Earnhardt Jr. eyes third straight Talladega win

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Though not usually one for trash talk, Dale Earnhardt Jr., has no qualms about calling his shot this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

He has dominated the past two NASCAR Winston Cup Series events en route to consecutive victories at Talladega, after all.

"I don't think it's bragging to say we should be the favorite going in. We have always been up front here and I know we have no intention of giving up that trend," Earnhardt said.

	Credit: Autostock

Continuance of that trend would provide a badly needed morale booster for him and his mates.

Earnhardt's admittance last week that he'd raced nearly the entire season with a debilitating concussion, coupled with questions about his relationship with crew chief Tony Eury, and car chief Tony Eury Jr., leave the Budweiser team square in the eye of a hurricane.

Earnhardt maintains that he's healthy and his relationship with the Eurys is solid, but the EA Sports 500 still can't go green quickly enough. He will once again vie for the Winston No Bull Five Million Dollar Bonus on Sunday afternoon, an award he claimed in this event one year ago.

"Forget the money. I love running at Talladega, and I'd get out there and run just as hard if they paid me a dime to win," Earnhardt said. "The team needs to win, I need to win, DEI needs to win. This is one of my favorite places to race, and it's just the most intense feeling to be running three-wide lap-after-lap.

"Wait... a million dollars? OK, I take it back. Don't forget the money. I might need a new tractor for the land I just bought. What makes (the Winston Bonus) so cool is not that the teams win a million, but that a fan can win a million as well.

"You know, it's a lot of money for anybody, but can you imagine making $40,000 a year and all of a sudden getting a million dollars? That has to be unbelievable."

VIDEO CLIPS Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffers a hard hit at California Speedway. Play video  •  Earnhardt Jr.'s Driver Page  •  2002 Season Stats

Following his latest victory at Talladega, Earnhardt jumped to a season-high fifth in the championship standings, and appeared poised to make a run at his first title. But after the concussion -- suffered at California Speedway one week after the last Talladega win -- he fell to as low as 17th in the title chase.

Now healed, his performance is noticeably better. He led 85 of the first 100 laps at Dover before the handling went away on his Chevrolet. He earned the Bud Pole last weekend at Kansas before settling into a sixth-place finish. Now, he eyes a third straight win at Talladega.

"You have to be totally aware for 500 miles so you know who's beside you, who's behind you and who's ahead of you," Earnhardt said of NASCAR's longest venue. "Of course, my strategy is to get up front and then stay up front. Let's go for it.

"I know a lot guys sit around for the first 450 laps and then try to race at the end, but that's not me and that's not my team. We're gonna lead 'em all we can."

Leading is Earnhardt's forte at Talladega. In six starts, he has led five races for a total of 259 laps, including an even 200 laps in the past two events. In fact, the only Talladega race Earnhardt didn't lead was his first race there in 2000, after being involved in a crash on the first lap.

One interesting aspect Earnhardt and his competitors will face this weekend is a new fuel cell mandated by NASCAR just for this weekend's event. The fuel cell will hold 12.5 gallons of fuel, roughly half the size of the normal 22-gallon tank, resulting in twice as many fuel stops.

That, in turn, should spread out the field.

	Jimmie Johnson (left) with crew chief Chad Knaus. Credit: Autostock

"I personally don't think that the fuel cell will make that big of a difference in the race," said Chad Knaus, crew chief for points leader Jimmie Johnson. "I really think that they are just adding three more pit stops.

"The draft is active enough and with restrictor plates on these cars, I think that the cars will just get together and be able to work themselves back to the front."

Talladega is one of two restrictor plate tracks on the Winston Cup

circuit where multi-car accidents -- the "big one" -- are a common occurrence, making the strung out field a welcome change.

"It makes some sense," Jeff Gordon said. "The lighter fuel load will force us into more green flag pit stops which should break us up from one big pack of 43 cars to a number of smaller packs.

"I just hope that if it comes down to a fuel mileage race that we've got

decent fuel mileage. If we all use our heads and play it smart and do what

we're capable of doing, we can put on one heck of a race -- one that the fans

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will enjoy and that we'll enjoy -- and come out with an exciting finish."

Michael Waltrip, points leader Jimmie Johnson and his owner/teammate Gordon all promise to be contenders. Waltrip won the last restrictor plate race run, the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway in July.

Johnson, meanwhile, has been stellar on superspeedways this season. He earned the Bud Pole for both the Daytona 500 and Aaron's 499. In three restrictor plate starts this year, Johnson has two top-10 runs. Likewise for Gordon. He finished ninth in the Daytona 500 and fourth in the Aaron's 499.

"The superspeedways is a type of racetrack that I don't have all that much experience on, but I feel like I'm getting better with each race on them and I'm learning more about the draft and using it to your advantage," Johnson said.

"The nice thing about the superspeedways, if you have a strong car and are moving forward, usually the guys will work with you."

Johnson, who leads the series with four poles this season, will try to sweep Bud Pole Qualifying at Talladega on Friday when time trials get underway at 4 p.m. ET. Bill Elliott set the track record in 1987 at 212.809 mph. That is also the fastest recorded speed in NASCAR history.

The following year, 1988, restrictor plates were introduced. Since then, speeds have remained below 200 mph.