Dale Jr Chicago Preview

AT CHICAGO: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, has recorded one win, two top-five finishes, three top-10s and has led 121 laps in eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Chicagoland Speedway.

WINDY CITY WIN: Earnhardt reached Victory Lane at Chicago on July 10, 2005. The Kannapolis, N.C., native lined up 25th for the event and cracked the top 10 by Lap 100. He led the final 11 laps en route to securing the win.

BRICKYARD BOUND: Before heading to Chicago, Earnhardt will make a stop in Indianapolis on Thursday to promote this month’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Earnhardt will join Dan Wheldon, a fellow National Guard driver and the 2005 winner of the Indianapolis 500, for a ride around the historic racetrack in an IndyCar two-seater. Earnhardt then will circle the 2.5-mile speedway in the car that won the 1941 Indianapolis 500.

INTERMEDIATE TRACK STATS: In 166 Cup starts on intermediate (one- to two-mile) tracks, Earnhardt has recorded six wins, five pole positions, 37 top-five finishes and 67 top-10s. He has a 15.3 average starting position and an average finishing position of 16.9.

DRIVER RATING: According to NASCAR’s loop data, Earnhardt ranks eighth in the driver rating category in the last four races at Chicago with a score of 95. The driver rating is a formula that combines wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The maximum a driver can earn in each race is 150 points. The driver rating is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator.

CHICAGO CHASSIS: Interim crew chief Lance McGrew and the No. 88 engineers will unload Chassis No. 88-490 this weekend. Earnhardt last raced this chassis to a 27th-place finish at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway in May.

HENDRICK AT CHICAGO: Hendrick Motorsports, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this season, has tallied one win, 12 top-five finishes, 15 top-10s and three pole positions in eight races (33 starts) at Chicagoland Speedway.

GET ON THE NO. 88: At this year’s AMP Energy 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, thousands of members of JR Nation will see their names on Earnhardt’s No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet as part of the AMP Energy “Get on the 88″ promotion. Race fans can enter by simply logging on to www.AMPEnergy.com. The first to sign up will see their names on Earnhardt’s car and others will appear on the team’s pit wall banner. Participants will be notified before the Nov. 1 race with a confirmation of where their names landed. This marks the second year of the hugely popular program.

HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS ON FACEBOOK: Become a fan of Hendrick Motorsports on Facebook. Visit www.facebook.com/HendrickMotorsports for information on Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the rest of the organization. *****

DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON CHICAGO.): “It’s going to be a good weekend hopefully. I like Chicago, and it is a good track for me. We went and tested there for Goodyear back in May. I really enjoyed that tire test. Then we’ve got a week off to work some more.”

LANCE McGREW, INTERIM CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON WORKING WITH EARNHARDT FOR THE FIRST TIME AT CHICAGO.): “There’s some basic principles that you can carry over from most intermediate racetracks to the next one. But with Dale, we’re still trying to establish the communication, and I definitely think the trust level has come up immensely in the first couple of weeks. I hate that we hiccupped at Pocono because I felt like that set us back quite a bit. But the car has been really solid, and they did a tire test there this year, so he’s had some laps around the racetrack recently. And he was very happy with how the car performed then, so we’re going to throw a little spin on that and bring it to the racetrack. Every place you go, the first time is a challenge.”

McGREW (ON HIS APPROACH TO CHICAGO.): “It’s changed over the years. When we first started racing there, you just could not pass, ever. You ran the bottom of the racetrack, and that’s it. As Cup guys go back there more and more and more, that groove tends to widen up a little bit where you have a couple lanes, so it’s a lot better racing there than it used to be, but still ultimately you want your car to run good on the bottom of the racetrack, so that’s how we normally practice. We’re making a conscious effort to try some new things in qualifying because I feel like that’s really hurt us. And we need to figure out how to be more consistent from practice to qualifying. So that’s some of the things that we’ve tried to work on the last couple weeks ever since Pocono.”

McGREW (ON HIS OUTLOOK FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON.): “It’s good. Since we’ve teamed up here, we’ve had top-15 cars everywhere we’ve been. We legitimately had a top-10 car last weekend (at Daytona) and at Infineon before the accident with 10 laps to go. I see some things in the team that I really, really like. We’re getting some more work done, getting some new cars and getting some things flipped around. I see a lot of momentum happening now that I don’t think a lot of people see yet.”