Dale Earnhardt Jr Scores 10th place finish at Talladega

Dale Earnhardt Jr made it plain that he didn’t intend to go to Talladega and ride around at the back of the pack like his teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson did last year. “I think Talladega, you've got a lot of fans in the stands. You do what you've got to do to get up front,” said Earnhardt.

“They would definitely want to see you win the race and maybe they'd trade just you leading that last lap for that win. Maybe they'd trade that for leading a lot of laps in the middle part of the race, I'm sure. But if you're going to do both, do both.”

“I want to be up toward the front anyways to stay out of any accident that might be happening or could happen behind me. The further you are toward the front, the safer you are as far as that goes. So it's just easier being able to pit being on pit road. If you're in the Top 5 and leading the race, it's a whole lot easier to get out of the pit box and do what you need to do.”