Earnhardt: Road racing is like golf -- reps are everything

Earnhardt: Road racing is like golf -- reps are everything

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

SONOMA, Calif. -- Based on Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s record at Sonoma, it would be a pipe dream to expect him to double up on last week's breakthrough Michigan victory with a win in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile road course.

Realistically, Earnhardt would he happy with a top-10 finish, something he hasn't achieved in 12 starts at the demanding track. Earnhardt does have three 11th-place results at Sonoma, but he finished 41st last year after an overheating problem knocked his No. 88 Chevrolet out of the race after 45 laps.

To Earnhardt, who broke a 143-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winless streak last Sunday at Michigan, road racing skills are something you're born with, but that's not to say a driver can't benefit from practice.

"I think it's just something in the genes," Earnhardt said Friday at Sonoma. "Some guys . . . Rusty Wallace was real good at it. He came from ASA (American Speed Association stock cars). Ricky Rudd was real good at it, but he ran a lot of go-karts when he was young, maybe on road courses and stuff, I assume. It's hard to say. There are guys who are good at it with little explanation as to why, and then there are guys with a lot of background and good rhyme and reason as to what makes them talented on road courses.

"I think it's either a niche you have, or you don't. You can go to Bondurant (racing school) and places like that and get speed and find your inner Boris Said (a road course specialist. It's kind of like being able to play golf well -- it's something you have to do all the time. If you neglect it or don't take it seriously, you won't be good at it. You can't just pick up a bag of clubs and go hit every four months and think you're going to play a good round."

Earnhardt took his own advice. Before coming to Sonoma, he honed his road-racing skills at a recent test session at Road Atlanta.

MICHIGAN TIRE TEST SET

In response to blistering issues that prompted a Saturday switch to a harder left-side tire last weekend at Michigan, Goodyear has scheduled another tire test at the two-mile track for July 30, the Monday after the Crown Royal 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the tire maker confirmed to the NASCAR Wire Service on Friday.

Because the timing -- namely, too tight a schedule to construct a new tire for the Aug. 19 Pure Michigan 400 -- the test will be a confirmation of the tires Goodyear expects to bring to Michigan for that race.

"Because there isn't enough time to run a 'normal' tire test and then build a full complement of tires for the race in mid-August, we are planning to do a 'confirmation' test with a large number of teams at Michigan on July 30th," said Stu Grant, Goodyear's general manager for worldwide racing.

"We anticipate 15 to 20 cars will participate in the test. We expect the August race set-up will be very close to what we saw last Sunday, so we have a good plan in place for the test."

Contrary to expectations, speeds escalated throughout last weekend, with Greg Biffle posting a lap at 204.708 mph in Friday's final practice. Goodyear announced the switch to the harder tires -- a code used at Charlotte in 2006 and 2007 -- that night.

Drivers qualified on the original tires on Saturday afternoon, with Marcos Ambrose winning the pole at 203.241 mph, before the switch was made, Teams got 75 minutes of practice on the Charlotte left-sides Saturday evening and raced on the new tires on Sunday.

Goodyear is still making the final determination on which tires it will confirm during the test. The rain date is July 31.

SHORT STROKES

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray will combine to drive a second Ganassi Racing entry in the Brickyard Grand Prix Grand-Am race July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Both Montoya and McMurray have competed in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, with Montoya twice a part of the winning team in a Ganassi Daytona Prototype . . . Clint Bowyer has a special "passenger" riding shotgun with him this weekend. The name of Brady Bakken, 11, of Boone, N.C., the son of one of sponsor 5-Hour Energy's sales brokers, will replace Bowyer's above the passenger door of the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. Bakken was diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma in January. Bowyer's 5-Hour Energy hat will feature a green ribbon -- symbolic of the fight against lymphoma -- with Bakken's name underneath on the opposite side from the sponsor logo.