CONCORD, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. knew by the vibration inside the No. 88 Chevrolet SS that he needed to head to pit road.
So that's what he did for an unscheduled stop on Lap 165 last weekend at Kansas Speedway. But it ultimately earned him a 21st-place result.
"We had a fast car, just never really had good track position and got behind," he said. "We didn’t come here to run second or top-five -- we don’t need that, we need a win. We had to try to go out there and win and we just got behind.”
Earnhardt now sits 11th in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, 31 points behind the eighth-place cutoff position to advance to the Eliminator Round of the postseason.
But with a challenge ahead of him, Earnhardt is glad to see Talladega Superspeedway up next on the schedule.
“I wouldn’t rather be going anywhere else than Talladega for the next race if we need a win," he said. "When you think about it, we’ve got to win to get into the next round and I wouldn’t want to be going anywhere else. When you look at all the tracks, where would myself and I’m sure where my fans think we’ve got a shot to win? Where else would we want to be going besides Talladega?"
"I think we can go to Talladega and do the job."
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt's six career wins at the Alabama oval are tied with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for the most among active drivers. He has 11 career top-five finishes and 15 top-10s at the 2.66-mile track.
And perhaps most notably, he won there just five months ago, leading 67 laps en route to Victory Lane.
"Talladega is Talladega," he said. "We've won there earlier this year, we've won at Daytona -- we're taking the same car that won both those races. If we do everything we're supposed to do, we should run up front."
To Earnhardt's point, the chassis the No. 88 team will bring to the track this weekend is the same one he has driven to three superspeedway wins this season -- one in the first Daytona Duel in February, another at Daytona in July and the third at Talladega in May.
On superspeedways this season, Earnhardt has earned an average finish of 1.7 in three races.
"That is a good opportunity for us," he said. "I think we can go to Talladega and do the job. There is a little more room there to be aggressive and make the moves you need to make. I've got the car. That car won the 125, ran third in the (Daytona) 500 and won Talladega and won Daytona. That is a good enough car. I wouldn’t want to be going anywhere else if it’s a win-and-you're-in kind of deal.”
No. 88 team crew chief Greg Ives said he expects his team to "stay aggressive" this weekend, and Earnhardt can't wait.
"Looking forward to it," he said. "We have a car that can win there. We will go there and try to do the job. It’s all we can do.”