Dale Earnhardt Jr. has yet to post a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular season win in 2016 – but the Hendrick Motorsports driver isn’t getting too bent out of shape over the situation.
Earnhardt earned a win in Race 1 of the pre-season Can-Am Duel in February, however that result does not count towards his championship points tally. He currently sits 32 points outside of the Chase for the Sprint Cup cutoff mark, but with eight races left to go before the playoff rounds begin, Earnhardt thinks he can pull it together.
“I’m good,” told USA Today following his 13th place finish at Kentucky last weekend. “I mean, what am I going to do? We’re running as good as we can. It’s either going to be good enough or it won’t be good enough.”
“I’m not going to lose any sleep over it – at least at this moment. When we miss the Chase, it’ll be frustrating and disappointing – but we’re going to plan on not (missing it). We’re going to plan on making it.”
Jr.’s never won at New Hampshire, but he’s posted eight top five finishes in 33 career Sprint Cup starts at the Loudon track in addition to landing in the top ten in five of his last eight starts there. The Team Chevy driver also did a tire test at the track last month – a factor he’s hoping will help him grab the win this Sunday.
“We don’t get a lot of time to test anywhere, so you welcome the opportunity to get out to the racetrack when not all of the competition can,” Earnhardt said. “You look at it as an advantage to get a leg up on the other guys and also take some information back to your teammates.”
“I just want to get a win there. We’ve been a top-five or top-10 car pretty much every trip, but we’ve never had the fastest car,” he added. “Hopefully the opportunity we had to test there is going to give us a chance.”
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