LONG POND, Pa. — Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s defense against a June swoon might just be getting the dreadful luck out of the way in May.

A look at his last four NASCAR Sprint Cup races reveals an odd lot of double-digit finishes with few May flowers among the bunch. Meanwhile, teams affiliated with Joe Gibbs Racing have won seven of the last eight, putting distance on Earnhardt’s No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports outfit and sewing up Chase postseason berths early.

In typically laid-back fashion, Earnhardt doesn’t sound overly concerned.

“No, I’m not feeling any anxiety, at 41 years old you kind of get over that stuff, I’m not going to worry about it,” Earnhardt said on a foggy Friday at Pocono Raceway. “I spent the first 18 years worrying myself to death. I think we are a good enough team to make it whether we get a win or not we are a good enough team. That is not a guarantee, I just feel confident that we will get in. A win would be what we expect, not just to lock ourselves in the Chase, we just expect to win.”

Earnhardt Jr. has met those expectations here in the past, sweeping the season’s two annual races at the triangular facility in 2014. And his current season hasn’t been without its positive moments, with three runner-up finishes (Atlanta, Texas, Bristol) in the hodgepodge of 2016 results.

Though Hendrick Motorsports‘ performance this year has been robust by most teams’ standards, Gibbs’ Toyotas currently have the hot hand heading into Sunday’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM). There is room for improvement, Earnhardt says, but pinpointing it is another matter.

“I have been racing in this series a long time and I have been asked that question dozens and dozens of times like where do you need to improve, no matter what team I was racing for, no matter what year is was. Even if you knew you wouldn’t tell,” Earnhardt said. “I mean you can’t say, ‘them guys in the body shop they need to get going’ — you are not going to throw anybody under the bus. The majority of the time you don’t know. The majority of the time there is no way to really put your finger on the exact area where you are getting beat.”

Having 590 premier-series starts over 17-plus seasons has given Earnhardt a certain amount of perspective about how seasons can ebb and flow. He cited the recent championship charges of Tony Stewart in 2011 and Brad Keselowski the following year as examples of how fortunes can turn in the postseason.

In both instances, those teams made gains from the experiences and experimentation of others. Earnhardt said replicating that sort of turnaround is possible for the No. 88.

“I can see us sort of in that situation where we are looking across the garage,” Earnhardt said. “Every team has enough smart people on it and if they figure out how somebody is making their mousetrap so well they will take it home and do it and make it even better. They will take those ideas that are great and improve on them and then bring it to the track and outrun that guy. That is just the nature of the sport. I’m not too worries about where we are right now.

“We are not running bad. We took off at the start of the year, had some second-place finishes, thought we were right on the verge of winning and we struggled this month. It’s been a rough month, but I think we can turn it around here.”

RELATED: Complete schedule for Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. — The “Tricky” part of Pocono Raceway’s nickname typically lives up to its billing for rookie drivers. Chase Elliott is among those hoping to buck that trend this weekend.

Elliott carries a head of steam into Sunday’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) with a steady streak of four consecutive top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. His year to date — 13 races into the 26-race regular season — has been equally impressive, with nine top-10s helping to elevate him to eighth place in the series standings.

Pocono isn’t completely foreign territory for Elliott, who made two starts here in the ARCA Series in 2013, including a victory in the tour’s June race. The 20-year-old driver hopes the memory cues from racing here three years ago come back to him.

“I don’t think it has changed a whole lot,” Elliott said on a foggy Friday in the Poconos. “I think it has picked up some bumps here and there from the harsh winters up here, I would assume. Other than that, I think it will be pretty similar. That race will hopefully be helpful. It’s been a while, so I’m going to have to think back a good ways on some of the things we fought when we were here but it was good to have that run here, if nothing else, and hopefully just some extra laps.”

Since the 2.5-mile triangular track welcomed NASCAR’s premier series in 1974, only two drivers competing in their first full season have won at Pocono Raceway — Carl Edwards (2005) and Denny Hamlin (2006). Hamlin actually swept Pocono’s two annual events that season, but the weight of history hasn’t typically been that easy to lift.

The potential for extra laps wasn’t promised to any of the series’ five Sunoco Rookie of the Year contenders, not after rain and a thick swath of fog abbreviated Friday’s opening Sprint Cup practice. No driver turned more than seven laps; Elliott ran just three in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet.

Sprint Cup qualifying is precariously scheduled Friday for 4:15 p.m. ET, but just one Saturday practice (11:30 am.) — as opposed to the customary two — is on the weekend slate.

“Everything we can get prior to Sunday will be helpful,” Elliott said.

Elliott hasn’t needed a ton in the way of help this year, shrugging off any potential first-year jitters after crashing in two of 2016’s first three races. The consistency has earned him a high-rent perch in the drivers standings, placing the Hendrick Motorsports newbie ahead of two drivers (Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth ) who already have victories this year.

While the accumulation of points has been a pleasant accolade, Elliott says, he acknowledges that the next rung to reach would mean a trip to Victory Lane. With momentum in hand, is the rookie any closer to a breakthrough?

“I definitely, as I’ve said, I feel like I have a team and a group of guys that are capable of winning if I do my part for them. I truly believe that,” Elliott said. “When I come to the race track each weekend, I really have the strong belief that our team can win. I think that’s something that’s important for all of us to believe. And if we didn’t believe that, we might as well stay home. That’s the mindset we have coming into each race weekend, regardless of where it is. And that’s our mindset here just as it is everywhere else.

“We’re working hard at it. If I could tell the future, I’d tell you. But, we’re going to give it our best effort to do that and if we do, great. If we don’t, it sure won’t be for a lack of effort.”