Fresh of a 2014 sweep of both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at the Tricky Triangle, Earnhardt is looking to become the third driver to win three in a row at 2.5-mile Pennsylvania track. Bobby Allison and Tim Richmond are the other two to accomplish that with the latter’s being the most recent occurrence in 1987.

However, the Hendrick Motorsports driver will be starting 20th in his bid to win three straight at Pocono and he explained what led to his worst starting spot since Richmond.

"I chopped the entrance to (Turn) 1 on the first lap and that cost us a little bit of time. And then the next run we went into Turn 1 and turned sideways and got loose and just kind of killed the lap. So, we had pretty good speed in practice and just didn’t … the driver didn’t do a good job."

That qualifying performance led Junior to help his No. 88 team push the car back to the garage.

Here @DaleJr helps the @nationwide88 team push the car, saying "It’s the least I can do after qualifying 20th." pic.twitter.com/BcFfDohG8X

— Mike Davis (@MikeDavis88) June 5, 2015

Earnhardt showed speed in Friday’s opening practice, placing fourth in the 85-minute session (176.564 mph). In the second practice, Earnhardt was second on the speed chart (175.596 mph) in the 55-minute session.

Still, he understands the difficulty in winning one race at Pocono let alone three straight win.

"It’s just difficult to win one, you know?" Earnhardt said Friday at Pocono. "It’s difficult to win, period. And there’s so much competition in this series now."

Junior will be looking to do something Allison and Richmond did not have to do in their run of three straight victories. He will try and join their club by winning with two different crew chiefs. Greg Ives is on top of the box this season as Steve Letarte, his crew chief for the sweep last year, left to be part of NBC’s NASCAR coverage after last season.

"Well we won those two races by having some great pit strategy," Earnhardt said on Friday at Pocono. "Steve (Letarte) got real aggressive on his pit calls and I think that is definitely going to be what is going to put you in position to win. You kind of call this race in reverse.  

"The tire is pretty tough here and durable. There is not a whole lot of fall off. You can call the race sort of like a road course in reverse and put yourself up toward the front like we did last year. It makes it pretty difficult to get around you if you have a good car. I mean we were able to pass some guys that tried to get more aggressive than we were. Everything has kind of got to fall in the right place and allow you to make those choices."

The change in crew chiefs hasn’t affected Earnhardt’s performance this season. Entering Pocono, Earnhardt is fifth in the point standings and scored a win last month at Talladega Superspeedway, his 24th victory in the Sprint Cup Series. He has top-five finishes at all intermediate and restrictor-plate tracks this season (seven in total).

Earnhardt is looking to keep the good vibes and good times going with Ives, who worked as a crew chief for two years for Earnhardt’s NASCAR XFINITY Series organization, JR Motorsports. 

"He takes this super, super serious. This is his dream come true to be able to crew chief in the Cup Series, and I want to give him every opportunity to be successful and us as a team, we’re in a good position winning races, running well; we don’t want to take a step back."

Hendrick Motorsports has had stretches of dominance at Pocono. The organization’s four drivers have won the last five races, Jeff Gordon has the most wins here (six) and Jimmie Johnson swept the 2004 events here. In total, the organization has 17 wins at the Tricky Triangle.

Johnson says its hard to win here regularly, making a sweep all that more of an accomplishment. Something only seven drivers, including Junior and Johnson have done.

"I kind of put sweeping here in the same box as sweeping at Daytona or Talladega," Johnson said. "There are just so many circumstances out of your control at this track. And those lead to the difficulty in winning often and sweeping, for that matter. 

"This race, there are always long green-flag runs and varying strategies. The teams that don’t have the raw speed to race for the win roll the dice and usually catch cautions and lose track position. Track position is so important. There are a lot of moving targets. It’s not just a straight-up downforce-style race. And I think that increases the difficulty to win here regularly."

With the success that the four-car stable has had here, Earnhardt’s recent run of success here makes him the prohibitive favorite this weekend. In addition to last year’s sweep, he posted two top-five finishes in the 2013 races at Pocono and has scored top-10 finishes in seven of his last eight starts there.

So what contributes to that dominance for Junior and Hendrick as a whole?

"Well, we’ve got four fast cars," Earnhardt said. "This is a horsepower race track where engines can make a difference. I feel like over the last several years we’ve had one of the best engine programs in the sport. So, I think we’ve just got really good stuff. 

"Your car really, really shines here; whereas the driver is a little bit of the factor or a lot of the factor, especially on restarts and trying to work that difficult air when you’re behind somebody and make a pass and set it up on a particular part of the race track where it will happen. But the car really shines here and we’ve got some of the best equipment in the garage."