Earnhardt Jr. takes pole at Talladega
TALLADEGA, ALA.» Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won the pole for his final scheduled Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Earnhardt is retiring from full-time competition at the end of the season, and the Alabama crowd has always embraced NASCAR’S most popular driver. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has declared race day “Dale Earnhardt Jr. Day” across the state.
The field will be led to green by Donnie Allison, a two-time Talladega winner and original member of the Alabama Gang, while driving the late Dale Earnhardt’s No. 2 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Talladega officials presented Earnhardt Jr. with the car, which his father raced during his 1979 rookie season, as well as some races during his 1980 championship season, as a retirement gift.
Now, with the pole — the first of his career at Talladega — it has turned into quite the special weekend for Earnhardt.
“It’s awesome to hear those fans happy for us, and hopefully we’re going to give them a lot more to cheer about before this weekend is over,” he said.
Could he add a seventh victory? “Certainly,” he grinned. “You think about that every time you suit up and get in the car, you imagine if that’s going to be the day you get a win. But this would be a real important one if we could win for all the fans, all year long. We certainly owe them a win.”
Earnhardt is winless this season and didn’t make the playoffs. He has just six races left before he turns over his No. 88 Chevrolet to Hendrick Motorsports and replacement driver Alex Bowman.
On Saturday, Earnhardt turned a lap at 190.544 mph to knock teammate Chase Elliott from the top starting spot. Elliott wound up second with a lap at 190.412 mph in a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of the front row.
“We’ve been fighting our teammate Chase and his group for poles at these tracks for a long time, and it’s been a lot of fun to be honest with you, how these two teams have pushed and elevated each other,” Earnhardt said. “Really, all the credit for getting a pole at a place like this goes to the team . ... I just hold the wheel straight and try not to bounce into the apron. There ain’t much to it as a driver.”
Joey Logano was third in a Team Penske Ford, followed by Daytona 500 winner Kurt Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer.
Stenhouse knocked Earnhardt from the pole in May, and then went on to win his first career Cup race at Talladega. Stenhouse added a victory at Daytona in July, making him the winner of the last two restrictorplate races. Busch’s victory in the Daytona 500 has made the Ford engines built by Doug Yates 3 for 3 so far this year in plate races.
Martin Truex Jr. qualified 21st, and his Denver-based Furniture Row Racing teammate Erik Jones qualified 23rd. Truex leads the Cup Series standings and has a serieshigh six wins this year.
“Obviously this is one race where qualifying doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Truex said. “We’re going to go out tomorrow and race hard and attempt to pick up a few more (playoff) bonus points. Talladega hasn’t been good to us in the past, so hopefully that luck cycle will turn to our favor. It will be an interesting and exciting race as it always is here.”