Owner/driver Earnhardt in search of special victory

Some of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s greatest days have come at Talladega Superspeedway. He has five Cup Series wins and one in the Nationwide Series at the 2.66-mile track.

But a win in Saturday's Aaron's 312 (2:30 p.m. ET on ABC) would give Earnhardt a victory like none other. He will be driving his JR Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet.

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"I'd love to win in my own car," he said. "That's a big goal of mine, and it's certainly something we can achieve at Talladega."

This will be the fourth race of the Nationwide season for the No. 5 and Earnhardt. He finished seventh at Daytona, fifth at Las Vegas and 20th at Texas. JR Motorsports' primary car is the No. 88, driven by Brad Keselowski, who is fifth in the point standings.

Earnhardt has high hopes for Talladega. He finished sixth in last year's Aaron's 312.

"It's one of my favorite tracks, and I enjoy racing in front of the fans there," he said. "They've always been good to me, and we've always been able to give them a show."

But he's also realistic. Earnhardt knows the perils of restrictor-plate racing where the Big One can take a car out of a race in a flash, regardless of how well it's running.

"Just have to be lucky," he said. "I've avoided them, and I've been in them. There's no method into it, so I prefer directing our focus to getting our car driving right. That's most important."

David Ragan, No. 6: Ragan is third in points, 126 behind front-running Kyle Busch. Ragan finished 18th at Talladega last year and fourth in his first race there in 2007. He has been solid all season with five top-10s in the first seven races. Ragan, 23, is looking for his first NASCAR win.

Jason Leffler, No. 38: Leffler is fourth in points, 143 back. Leffler finished fourth last year, his second top-10 to go with a fifth in 2004. Equally impressive is that Leffler has been running at the end of all five of his Talladega starts. He qualifies well at Talladega (10.6 average start) and has started third the past two races.

Brad Keselowski, No. 88: Keselowski continued his surge last week with his third consecutive third-place finish. He remained fifth in the standings but drew 49 points closer to the top spot. He finished 23rd last year in his first race at Talladega. He led three times for nine laps before getting caught up in the Big One.

Ryan Newman: "I think it is hard to have expectations going into a race like Talladega because anything can happen there. The key at Talladega is just to have a fast car. The track is really smooth, and handling isn't nearly as important as it is at Daytona. Typically, the fastest race car is out front. It's wide open and you have to have some teamwork to stay up front. If we have a fast car and have some friends out on the race track and if we can stay out of trouble, I think we will have a good day. That's a lot 'ifs,' but that's how Talladega is."

Jason Leffler: "During practice, you really want to spend some time figuring out what your car will do and where; whether you're in the middle, on the inside or on the outside. You put that information in the back of your mind for the race. It's a type of racing where you have to be pretty aggressive, but at the same time, you have to be cautious, especially early on. You don't want to be the guy that causes the 20-car pileup, 15 laps into the race. On the other hand, when you get to the end of the race it's pretty much a wide-open free-for-all and you have to take chances."

Talladega
• Practice 1 | Practice 2 | By the Numbers