PREVIEW: DALE EARNHARDT JR. (NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET)
CIRCUIT: NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES (RACE 26 OF 36)
DATE: SEPT. 12, 2009 (400 LAPS, 300 MILES)
*****
AT RICHMOND: In 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has scored three wins, eight top-five finishes and 10 top-10s. He has an average start of 15.8 and an average finish of 11.9. He has completed 99 percent of all the laps he's attempted (7,919 of 8,003 total) and led 427 laps.
REWIND RICHMOND: Last September, Earnhardt scored his best Hendrick Motorsports finish at Richmond. He started the race fourth and led 90 laps before finishing fourth.
RICHMOND RECORD: Richmond is one of four tracks where Earnhardt, driver of the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet, has earned eight top-five finishes, a personal best. The other tracks where he has scored eight top-five results include Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
DRIVER RATING: According to NASCAR's loop data statistics, Earnhardt is ranked eighth in the driver rating category at Richmond with a score of 92.9. 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.
RICHMOND CHASSIS: Crew chief Lance McGrew and the No. 88 engineers will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-539 for Saturday's Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond. This chassis first saw action at Martinsville in March when Earnhardt finished eighth.
VIRGINIA NATIVES: Four members of the No. 88 team hail from the Old Dominion State. Team manager Brian Whitesell, a native of Stuarts Draft, Va., has a mechanical engineering degree from Virginia Tech and started working at Hendrick Motorsports in 1993. Engineer Tom Stewart grew up in Hampton and has a mechanical engineering degree from Old Dominion University. Car chief David Bryant grew up in Farmville racing late model stock cars at Southside Speedway in Midlothian, which is 15 miles southwest of Richmond. Mechanic Jim Jenkins, who was born in Charleston, S.C., grew up in a military family, and his father retired in Hampton, where the duo regularly visited local Langley Speedway.
GRAND MARSHAL: Specialist (SPC) Anthony M. Landowski, who was wounded in the line of duty in Afghanistan on May 17, will be the grand marshal for Saturday's Chevy Rock and Roll 400. Landowski, a 22-year-old native of Ringgold, Ga., and a soldier from the Georgia Army National Guard, was serving as a combat medic with the 48th Brigade Combat Team from Calhoun, Ga., when he was injured by an IED blast. He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat as well as the Combat Medic Badge for rendering aid while under hostile enemy fire. Landowski has been receiving care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the past four months and desires to return to his unit. He anticipates returning to Georgia, where he ultimately will finish his associate's degree and further pursue a career as a physician's assistant.
HENDRICK AT RICHMOND: Hendrick Motorsports, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has 10 wins, 43 top-five finishes and 76 top-10s in 50 Cup events (154 starts) at Richmond International Raceway.
HENDRICK BESTS: Richmond is one of two tracks where Hendrick Motorsports has scored a team-best 14 pole positions. Hendrick matches that total only at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. Geoff Bodine earned the team's first pole position in the No. 5 Chevy at Richmond in September 1985, while Jimmie Johnson captured the most recent pole at the track in September 2007.
CHEVY SALUTES AMERICAN HEROES: Friends and family members can share why their current soldier is an inspiration and a hero to them by visiting www.youreverydayhero.com from Sept. 10-28. Chevy will choose the top-five stories, and the public will vote on the site for its favorite story from Oct. 5-22. The soldier with the most votes will win a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox and will be a VIP guest at the Nov. 11 CMA awards, along with their immediate family.
DALE JR.'S GREAT GIVEAWAY: Fans can register now through Sept. 18 at www.DaleJrsGreatGiveaway.com 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 www.DaleJrsGreatGiveaway.com.
*****
MUSIC CITY STOP: Before heading to Richmond, Earnhardt will stop in Nashville, Tenn., to attend the 131st National Guard Association of the United States conference. Earnhardt and National Guard teammate Jeff Gordon will meet with the National Guard's top leadership, including the National Guard's first four-star general Gen. Craig R. McKinley.
*****
DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON RICHMOND.): "I don't think Richmond is really challenging. The only thing you really struggle with during the day in practice is getting your car to roll the center and turn right in the middle. That's really, really hard to do without making the car too loose off the corner. It's one fun racetrack. I love short-track racing, and Richmond is a lot of fun. You can move around and run different grooves, and the track is real, real slick. So it makes for a driver's racetrack. I enjoy it."
EARNHARDT (ON RICHMOND BEING A DRIVER'S TRACK.): "It's a driver's track to where I feel like a driver can play a big role in making the car better. It's easier for me to tell my crew chief what the car is doing at that track than some others, and how to fix it and what we can do to help it. I have a lot of confidence going into there. I really like it."
LANCE McGREW, INTERIM CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET (ON RICHMOND.): "It's a short track, but it's really fast. So it's not like traditional short-track racing, like a Martinsville or someplace, where it's like a bump-and-run kind of racetrack. You race it like a little superspeedway. It's difficult to get your car to handle really well at both ends of the racetrack; so tight coming off Turn 2 usually. It's a different type of track. It's a driver's track. There are some people that are really good there, no matter what you stick them in, and there are some people that no matter what you stick them in, they're not. So it's a challenge. Most of the places we go to are. But Richmond has a whole different set of circumstances to it."
McGREW (ON IF RICHMOND BEING A DRIVER'S TRACK TAKES AWAY PRESSURE FROM THE CREW CHIEF.): "I think it does in a way because Junior is good there. I think if you have a driver that's not good there, it's twice as much pressure because it seems like you never find the combination that makes it fast."
McGREW (ON GOALS FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON.): "I don't think we've ever had a different set of goals but to win races and let the points fall where they are. I feel like the last couple of races we've finally gotten some of the finishes that I've felt like we've deserved along the way. The guys back in the shop are really working hard to put some new cars together to get to the racetrack. Right now we're racing for wins."
Credit: Hendrick Motorsport PR
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