INDIANAPOLIS — When his father was among the first to turn laps in a stock car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during a 1992 tire test, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was as giddy as the teenager he then was.
Two years later, the Brickyard 400 era began with his rapt attention.
"I remember, as young as I was, thinking about how big a deal it was for the sport that we were going to have a race here," Earnhardt said. "What kind of race would we see? What kind of style of racing would we see when the cars went around such a big track with no banking and all the corners being 90 degrees? How would the drivers be able to compete with each other?
"But it turned out to be quite a thrill and a lot of fun to watch the first race. It was just really overwhelming."
His results, though, have been underwhelming since climbing behind the wheel at the fabled track.
Earnhardt's Indy debut came in the 1999 International Race of Champions race in which he started 12th and finished 11th.
"I just got destroyed by everybody out there," he said.
That's been the storyline at the Brickyard for most of the career of NASCAR's most popular driver. In his first 12 Sprint Cup starts at Indy, Earnhardt managed only two top 10s — a 10th in 2001 and a sixth in '06.
Last season, he broke through with a fourth that has him carrying some optimism into Sunday's Samuel Deeds 400 at the Brickyard. He has performed well recently at tracks that put an emphasis on horsepower as Indy does. Last month, he placed third at Pocono Raceway and led 34 laps before an engine failure at Michigan International Speedway.
While he also has excelled at flat tracks of varying distances such as Martinsville Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway and Pocono, the rectangular 2.5-mile shape has been befuddling for Earnhardt, who has struggled with the setup of his No. 88 Chevrolet.
"The shape of the track is unique compared to anything else we race," he said. "It's a real technical track, and if you are just looking at the race track you would assume that all the corners look relatively similar. The car must go through each corner pretty much the same and what you might be fighting in one corner you would probably assume you would fight in all of them.
"But all the corners are really different and as odd as it is they are extremely different from each other. Turn one is really tight and feels that it's a shorter radius, and each corner after that appears to be less so. When you look at them, they all look the same. The car certainly doesn't drive the same through them year after year, and you have to start adjusting on the car and trying to improve on something at one end of the track and not ruin something at the other end of the track and make problems for yourself. That makes it a bit of a good challenge."
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Drivers who solve it often signify they are worthy of a bigger reward, as the Brickyard has been a title barometer with Jimmie Johnson (2006, '08, '09), Tony Stewart ('05), Jeff Gordon ('98, '01), Bobby Labonte ('00), Dale Jarrett ('99).
But beyond serving notice of being ready to win his first championship, a victory by Earnhardt Jr. also would be special because his late father won the second race held here in 1995.
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Earnhardt, who was 10th fastest (182.297 mph) in Friday's lone practice, said the Brickyard ranks "second or third" on his list of prestigious tracks behind Daytona International Speedway.
"This place does have a lot of history," he said. "It is a fun race track to drive on just because of the history and everything that has happened here. Anybody who wins here gets to put their name along a list of names of legends, and not only in the stock car racing realm, but also in open wheel and all kinds of other different series.
"It's a pretty big deal and there is a good amount of envy of the guys that have won this race before, more so than I feel at other racetracks that I haven't won at. I would say it's a pretty important race, it ranks right up there."
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