CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Tuesday afternoon at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the other 11 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers to kick off the Contender Round of the postseason.
And his confidence entering the three-race round was evident.
“This year, at the three tracks we're going to run next, we finished third, third and first, so we've got a great shot,” he noted.
The stretch to which Earnhardt alluded began with his win at Talladega in May, followed by his back-to-back third-place results at Kansas and Charlotte.
It was part of a regular season that saw Earnhardt earn 13 top-five finishes, which ranked third in the Sprint Cup Series.
Still, that doesn’t mean the pressure isn’t dialed up as the Chase field will be trimmed from 12 to eight by the end of the Contender Round.
Especially with Talladega Superspeedway looming as the elimination race – even with Earnhardt’s six career wins there, which are tied with teammate Jeff Gordon for the second-most all-time at the track.
“You’d like to go into Talladega with a win at Kansas or Charlotte, and I think we can go to Charlotte and compete,” he said. “We've got a better shot maybe at winning at Kansas. I think I really like that track. The high line there seems to work for me really well. It's come in pretty good over the last couple trips there, and we were going to run in the top three if not win the race last year when the right front tire blew. We had like a six‑second lead at that point or something, so we had good speed there last year and finished third there this year, so we've got fast cars. We've been good and competitive over the last couple weeks. We should go into those races and finish good.”
But if it all comes down to Talladega?
“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.”
Even with as much confidence as the No. 88 team is bringing into the round, Earnhardt recognized that “the odds are getting tougher the further you get into this deal.” And the Chase as a whole doesn’t do the nerves any favors.
“It is stressful and it's not enjoyable, but as a fan I would love the hell out of it, right?” he laughed. “It's pretty nail‑biting, man. It's pretty tough. It was worse last year, I think. This year you're going to run the best you can run, and whatever happens, happens.
“I'm not going to ‑‑ I think we just all got kind of carried away last year with the emotions,” he continued. “Not that it won't get intense and emotional this year, but last year was just something else.
“You know, we'll see how it goes. It might get pretty crazy. You just never know.”