Dale Jr Race Car for Sale
July 2nd, 2009Dale Jr Show Car on eBay
Want to own a Dale Earnhardt Jr stock car. I found this one for sale on eBay with the Mountain Dew paint scheme. The guy wants $25,000 for it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr Confident for Daytona
July 2nd, 2009Can Dale Jr Win Daytona?
Apparently he thinks so. “I bring a lot of confidence there and always enjoyed going there when I was a kid. It’s always been one of my favorite tracks,” said Earnhardt.
Earnhardt has 12 wins at Daytona including the 2004 Daytona 500 and the 2001 Pepsi 400. He has two Budweiser Shootout wins, and a handful of wins in the Nationwide series. He knows how to be fast at this race track.
Dale Earnhardt Jr has had a lot of success at Daytona – but he will have some strong competition. Toyota’s have shown some strong runs on restrictor plate tracks in the past couple of years, and Junior will have Kyle Busch to deal with. Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon have shown a lot of momentum lately. I wouldn’t be surprised to see either of them at the front of the pack.
Dale Jr says he enjoys running Saturday night under the lights at the 2.5 mile high banked Daytona International Speedway. “It’s a little more laid back in July. In February, everybody is nervous because it’s the beginning of the season. Everybody is wondering how their year is going to go, how their car is going to drive. Everybody knows by the time July rolls around,” Junior said.
Crew Chief Confident
Crew chief Lance McGrew says the July race is much more difficult than the Daytona 500. “The track is so slick in July. You go down there the first time and it’s all about qualifying and then you worry about the race afterwards. Well, this is an impound race. You have to worry about the race first and qualifying second. So, build some more downforce into the cars. They don’t qualify as fast but they drive a lot better in traffic. It’s not like Daytona is ever easy to get around. It’s way more difficult in July because the track is really hard to get a hold of.”
Special Paint Scheme
“It’s a little more laid back in July. In February, everybody is nervous because it’s the beginning of the season.” ~ Dale Earnhardt Jr
Dale Earnhardt Jr will be sporting a special National Guard paint scheme to honor our Nation’s soldiers in the Fourth of July race. “I’ve seen the car, and it’s really cool,” said Lance McGrew. “All of us have an enormous amount of gratitude for what the armed services do for us. And it’s cool that on the Independence Day of our nation we get to carry the National Guard on our car, or I guess a better way of putting it is that they are carrying us around. It definitely makes you reflect on the all the privileges and freedoms that you have living in the United States. The fact that we can represent the armed services in any way definitely brings a sense of pride to me and this race team.”
So who do you think has the best chance of going to Victory Lane Saturday?
Quick Race Facts
Fast Facts
The Race: Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola
The Date: Saturday, July 4
The Track: Daytona International Speedway (2.5-mile tri-oval)
The Time: 8 p.m. ET
The Distance: 400 miles/160 laps
TV: TNT, 6:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN and Sirius Satellite (local MRN: WNDB-AM 1150/WKRO-FM 93.1)
2008 Polesitter: Paul Menard
2008 Winner: Kyle Busch
Pre-Race Day Schedule: Thursday-Practice, 4-5:20 p.m. and 6:35-8 p.m. Friday-Qualifying, 4:10 p.m.
Photo Courtesy Hendrick Motorsports
Logano Wins His First One
June 28th, 2009Logano Wins His First One
Joey Logano had luck on his side when he cycled into the lead on the final round of pit stops just before the rains fell on the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at Loudon, New Hampshire.
Becomes Youngest Winner in NASCAR History
Logano was declared the winner shortly thereafter as the rain continued to fall.
Logano was nowhere near the fastest car, but as they say, the fastest car doesn’t always win. The race looked like it would come down to a shootout between Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch had the rain held off.
Busch and Truex Tangle
Kyle Busch didn’t make any friends out of Martin Truex Jr or Brian Vickers today. Both drivers blamed Busch for the big wreck on a double-file restart on lap 175. Truex was so angry that he nearly threw his helmet at Busch, but pulled the throw at the last moment.
“Kyle just lost his head like he usually does when something bad happens,” said Truex.
Kyle Points Finger at Junior
But Kyle pointed to the 88 car ahead of Truex – saying Dale Jr spun his tires to cause the wreck.
Dale Earnhardt Jr had one of his best runs, climbing as high as third in the race. I look for Junior to continue to improve and be back in Victory Lane soon. Junior runs well on the superspeedways, and NASCAR is headed to Daytona next.
What did you think of today’s race?
Road Course Race Tops
June 21st, 2009Road Course Race One of the Best
Road courses aren’t exactly my favorite style of racing. I would usually tell you to get rid of the 2 road courses, along with Pocono and some of the cookie cutter mile and a half tracks and add a few more races at bull rings like Bristol and Martinsville, or another race at Talladega – but the race at Infineon was one of the best races of the year.
The Shootout Style double file restarts really kept everything interesting in the final laps.
I couldn’t believe Kasey Kahne could hold off a skilled road racer like Tony Stewart for that many restarts. It looked like Kahne had his car dialed in – and some serious horsepower under the hood.
It was good to see Richard Petty back in Victory Lane for the first time in a long time, too.
So what did you think about road course racing, Kahne’s and Petty’s win and everything else going on in the race?
Kyle Claims More Popularity than Junior
June 18th, 2009Kyle Busch Says He’s more Popular Than Dale Jr
Nate Ryan over at the USA Today had an interesting story about Kyle Busch today where Busch claims he is really NASCAR’s most popular driver — not Dale Earnhardt Jr.
According to Ryan, Kyle thinks Junior is not as popular as he is. “They should change it to most loved driver,” said Busch as he was quoted in the paper. “Everyone loves Junior, so he’s going to get it. But I’m the most popular with the media and the fans talking all the time, whether they say good or bad things.”
Ryan thinks Busch is growing in popularity due to the way he refuses to talk when he loses — and he says Kyle’s guitar smashing performance in Nashville upped Kyle’s fan base a little bit.
Kyle seemed oblivious to fan reactions. “A lot of people hated it and I guess those are the ones with 88 tattooed on their arms, or maybe still 8,” said Busch.
So, will Dale Jr lose any sleep now that Kyle Busch thinks he is more popular? I doubt it.
Danica Patrick in Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Car
June 6th, 2009Should Danica Patrick Drive Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Car?
Dale Earnhardt Jr has said he is ready to take his JR Motorsports team Cup racing. With Danica Patrick threatening to
bolt from the IRL when her contract expires at the end of this year to go NASCAR racing the rumor is she could land in a Sprint Cup car fielded by Dale Jr.
GoDaddy.com currently sponsors Patrick in the Indy Racing League. They also sponsor Dale Jr’s No. 88 Nationwide car driven by Brad Keselowski – and they have sponsored Keselowski in some Sprint Cup runs for Hendrick Motorsports. A Dale Jr / Danica Patrick sponsorship deal by GoDaddy would be a perfect fit.
But I’m sure that GoDaddy would not be the only one interested in that deal. The marketing potential of a Patrick – Earnhardt partnership would be pretty big.
Danica Patrick would be good for NASCAR. She would bring more fans, sponsors and media coverage to the sport.
She’s already proven that she can win in an open wheel car. Stock cars are different, though. Indy car stars – with the exception of Tony Stewart – haven’t seen a lot of success in NASCAR recently.
Danica may do better starting in the Nationwide series while learning how to drive stock cars. That’s okay; Dale Jr has a Nationwide car available too.
So will Danica Patrick really make the jump to NASCAR? The last time she was in contract negotiations she also expressed an interest in moving to NASCAR, but wound up staying with the IRL. Is all the NASCAR talk just a way to get the best deal on her IRL contract, or is Danica really interested in making the switch?
Kyle Busch Press Conference
May 30th, 2009Kyle Busch Comments on Dale Earnhardt Jr Crew Chief Change
Dale Earnhardt Jr Press Conference
May 30th, 2009Dale Earnhardt Jr Answers Questions About Crew Chief Change
Kyle Busch — Never Junior
May 29th, 2009Kyle Busch:”It’s Never Junior”
In the NASCAR world you can’t escape the topic of Dale Earnhardt Jr and his new crew chief. Kyle Busch was no exception. Busch is taking shots at Dale Jr.
Here’s what Kyle Busch had to say about Junior and his new crew chief:
“You got to make the most popular driver in the sport competitive,” said Busch. “So you got to do what you got to do, I guess. He’s the one who brought that crew chief on. He’s the one who pulled so hard to bring Eury, Jr. in. It looked like it was working there in the beginning and it hasn’t worked since the summer of last year, really. Whatever makes them better, I guess.”
“If Junior doesn’t run well, the crew chief is going to be the problem. You know, it’s never Junior, it’s always the crew chief.”
“He’s got his hands full, I guess, having to deal with what’s going on,” said Kyle Busch, talking about Dale Jr’s new crew chief Lance McGrew. “And if Junior doesn’t run well, then he is going to be the problem again.”
“It’s never Junior, it’s always the crew chief.”
Do you think Kyle Busch has a problem with Dale Earnhardt Jr?
Heat on Dale Earnhardt Jr
May 28th, 2009No More Excuses
The heat was just turned up a few degrees on Dale Earnhardt Jr today.
Tony Eury Jr has been replaced as Dale Earnhardt Jr’s crew chief.
That leaves no more excuses for poor performance. Dale Earnhardt Jr has just been handed all the resources Hendrick Motorsports has to offer. There will be no one left to blame if the 88 car does not see improvements on the race track.
A Trio of Crew Chiefs
It sounds like Rick Hendrick has hired a committee of crew chiefs to run the No. 88.
Hendrick Motorsports announced that Lance McGrew would become Interim Crew Chief for the No.88 car starting with the June 7 Pocono race.
Brian Whitesell will fill in as crew chief for one race this weekend at Dover.
The plan is for Whitesell and Rex Stump – two of the best engineers in all on NASCAR – to provide support to new crew chief Lance McGrew to get the No. 88 car back on track.
Brian Whitesell was Ray Evernham’s right-hand man when the No. 24 team of Jeff Gordon was winning all those races and championships.
Rex Stump is the man behind the famous T-Rex car that Jeff Gordon won the All Star race with in 1997. That car was banned by NASCAR – not because it was illegal, but because it was so advanced. NASCAR had no rules against the car, but they had never seen anything like it, and told the No. 24 team not to bring the car back.
Stump is the lead chassis engineer at Hendrick Motorsports.
Eury’s Cars Removed From Hauler
Tony Eury Jr had Dale Jr’s Dover cars loaded on the hauler and ready to go before he got the news from Rick Hendrick that he was out as Junior’s crew chief.
McGrew, Whitesell and Stump didn’t waste any time making changes. They unloaded Junior’s cars, removed Eury’s setup, and tuned the chassis similar to what the other 3 Hendrick cars have.
After Dale Jr’s 40th place finish at Lowe’s Motor Speedway this week something was bound to happen.
Hendrick Not Happy
“Our performance hasn’t been where it should be,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “It’s impossible to pin that on any one factor, but a change is the right decision at this point. We have a plan in place, and we’re going to move forward with it.”
McGrew has won championships before. He was crew chief for Brian Vickers when the two won the 2003 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.
He has won as recently as February at Daytona when he was crew chief for Tony Stewart in the Nationwide race.
McGrew Lacks Experience
But McGrew has little experience with today’s Sprint Cup cars.
But you have to admit that Rick Hendrick has a pretty good track record when it comes to picking crew chiefs. He hired Ray Evernham and Chad Knaus. The two of them have 6 championships.
Tony Eury Jr will move to a position in the Hendrick research and development shop. “I have mixed feelings,” Eury said. “I’ll do whatever I can to help all of our teams. I think a new challenge will be good.”
I’m not so sure that a crew chief that has just been bumped up from the Nationwide Series is the answer – but I guess we’ll find out shortly. Maybe that’s why his title carries the word “interim.”
If this deal is going to work it will require co-operation n from all parties involved – including Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Junior needs to precisely describe how the car is performing, and then let the crew chief fix the car. No more crew-chiefing from the driver’s seat.
We’ll see if this is the right move. Do you think Rick Hendrick has made the right call?
