Dale Jr Ready for Richmond
Earnhardt & Eury Ready for Richmond
One year ago at Richmond Dale Earnhardt Jr was leading the race with just 3 laps to go when Kyle Busch lost control of his race car and sent Dale Jr into the wall, turning want looked to be a win into a 15th place finish.
“It was pretty wild,” said Junior. “You know, that was pretty disappointing how the first race finished. I don’t know. I like racing Kyle. He’s a real tough competitor. But hopefully we don’t have any of that going on this weekend. Hopefully we can all try to win a race and not be bouncing off each other.”
Dale Jr has 3 Sprint Cup wins at Richmond, and he says a lot of it is that he just enjoys racing there.
“I like Richmond a lot. We always thought we run good there ’cause it’s a lot like Myrtle Beach, where I ran a lot in the late models,” said Dale Jr. “There’s a lot of similarities. But I just like short-track racing. We seem to do really good on the short tracks. It’s got a lot of different grooves that you can run. You can move around. I think it puts on one of the more exciting races in the season. It ranks right up there as some of the best.”
“You’ve got to have a good drive off of 2 over there, noted crew chief Tony Eury Jr on what it would take to win Richmond. The biggest challenge is that the practice is in the middle of the afternoon and we race at night, so you really have to guess where your setup should be and make sure you are free enough for the night time.”
Earnhardt admitted he has had some problems on pit road, but he and Tony Eury Jr feel those are behind them now.
“We just have to finish like we did Sunday, and not have any problems, said Dale Earnhardt Jr. ”I think we’re doing a better job on pit road. I think we changed some things around with individuals. We got a little bit faster pit crew. We did a real good job this weekend. I think they were the best team on pit road this weekend. I think they were the best.
Earnhardt is 15th in the Sprint Cup points standings heading into Richmond, and he is already thinking about making it into the Chase.
“This year we started out so slow and terrible, we’re in a hole now,” said Earnhardt. “We’re going to be fighting our way to try to get in the Chase all year, I’m pretty sure. So we’re gonna have to step our performance up in the summer way beyond what we were capable of doing last year. That’s gonna be what decides whether we make the Chase or not.”
“But I think, you know, I feel pretty confident, and I feel like we can definitely do better than we did last year in the summer races, you know, with Pocono, the road courses, all those things.”
Eury was highly confident on his drivers abilities at the ¾ mile short-track “He’s awesome there. I think he has a lot of success there because it’s a lot like the track he grew up racing at Myrtle Beach.  Richmond just fits his style.”
Who are you picking for the win at Richmond?
Photo Courtesy Hendrick Motorsports