Earnhardt flirts with taking Talladega pole
Stenhouse, however, steals the show in qualifying
talladega, ala. » Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s farewell tour has officially started.
All eyes are on NASCAR’s favorite son as he races Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, a place where he is adored by the fans and expected to win every time he gets in his Chevrolet.
The crowd roared Saturday in qualifyingwhen he shot to the top of the board, but it was shortlived. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the last driver to qualify, immediately bumped Earnhardt to second. Stenhouse turned a lap at 191.547 mph to put the Roush Fenway Ford on the pole.
Earnhardt leads all active drivers atTalladegawith six victories, but has never started from the pole. His lapwas 190.780 mph in a Chevrolet.
“I’m pretty happy,” Earnhardt said. “Great lap by Stenhouse and the Roush crew. Would have liked that pole.”
Stenhouse didn’t mind spoiling the Talladega party with his first pole in four years.
“It will be nice to lead the field to the green here,” Stenhouse said. “It’s a cool way to start the weekend.”
Earnhardt announced lastweek that he is retiring at the end of the season, and this first of two stops at Talladega has him nostalgic for one of his favorite racetracks.
“Thrilled with our car, good speed,” said Earnhardt, who didn’t seem to be joking when he noted that a pole would make him eligible to run the preseason “Clash” at Daytona.
“Probably could have sat down and talked to Rick (Hendrick) about running the Clash or something, but let’s see ifwe can’t try to get another one later on this year.”
There’s some notion that Sunday is a must-win race for Earnhardt, because the start to his final season has not been great. He has won only one race at a track other than Daytona or Talladega since 2014. So with his playoff chances dwindling, a victory would be a big boost to this goodbye tour.
“We have had a dry spell, haven’t won a lot of races,” Earnhardt admitted. “I think if I go in thinking this is amust-win (situation), then I’m probably going to get in there and make a few mistakes.”
Earnhardt is only 24th in the standings, with five finishes of 30th or worse this season. But he has a strong mind-set for Sunday, when he knows he needs to be strongest and smartest in the third and final segment.
“Every move and decision, every slight turn of the wheel has to be the right decision,” he said.
Earnhardt used his 2014 victory in the Daytona 500 as the example for how he needs to race at Talladega. In that event, he had an aggressive late battle for position with Greg Biffle to earn the victory.
“The only way I could keepmyself from sliding backward was to run like one inch off the door and squeeze him against the wall,” Earnhardt said of his win. “It really kind of killed both of our cars. But at least he wasn’t passing me. Itwas a bit outside of character for me to drive so much like a jerk, I guess, but that’swhat you’re got to do. You’ve got to keep on cracking the whip, keep telling yourself, ‘This is what has to happen. This is how I have to do this to make this work if I want to win.’ ”
The Denver-based Furniture Row Racing entries of Martin Truex Jr. and Erik Jones will line up side by side on Row 7. Truex qualified 13th, and Jones was 14th.
“Qualifying is not as important here as other tracks, and we feel good aboutwhatwe have for Sunday,” said Truex, who enters the race second in driver points. Lineup »