After all the twists and turns, Junior turns corner on road courses

RELATED: Final No. 88 paint scheme for Junior revealed As Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career winds down and he looks back on the highlights, there are two tracks likely to be left off the reel. Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International. The pair of road courses on NASCAR’s premier series circuit have yielded a goose egg for Junior in his 34 combined starts on them throughout the years, with an unimpressive average finish of 18.2 at Sonoma ranking as the better of the two (he’s averaged a finish of 21.7 at WGI.) RELATED: Dale Jr.'s career stats at Watkins Glen But things have taken a turn for the better -- both left and right -- for Earnhardt at road courses over the past few seasons. Why the sudden uptick in performance? "Well, we just quit testing," Earnhardt laughed Saturday at Pocono Raceway. "That was really why we started running better because we stopped trying so hard. We'd go to Road Atlanta and just run ourselves into the ground for two days trying to figure out how to become great at road course races. "And finally, I told (former crew chief Steve) Letarte and I said 'Let’s just quit testing' because it ain't getting us anywhere but wore out. And it's two days of the week when it’s making the guys tired because we're cramming it in between races and we're not really getting anywhere. So, we just quit trying and we'd just show up. And we started running great." Less is more. Interesting strategy. Hard to argue with the results, however. Since 2012, the Hendrick Motorsports driver has averaged a finish of 7.8 at Sonoma with a best finish of third, and for each of his past two races at Watkins Glen, he’s started seventh and finished 11th at The Glen. Junior also credits cars that “have been really quick,” as well, but a fast car can only be taken so far by a middling driver. Earnhardt needs to be ready to admit that maybe, somehow, miraculously -- he’s finally developed into a competent road racer. RELATED: Winless drivers that can punch playoff ticket at Watkins Glen It’d make sense, since he got a boatload of advice from the best out there. "I went to school with Ron (Fellows, road course ace) a bunch. We went to Bondurant and we ran Corvettes and tested Corvettes together," he continued. "He drove for (Dale Earnhardt Incorporated) and we would go over set-ups and notes and we just did a lot. "We spent a lot of time talking to Boris (Said) as well and tested with him and shared information. Boris was an open book. I would be struggling at Sonoma and I'd go over to Boris and say 'What do I need to do? I just can't figure it out.' And he would give me the set-up. He'd say here’s my set-up. And we'd put it in. I'd put it in there and pick-up four-tenths. I’m like, 'All right!' That’s how good and nice those guys are. Andy Pilgrim was another guy I spent a lot of time with. So, I leaned on a lot of guys that I thought gave me great information and wanted to help me.” With the end of his final full-time season quickly approaching, does The Glen -- as strange as it feels to say this -- offer one of the better chance we have of seeing NASCAR’s reigning Most Popular driver land in Victory Lane one last time? The answer is "maybe," but we can at least expect him to be competitive. "When the cars are there and the cars are superb, I can do a good job with it," he said. "So, I think we can go into the Glen and be top 10. We should be top 10 without a problem. "If we're not, I think that's falling short of my expectations for us." [gallery_content baseUrl="https://www.nascar.com" galleryID="182" photocount="0"]