Earnhardt Jr. Seeks West Coast Restart

Dale Earnhardt Jr. hopes to put a frustrating beginning to the 2009 season behind him this week at Auto Club Speedway.

All eyes are on the driver who’s expected to challenge not only for a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, but a series title in his second season with Hendrick Motorsports.

By necessity, last Sunday’s pit-road problems, pit-road penalty and his role in a Lap 124 pileup that sparked peers’ criticism likely are in Earnhardt’s rear mirror by now.

But when he takes the track for Friday practice, he has some work to do. Earnhardt is one of four active drivers with a career-high four DNFs (did not finish) at Auto Club Speedway. He also has four top-10 finishes in 14 career starts there.

“We had a lot of stuff happen down there in Daytona,” said crew chief Tony Eury Jr., “but I’m pretty excited with how the car ran. The team had some pretty good pit stops. Overall, it was a really good weekend running wise. There were no results to come along with it so we were disappointed about that. I was pretty excited with how the car ran. We’ll put those weekends behind us and move on.”