Budweiser Race Preview: Phoenix Intl. Raceway

Quotes from Dale Earnhardt Jr. / Driver, #8 Budweiser Chevrolet:
"I'm ready to race today if we could. The Bud team has really been great this year, but people who haven't been paying much attention may not have recognized it because we've had a lot of bad luck and haven't had the finishes this entire team deserves. The Texas race (yesterday) is the perfect example. We had a car that was as fast as any on the track - but we got hit from behind. It wasn't anything we had control over - but the things we do control, like car preparation, pit stops and me driving my butt off - we had all of those things going our way. And it's been the same story all season. We know if we keep doing what we've been doing, we'll be celebrating sooner rather than later.

"Phoenix has been one of our strongest tracks and I've been able to drive a really fast car because Tony (Eury Jr., crew chief) has always had a knack for the set-up there. We've brought it home in the top-five almost half of the races we've started there (four top-five finishes in nine starts). That - plus the wins - makes the long trip out there and back home a lot easier.

"I was really encouraged by how well we've done in the first two races with the Car of Tomorrow. I think everyone in the garage is anxious to see how this new car reacts on a track that's longer than the two short tracks we've raced on so far. We've been able to find some things in the set-up that the COT seems to respond to, so I'm anxious to climb in and get out there."

Dale Jr. and the No. 8 Bud Team at Phoenix International Raceway:
Previous Cup Starts: 9
Best Start: 3rd (Nov. 2003)
Best Finish: 1st (Two wins: Nov. 2003 and Nov. 2004)
This Race, Last Year: ST: 11th / FIN: 23rd
Top-Five Finishes: 4
Top-10 Finishes: 5
Laps Led: 310 laps led / three races led
Top-10 Starts: 2
Average Start: 13.89
Average Finish: 16.33
Career Winnings: $1,173,196

Minutiae: Dale Jr. has two victories at Phoenix, both in the fall race (2003 and 2004)... The 2004 victory took place in the midst of the first Nextel Chase for the Championship... Phoenix is one of four tracks where Dale Jr. has recorded more than one Nextel Cup victory (Daytona, Talladega, Richmond and Phoenix)... Among his 17 career victories, Dale Jr. has won at nearly every size of Cup track: superspeedway (Talladega, Daytona), intermediate (Texas, Atlanta, Chicago), one-mile (Dover, Phoenix) and short-track (Richmond, Bristol)...

Primary Chassis this week: #051 - Chevrolet Impala SS (Car of Tomorrow) - previously raced to seventh-place finish at Bristol

Race Details: Subway 500k / Phoenix International Raceway / Phoenix, AZ
1-mile oval / 312 laps / 312 miles
Saturday night, April 21, 2006
TV: Fox-TV, 8:00 p.m. ET
Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) / Sirius Satellite NASCAR Radio