth Chase race, only four drivers will remain in championship contention for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. The first round (races 27-29) will be called the "Challenger Round." If a driver in the Chase Grid wins a Challenger Round race, the driver automatically advances and his/her points will be reset to 3,000. Only the top 12 in points after the Challenger Round remain in championship contention, and all will then have their points reset to 3,000. The second round (races 30-32) will be called the "Contender Round." Likewise, if a driver in the top 12 in points wins a race in the Contender Round, the driver automatically advances and his/her points will reset to 4,000. Only the top eight in points after the Contender Round remain in championship contention, and all then will have their points reset to 4,000. The third round (races 33-35) will be called the "Eliminator Round." If a driver in the top eight in points wins a race in the Eliminator Round, the driver automatically advances and his/her points will reset to 5,000. The top four in points after the Eliminator Round remain in championship contention, and all then will have their points reset to 5,000. Additionally, as drivers are eliminated from the Rounds, their points total will be readjusted to the normal points format in sync with all other drivers in the field no longer in contention for the championship. This will allow all drivers not in contention for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship to continue to race for the best possible season-long standing, with fifth place ultimately still up for grabs at the season finale. Four-Driver, First-to-the-Finish Championship Finale The 36th and final race of the season will be the "NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship." Simply stated, the highest finisher in the Championship race among the remaining four eligible drivers will win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title. Bonus points for laps led or previous race wins will not apply in the season finale, so the official finishing position alone will decide the champion. Note: All rules outlined above also apply to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series owner championship structure. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2014 Driver Profile NASCAR’s perennial most popular driver continued to show improvement in 2013 working with his crew chief Steve Letarte as he gained seven positions, overall, in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings over the previous year. Although he started the season strong by finishing second in the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was shut out of Victory Lane during 2013. That could have been the story of the year – close but not quite at the pinnacle. He recorded 10 top-five (five of which were seconds) and 22 top-10 finishes proving that the No. 88 Chevrolet SS team gained the consistency to make a strong run during the 2013 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He was fast, too, winning poles at Kentucky Speedway and Dover International Speedway. Engine failure in the opening round of the Chase at Chicagoland put Junior on the ropes but he bounced back with five top-five and eight top-10 results in the final nine races to finish fifth in the points standings. It’s a very good sign for 2014. Team owner Rick Hendrick’s faith in Earnhardt – and Letarte for that matter – is quite strong. Hendrick said he’s confident that with top 10s and top fives, Earnhardt will regain the form he had during his best years – either 2003 when he finished third overall or 2004 when he won six races – driving for Dale Earnhardt, Inc., the team founded by his late father Dale Earnhardt. His 19 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories rank Earnhardt tied for 39th among series winners. He won back-to-back NASCAR Nationwide Series championships (1998-99) and has 23 victories in NASCAR’s No. 2 series. He’s also part owner of JR Motorsports, which fielded two NASCAR Nationwide cars in 2013. Team: Hendrick Motorsports Car: No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS Birthdate: October 10, 1974 Hometown: Kannapolis, N.C. Team Owner: Rick Hendrick Crew Chief: Steve Letarte Don't count out Earnhardt Jr., Letarte in 2014 Tony Stewart and Darian Grubb in 2011. Kevin Harvick and Gil Martin in 2013. Two driver-crew chief combinations that on the surface appeared to have little or no reason to succeed given their respective circumstances. Or so we thought. We were wrong. What each accomplished comes to mind as we begin to dissect the ramifications of Steve Letarte’s 2014 end-of-season departure. The crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports organization, Letarte has helped lead the sport's most popular driver back to respectability. No, the wins haven't flowed -- let's be honest, they haven't even trickled with the pairing producing just a single victory. But Earnhardt Jr. posted 10 top-fives finishes in both 2012 and 2013 with Letarte as his wingman, and his 22 top-10 finishes in 2013 were a career best. His fifth-place points finish last year was his best overall result since 2006. Now that Letarte's impending exit has been announced (he'll join NBC Sports in 2015), will the team continue to move forward? Or will the breakup lead to a loss of focus? Not surprisingly, both Earnhardt Jr. and Letarte have said they don't expect the news to impact this year's efforts. "I expect us to do nothing less than improve on what we've been doing and steadily keep moving toward our goals," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think what makes this situation unique compared to any driver situation I can remember is I'm not going to crew chief for another organization," said Letarte. "I'm not working on being a broadcaster in 2014, I’m working on filling a trophy case. And to do that we have to win." Does the "what" Letarte will be doing next year matter? Or is the fact he won’t be back more important here? No doubt, if the team starts slow, Letarte will be the scapegoat. If they succeed … well, the big question is can they succeed? Stewart and Grubb did. Harvick and Martin did as well. Grubb, the former Stewart-Haas Racing crew chief who now turns the wrenches, so to speak, for Denny Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing, helped Stewart earn a third career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title in 2011. He did so even though he found out during the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup that he would not be retained for the following season. That Stewart himself had said his team didn’t deserve a spot in the field given its pre-Chase results made what the group accomplished (five Chase wins after going winless during the regular season) that much more impressive. They could have mailed it in. Started working on the next season. Shown Grubb the door. The Harvick/Martin effort of 2013 was equally impressive, if not quite as successful. Harvick won four races and finished third in points, which came after the news leaked out toward the end of the 2012 season and was confirmed during the 2013 season that Harvick would exit Richard Childress Racing for SHR in 2014. Toss in the fallout of Harvick berating the organization after an on-track skirmish with fellow RCR driver Ty Dillon (grandson of team owner Richard Childress) at Martinsville in the fall and you have a volatile situation on your hands. Yet no implosion occurred. The Harvick/Martin situation "is a great example" of what teams can accomplish in such situations, said Larry McReynolds, the former crew chief who now works as a television analyst for FOX Sports. "Every group is different, and it’s the people that control (the outcome)," he said. "That's where I think Harvick and Gil Martin and even Richard Childress -- even throwing the fact of all the stuff that went on at Martinsville … they still kept their heads down and were still focused on winning races and contending for the championship." Earnhardt Jr. and Letarte have every reason to believe that this latest development will be nothing more than fodder for the naysayers. They've got 36 more races, beginning with next month's Daytona 500, to prove that that's indeed the case. Letarte's greatest victory? Junior himself Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a mess. That much was evident from every four-letter word that exploded over the radio, a cacophony of profanity-laced frustration that characterized one of the worst meltdowns NASCAR's most popular driver had ever suffered behind the wheel of a race car. He had been in the lead, then got a set of tires that didn't click with his vehicle and started dropping back in the field. And he wasn't happy about it. "I can't figure out why we keep (bleeping) up in the middle of these races," Earnhardt vented to his crew. "Every (bleeping) time." It was just the beginning of an absolute fit thrown by Earnhardt during a race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2008, a tantrum that grew so bad car owner Rick Hendrick had to intervene and play amateur psychologist over the radio. Earnhardt finished fifth that day, and maintained fourth place in the standings at the time, but it was clear the No. 88 team was hanging by a thread. Adversity had a way of overwhelming them, so in retrospect it seemed no surprise that Earnhardt tumbled into the 20s in points in each of the next two years. Things these days are much different. Earnhardt still doesn't win races probably as often as he should, and he can still get mad over the radio and, unfairly or not, he can still heap loads of responsibility upon himself. But the Dale Earnhardt Jr. of today is far more polished and professional than he was then, far more capable of managing and overcoming misfortune, much better suited to contending for a championship over the long haul of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. And a primary reason for all that is the past three years Earnhardt has spent working with crew chief Steve Letarte. Hendrick has made plenty of great decisions over the past 30 years, not surprising given that he oversees an organization that's won 11 championships at NASCAR's top level. His most recent masterstroke was pairing Earnhardt with Letarte, a crew chief who exuded the kind of positivity the driver of the No. 88 car sorely needed at the time. It's easy to forget now, after three straight seasons where he's qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, but many fans thought Earnhardt's career was over after he finished 25th and 21st in consecutive seasons (2009, 2010). People envisioned him fielding a Sprint Cup car out of JR Motorsports, and just playing out the string. In retrospect, it all seems so ludicrous. Success in sports is so often about fit, the right athlete being in the right situation at the right time. For his first three seasons at Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt was a square peg being hammered into a round hole. He was at Hendrick, the best team in NASCAR, but he wasn't yet of Hendrick. Letarte, a Hendrick employee since he was 16, steeped in the owner's way of doing business, nurtured by championship seasons with Jeff Gordon, changed all that. He demanded more of Earnhardt off the track, he gave more to Earnhardt on the track, and the result was a transformation that in 2013 netted the driver's best season in years. "We really took off at the very beginning of our working relationship, because he was always positive," Earnhardt said during Preseason Thunder. "I'd beat myself up, and went through such a struggle on the race track, and professionally, I was having a hard time up until that point in the couple years before I worked with Steve. And things just weren't good at all. I couldn't get any traction, couldn't get anything going in the right direction, and I didn't know why, why I didn't run well. I couldn't see a problem with the team I was with. I couldn't see a problem with the people I was working with. I couldn't see a reason why we were so unsuccessful." He certainly can now. Letarte entered the picture after the 2010 campaign as part of a Hendrick personnel shuffle that moved him from Gordon's No. 24 program, and was adamant he and Earnhardt would get everything figured out. He put an emphasis on improving the cars, of giving Earnhardt something better underneath him, and took the pressure off his driver in the process. He demanded more of Earnhardt in terms of debriefs and follow-up reports. He kept his driver upbeat and motivated in the seat, and he produced immediate results. "It took a lot of pressure off of me, as I wasn't the reason for all the failures and all the struggles in the past," Earnhardt remembered. "When we would not run well, he could point to an area where we could improve, and we would improve that area and the performance would pick up. It was a lot of fun, (to) take the pressure off of me and just be able to go to work and see things change and get better. That was just a great experience." Now, Earnhardt will call upon all the lessons he learned under Letarte, given that his crew chief will be leaving after the 2014 campaign to become a television analyst with NBC Sports. This is no small departure -- given the rather wide disparity in results before and after Letarte's arrival, it appears evident that the droll Maine native was the missing link. And yet, listening to Earnhardt over the radio today versus five years ago, seeing his level of engagement today versus five years ago, it seems fairly certain that Letarte's presence has made a lasting difference. The Dale Earnhardt Jr. who suffered that meltdown over the radio in 2008 feels like a different driver than the one we see now. No one seems more aware of that than Earnhardt himself, who is more prepared for life after his current crew chief because of the time the two have spent working together. "I've grown a lot as a driver working with Steve, and I feel confident that we can continue to see success," Earnhardt said. "I want to give Steve a lot of credit for how I've changed, and he does have a lot of influence on the performance of the team, but I feel confident the team is going to be just fine no matter who the crew chief is. There's a culture in that shop, and it's a culture of success and winning, and anything else is not acceptable. I feel like that will continue after Steve is gone. "I think the things that I've learned with Steve, and what he's taught me and how I've grown as a person and as a driver, I'll be able to try to maintain that and carry that into the next relationship I have with the next crew chief. I really feel like he's helped me become much more professional behind the wheel in handling my responsibilities and communicating and carrying myself as an adult and as a professional. That was a bit of a problem for me when I was younger. I'd kind of lose it behind the wheel every once in a while and argue and fight. We definitely have moved quite a ways away from that." Indeed, they have. Thinking back to the days when Earnhardt and former crew chief Tony Eury Jr. regularly feuded with one another -- something that at the time was just chalked up to cousins being cousins -- it's been a day-and-night transition. Again, so much of success is about fit, and Earnhardt's next crew chief will still need to possess the traits and tactics that bring out the best in him. But Earnhardt has been molded into a more mature and professional race car driver, one much better suited to withstand his crew chief's looming departure. Over and above any single race win, that may prove Steve Letarte's greatest victory. Letarte leaving the 'best job in the garage' Even as news was still breaking that Steve Letarte would vacate his crew chief job at Hendrick Motorsports in 2015 to join the NBC Sports broadcast team, the projections, rumors and predictions about who would replace him atop Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s pit box began. "I think it’s the best job in the garage that's coming open, I would put it at the top of the list," Letarte said Friday. And who would argue? Working for the most successful championship NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization in NASCAR history, calling the shots for Earnhardt, the sport's perennial Most Popular Driver is an attractive -- albeit challenging -- form of employment. However, the man most vested in the pairing, the driver himself, said he thinks it best to have no input into the search process. "I won't make any suggestions at all," he said. "I will leave that up to Rick (Hendrick) and (general manager) Doug (Duchardt). And I would love to have input from Chad Knaus and Steve. I think that Steve knows what makes this team work. "I think it's important he has a lot of influence because he knows how well the shop works together and what the culture is in the shop, how a particular guy may mesh in that environment." When approached in the Sprint Cup garage by NASCAR.com during Friday’s Preseason Thunder test session, Knaus said he preferred not to name any front-runners specifically. But he acknowledged his Hendrick Motorsports team has a preferred history of promoting from within. "It’s cool that Dale values my opinion," said Knaus, a six-time title-winning crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, whose No. 48 team shares a shop with Earnhardt’s No. 88 team. "I think there's a lot of people out there that could fit into the mold we've got there pretty well and not disrupt it too badly. But it's going to be a task for sure. "You have to realize Steve’s been there a long time. Mike Landis our team manager has been there a long time too. And when you bring someone new into the fold it’s going to change it a little bit. We want to be cautious and make sure whoever comes in doesn’t really disrupt the workflow of that shop because that shop has been pretty successful." As for a front-runner from within the Hendrick organization, Knaus would only say, "the company always tries to (promote from within), but this is all brand new so I can’t comment too much on it right now." While Knaus preferred to defer, the rest of the Sprint Cup garage was buzzing with speculation. One obvious potential candidate is Ron Malec, Knaus' right-hand man as car chief on Johnson’s six champion runs. Greg Ives would also be a legitimate candidate. He currently works at Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports operation as crew chief for 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series rookie Chase Elliott, and Ives would bring the experience of working for and with Earnhardt. He worked alongside Knaus at Hendrick for nine years, serving as race engineer on Johnson’s five consecutive championship seasons (2006-10). Hendrick Motorsports issued a statement Thursday expressing support for Letarte’s decision and stressing it did not want the future job vacancy to be a distraction for the present. "We don't expect to address the crew chief position until after the season," the statement said. "Everyone with the team is focused on 2014 and committed to having another great year." Letarte said he'd be glad to offer his opinion and assist in the search for his replacement, but like Earnhardt and Knaus, he insisted this decision ultimately and fittingly belongs in Hendrick's hands. "That's a question for Rick Hendrick how much he wants to involve me or not involve me," Letarte said. "I'd be happy to help him anyway I can, help Dale, help anyone involved. I care about them like family and I'll do anything I can do to help with their decision. Rick is the magician to this. He puts the right people together, so I don’t know if he needs my help. But if he wants it, I’ll be there." And while Earnhardt may not have a preference or a desire to participate in the search for Letarte's replacement, he does know that person will have some big shoes to fill. "I think that my fear is just (replacing) Steve," Earnhardt said. "It's a guy that's going to be hard to replace." Earnhardt Jr. starts search for new crew chief Dale Earnhardt Jr. is admittedly scared by the daunting task of replacing crew chief Steve Letarte. He’ll leave it up to team owner Rick Hendrick and management at Hendrick Motorsports, and they’ve got the entire season to find a new crew chief. Letarte was formally introduced Friday as the third and final member of NBC Sports Group’s broadcast booth for its NASCAR coverage beginning in 2015. Earnhardt and Letarte have been paired since 2011. Although the duo has just one win together, they’ve made the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship the past three seasons. More important, Letarte rebuilt the confidence in NASCAR’s most popular driver and instilled a structure around Earnhardt that the driver admits raised his professionalism in the race car. "The one thing that I fear is just trying to get a guy in there that’s equally as talented," Earnhardt said Friday at Daytona International Speedway. "Steve is a great cheerleader and definitely built up my confidence and changed me as a race car driver and as a person. Working with him has really helped me grow. I think that my fear is can we replace Steve?" Earnhardt brought cousin Tony Eury Jr. with him to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. When that working relationship fractured, Hendrick replaced Eury with longtime company man Lance McGrew. Only that combination failed to produce results, so Earnhardt was paired with former Jeff Gordon crew chief Letarte when Hendrick made a massive organizational shake-up shortly after the 2010 season ended. Letarte’s influence on Earnhardt was immediate, so Earnhardt will once again put his trust in Hendrick. He’ll also want Letarte and Jimmie Johnson’s six-time championship winning crew chief Chad Knaus to be part of the decision making. Knaus works side-by-side with Earnhardt’s crew chief, so Earnhardt believes Knaus needs to have input. "It was Rick and upper management that decided to put me with Steve," Earnhardt said. "I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but I just wanted to trust their judgment, and that’s what I’m going to do again. "I would love to have input from Chad Knaus and Steve. I think that Steve knows what makes this team work. Steve knows how I can be successful and how the individuals within the team can be successful. It’s important that Chad has got a lot of influence because he knows how well the shop works together and what the culture is in the shop and how a guy, a particular guy may mesh in that environment." Letarte, meanwhile, finds himself in the unique position of entering his final season atop the pit box under an intensified spotlight to perform. Earnhardt’s popularity already brings immense attention and pressure to the No. 88 team, and with Letarte’s end-of-year exit looming, fans could be particularly harsh about results. Letarte believes it will be business as usual. "I think what makes this situation unique is I’m not going to crew chief for another organization," he said. "I’m not working on being a broadcaster in 2014, I’m working on filling a trophy case, and to do that we have to win our first race." Letarte and Earnhardt first discussed the NBC opportunity in October, when Earnhardt heard rumours and summoned Letarte to his motorhome to discuss the whispers, and Letarte kept his driver involved as he weighed his decisions. Ultimately, after 19 years in the garage, it was the ability to spend more time with his two children that made the NBC job more attractive than continuing as a crew chief. "I don’t think I’ve ever hidden it from anyone that my family has always been my No. 1 priority," Letarte said. "If it comes down to if I’m going to be unsuccessful in anything I do, being a father shouldn’t be on the list. So I’m going to put that one first, and this allows me to put that one first and still be in a sport that I love and join a great team." Earnhardt can respect that. "For me personally, it was difficult. And the more I sat down with him and talked about it, the more it made sense and the more I understood his situation, and I could put my own selfishness aside and kind of understand what was important to him and how this was good for him," Earnhardt said. "He deserves these opportunities and he’s earned it." Steve Letarte to join NBC Sports in 2015 NBC Sports Group has filled its NASCAR broadcast team with Dale Earnhardt Jr. crew chief Steve Letarte. Letarte will be formally introduced as an analyst Friday at Daytona International Speedway. He'll continue to crew chief Earnhardt through the 2014 season and remains under contract at Hendrick Motorsports, and will join NBC's multi-platform NASCAR coverage beginning in 2015. He will join lead announcer Rick Allen and analyst Jeff Burton, who were previously announced by the network. ''I've always been impressed with Steve Letarte's interviews, and feel smarter after hearing him break down the crucial elements of each race,'' said Sam Flood, executive producer of NBC Sports and NBCSN. ''It wasn't long into our first meeting about this potential role on our broadcast team when I realized that Steve is going to be 'Must See TV.' '' Letarte has been Earnhardt's crew chief since 2011. The duo has one win, at Michigan in 2012, but has made the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship the past three seasons. Letarte was Jeff Gordon's crew chief from 2005 through 2010. They won 10 races together and Gordon finished second in points in 2006. Letarte has worked for Hendrick Motorsports since he was 16. He graduated early from high school to join the organization, and was traveling with Gordon's No. 24 team in 1996 as a full-time mechanic and tire specialist. He had moved up to car chief in 2002 and was named crew chief when he was 26. Letarte said he was committed to Earnhardt and Hendrick Motorsports for 2014. He has been dabbling in broadcasting the past few years. ''As soon as I met with Sam Flood and his team at NBC Sports it became obvious to me how excited they are to be covering NASCAR in 2015 and beyond,'' Letarte said in a statement. ''Their excitement, along with my love for racing, solidified my decision to move away from the pit box and into the broadcast booth.'' Rick Hendrick said he understood the NBC opportunity was an exciting offer for Letarte, who has two young children. ''You never want to see a talented and all-around quality person like Steve move on,'' Hendrick said in a statement, but we understand this is an exciting opportunity for him and his family,'' Hendrick said in a statement. ''He has all the tools to be a terrific broadcaster, and I know our fans will enjoy hearing his perspective.'' Hendrick praised the chemistry between Letarte and Earnhardt, and said he was confident the two would be successful in their final season together. He also said he would not address the 2015 crew chief vacancy until after the season. ''Everyone with the team is focused on 2014 and committed to having another great year,'' Hendrick said. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2013 year in review Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows his best season in seven years could have been even better. NASCAR's most popular driver took a big step forward in 2013, using a strong start and an even better finishing kick to record a fifth-place finish in points that was his best since 2006. Earnhardt was especially strong in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, where he posted an average finish of 5.6 over the final nine events of the playoff. It was an engine failure in the Chase opening at Chicagoland, though, that ultimately prevented Earnhardt from challenging Jimmie Johnson for the championship. Wait -- Earnhardt and championship, used in the same sentence? Yes, his season was that good, and the driver of the No. 88 car is hoping to carry that momentum into 2014. There was only one thing missing this past season, and it was a trip to Victory Lane. Goodness, he came close. Second in the Daytona 500. Second at Fontana. Second at Dover after starting from the pole. Second at Talladega and Texas. And third in the season finale at Homestead-Miami, where he led 28 laps late in the running and appeared to have the best car until Denny Hamlin snuck in for the victory. "I enjoyed all the races in the Chase. We ran really well, were real competitive," said Earnhardt, who this year won the Most Popular Driver award for the record 11th straight time. "? I thought the Homestead thing was magic. For some reason, it just kind of lined up. I wish I could have won. I was disappointed, and still think about what I could have done, why I didn't win. I should have won. I had the best car, had the fastest car. I should have won. I don't know why I didn't win." Earnhardt's most recent race victory was at Michigan in the summer of 2012, which means he'll carry a streak of 55 winless event weekends into the Daytona 500. But such a skid is hardly the cause of hand-wringing that it once was, given the strength the No. 88 car showed on a consistent basis throughout the 2013 campaign. What clicked? It's hard to tell. Crew chief Steve Letarte said the team had a plan to unroll better cars for the Chase, perhaps one reason for the program's performance in the playoff. It also can't hurt that the No. 88 car is stabled at Hendrick Motorsports alongside the Johnson's team, who this year won his sixth title at NASCAR's top level. Otherwise it was just business as usual, the same people working better together and improving over time. "I've asked Steve over and over, asked my car chief Jason (Burdette) over and over, and asked everybody on the team at least once or twice what we're doing different. They said they're not doing anything different. You know, I really don't know why. I have the same feeling, like our cars are way faster," Earnhardt said. "We have been more competitive, I think not just as a company, I think the 88 team has really stepped it up. But each year ? we've gotten better. As a team, we've gotten better. When we first started working together, it's easy to forget about all this, but when me and Steve started working together, we were working our guts out to finish in the top 10. Each year it's kind of gotten easier to run a little better." There were the occasional hiccups, like a trio of engine failures and then a bad alternator that derailed a promising run at Texas in the spring. But Earnhardt clearly left 2013 feeling optimistic, and knowing that race wins are key to his team taking the next step. And not just to earn the payoff of reaching Victory Lane, but also to accrue bonus points that will keep him closer to the Chase leaders once the championship hunt begins. "We need to win some more races in the regular season to give ourselves some bonus points going into the Chase," Earnhardt said. "? Even with 10 races to go, the bonus points are a steep hill in front of you, when you're a guy sitting there eighth or 10th or 13th place in points starting the Chase off, and the guy leading the Chase field already has 15 bonus points, or whatever it is this year. That's a steep hill to climb." And yet, if this past season was any indication, the No. 88 team is clearly on the ascent. The 22 top-10s Earnhardt accumulated in 2013 were a personal record, and there's a clear sense of optimism surrounding his program for next year. Not even the lack of a victory can dampen that. "I expect us to continue our trajectory to get better, and I expect us to have a lot to enjoy and a lot of good fortune next year," Earnhardt said. "I'd be real surprised if things aren't as good or better than they were this past season, and I'm looking forward to that." FOX Sports 1 to televise Preseason Thunder, Hall of Fame inductions We are a few weeks away from Preseason Thunder, the annual test session held at Daytona International Speedway in preparation of the season-opening races at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. The 2014 edition of Preseason Thunder is scheduled for Jan. 9-14 and has expanded to include all three NASCAR national series. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will participate in testing on Jan. 9-10 with four sessions of on-track activity. The NASCAR Nationwide Series testing will be on Jan. 11-12 and then the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series testing will be on Jan. 13-14. The test sessions are scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to Noon ET and 1-5 p.m. ET. FOX Sports 1 will have 12 hours of coverage from Daytona over the first three days, Jan. 9-11. The NASCAR on FOX team of Darrell Waltrip, Larry McReynolds and Mike Joy will call the Sprint Cup Series testing action with live coverage on Jan. 9 and 10 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Bob Dillner and Matt Yocum will report from the pits and Jeff Hammond will provide additional reporting from the garage. Host Rick Allen and analyst Hermie Sadler will set up camp in the garage area as a location for drivers, crew chiefs and others to talk over the day's storylines and events. FOX Sports 1 will also have coverage of the first day of NASCAR Nationwide Series testing from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET on Jan. 11. Allen, Hammond and Phil Parsons will call the action, while Sadler, Dillner and Ray Dunlap will report from the pits. On Jan. 29, FOX Sports 1 will serve as the exclusive television home for the live coverage of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony from Charlotte, N.C. This year's inductees include Tim Flock, Jack Ingram, Dale Jarrett, Maurice Petty and Fireball Roberts. No argument from Dale Jr. over No. 3's return The No. 3 will ride again in NASCAR's premier series, and the son of the driver who made it famous is just fine with the return of one of NASCAR's most iconic car numbers. Richard Childress Racing has announced that NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Austin Dillon will make the jump to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next year, and bring with him the No. 3 he's used at the national level to this point. That means the number will return to competition at NASCAR's highest level for the first time since the Daytona 500 in 2001, Dale Earnhardt's final race. Earnhardt also drove for Childress, who used the number himself before the Intimidator took it over in 1984. Dillon, who is Childress' grandson, has used the No. 3 throughout a career that's included two full seasons on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as well as a pair of campaigns on the Nationwide tour. Now he'll carry it to the Sprint Cup level, and there's been no bigger proponent of such a move than Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR's most popular driver has said more than once that he's OK with the idea of his father's former number returning to the Sprint Cup ranks under Dillon's stewardship. “I think it will be great. It was an iconic number for my father and it means a lot to a lot of his fans. This sport doesn’t really retire numbers, and all the numbers have history tied to them for several different reasons. The No. 3 is no different," Earnhardt said this past July at Daytona International Speedway. "(Dillon) came up through the ranks and he drove the No. 3 in dirt racing and he drove the No. 3 in his Truck Series and Nationwide Series. He has earned the right to run that number as long as he wants. He wants to run it. I think it's not really fair to deny somebody that opportunity. I'm OK with it. I know that might not be the way a lot of people feel or some people feel, but I'm sure it's the minority that feels that way. I think that a lot of people will be telling Austin positive things about it.” Dale Earnhardt made the No. 3 famous, driving it in six of his seven championship campaigns at NASCAR's top level and cultivating a legion of passionate fans in the process. No one has driven a No. 3 car full-time at the Sprint Cup level since Earnhardt was killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500, now more than 12 years ago. At Homestead-Miami Speedway prior to the final race of the 2011 season, Earnhardt Jr. pointed out that the number predated his father. "Dad did great things," Earnhardt said then. "He was a great ambassador for the sport, and we're still as a whole reaping the benefits of what he did and what he accomplished. He put us in front of a lot of people. But even before that, that number was Richard's. Richard drove it; somebody else drove it before then. There's a lot of guys in the '50s and '60s that ran that number with success. ... When you put the color and the style with it, it's a little iconic to the sport.' He added: "Austin's ran that number. I just look at it differently. I don't look at the numbers tied to drivers as much as the history of the number. The number is more of a bank that you just deposit history into, and it doesn't really belong to any individual." To his credit, Dillon has embraced the history of the number, and shown nothing but respect for its history. Earnhardt Jr. recognizes that. "Austin's a good kid," Earnhardt in 2011. "He seems to have a great appreciation for what's happening to him and what's going on around him. I would be happy if he wanted to keep (driving the 3). He kind of had to know when he first started that running that number -- if he got this far into the deal, he would have to cross a few bridges like that. That was a tough decision I guess at first, to start running the number for him, knowing what pressures he might face down the road. But I think it would be fine by me for him to do that. I think it's got to get back on the race track one of these days. It can't be gone forever." Click here to vist the Dale Earnhardt Jr New Archive Part 3