How good has the 2008 NASCAR season and move to Hendrick Motorsports been already for Dale Earnhardt Jr.?
Earnhardt seems like a different driver after winning the first of two 150-mile Daytona 500 qualifying heats Thursday in his No. 88 Chevrolet, five days after he won the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway.
Earnhardt, NASCAR's most popular driver, still hasn't won a points race in 21 months. But after joining Hendrick's top-flight team this year, Earnhardt is perhaps in his best position to win NASCAR's most prestigious race on Sunday for the first time since he won the event in 2004.
With 12 wins at Daytona International Speedway, Earnhardt has climbed into a tie for eighth on the all-time list but still is 22 behind his famous father's record. Dale Sr., though, won the main event just once, and his son now is the favorite (+350 at WagerWeb.com) to get his second.
"I feel like we've got a great shot. We've won some races down here, so we've got to be in the group, if there is a group," said Earnhardt, who will start Sunday's race from inside the second row behind pole-winning teammate Jimmie Johnson. "We've got a lot of racing left to do. The Daytona 500 is a long, long race and so many things happen. You've just got to run all day long and be there at the end."
No driver has ever pulled off the trifecta at Daytona by winning the Shootout, a Duel race and the Daytona 500. In 2003, Earnhardt took the first two steps but couldn't complete the sweep in the 500, finishing 36th.
"I'm just going to try and win that race and do the best we can," Earnhardt said.All of this comes after Earnhardt switched teams from his late father's Dale Earnhardt Inc. at the end of 2007 and joined the Hendrick superteam with Jeff Gordon and Johnson. A major reason Earnhardt chose HMS, outside of wanting to get away from stepmother/DEI owner Teresa Earnhardt, was he believed the organization gave him the best chance to win the points title that his dad won seven times.
And you can't argue with the Hendrick team's power, as its four drivers - Earnhardt, Johnson, Gordon and Casey Mears - along with Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart, make up six of the top nine spots in the field.
"I have enjoyed this relationship," Earnhardt said. "Up to this point, it's been great, more than we ever could have dreamed of as far as the success we're having. I'm proud. I'm just happy that we're able to have this and thankful for it."
So while Earnhardt may be the co-betting favorite (Johnson also is +350 at WagerWeb.com), he isn't ready to say he's the one to beat in the historic 50th running of The Great American Race.
"When we were down here a couple years ago winning a lot, you could look at each other and see that me and the team were sort of like, 'OK, what's going to happen?' " Earnhardt said. "'When is something going to happen that keeps us from winning the next one?' I don't know what happened. We've done that a couple times. We've come down here and won a couple things, felt like the favorite, and either finished well in the 500, top five, or had blown tires and stuff like that happen to us, too. But the 500, I don't feel like that this time. ... I don't feel pressure as we continue to have success this week. I don't feel that pressure mounting because I know how tough it is to win that race, and I just have to go in there when the race starts and do what we need to do and, hopefully, we have good luck."
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