SONOMA, Calif. — Based on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s record at Sonoma, it would be a pipe dream to expect him to double up on last week’s breakthrough Michigan victory with a win in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile road course.
Realistically, Earnhardt would he happy with a top-10 finish, something he hasn’t achieved in 12 starts at the demanding track. Earnhardt does have three 11th-place results at Sonoma, but he finished 41st last year after an overheating problem knocked his No. 88 Chevrolet out of the race after 45 laps.
To Earnhardt, who broke a 143-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winless streak last Sunday at Michigan, road racing skills are something you’re born with, but that’s not to say a driver can’t benefit from practice.
“I think it’s just something in the genes,” Earnhardt said Friday at Sonoma. “Some guys . . . Rusty Wallace was real good at it. He came from ASA (American Speed Association stock cars). Ricky Rudd was real good at it, but he ran a lot of go-karts when he was young, maybe on road courses and stuff, I assume. It’s hard to say. There are guys who are good at it with little explanation as to why, and then there are guys with a lot of background and good rhyme and reason as to what makes them talented on road courses.
“I think it’s either a niche you have, or you don’t. You can go to Bondurant (racing school) and places like that and get speed and find your inner Boris Said (a road course specialist. It’s kind of like being able to play golf well — it’s something you have to do all the time. If you neglect it or don’t take it seriously, you won’t be good at it. You can’t just pick up a bag of clubs and go hit every four months and think you’re going to play a good round.”
Earnhardt took his own advice. Before coming to Sonoma, he honed his road-racing skills at a recent test session at Road Atlanta.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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