Junior gets off to great start in first test in No. 88

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- At precisely 11:54 a.m. on Monday, in a seemingly symbolic move, the No. 88 Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned into a garage stall at Daytona International Speedway right in front of the Budweiser-sponsored Sprint Cup car now bearing No. 9 and driven by Kasey Kahne.

Kahne sped on past, moving down the road and taking Earnhardt's past with him.

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Earnhardt Jr. climbed out of his new car, conferred with long-time crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and kept the media waiting. What was he thinking? How did his new ride for Hendrick Motorsports drive in his first test?

Junior -- as in Earnhardt Jr. -- wasn't saying. At least not to anybody but the handful of insiders gathered around him. He will speak at length to the media Tuesday, but left the talking Monday to Eury, the other Junior on the most scrutinized Cup team on the planet.

As with the other Junior earlier, Eury did nothing to downplay what he admits are "huge expectations" of the No. 88 team heading into their first season at Hendrick, the Sprint Cup behemoth that also fields the powerhouse teams of two-time defending points champion Jimmie Johnson and four-time champion Jeff Gordon, as well as the No. 5 of Casey Mears.

"Man, it's been exciting for me," Eury Jr. said. "As soon as we left Homestead in November [following the final race of last season], I was ready to go. That's when I kind of took over. I've just been trying to get the team together. We've got some things we've been changing around, just trying to bring the level of this team up to what the 24 and the 48 are. There's no doubt that they're the best teams in the Hendrick organization, and we're going to make the 5 and the 88 the same amount -- so we'll have four great teams.

"I've been pumped up. I think I've seen Dale Jr. more pumped up right now than he's ever been. He was down here for the first test [last week]. That's a sign of just how excited he was to get into the car. All in all, I think both of us are just happy to get this one test right here done -- and we're looking forward to February."

Fast times

The Juniors had reasons to smile after Monday's morning practice session at Daytona. Earnhardt's top lap speed of 184.646 mph (48.742 seconds) was second-fastest behind only a lap turned by Dale Jarrett (184.987 mph). It also was the fastest lap turned by a Chevrolet driver.

In truth, running fast in these practice sessions means next to nothing. To put it in perspective, Paul Menard, Earnhardt's former teammate at Dale Earnhardt Inc., posted the fastest times in one of the practice sessions a year ago -- and subsequently failed to run fast enough to qualify for the Daytona 500 when he returned a month later.

But in light of all the publicity swirling around Earnhardt's departure from DEI and his long-awaited arrival on the track in a Hendrick car, Eury said that in this case it meant something. At least to them.

"I mean, we're in the top five on the speed charts, so that's a good thing," Eury said. "We're just kind of doing our normal deal. We're not sitting here making qualifying runs, trying to be at the top of the sheet. We've just got a really good car, and we've got a little bit left in it. So we're pumped up." (Continued)