Earnhardt switches superhero, but will superpowers remain?

BROOKLYN, MI - JUNE 17 2012: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 Diet Mountain Dew/TheDarkKnightRises/National Guard/ Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 17, 2012 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
BROOKLYN, MI - JUNE 17 2012:  Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 Diet Mountain Dew/TheDarkKnightRises/National Guard/ Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 17, 2012 in Brooklyn, Michigan.  (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
BROOKLYN, MI – JUNE 17 2012: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 Diet Mountain Dew/TheDarkKnightRises/National Guard/ Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway on June 17, 2012 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Last year it was Batman. This year it’s Superman.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/Dark Knight Rises Chevrolet, promoting last summer’s Batman blockbuster, in the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Earnhardt drove the Caped Crusader-themed race car to Victory Lane, his first trip there in four years.

This Sunday, during the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan (1 p.m. ET, TNT), Earnhardt’s race car will be touting a different superhero — the “Man of Steel.” The North Carolina native’s black and steel-colored car promotes Man of Steel, the latest Superman movie, which hits theaters this Friday.

If Earnhardt has a track that is his kryptonite, it definitely isn’t the two-mile track nestled in Michigan’s Irish Hills a stone’s throw away from Detroit. Over the past eight seasons (16 races) at the track, he has the fifth highest average driver rating (97.1), which is his second highest rating among all NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tracks. Earnhardt has a 98.8 rating at Martinsville Speedway.

He ranks in the top 10 in most loop data categories: second — pass differential (237); third — green-flag passes (1,313); fourth — average finish (10.5), fastest laps run (161), fastest late in a run (174.469 mph); fifth — average running position (12.512), quality passes (697), green-flag speed (175.789 mph), percent of laps led (7.3%, he’s tied with Matt Kenseth); sixth — fastest on restarts (173.013 mph), laps led (229); seventh — speed in traffic (174.852 mph); eighth — laps in top 15 (2,083); and ninth — fastest early in a run (177.910).

Although he has found success at the track, including his last two series wins, his approach won’t differ greatly from other weekends.

“I think you approach it like any other race, but we are going in with a lot more confidence because we ran well there last year,” Earnhardt said.

Over the past four seasons at Michigan, he only has one start in the top 10 (August 2011). However, he has relied on his pit crew to make adjustments during the race to put him in contention at the end of the race. When he won the race last June, he started 17th. In the second Michigan race last year, he started 22nd and finished fourth.

“You’ve got to be patient. I looked through the notes from last year, and we didn’t unload perfect,” said the 10-time Most Popular Driver award winner, who has four top fives and nine top 10s on the year going into the weekend. “We had to work to get it right. You don’t go in with confidence that you are going to go there and it will be perfect. You have the confidence to know that we will get it dialed in.”

Earnhardt started the 2013 season strong with a streak of five top-10 finishes and led the standings after the fifth race of the season at Auto Club Speedway, where he was runner-up to Kyle Busch. It was the first time in his career that the veteran driver held the top spot in the standings in back-to-back seasons. A 24th-place finish the following week at Martinsville, however, knocked him from the perch back to third.

He arrives in Michigan in fourth place, 82 points behind points leader Jimmie Johnson. Will Earnhardt be able to channel those superpowers in Michigan as he did last year and move up a spot or two in the standings? Only time will tell.

“We got a good package going to Pocono and going to Michigan. Hopefully going to Michigan we got a good package; we’ll see when we get there,” Earnhardt said.

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. 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.