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| Dale Earnhardt Jr. is 30/1 to win on one of his best tracks. |
“Pocono is a good track for us. I like both Pocono and Michigan, so we have some solid tracks coming up for the No. 88 gang. We were in the simulator this week working on Pocono. We’ve been working really, really hard the last three weeks. It’s been going great – the cars have gotten better in practice and we’re seeing some good improvements, so we’re going to keep grinding. We’re going in the right direction.”
DOVER RECAP: After an up-and-down day for the No. 88 team at Dover International Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. came home with an 11th-place finish after missing a multiple-car incident on the final lap. His last two results – the Dover finish and the top-10 finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway the prior week – have helped Earnhardt move up three spots in the championship points standings, from 25th to 22nd.
FRONT-RUNNER AT POCONO: Earnhardt swept both NASCAR Cup Series events in 2014 to earn his two career victories at Pocono Raceway. The Kannapolis, North Carolina, native has also finished in the top five in a third (33.3 percent) of the races he’s competed in at the “Tricky Triangle,” including his most recent trip to the 2.5-mile facility last spring, when he earned a runner-up finish. The driver of the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS also has one pole at the Pennsylvania track, which he earned in August 2007.
LOOP DATA: According to NASCAR's loop data statistics, Earnhardt has the sixth-best driver rating among active drivers since 2005 at Pocono with a 93.9 average rating. The driver rating is a formula that combines wins, top-15 finishes, average running position while on the lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, most laps led and lead-lap finishes. The driver of the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS ranks seventh in average speed early in a run (164.905 mph), average speed late in a run (162.737 mph), green-flag speed (163.311 mph), quality passes (823) and laps in the top 15 (2,646) in that span. He ranks eighth in fastest laps run (112 laps) and laps led (93 laps).
PRESENTED BY: Earnhardt’s primary sponsor at Pocono will also be the presenting sponsor of the 400-mile Cup event, a race it has sponsored for three consecutive years. Axalta presents the Pocono 400, which will air live on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, June 11, at 3 p.m. ET. Use #AxaltaPocono400 to join in the conversation on race weekend.
HOMETOWN CONNECTION: The shock specialist for the No. 88 Axalta team, Jason Seitzinger, hails from Shartlesville, Pennsylvania, which is just over an hour southwest of Pocono Raceway. Nicknamed “Penske” for his first job in racing – he worked in the parts room at Penske Racing Shocks in Reading, Pennsylvania – Seitzinger has been with Hendrick Motorsports for more than 15 years. He initially started at Hendrick Motorsports as a shock specialist on the No. 24 team and was part of Jeff Gordon’s 2004 Brickyard 400 victory.
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