With five Darlington wins under his belt, including four straight Southern 500 victories from 1995 to 1998, while manning the pit box during Jeff Gordon‘s heyday, you’ be hard-pressed to find a crew chief who knows Darlington Raceway better than Ray Evernham.
In 20 attempts, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is winless at the track named “Too Tough to Tame.” That may just change with a little help from the legendary pit boss.
“Go easy on them tires; you know this place,” Evernham tells Earnhardt in the video below.
Even with a Darlington-specific tire that Goodyear created, the falloff at the “Lady in Black” is almost as famous as the stripes she gives to the right sides of stock cars.
That difficulty — combined with the history and tradition — makes the urge to grab that first Darlington win just that much stronger for Junior.
Watch the video below to see their full conversation — all while Junior is behind the wheel of his throwback No. 88 Valvoline Chevrolet — and tune in Sunday for what’s setting up to be a spectacular Bojangles’ Southern 500 Sprint Cup Series race (7 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).