Atlanta Summer Preview

PREVIEW: DALE EARNHARDT JR. (NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET) 

VENUE: ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY (1.54-MILE QUAD-OVAL) 
CIRCUIT: NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (RACE 25 OF 36) 
DATE: SEPT. 6, 2009 (325 LAPS, 500.5 MILES)

***** 
 
AT ATLANTA: In 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has scored one win, eight top-five finishes and 10 top-10s. He has an average start of 14.2 and an average finishing position of 11.6. He has completed 99.4 percent of all the laps he's attempted (6,391 of 6,432 total) and led 633 laps. 
 
ON A ROLL: Earnhardt has racked up two top-10 finishes in the last two Cup events. He scored a ninth-place finish on Aug. 22 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and took third-place honors on Aug. 16 at Michigan International Speedway. Earnhardt's back-to-back top-10 finishes -- the team's first of the season -- advanced the No. 88 four spots in the Sprint Cup point standings to 21st. 
 
PERSONAL BESTS: Earnhardt's eight top-five finishes at Atlanta match a personal best in that category for the 34-year-old driver. He also has scored eight top-five finishes at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Richmond (Va.) International Raceway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Earnhardt's average finish of 11.6 ties his personal best at a track. He holds the same average finish at Bristol. 
 
DRIVER RATING: According to NASCAR's loop data statistics, Earnhardt is ranked third in the driver rating category at Atlanta with a score of 101.4. 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 number is used pre-race as a prediction tool and post-race as a performance evaluator. 
 
ATLANTA CHASSIS: This weekend, crew chief Lance McGrew and the No. 88 engineers will unload Chassis No. 88-559, a brand new chassis that never has been raced or tested. It is the second car that McGrew has built from the ground up for Earnhardt. 
 
LOCAL TIES: Two members of the No. 88 team hail from the Peach State. Shock specialist Chris Golder was born in Alpharetta, Ga., a town roughly 35 minutes north of Atlanta. After graduating from high school in 1999, he raced in a pro-truck series at Lanier National Speedway in nearby Braselton, Ga. Golder went on to earn a degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and has worked at Hendrick Motorsports since June 2004. Matt Skeen hails from Stone Mountain, which is about an hour north of Atlanta Motor Speedway. Skeen, who played football at Gardner-Webb University in western North Carolina, provides pit support for the No. 88 team. 
 
HENDRICK AT ATLANTA: In 51 events (159 starts) at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports has tallied 10 wins, 46 top-five finishes, 71 top-10s and four pole positions. Most recently, Jimmie Johnson led eight laps on his way to Victory Lane at Atlanta on Oct. 28, 2007. 
HOT AT ATLANTA: Hendrick Motorsports, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has recorded a top-10 finish in the last 19 Cup events that have been held at Atlanta Motor Speedway. You have to go back to last century to find the most recent time Hendrick Motorsports failed to record a top-10 result there. It was Nov. 21, 1999, and Hendrick was then a three-car team with drivers Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Wally Dallenbach Jr. 
 
DOUBLE DUTY: Prior to running the Sunday Cup race, Earnhardt will drive JR Motorsports' No. 5 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event on Saturday. Earnhardt, a 22-time race winner in the Nationwide Series, has six starts this season and most recently raced at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in July. In three previous Nationwide Series events at Atlanta, Earnhardt has two top-five finishes and has led 126 laps.   
DALE JR.'S GREAT GIVEAWAY: Fans can register now through Sept. 18 at http://www.dalejr.com/%22http://www.dalejrsgreatgiveaway.com//%22 to win weekly prize packages. The prizes include gift certificates, product packages, autographed merchandise, personal driver meet-and-greets and race-weekend giveaways, courtesy of JR Motorsports' 12 sponsorship partners. For more information, visit http://www.dalejr.com/%22http://www.dalejrsgreatgiveaway.com//%22.   
***** 
 
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET (ON RACING AT NIGHT AT ATLANTA.): "I don't think it's going to change too much. The track is pretty wore down and will slow down over the long runs, but we will be running some pretty fast speeds the first five or 10 laps on new tires under the lights. That place is really, really fast." 
 
EARNHARDT (ON HIS GOALS FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON.): "We are mathematically out of the Chase at this point so we are watching everybody else and seeing how they are going to do. We are trying to help our teammates the best we can and support them in their efforts. I think Hendrick Motorsports has several opportunities to win the championship. We are going to try to win some races and help our teammates the best we can." 
 
LANCE McGREW, INTERIM CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET (ON PREPARING FOR THE FIRST NIGHT RACE AT ATLANTA.): "We've qualified at Atlanta for years at night, so you are always preparing for that. I think it's going to be wicked fast because Atlanta is really, really fast at nighttime. So, I don't really know if you go about it any differently than if it was a day race. It's just the track is going to be faster, and there's going to be more grip. That's pretty much it." 
 
McGREW (ON THE CHALLENGES AT ATLANTA.): "I've always thought Atlanta is such a driver's racetrack because it is so wide and races so wide that there's groove after groove after groove. If your car is not good on the bottom, we'll try the middle; if it's not good in the middle, we'll try two-thirds; if it's not good there, try the top. You'll go from the top of one end to the bottom of the other. There's always ability for a driver to hunt a line that helps his car, which I've always liked because, whether you believe it or not, these cars are never perfect. So, you always have to be able to hunt and peck and look for every last little hundredth (of a second) that you can find on the racetrack."

Credit: Hendrick Motorsports PR