Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Puts Impala SS on the Pole at Texas

A Total of 15 Team Chevy Drivers Set to Start Samsung 500

Ft. Worth - April 4, 2008 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Impala SS, blistered the competition to capture the pole for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). His lap of 28.286 seconds, 190.097 mph was over two-tenths second faster than the second place qualifier.

The number one starting spot is Junior's second at Texas Motor Speedway and the eighth of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) career. The 1.5-mile speedway is the site of not only his career-first Cup victory (2000), but his career-first NASCAR Nationwide Series win as well. (1998)

Junior's Hendrick Motorsports teammate and defending NSCS champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS, will start fifth. Johnson was the fall 2007 race winner at TMS as he campaigned to his second consecutive championship.

A total of 15 Team Chevy drivers will start the 334-lap/501-mile race at 1:00 pm CDT on Sunday. Live coverage will be provided by Fox TV, PRN Radio and Sirius Satellite radio.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY IMPALA SS – POLE WINNER

ON HIS LAP: “I really can’t put my finger on anything. Tony (Eury) Jr. and Tony (Eury) Sr. have always set my cars up really good here. Whenever you run a lap like that you’ve got to say the car is doing a lot of things there and they did a good job with the car this week and I’ve got to thank everybody at Hendrick. The motor was awesome. I’m just real proud of my guys. They just do such a good job. I’m just so lucky to have such good talent around me.”

HOW CLOSE TO A PERFECT LAP WAS THAT FROM BEHIND THE WHEEL? “Oh, it’s never perfect, I don’t think. It didn’t feel any better than that .89 I ran in practice. You never can tell. When you talk about a half a second, I don’t’ think you can feel it out there. We had a great advantage going so much later than Carl (Edwards) ran. There is no denying that. The car handled really good. We ran in some race trim this morning and the car is as good and as comfortable. It could be a great weekend for us.”

YOU REALLY LIKE COMING TO TEXAS, DON’T YOU? “I do enjoy coming to Texas. It’s one of our better markets as far as NASCAR goes for west of the Mississippi. They really do make us feel welcome when we come here. The fans turn out and they really get excited about our sport. It’s fun when we run good and we always have here.”

WAS THERE ANYTHING ABOUT THAT LAP THAT SURPRISED YOU? ”Just the time. But from inside the car, it didn’t feel like it was any quicker than what we ran in practice, which was an .89. So I was surprised the time was as good as it was. But it can be beat. There are some good strong cars that can challenge that time. I’m really proud of my guys. They deserve a lot of credit. I had a real good car all day in practice.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS – Qualified 5th:

ON HIS LAP: “The track was a little slick down in (Turns) 1 and 2 with all the work that had gone on down there. But those guys around me went fast. I went fast. I thought I had a little bit more. I was maybe just a little aggressive with my line on entry and was up in the trash a little bit, but it was a great performance for us.”

ARE YOU GETTING YOUR PROGRAM TOGETHER WITH THE NEW RACE CAR ON THE 1.5-MILE TRACKS? “Yeah, we really do. And this weekend is going to be a good test for us. We’ve been working hard to find some speed and this weekend’s performance will let us know where we are on progress.”

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY IMPALA SS
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

“We had a great advantage going so much later than Carl (Edwards) ran. But I’ve got to give my guys a lot of credit. I had a real good car for it to go out and be able to run as it did, I was just so happy for my guys. They work hard and they’re just working so well together. They keep giving me good cars each week.”

ON HIS TIME: “I don’t want to guess but that’s just really speculation from here on out. It’s definitely an advantage. I don’t really know how much of an advantage it is. But for the most part it’s just the luck of the draw and number one, I guess we’re all real happy that Michael was able to get out of the car after the crash he had today. That was a scary incident. We all held our breath for a few seconds there because it looked pretty bad. We have pretty safe cars and that was good to see him get out and I had a pretty good amount of confidence that the track was in better condition once I got to it. I definitely, after seeing Michael’s wreck, had no problem driving my car as hard as I could. And we just ran a good lap; a clean lap. In practice today, the car was handling really, really good and I was surprised. We ran some laps in race trim and it was really, really fast. And so I knew we had a good capable chance of getting a good lap in qualifying, but we kind of ran late with our race trim package and we only got about two runs on the qualifying stuff. We were hitting the ground the first run and it still wasn’t quite dialed in. So I was a little concerned. I thought we could get a better qualifying run if we would have tried our qualifying package more often in practice today, but we didn’t. So I was surprised by how good a lap that was. I’ve just got to thank my sponsors and all. But the supporting cast that I have is tremendous. When it comes to qualifying one lap, the car is doing a lot. The driver, you’ve got to be good and smart about what’s going on, but the car is doing it a lot. The Hendrick organization, from my team all the way out the other side, it gets a lot of credit for what we were able to do today.”

IS IT MORE IMPORTANT FOR YOU PERSONALLY TO GET THAT WIN THAT YOU HAVEN’T HAD FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS, OR TO JUST DO WHAT YOU’VE BEEN DOING WHICH IS GETTING THESE TOP 10’S AND A SECURE POSITION IN THE POINTS? “Well, that’s a great question. What’ more important? I think the majority of the people are as hungry as I am to get a win. The thing that I’m trying not to look past or under appreciate is how much better I’m doing in my career and in this position I’m in this year and how much of a better situation I’m in and how much happier I am as a person and just what all good has come from this change that I made. So, I knew that Rick’s (Hendrick) program and his company was awesome and that they continue to do things that are impressive and organized. And so I want to go out there and get a win and I want to get that out of the way and tack it onto my stats and all that good stuff. But just how much better everything is for me right now is overwhelming that, you know, in a sense. So I went out there. And I’ve always run good at Martinsville and had some good runs there and led laps there. I was disappointed a little bit about (finishing) sixth because we ran so good all day. Even when we don’t run that good, I generally finish third, fourth or fifth. I was disappointed about how I feel off at the end of that race, but as a whole, to move up one spot in points and to be where I’m at in points right now, it’s better for me. I’m more proud of being able to go out and get five top 10’s in six races and things like that. So, I’ve never been that type of driver. I’ve never had those statistics. I felt like I was that type of guy, but I wasn’t able to make it happen. I’m enjoying that so much and I’m humbled by it. So you might not think that I’m as hungry for the win in how I talk to you and how I am or act. It’s in there. But I’m just so humbled by everything and how things have been going that right now I’m just trying to see the picture clearly and trying to make sure continue to do my job and do it good. You get so caught up in hype of the situation that it can turn you in the wrong direction. I’m just trying to make sure I keep doing good and go out and qualify like we can; like we should. And if it’s a first place car, we’ll try to win the race. If it’s a fifth place car, try not to screw up and finish 10th. You know, that’s the deal.”

SOMETIMES POLE POSITIONS CAN BE FLUKY THINGS. BUT IN 7 PREVIOUS STARTS FROM THE POLE, YOU’VE ONLY FINISHED OUTSIDE THE TOP 10 ONCE. IS IT FAIR TO SAY WHEN YOU QUALIFY FIRST, YOU’VE PROBABLY GOT A CAR THAT’S GOING TO GO THE DISTANCE ON SUNDAY. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A WINNING CAR? “I guess it’s a little bit of an inside joke between me and Tony Jr. and anyone else who has worked with me. If I’m in the top 10 in practice, we normally know we’ve got a great, great car because I just for some reason don’t run as well in practice as the car is capable of running. And we’ll struggle on the sheet in practice and we’ll go out and the car will be great in the race. Yeah, I think if we qualify well, we’ve got a great opportunity to run well in the race. Obviously it is for anybody. But I think for us, especially, because I don’t consider myself a great qualifier. I can get the job done, but I don’t consider myself a Ryan Newman-style qualifier. And I don’t have the statistics to back that up either. Anytime we get a pole it’s a great sign and gives me and anybody that’s working with me great confidence.”

HOW OFTEN DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS EVENT LAST YEAR WHEN YOU HOPPED IN THE NO. 5 CAR TOWARD THE END OF THE EVENT? AND DO YOU THINK A WIN THIS WEEKEND WOULD BRING THINGS FULL CIRCLE? “I don’t think about that day that much, if at all, since we did it. I tell you man, when that happened, I was daydreaming of the early ‘80’s when it used to happen all the time. And I guess some people either weren’t around or don’t remember how that used to be, but it was pretty neat. You didn’t have the manufacturer conflicts and the sponsor conflicts and guys would just go from car to car. The good old days. I don’t think it brings that full circle. I don’t know what a win would do for us. We’d be so happy about it we’d celebrate it and Monday is the time when you start thinking about the next week. But we’ve got a long year with a lot of things to do and things to try to do well. And we’ve just got to maintain that focus and try to stay on the path, man.”

DO YOU GET OF YOUR FANS JUST BEATING TONY EURY JR. TO DEATH OVER EVERY CALL HE MAKES? “I talked to him about that and I asked him, especially recently, about that situation. And actually it got me to thinking on something I’m going to do. I’m going to do a Q&A on my website once a month because I like what y’all do. And I want to try it (smiling). Tony Jr. is going to be like the first guy. And I asked him some questions about that, but that’s really what brought that up. The fans are real hard on Tony Jr. He doesn’t really have a voice. He doesn’t get to come in here and get the chance of having that question asked so he can answer it and so y’all can print it and the fans can read it. He doesn’t have that voice, you know? And I don’t want to sit here and speak for him, because that normally gets me in trouble. And so I said in a roundabout way, why don’t I do a Q&A with him? It’s something I can start doing once a month. That would give me the opportunity to work that in. But he understands and he’s experienced it before, but it’s definitely magnified more so now, either due to the press we’ve gained from making our change and whatnot and how much everybody has focused in on what we’re doing and how we’re doing. Even though there are bigger stories throughout the year, people do keep an eye on us, speaking of you guys and whatnot, but the fans especially. But I asked him how he was handling it and he said, you know, Tony Jr. has got pretty thick skin. He knows the drill. He took the blunt of a lot of blows when we were wearing red uniforms. I feel bad for him because like you say, he’s up there on top of that box and he’s got to make the call and he knows either way that he’s going to have some people that are going to be critical of his choice. But he’s my crew chief and I need him to be clear-minded when he’s up there making those calls. So my main concern is, is he clear-minded? And I asked him in my Q&A whether anything influenced him. But he was Tony Jr., you know. He said everything you’d expect him to say. So, whether he’s thinking that or feeling that is another thing. I don’t think he would share his true feelings, really, with anybody. But what it comes down to is, as long as it’s my choice, he’s my crew chief. That’s my cousin. I enjoy racing with him and winning races and poles and getting top five’s with him. I enjoy helping him be happier and get things he wants; material things in life, whether it’s land, his house, tractors and bobcats; whatever he enjoys. I enjoy helping him accumulate those things. And I enjoy working with him on the weekends. We’ve gone too far to learn that and gain that with someone else. I don’t think I would ever have that close relationship with someone else. So as long as it’s up to me, that will be the way it is. I think we’re a great team and I don’t want to race against him, ‘cause he’ll whip you. He’s good. I don’t want him taking some other guy and running circles around me.”