Is Dale Jr. primed for Phoenix win 11 years after last victory at PIR?
There was a time many moons ago when Dale Earnhardt Jr. once ruled Phoenix International Raceway.
Actually, he ruled PIR twice.
The years were 2003 and 2004 when Earnhardt, still a relative newcomer to NASCAR's top series, was competing for Dale Earnhardt Inc. -- the organization his legendary father founded.
Driving the No. 8 red Budweiser Chevrolet, the Kannapolis, North Carolina native scored back-to-back wins at PIR in the fall of '03 and '04.
In 20 races since last hoisting the winner's trophy at PIR, Earnhardt Jr. has been wildly inconsistent at the 1-mile desert track -- sometimes running near the front and sometimes struggling for a spot in the top 10.
But through the various highs and lows, he hasn't been back to Victory Lane in the Valley of the Sun.
To put the length of Earnhardt's Phoenix drought into perspective, consider all that has happened since his most recent triumph here:
• PIR added a second annual Sprint Cup date (in 2005)
• Junior left DEI for Hendrick Motorsports (2008)
• PIR was reconfigured with progressive banking, a wider frontstretch and a tighter "kink" in the backstretch (2011)
What does all this mean?
Not only has it been a long time since Earnhardt conquered PIR, he has yet to do so on the current layout, which now features progressive 10- to 11-degree banking in turns 1 and 2, and progressive 8- to 9-degree banking in turns 3 and 4.
Needless to say, NASCAR's most popular driver is itching to change all that in Sunday's CampingWorld.com 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
"The shape of the track's unlike anything else," said the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. "You go to a lot of tracks and you feel like you see some of the same things at a lot of different racetracks, especially the mile-and-a-halves -- they're all kind of very similar.
"But nothing's like Phoenix. Nothing has the dogleg on the back straightaway and the banking and all that stuff with variable banking."
Especially tricky is that turns 1 and 2 are extremely sharp while turns 3 and 4 are long and sweeping. Thus, a different approach is required to successfully navigate the different ends of the track.
"Turns 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 are so different from each other, so it's a fun challenge for the crew chiefs and the teams to try to set a car up to get around all those different corners and different styles of banking," Earnhardt said. "And the track was recently paved, so it's a real challenge to pass, which can be fun, but as the track's aged over the last couple years it's gotten more enjoyable and more fun to sort of set up how you drive the corners, but it's a challenge.
"The tire there is super, super hard, really slick and can get out from under you really easy, so you've got to be really careful -- you have to respect the racetrack quite a bit."
The good news for Earnhardt is that he and his No. 88 team led by first-year crew chief Greg Ives come into the weekend on a roll, having finished no worse than fourth in the season's first three races.
"This time, we raced up there. So you can see the cars are better, and I think that our team's really in good shape."
