Finally a Win!

With help from a final-lap yellow flag and a decision not to pit even though he was extremely close on fuel, Dale Earnhardt Jr won Sunday’s Lifelock 400 at Michigan international Speedway.

The victory ended a 76 race winless streak for Earnhardt.

Dale Earnhardt Jr led on 5 occasions Sunday at Michigan for 14 laps -- including the final one. Finally, Earnhardt has a points-paying win with Hendrick Motorsports.

The win left Junior with a solid third place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings -- just 84 points behind leader Kyle Busch.

Dale Jr had last pitted with more than 50 laps to go -- he was going to be extremely close on fuel at the end. The last thing he needed was a green-white-checkered finish. But when rookie Sam Hornish Jr spun on lap 198 bringing out the caution flag that’s exactly what Junior got.

The race re-started on lap 201 and Dale Jr quickly pulled out to a 4 car length advantage over 2nd place Kasey Kahne – until his engine began to run out of fuel.

"It stumbled coming to the white flag. We were going to stumble to the finish,” Earnhardt said. Instead, he easily cruised the No. 88 to the checkered flag. He even had enough fuel to accelerate off turn 4 on the final lap, even though it was under caution.

"They can write what they want, but we won one," said an exhausted Dale Earnhardt Jr after the race.

Junior on his chances for Daytona 500 win

Dale Earnhardt Jr has a chance to make history in Sunday’s Daytona 500 – no driver has ever swept Speedweeks with a win in the Bud Shootout, a win in the Gatorade Duels, and a biq win in the Daytona 500.

With his dominating performances so far Junior looks to at least have a shot at the Daytona triple – but, according to Dale Jr, he’s not the favorite to win.

“I feel like we’ve got a shot, you know what I mean,” Earnhardt said.

“Nobody’s boastful enough, I don’t think, personality-wise to come in

here and claim that (they are the favorite.” I wouldn’t expect anybody to do that.

“But I thought we’ve got a great shot. We’ve won some races down here,

so we’ve got to be in the group, if there’s a group of them.”

Junior’s driver rating is a mediocre 83.2 (13th best), but that’s

because his finishes in both Daytona races last year were 36th and 32nd.

He knows how to race at Daytona and has two wins and nine top 10s in 16

starts. He also won the Bud Shootout and the first Gatorade Duel 150.

After setting the fastest time in NASCAR ‘Pre-season Thunder’ testing at Daytona Dale Earnhardt Jr backed it up with a win in the 2008 Bud Shootout.Today he proved his stuff once again – winning the first of 2 Gatorade Duels at Daytona.

The win gave Dale Jr a 3rd place starting spot for Sunday’s Daytona 500 – He will start inside the 2nd row, just behind teammate Jimmie Johnson.The win was Earnhardt’s 12th win at Daytona International Speedway.

Officially the No. 88 Chevrolet Junior drove to victory was known as Hendrick Motorsports chassis No. 88-475, but Junior and the race team have named the car ‘Emma’ – the car is named after the original Emma built by Robert Gee for Rick Hendrick 2 decades ago. Robert Gee was Junior’s grandfather – and Emma was Gee’s Mother’s name.Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond both won races driving the original Emma.

“My grandfather named one of his favorite race cars 'Emma.' It's a tribute to him and the Gee family. It makes me proud," said Earnhardt.

"Robert Gee's 'Emma,' she was a beautiful race car, said Frank Edwards, one of the original 5 employees if Rick Hendrick’s race team. “He would spend as much time making the bumper look right as he would putting the engine in it. It had several different front ends for the car. Tim Richmond won races in it, and Geoff Bodine won Darlington in it.” “That car has a soul to it. That's one of the few cars I've ever seen that you just have a different feeling about it. Even if I didn't grow up around here, which I did, I would still feel like there's just something when I'm around that car. And it just feels like, you know, when someone's around you, and you can just feel that presence? That's how I feel around that car. It's like it's alive. Like there's something there."

Why is Dale Earnhardt Jr riding a camel?

The question on everyone’s mind at the 2008 Hendrick Motorsports media day was – Why is Dale Earnhardt Jr riding a camel?

The media event featured appearances by Rick Hendrick, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears.

Hendrick Media Day was held at the new Hendrick Team Center which is housed in the old No. 24 race shop – in fact, Jeff Gordon and his team won 3 championships working out of this building.

The annual event is basically a meet and greet for the media and drivers to get together and talk about the upcoming race season.

Rick Hendrick spoke first and described the Hendrick Motorsports team philosophy in one motto, “Accelerate in ’08.”

It didn’t take Hendrick long to get around to talking about the new additions to his team. “We’re excited to have Dale Earnhardt Jr and Tony Eury Jr here”, Hendrick said. “We’re sort of like family.”

Rick Hendrick didn’t seem content to sit on his laurels after finishing first and second in last year’s championship chase. “We’re tied for last place” Hendrick said, referring to the start of a new season. “We’re focused on coming out of the gate strong in ‘08."

Jeff Gordon made a brief statement, and it didn’t take long for Dale Jr to come up in the conversation. “There was a lot of unknowns concerning Junior,” Gordon said. “He has really stepped up in a way I am really impressed with.”

“You never know how he’s going to mix – I’ve been extremely impressed.”

When it was Dale Jr’s turn at the mic Doug Rice asked him if there was a sense of relief when you finally get to Daytona and start racing.

“I’ll be honest with you, Daytona can get there when it gets here,” said Earnhardt. “I’m enjoying everything – every minute. I couldn’t wait for the sun to come up today so we could get this on.”

“The race cars look amazing when I go into the shop. They look so good from the inside out.”

“The season will be here before we know it,” Earnhardt said confidently.

Then Doug Rice had one final comment for the new driver of the No. 88. “You still didn’t explain why there’s a picture of you on top of a camel here,” Rice said, smiling.

That drew a laugh from Junior and the crowd. “Well yeah, climbing on a camel was fun”, Junior said smiling. “You’d be surprised how much fun all that was – if it gets me in the Superbowl I’ll get on a camel.”

That was all Dale Jr would say about the camel – but I’ll be watching the Superbowl just to see him ride it.

Will you?

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Junior Testing in Daytona Today

Dale Earnhardt Jr begins testing with Hendrick Motorsports at Daytona International Speedway on Monday.

Sprint Cup testing continues this week for drivers who did not test last week. The test is set to run 3 days this week, Monday through Wednesday.

Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin will also see track time, this time in a Toyota.

Tests are also scheduled at Las Vegas and California Speedway before racing cranks up in Daytona for Speedweeks.

The 50^th running of the Daytona 500 is set for on February 17.

Speed read:

What: Sprint Cup testing for the Daytona 500.

Where: Daytona International Speedway.

When: Monday through Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET

Who: Stanton Barrett, Dave Blaney, Jeff Burton, Patrick Carpentier, Dale

Earnhardt Jr., Bill Elliott, Dario Franchitti, David Gilliland, Denny

Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Sam Hornish Jr., Dale Jarrett, Kasey Kahne, Bobby

Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman,

David Ragan, Scott Riggs, Boris Said, Ken Schrader, Regan Smith, Tony

Stewart, Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip.

Is Dale Earnhardt Jr getting too big for NASCAR?

It seems that Dale Earnhardt Jr is getting plenty of blame these days.

Sales of official NASCAR souvenirs and merchandise were down in 2007 – someone in NASCAR said that was due to Dale Jr switching teams, and fans that stopped buying his No. 8 merchandise.

TV ratings were down in 2007 – many blamed that on Junior’s failure to win a race.

Interest in the Chase was down in 2007 – can we blame Junior because he wasn’t in it?

The truth is you can’t blame Earnhardt for lackluster souvenir sales. While overall sales were down, Junior’s sales were actually up.

While TV ratings continue to decline, it’s not just NASCAR that is taking a beating. Virtually all sports are suffering declining ratings. Maybe it’s due to more coverage on the internet and the availability of all NASCAR races on Sirius satellite radio.

Would more people have tuned in to the Chase if Dale Jr were in it? Probably.

But one man cannot carry NASCAR. No sport can afford to have a single player be their entire draw.

Dale Jr doesn’t need to change anything. He just needs to race. Everyone else just needs to cut him some slack. Enough with the hype, let’s get back to racing.