GFS Marketplace 400 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. Notes

Budweiser Winston Cup Race Preview

Dale Jr. Quotes for Michigan:
“This is one of the fastest tracks and the faster the better, I say. You can really race here, it’s wide with a series of grooves where you can go where your cars works best. You’re not locked into a single groove.

“I’m proud of my guys for the way they’ve given me great cars each week. It was exciting to go to Watkins Glen and have a car that was able to run at the front. That’s a statement about the work we’ve done to eliminate the weak spots we’ve shown in the past. You can’t say ‘oh those guys are only good on the restrictor plate tracks’ and write us off everywhere else. Yeah, we want to win races, we want to win every week, but we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing: getting top-10s and top-fives every week.”

Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser Team at Michigan
Previous Starts: 8
Best Start: 1st (Aug. 2000 and Aug. 2002)
Best Finish: 7th (June 2003)
Last Year: ST: 1st / Fin: 10th / Led 37 laps
Dale Jr. and the Bud team have two Bud Poles at this event (2000 and 2002)… In seven starts since the team joined the Winston Cup tour full-time, Dale Jr. has an average starting position of 4.7 at Michigan. Only once since 1999 has Dale Jr. qualified worse than seventh… The Bud team has led the last four Winston Cup races at Michigan… Dale Jr. will also be involved as car owner in the Busch Series event this weekend. Tony Stewart will drive the Chance 2 Busch Series car, with sponsorship from the band 3 Doors Down…

The third-place finish at Watkins Glen was Dale Jr's eighth top-three finish in 2003…

Race Details:
GFS Markets 400
Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, MI
2-mile D-shaped oval / 200 laps / 400 miles
Sunday, August 17 / 2:00 pm / Eastern
Winston Cup Race # 23 (of 36)
TV: TNT-TV 1:30 pm pre-race

Bud Pole Qualifying: Bud Pole Qualifying takes place Friday at 3:00 pm. You can see it live on the Speed Channel. You can also hear the race and Bud Pole qualifying live on MRN radio (a station near you) or XM Radio.

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