The No. 8 team just may have turned the corner Sunday at Bristol. Credit: Autostock

Earnhardt Jr. gets much-needed boost at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Thunder Valley was just what the doctor ordered for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

	Inside the Numbers Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Bristol Year Start Finish 2005 19 4 2004 30 1   18 11 2003 9 9   8 16 2002 2 3   23 4 2001 24 14   9 31 2000 12 21   12 38 Average 15.0 13.8

After finishing third in the season-opener at Daytona, Junior had struggled in the past three races: 32nd at Fontana, 42nd at Las Vegas and 24th at Atlanta. More importantly, the No. 8 team was 26th in points, 315 behind Nextel Cup point standings leader Jimmie Johnson.

But Bristol seems to bring out the best in Earnhardt. Entering Sunday's Food City 500, his average finish in the past seven races on the .533-mile concrete track was 8.2 -- including a win in the Fall 2004 race. And while he did not lead a lap Sunday, Junior's fourth-place finish catapulted him seven spots to 17th in points, just 84 points out of 10th place.

Earnhardt now has finished fourth or better in five of his past six short-track races, and he has finished in the top-10 in three of his last four events at Bristol.

"Man that was some hard driving," he said after the race. "There at the end, I kind of felt like I was arm-wrestling Sylvester Stallone.

"I had a great car, a top-five car all day. But being faster and passing those guys are two different things. We took advantage of everybody else's mistakes, had a pretty clean run, and stayed up there in the top 10 all day."

Starting 19th, it took only 78 laps for Junior to make his way into the top 10, as he used early cautions and a slightly different pit strategy than the leaders to make his biggest gains. Earnhardt would not fall out of the top 10 for the rest of the day.

And as he told his crew over the radio, "Yeah, well my daddy told me how to get around this place. As long as I remember what he said, I should have this place down pat, pretty much."

However, there was an anxious moment on Lap 323 when Earnhardt, running in fifth place, had to slam on the brakes to avoid the spinning car of Matt Kenseth. Thinking he may have flat-spotted his left-front tire, Junior summoned a team member to Turn 2 where the Budweiser car was parked during a red-flag period to make sure the tire was in good shape. With no evident damage, Earnhardt continued his top-10 run.

"There at the end," he said, "the car was really sliding a lot, really loose. But other than that, we had a really good car through the middle, and I was happy with the way the team got through the day."