RELATED: Full breakdown of Dale Jr.’s Michigan stats
For his final full-time season as a driver, NASCAR.com will offer an analytical preview on Dale Earnhardt Jr. ahead of every remaining Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.
Race: FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway
Date: June 18, 3 p.m. ET (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Previous five results at Michigan: 39th, 10th, 2nd, 5th, 7th
RELATED: All of Dale Jr.’s victories in the Monster Energy Series
Notable: Dale Earnhardt Jr. has two wins at Michigan, the latest victory on June 17, 2012. In that race, Earnhardt started 17th and led for 95 laps. He has the fifth-highest driver rating (96.0) at the 2-mile track with an average finish of 13.2 since 2005.
Memorable: Earnhardt said, according to a 2014 tweet, he had one of his favorite races in the Irish Hills. It was a 1999 IROC (International Race of Champions) race, where he battled neck-and-neck against a high-profile driver: his father. Earnhardt Jr., though, came in second by inches to his dad. The race wasn’t a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series event, but father and son displayed a fierce, albeit friendly, competition and an enduring familial tie to the sport.
Quotable: “Michigan is a great track,” Earnhardt said in a team release. “I look forward to it aging and widening out. As that happens, the track loses grip. Before they paved it, we were running down next to the apron and against the wall. That is all you can ask for when you’re talking racetracks and what drivers like about them.”