THE TIRE RIM DRIVER CAREER PROFILE: DALE EARNHARDT JR.

Brett Winningham
3/22/2011 11:45 pm


    

                    Dale Earnhardt jr. has been racing in NASCAR since 1996 and is still racing today in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series and the NASCAR Nationwide series part time this year.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his first NASCAR Bush series start at Myrtle Beach on June 22^nd 1996.  21 year old Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 14^th in his first NASCAR career start.  Later on in 1999 Dale made his 1^st NASCAR Sprint cup series start at Charlotte Motor Speedway where he finished 16^th that day.  In 1998 Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a breakout season he won 7 NASCAR Busch series races and won his first NASCAR Bush Series championship.  In 2000 Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his 1^st NASCAR Winston Cup series race at Texas Motor Speedway and Richmond in that same year.  In 2004 Dale had his best NASCAR season he won 6 NASCAR Nextel Cup races including NASCAR’s biggest race the Daytona 500, in that same year Dale won 2 NASCAR Bush Series races.  In 2009 Dale Earnhardt Jr. took a big tumble that hurt his NASCAR Sprint cup series career.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. will always be one of the drivers to watch out on the race track on Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, and Jr. Nation will always be in the stands during each NASCAR Sprint Cup series race.  In 2010 Dale Earnhardt Jr. gained some momentum for himself while driving the famous number 3 car at Daytona International speedway in July’s NASCAR Nationwide series race Dale Earnhardt Jr. went to victory lane for his 23^rd NASCAR Nationwide Series win.  In 2011 Dale Earnhardt Jr. got Steve letarte as a new crew chief which boosted Dale Earnhardt Jr’s confidence level, and has came close to winning several NASCAR races this year.  Some fans says that they won’t be surprised if we see Dale Jr. win a race or two soon with how well the number 88 has performed lately on the race track.  On Tuesday I asked 3 questions to a diehard Dale Jr. fan named Lacy Keyser.

Q. how long have you been cheering for dale Jr.?

Lacy: I have been a Junior fan for a lot of years to be honest if Dale wouldn’t have died I would have liked him a lot sooner than I did.

Q. do you think Dale Earnhardt Jr, will win a race in 2011 and how many?

Lacy: I Think Junior have every bit a chance to win a race don’t want to get cocky here but I think he could win 3 races I really do. Steve is very great with helping Junior out

Q. what is your most favorite accomplishment of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s NASCAR career?

Lacy: There’s so many things that Junior has done with his career I just don’t know which one... But I guess when he won in that 3 car at Daytona. Seeing that Wrangler 3 car back on the track was amazing I had always wanted to see that car but I wasn't born when that car was around.. I loved seeing him go out there and honor his daddy like he did it was pure amazing and it made me cry I wasn't ashamed to cry either.  Thank you lacy for taking part in the interview.

KYLE BUSH GETS ANOTHER BRISTOL SWEEP!

Saturday afternoon Kyle Busch won the NASCAR

Nationwide series race, and sweeped the Bristol Motor

Speedway weekend.  Kyle led 268 of 300 laps on Saturday

beating hard charging Kasey Kahne to the line.  Kyle Busch

is one of the favorites this year in the NASCAR Nationwide

series as one of the drivers to watch on race day.  Kyle got

his 45^th NASCAR Nationwide series race win Saturday

afternoon along with 5 wins at Bristol.  Some race stats from

Saturday NASCAR Nationwide series race.  8 cautions, 46

laps under yellow, margin of victory 0.524, time elapsed 1hr

52 minutes 39 seconds, 11 cars finished on lead lap,

average speed 85.166 mph.  Top 10 in the Scotts Easy Seed

300 1^st Kyle Busch, 2^nd Kasey Kahne, 3^rd Dale Earnhardt Jr.,

4^th Elliott Sadler, 5^th Joey Logano, 6^th Kevin Harvick, 7^th Carl

Edwards, 8^th Jason Leffler, 9^th Brad Keselowski, 10^th Aric

Almirola.  Top 10 in the NASCAR Nationwide series

standings after Bristol 1^st Jason Leffler, 2^nd Ricky Stenhouse

Jr., 3^rd Justin Allgaier, 4^th Reed Sorenson, 5^th Aric Almirola,

6^th Trevor Bayne, 7^th Kenny Wallace, 8^th Elliott Sadler, 9^th

Danica Patrick, 10^th Brian Scott.

In the NASCAR Sprint Cup race Sunday after noon Kyle

Busch wins the Jeff Byrd 500 Presented by Food City.  Kyle

Busch led 153 laps of 500 beating Carl Edwards by 0.946

seconds. Kyle Busch made his 226^th NASCAR Sprint Cup

series start, and got his 20^th NASCAR Sprint Cup win.  Some

race stats from this weekend NASCAR Sprint Cup race at

Bristol Motor Speedway. Time elapesd 2 hours 54 minutes

59 seconds, 10 cautions, 57 laps under yellow 8 leaders, 19

lead changes, 19 finished on the lead lap, average speed

91.941 mph.  Top 10 from the NASCAR Sprint Cup series

race 1^st Kyle Busch, 2^nd Carl Edwards, 3^rd Jimmie Johnson,

4^th Matt Kenseth, 5^th Paul Menard, 6^th Kevin Harvick, 7^th Kurt

Busch, 8^th Greg Biffle, 9^th Kasey Kahne, 10^th Ryan

Newman.  Top 10 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings after Bristol 1^st Kurt Busch, 2^nd Carl Edwards, 3^rd

Tony Stewart, 4^th Ryan Newman,5^th Paul Menard, 6^th Kyle

Busch, 7^th Jimmie Johnson, 8^th Juan Pablo Montoya, 9^th

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 10^th Martin Truex Jr.  This weekend is the

NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint cup race at Auto Club

Speedway and my pick to win the NASCAR Nationwide

Series race Saturday is Brad Keselowski.  My pick to win the

NASCAR Sprint Cup series race on Sunday is driver of the

number 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion from Cambridge, WI Matt Kenseth.

LAS VEGAS POST RACE REVIEW

Brett Winningham

3/6/11 11:42 P.M.

Today at Las Vegas Carl Edwards come to the top of the leader board and wins the Kobalt Tools 400.  Carl Edwards led 66 of 267 laps of today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Ford has gotten 2 wins in 2011 and expect them to get more wins this season as we got 33 more NASCAR Sprint Cup races to go.  Tony Stewart had A rough day today after his pit crew having trouble on pit road which costed the win from Tony Stewart.  Another driver who did real well today was Juan Montoya, Juan got his best finish at Las Vegas today of 3^rd his previous best finish was 19^th place.  Some race stats from today’s race at Las Vegas 267 laps of 267 were completed.  Race ran for 2 hrs 57 min 37 sec. 7 cautions,  15 leaders, 22 lead changes, average speed 135.513 miles per hour, Tony Stewart ran the fastest lap speed of the day at 182.408 mph, and cars that finished on the lead lap 22.  Top 10 in today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race 1^st Carl Edwards, 2^nd Tony Stewart, 3^rd Juan Pablo Montoya, 4^th Marcos Ambrose, 5^th Ryan Newman, 6th Martin Truex Jr. 7^th Denny Hamlin, 8^th Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9^th Kurt Busch, and 10^th Brian Vickers.  Top 10 unofficial point’s standings after Las Vegas 1^st Tony Stewart, 2^nd Kurt Busch, 3^rd Carl Edwards, 4^th Juan Pablo Montoya, 5^th Ryan Newman, 6^th Paul Menard, 7^th Martin Truex Jr. 8^th Denny Hamlin, 9^th A.J. Allmendinger, 10^th Dale Earnhardt Jr.  The NASCAR Nationwide race was also good on Saturday afternoon as Mark Martin claimed the checkered flag at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.   Mark Martin won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas in his last 2 attempts.  Justin Allgaier also had a great day Saturday.  Danica Patrick got her best finish 4th yesterday. Brad Keselowski on the white flag lap not only ran out of fuel, but also blew a tire and smacked the wall in the middle of turn one and two.  Kyle Busch also had a rough day after trying to pass Brad Keselowski in the grass on the front stretch and spun and hit the wall just before turn one.   Race stats from the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas 200 laps of 200 laps were ran, race time 2 hrs 17 min and 43 seconds, 6 cautions, 27 laps under caution, 6 leaders, 11 lead changes, 10 cars finished on the lead lap, average speed was 132.790 mph.  Top 10 in the Sam’s Town 300 1^st Mark Martin, 2^nd Justin Allgaier, 3^rd Brad Keselowski, 4^th Danica Patrick, 5^th Trevor Bayne, 6^th Carl Edwards, 7^th Denny Hamlin, 8^th Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 9^th Jason Leffler, 10^th Kenny Wallace.  Unofficial points in the NASCAR Nationwide Series after yesterdays Las Vegas race 1^st Reed Sorenson, 2^nd Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 3^rd Jason Leffler, 4^th Danica Patrick, 5^th Justin Allgaier, 6^th Trevor Bayne, 7^th Aric Allmirola, 8^th Kenny Wallace, 9^th Mike Bliss, 10^th Joe Nemechek.  Next week is A off week for the NASCAR Sprint Cup series and NASCAR Nationwide series, but the NASCAR Camping world truck series will be racing in Darlington this weekend practice will not be aired, but qualifying will be on speed at 3:30 P.M. est. and the Too Tough to Tame 200 will be on Speed at 5 P.M. est. on Saturday.  My pick to win the NASCAR Truck series race this weekend at darlington is Kasey Kahne.