Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he was thrilled to do so well at Kansas last weekend. Credit: Autostock

Junior still searching for victory at home track

Other than all-star race, Junior winless at Lowe's Motor Speedway

CONCORD, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. made quite a splash at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2000, winning The Winston all-star race as a rookie.

He won the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 the following week, and had a good run going in the race.

But somehow, even after that initial success, Earnhardt Jr. hasn't visited Victory Lane at his home track since.

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Even though he's led laps and run well at the 1.5-mile track, Earnhardt Jr. has yet to win a Nextel Cup race there. His best finish was fourth, and he did that back in 2000 and 2001.

"Charlotte's tough whether you run good or not," Earnhardt Jr. said, using the popular "Charlotte" reference, even though the track has been renamed. "It will wear you out. It's a rough track that bounces you and the car around each lap.

"We ran really well there a few years back, and then we seemed to lose that advantage. Slowly we've made our way back to a setup that works well under the lights."

Earnhardt Jr. has two consecutive top-10 finishes, including a sixth in the 600 here in May. He could use another good run as the Chase for the Nextel Cup nears its halfway point.

Kurt Busch leads the standings by 29 over Earnhardt Jr. and by 79 over Jeff Gordon. Busch has looked good in four races, but so has Earnhardt Jr.

"I have really no idea how to approach the shootout, other than one race at a time," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We're just focusing really, really hard on the next race. I won't think about any other one until we get to them. You just try to gain as many points as you can each week, drive smart but drive as hard as you can."

That sounds like a contradiction, but Earnhardt Jr. knows he can't push his No. 8 Chevrolet too hard for fear of crashing and tumbling down the standings.

And like he said, Lowe's Motor Speedway can be a tough place. It's as temperature-sensitive as any on the Nextel Cup schedule, even though that will be minimized by the Saturday night start time.

The No. 8 team has five consecutive top-10 finishes. Credit: Autostock

Still, practices are held during the day and twilight, so getting a handle on Lowe's will be difficult.

"The track gets really fast when the sun goes down," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It gets a lot of grip. Tires grip a cooler racetrack better. When the sun's on the track all day, it sweats a little bit. All the grease and oil, it gets slick a little bit.

"It's very hard. The track can change three or four times throughout the day. Early morning, it's got a lot of grip. Once the sun beats on it for a while, it's really slick. Around 10 o'clock at night, it's really fast, it's got a lot of speed."

Harnessing that speed is the trick, and if a driver and team get a handle on LMS, they can run away. Witness Jimmie Johnson's dominant performance here in May, when he led 334 of 400 laps in a runaway victory.

But Earnhardt Jr. would likely take a solid top-five finish, especially if Busch and Gordon were behind him. Junior's team appears to be peaking at the right time, as Earnhardt Jr. has scored five consecutive top-10 finishes, tying a personal best set in 2002 and 2003.

"The top-10 at Kansas was huge for us," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That was one of our problem tracks, one that could have ultimately been our doom had we not tested real hard there and put so much emphasis on it.

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"I really like the focus of our team. I'm really proud of the way we've handled adversity all year. Whether or not we win the championship, I know this is a championship-caliber team."

Junior says the future looks bright.

"We've got some good tracks coming up. We're pretty decent at Charlotte, real good at Martinsville, won at Atlanta and Phoenix, so we have the potential to keep stacking on top-fives and top-10s in the coming weeks. We've got a test at Homestead coming up in a few weeks that's really important. I think the championship will be decided there."

Earnhardt Jr. certainly hopes he's part of that decision.