RELATED: Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s complete history at Texas
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: AAA Texas 500
Date: Sunday, Nov. 5, 2 p.m. ET (NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Previous five results at Texas: 5th, 2nd, 6th, 3rd, 6th
RELATED: All of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s wins in the Monster Energy Series
Notable: Earnhardt Jr. won the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points race of his career at TMS, but he has failed to repeat the feat in the 28 other visits to the 1.5-mile track. However, statistically speaking Texas has been a good track for the Hendrick Motorsports driver, with seven top-five and 18 top-10 finishes there. His average starting and finishing positions are identical — 13.1 and second best among all 24 tracks he’s raced on in the series through the years. His fifth-place run at TMS in the spring was his first top five since June of 2016.
Memorable: Earnhardt Jr.’s victory in the DirecTV 500 at TMS came in his 12th career start in the series. After qualifying fourth, he led 106 of the race’s 334 laps, including the final 53. His winning margin over Jeff Burton was a comfortable 5.920 seconds. It was the first win for crew chief Tony Eury Sr., as well as the first victory for Dale Earnhardt Inc., the MENCS organization fielded by seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt. “He’s like a wild horse,” Eury said of his young driver. “He’s something else; we knew the kid could do it,” the elder Earnhardt said.
Quotable: “Dad wasn’t one to waste a lot of time. There were some race tracks where he’d drive out of the race track in his uniform. He’d jump out of his car and into the rental car; he’d tell Teresa (Earnhardt) — I think he’s actually said over the radio before the race was over with to tell Richard (Childress, team owner) to tell Teresa to get the rental car ready. He was in a hurry to get out of the race track no matter what. So we won the race in Texas and he comes in there and he grabs me, said he was happy and all that. He said ‘I’m proud of you, I’m happy, enjoy this but you’ve got to find another ride home.’ He didn’t stay around for pictures or nothing. He was out of there.”
MORE: Dale Jr. dishes on wrecking other drivers