MENCS: Dale Eanrhardt Jr. Thinks Tires Will Make A Difference At Rough Auto Club Speedway

Dale Earnhardt Jr will start the Auto Club 400 P18. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images North America)

FONTANA, Calif– As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series finished up the final practice session of the weekend at Auto Club Speedway, ahead of Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. found himself P28 at the conclusion of the session.

The driver of the No.88 Axalta Chevrolet will be making his 600th career MENCS start this weekend and with all of his racing experience, he isn’t too worried about how today as his eyes are set for tomorrow.

“We used our stickers in practice yesterday, so we’ve been running on old tires today and that’s cost us some time on the chart.” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We did have one set of stickers we put on right at the end of practice and we really liked those times. We didn’t look good on the chart itself but the lap times are top 15, so we can get the car a little bit better but it isn’t as bad as it looks.”

Earnhardt has finished second here at ACS twice before and thinks having fresh tires will make the difference between another second place finish and being in victory lane.

“We want to get four tires every time we come down pit road, it’s real important. Our car doesn’t like the cycles or scuff tire, obviously with the way it ran today. Anytime we keep stickers on, it seems to be real good. So hopefully tomorrow we won’t have any restarts on cycled tires, that would be bad for us, if we had to stay out under caution on two lap tires or something like that, it won’t be real good.”

Earnhardt will start the Auto Club 400 P18 on Sunday.

About the Writer

Rence Brown is Race Chaser Online’s West Coast-based correspondent, who currently resides in California and carries a deep passion for NASCAR, but is a follower of multiple forms of auto racing across multiple disciplines.