TALLADEGA, Ala. — As far as Dale Earnhardt Jr. is concerned, Sunday’s Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega Superspeedway won’t be a race for the faint of heart.
Seventh in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings, 39 points behind leader Brad Keselowski, Earnhardt has an aggressive mind-set toward Sunday’s race, even though there are seven races left in the Chase.
“I feel pretty good, I guess because I have nothing to lose,” Earnhardt told reporters Friday at Talladega. “And that fits right into how you race this racetrack. It’s kind of a no-holds-barred, lay-it-out-there kind of thing.
“Anytime you’re cautious, you tend to get yourself in trouble, and the guys that are a lot more aggressive seem to find themselves toward the front of the mess when it all goes down and end up being the ones that, for some reason, will finish. But we’re just going to throw it all out there, man.”
Accordingly, a conservative run, trying to maintain contact with the series leaders, isn’t part of the No. 88 team’s plan.
“We’re in a position where it really doesn’t matter,” Earnhardt said. “We can’t be conservative at all. We’ve really got to take a lot of risks. With just a few races left, and as good as everybody is running, like Brad and second-place Jimmie (Johnson) and the No. 11 (third-place Denny Hamlin), we really have to get pretty aggressive, and that should play right into this race track’s hands.
“It’s a place that really kind of asks for that, and you’ve got to really take some risks and be pretty daring out there to make some things happen.”
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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