Richmond II: Dale Earnhardt Jr preview

Dale Earnhardt Jr. - driver, No. 8 Budweiser team:

"I can't wait to get there. Richmond is one of those places where we've always done really well and I love racing there. To run like we did (at Fontana) was gut-wrenching, and it always makes it a long trip home when you run like that on the west coast, but being locked-in the top-10 takes the edge off a little bit. I'm pretty relieved we're in the Chase (Dale Jr. has clinched a spot in NASCAR's 10-race, 10-driver chase for the Nextel Cup Championship), so we can go in and get one last weekend of letting it all hang out. We'll be aggressive and go for the win before the pressure kicks in..."

-- Dale Jr. and the No. Bud team are trying to achieve something for the third consecutive year: scoring the most cumulative points on short tracks (less than one-mile in length) than any other Nextel Cup team. They bested every other Cup team in 2002 and 2003, and so far this season they have two victories, a third-place and an 11th-place finish in the first four short-track races.

-- The No. 8 car has led each of the last six Cup short-track events for a total of 793 laps (an average of slightly more than 132 laps led per race.) Dale Jr. has led 1,392 laps on short tracks in his Cup career. On short-tracks, Dale Jr. has 12 top-five finishes in the last 18 races and 14 top-10 finishes in his last 20 starts.

-- Dale Jr's first career Cup top-10 finish was at this event in 1999. Richmond is also one of three tracks where he has multiple Cup victories (Talladega/four, Daytona/two victories) Dale Jr. recorded this third career short-track win at Bristol Motor Speedway two weeks ago.

-- The Bud team will race chassis no. 10 - the same chassis that won at Richmond in May, and also raced at Las Vegas and Loudon, NH earlier this season.

-dei/budweiser-