Preview

NASCAR Cup

Earnhardt having sweep dreams at Daytona

Would love to make it two straight at Daytona

Edited: Jul 4, 2014, 2:42 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a chance to do something this weekend that only one driver in the previous 32 years has accomplished.

That’s sweep both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Daytona International Speedway. The last driver to win both Daytona races happens to be Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, who accomplished the feat last year.

“That stat went 30 (plus) years for a reason,” said Johnson, whose Daytona double was the first since Bobby Allison in 1982 and just the fifth in history (Fireball Roberts 1962, Cale Yarborough 1968 and LeeRoy Yarbrough 1969 the others). “It’s not easy because, in (restrictor) plate racing, anything can happen.”

As unpredictable as racing at Daytona can be, one factor Earnhardt has going for him is his consistency this season under any and all circumstances. In fact, he’s riding a string of five consecutive top-10 finishes, including his victory at Pocono Raceway and a fifth last week at Kentucky Speedway.

“I’m just thrilled with the way the team is competing,” said Earnhardt prior to Thursday’s practice at Daytona. “We have been doing some great work since the beginning of the Chase last year – maybe even a little before that. If you look at the graph, going back to 2011 when Steve (crew chief Letarte) and I got together, our performance has been a linear trajectory improvement.

“It’s as good as I have ever run at Hendrick and maybe even at DEI. I remember when we put together a couple of top-15s a couple weeks in a row. Then it became a couple of top-10s. Then, man, if we ran in the top five a couple of times we were really doing it. Our progression makes sense to me, but at the same time, it really surprises me that the team has been able to sustain it. That has been the tough part for me over my career – to sustain momentum.”

That momentum has earned Earnhardt 12 top-10 finishes in the first 17 races and has him in a points tie for second with Johnson in the Cup standings, 24 points behind another Hendrick driver, Jeff Gordon.

Earnhardt concedes that winning the Daytona 500 is a slightly bigger deal than winning the July event at Daytona. “But winning here, regardless, it’s a great feeling,” he said. “So you are going to try your guts out.

“I would love to sweep the races at Daytona because that is a cool thing, but I just love winning here. To go to victory lane, regardless of what we did in February, would mean a lot to me.”

Johnson says it might be even bigger for the sport.

“An Earnhardt winning in Daytona is huge, period,” Johnson said. “It would be meaningful and impactful for everybody involved. If I don’t have a chance to win the race, I wouldn’t mind if he did.

“He’s going to be fast. He’s going to be strong and have a very good opportunity to win. If he can make it to the white flag lap (in contention) he will definitely be a threat.”

With two victories this season all but assuring his place in the Chase, Earnhardt says he and Letarte plan to be aggressive in terms of pit strategy on Saturday night.

“We did it perfectly for the (Daytona) 500 and we were in position at Talladega to gamble and make it work like several guys did,” said Earnhardt, who led 26 laps at Talladega but played it conservatively on fuel, got trapped in traffic and finished 26th on NASCAR’s other restrictor plate track.

“We learned a little bit there as far as how we could be a bit more aggressive with our pit strategy considering where we are in points and (with) the wins we have. ... If we run out of gas, I can take that if we are trying to win a race.”

ALL WET

Rain forced cancellation of Thursday’s second and final practice for the Coke Zero 400.

Winless Cup drivers Jamie McMurray (201.952 mph), Kyle Larson (201.889) and Clint Bowyer (201.839) were the fastest in a rain-delayed first session. Those times could loom large with thunderstorms a possibility for Friday afternoon at Daytona. Qualifying is scheduled for 5:10 p.m ET., but the starting grid would be set by practice times in the event of a rainout.

Brad Keselowski, Gordon, Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Greg Biffle also topped 201 mph. Johnson was 42nd among 44 drivers, settling for a best lap of 191.274, ahead of only Michael Waltrip and Terry Labonte.

Seth Livingstone, NASCAR Wire Service

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Trying times for Greg Biffle

Next article Carl Edwards talks Daytona

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Laurent Mekies extends contract as Red Bull's F1 team boss

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

30 min

Laurent Mekies extends contract as Red Bull's F1 team boss

Alex Palou to drive Indy NXT machinery in Chris Griffis Memorial Test at IMS

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 56 min

Alex Palou to drive Indy NXT machinery in Chris Griffis Memorial Test at IMS

The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend

WEC

WEC WEC

Barcelona

1 h

The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend

Into the unknown: What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut

WEC

WEC WEC

Barcelona

2 h

Into the unknown: What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts