Earnhardt needs win to save season

TALLADEGA, ALA. » This magical season for Dale Earnhardt Jr. comes down to one race to save his championship hopes. NASCAR’s most popular driver must win today at Talladega Superspeedway to continue his quest for his first career Sprint Cup title.

It’s a pressure-packed situation for Earnhardt, who knows that six-time and defending NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and 2012 champion Brad Keselowski are also in must-win situations today. The three combined for 10wins during the regular season but go into this elimination race ranked at the bottomof the 12-driver field.

Four drivers will be cut from the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship today, and won’t be eligible to race for the title next month.

“I wish we were in a better position to achieve what we want to achieve and be able to move forward,” Earnhardt said Saturday. “I wish we had to finish `X’ or better. But we have only one route, and that’s through Victory Lane, and that’s the only way we can get forward into the Chase.

“It’s definitely a tall order, but we have nothing to lose.”

So Earnhardt is clear about his strategy for today.

The five-time Talladega winner his last victory, though, was in 2004 to give him the championship lead wants to run at the front of the field and be in position to hold off challenges over the closing laps. Talladega is such a crapshoot race, and the field can be one giant pack of traffic that can be wiped out by the smallest bobble.

Most drivers aim to stay out of trouble until about 20 laps to go, then charge toward the front when the win is on the line. But that hurt Earnhardt here in the spring, when he waited too late to make his move and couldn’t pick his way through traffic.

So theDaytona 500winner isn’t leaving anything for chance, and doing his best to tune out the pressure and simply be ready to go on today.

“I’ve been racing here a long time. I got it,” he said. “Just have to get my suit on and get in the car. I just don’t need to eat any bad fish or junk food. Put good stuff in your body you can burnand drink a lot ofwater to hydrate.

“I’m ready to race and ready for some fun. I like the challenge. I feel like I have some fortune and a little bit of luck to still have a shot.”

Labonte to retire

Terry Labonte will compete in his final NASCAR race today at Talladega Superspeedway.

The two-time Cup champion ran 26 full seasons at NASCAR’s top level, and a partial schedule the last decade. Labonte first announced his retirement in 2006, at home track Texas Motor Speedway, but he’s raced 41 times since.

“You know, it’s only about the third time I’ve said this is going to be my last race,” he said Saturday. “But this is really going to be the last one. It’s been fun.”

Labonte, who turns 58 next month, had four scheduled races this season with Go FAS Racing and good friend and crew chief/owner Frank Stoddard. All four were at Daytona and Talladega, and he finished a season-best 11th at Daytona in July.

Thefinal start for “Texas Terry” will be the 890th of his career, which is tied for third in NASCAR. It will be his 61st start at Talladega, which is tied for the most.

Labonte won his Cup titles in 1984 and 1996, and has 22 career victories. He drove 10 full seasons for Billy Hagan, three for Junior Johnson and 11 for RickHendrick. He also has driven for Richard Petty, Roger Staubach/Troy Aikman, Joe Gibbs and Michael Waltrip through his career.

Labonte cited his 1999 win at Texas as one of the “coolest” memories of his career.

“That’s the first time I think I ever noticed a crowd,” he said. “I was passing Dale Jarrett. We had really run good all day and they beat us on a pit stop and I ran him down and passed him with less than 10 laps to go and I saw the whole place stand up.”