Earnhardt Jr Getting Close to Finding Elusive Sixth Talladega Win

Dale Earnhardt Jr has won five times at Talladega Superspeedway, but hasn't won there since 2004. For all his restrictor-plate prowess during DEI's golden age where he won a combined seven plate races, Earnhardt Jr has failed to win a plate race since that last Talladega win which was the same year as his Daytona 500 win.

In this race last season, Junior rolled to a second-place finish and had the best view of the Keselowski-Edwards clash, Part I. This year, he got even closer to winning a plate race in the Daytona 500 as he made a mad dash to the finish with a few laps remaining to finish second. 

He'll be driving a brand new chassis this week, one that tested last month at Talladega with the new spoiler.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., DRIVER, NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET (ON TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY.): "When you show up, whatever you unload, that's what you are going to have all weekend. There's not a lot that you can do to the car to improve it. NASCAR has a lot of rules with the cars at Talladega and Daytona, where you can't do a lot of changes in the back of the car to get the car to handle good. However it unloads is about as fast as it is going to get. Hopefully we brought a bullet."

LANCE McGREW, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET (ON STRATEGY AT TALLADEGA.): "Dale's not the kind of guy that wants to ride around the back. Our intent is to lead every lap and try to stay out of trouble in the front. I don't think anyone has more conviction to getting what he wants than Dale Jr. A lot of people might believe that being in the back would be the safe way to go. If the big one is going to happen, it's going to happen. We definitely have a race car from the test that can go down there and lead and be out front. That's our intention."

McGREW (ON HOW THE CAR AND DRIVER RANK AT TALLADEGA.): "You definitely have to have a good car but the best car is not going to do anything without the driver putting it in the right position. That's where Dale Jr. shines when it comes to superspeedways. He knows how to put the car in the right position to help himself."

McGREW (ON TALLADEGA VERSUS DAYTONA.): "There is just a night-and-day difference. There is absolutely zero handling involved at Talladega -- it's all speed. Your car will handle the same 20 laps into a run as it will on the first lap."