Dale Jr. at Dover

In his first race of the year without crew chief Tony Eury Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished eighth at the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Earnhardt Jr. said he thought he finished second, only trailing Tony Stewart, at the end of the Coca-Cola 600. Turns out when the lead cars started pitting for fuel late in the race, some took a gamble and stayed out. It led to an unfamilar top five, with Casey Mears winning the first race of his NASCAR Nextel Cup career, followed by J.J. Yeley, Kyle Petty, Reed Sorenson and Brian Vickers.
Earnhardt Jr. posted a solid top 10 and credited his strong finish to interim crew cheif Tony Gibson. Eury Jr. is serving a six-race suspension because Earnhardt Jr.'s car had an illegal mount on its Car of Tomorrow wing for the race at Darlington Raceway.
"The 600 was a very positive weekend as a whole for the team," said Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Inc. "We miss having Tony Jr. there in the garage with us, but Tony Gibson and all of the guys all stepped up and picked up the slack. It gives us all confidence that we are going to keep running strong every week like we have been all season."
Dover International Speedway, site of Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race, has produced some memorable races for Earnhardt Jr. In particular, Earnhardt Jr. won the race at Dover in 2001, immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
"We've been really fast, won and led a lot of laps and then we've had days where we've struggled, crashed or just missed it altogether," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It's such a fast track for a one-mile oval, and I've hit the wall there hard enough to never want to do it again, so we're going in there expecting to find a balance where we can be consistent and run up front for 400 miles."
The race at Dover is also a Car of Tomorrow race. No driver has yet to test NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow at Dover, so it should create the same set of variables for every team.
"Everyone is in the same position: coming into the race without a test session there with the Car of Tomorrow," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That's fine with me: I think we have been successful with CoT, and if it's the same for everyone, we should be right in the mix."