Dale Jr. update

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is coming off a 13th-place finish at New Hampshire International Raceway, the first race in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Chase for the Championship. He is seventh in points, 81 behind Kevin Harvick of Richard Childress Racing for the lead.
“We’re fine. It’s still early in the Chase, and anyone who’s already counting out Jimmie (Johnson) and Kyle (Busch) is a little foolish. Everybody is so quick to want to cross people off the list, but you can’t do that," Earnhardt Jr. said. "There are a lot of points to be distributed in nine races. I was frustrated (Sunday after the New Hampshire race) about finishing 13th when I knew we were so much better. I was disappointed, but let me tell you, if that’s our one bad race, then we’ll contending for the championship. I’ve got a great team, and I have a lot of confidence in them. They want to win this championship as bad as I do.�
The drivers behind Earnhardt Jr. are Kasey Kahne, who moved up to eighth, Johnson, who led the Cup standings for most of the season, and Busch in 10th, 146 points out of first.
Next up is Dover International Speedway in Delaware. One of Earnhardt Jr.'s 17 career wins has come at Dover. He won the fall race there in 2001.
His most recent Dover race in June, he started 11th, led one lap and finished 10th.
“We’ve been hit-or-miss at Dover – sometimes we’re great, sometimes we’re not," Earnhardt Jr. said. "But we’ve won there, so there’s always confidence we can do it again. I’m looking forward to going back with Tony (crew chief Eury) Jr. and seeing how much better we can be. We qualified fourth and were strong there last year, but a loose wheel at the beginning of the race ruined our chances to win. We had to make a green-flag pit stop, lost a couple laps, and that was all she wrote. But the car was good, so I know we’ve got good notes to go off of. If we can keep the car turning, we’ll be fast. We’ll be good.�