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TALLADEGA, Ala. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a simple explanation for the fan reaction at Talladega Superspeedway, site of Sunday’s GEICO 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).
“If you go to a race at Talladega, your driver can literally, possibly take the lead at any moment in the race,” Earnhardt Jr., a six-time winner at the 2.66-mile track, said Friday. “You can’t say that anywhere else.
“So, with that comes a responsibility, I think, as a driver to try to make that happen because when you come off Turn 4 you can see a big difference in arms in the air and people excited about what just happened when you take the lead. … You can’t create that anywhere else.
“And they want you to keep doing that all day long because they just want to celebrate all day. They want to have fun. When you get up there and mix it up it gives them what they want. So, I think that is why I like running here and definitely makes it a unique experience as opposed to any other track we go to.”
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When it comes to lead changes, Talladega is the hands-down, foot-to-the-floor leader in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. In the spring race of 2010 and again in ’11, there were an amazing 88 lead changes. In the fall race of ’10 the lead changed hands 87 times. In fact, nine of the top 10 races for most lead changes took place here.
Some of that can be traced to the rules packages of the day, but it’s worth noting that the ’73 race, held in the heat of the summer, featured 64 lead changes.
Dale Earnhardt was one of the sport’s best when it came to the 200 mph game of chance known as restrictor-plate racing, winning 10 times at Talladega and three times at Daytona. Maybe he couldn’t really “see” the air as some thought, but the seven-time champion understood the nuances of drafting probably better than anyone.
And Earnhardt Jr. has enjoyed similar success. Six of his 26 career victories have come at Talladega, where the Hendrick Motorsports driver is scheduled to make only two more starts.
Only 17 races remain in the series’ regular season, and 10 more after that, the playoffs that will determine this year’s champion. Earnhardt Jr. has spent nearly two decades trying to reach the pinnacle of the sport and now just one final opportunity remains.
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Twenty-fourth in points, winless thus far this season and with only a single top-10 finish, it’s been a rocky start for the series’ most popular driver.
Three plate races provide three more opportunities, but no more than the others that have yet to be run elsewhere. If some feel this is a “must-win” race for Earnhardt Jr., he’s not buying it.
“That mindset might actually work and produce results for some guys,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s probably the best way for me to go about it. But I definitely need to go in there and be aggressive and I know when I’ve won races here what approach I took that day that helped me get there. And I know I need to be a certain way mentally … to have success.
“I don’t buy the notion that we can’t win anywhere but Talladega and Daytona; we have had a dry spell, I haven’t won a lot of races, but we have won at other tracks in the past. But I think if I go in thinking this is a must-win, I’m probably going to make mistakes …
“I just know what I need to do, I’m going to go out there and try to do it. I’ve said it in the past, you’ve got to run the last 50 laps mistake-free. The guy that does that will win the race. …
“Every move and decision and turn of the wheel has to be the right decision.”
There’s concern, but trust too, he said. Trust in his team and crew chief Greg Ives and the Hendrick Motorsports organization for whom he has spent the last dozen years.
“We’ve got a good set-up under the car and we are doing the best thing we can for ourselves to be competitive whether we are in the playoffs, whether it’s the second race of the year or the last race of the year,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We take the best car we can and give it our best effort.
“We just need to put together some races here. We’ve got to get a good handful of races under our belt that are finishes that we can be proud of and see where that nets us on the points deal, but it would be nice if we could just go ahead and get a win out of the way and get on with it.”
No matter the results, he said, “It’s going to be a fun year.”
“I do think we can win some races,” he said. “I really do.”
Earnhardt has seen the fans standing, arms raised in unison as he charged out of Turn 4 with the lead and the race on the line here at Talladega on numerous occasions in the past.
Sunday, he hopes to see it once again.