Earnhardt

INDIANAPOLIS -- Danica Patrick's return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a stock car ended in a hard crash less than halfway through Saturday's Indiana 250. Patrick, the former IndyCar driver who now races in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series, was running about 20th when the top five race leaders made pit stops. Patrick remained on the track and was running behind Reed Sorenson. As the two entered Turn 1 on lap 39 of the 100-lap race, Patrick's No. 7 Chevrolet tapped the back of Sorenson's No. 98 Ford, sending Sorenson into a spin.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Thursday he had no issues with Texas Motor Speedway's decision to have the National Rifle Assn. as the title sponsor of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race Saturday night. The track's willingness to hold a race called the NRA 500 amid the heightened national debate over gun-control laws has raised eyebrows. It's also a tradition for the speedway to have the winner fire blanks from two six-shooters in Victory Lane. But Earnhardt, arguably NASCAR's most popular driver, told reporters before testing at the Fort Worth track, "I think it's a good fit for Texas.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is curbing his enthusiasm. While relishing his near victory in last week's Daytona 500, the most popular driver in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series knows he's back at what has been -- for him -- the unfriendly confines of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Still, Earnhardt said Friday that he hopes to maintain momentum from his second-place finish behind winner Jamie McMurray in the Daytona 500 with another strong showing Sunday at the Fontana track. "I enjoy finishing up front; it had been a long time since we had finished [well]

Dale Earnhardt Jr. still hasn't won at Auto Club Speedway, but he left the Fontana track Sunday leading the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. Earnhardt finished second in the Auto Club 400 after the last-lap crash knocked out leaders Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin , giving Earnhardt his fifth top-10 finish in as many races this season. "I was just glad to get through" the wreck "and get a good run," Earnhardt said. "We had a good car all day. " Earnhardt started 15th and struggled at times but rebounded in the closing stages after his Hendrick Motorsports team made adjustments to his No. 88 Chevrolet.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who ended a 76-race winless streak last week at Michigan International Speedway, will seek his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory today at the Toyota/Save Mart 350. But oddsmakers do not give Earnhardt much of a chance on the road course at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. At betEd.com, Earnhardt is listed with 120-1 odds, numbers that put him deep in the pack of 43-car field. Four-time Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, who has won five times on the difficult course at Infineon, is listed as the favorite at 3.75-1.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. found himself early this week in the rare position of being the object of a chorus of criticism from fellow drivers, the media and even fans who normally support him unconditionally. "I did get ripped up quite a bit," NASCAR's most popular driver said Friday at Auto Club Speedway. "I didn't even want to go on the Web. "It's interesting to be on this side of the fence," Earnhardt added. "I'm not on this side too much." The complaints arose after Earnhardt ignited a 10-car wreck on a restart late in last Sunday's Daytona 500, the low point in a race filled with mistakes by the Hendrick Motorsports star.

"What we say on our radio inside our race car is our own business and nobody else's. Anybody else can tune in, but it's at your own risk. That's our office." Dale Earnhardt Jr., on NASCAR's attempts to cut down on obscenities over the drivers' radios.

Meet Eddie the sea otter. If you're truly a sports fan, he's about to become your favorite creature, because Eddie can dunk a basketball on a hoop in his pool at the Oregon Zoo. That's right. Check out the video above. Eddie, who was a rescue from the coast of California, rises out of the water clutching a miniature basketball and dunks it through the hoop. As Dick Vitale might say, "Awesome, baby!" And if you don't think it's awesome, take the advice of Neil Everett of ESPN and "take some awesome lessons.

INDIANAPOLIS --Dale Earnhardt Jr.  sees no reason why his strong showing this year shouldn't continue during the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, although he didn't qualify particularly well. The popular NASCAR driver has never won at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 12 previous races; his best finish was sixth in 2006. But his No. 88 Chevrolet has been stout this season and the Hendrick Motorsports driver is second in the Sprint Cup Series points standings. "I think I could come in here and probably have my best finish here in quite a while," Earnhardt said before he qualified to start 20th in the 43-car field.

That Dale Earnhardt perished from the earth on the last turn of the last lap at his favorite race on his favorite track is almost poetic. That he perished while guarding victory for his friend and his son is more than heroic. In life, he transcended his sport. In death, he resides in Valhalla. RHYS THOMAS Van Nuys You must have heard from countless shocked readers by now concerning Dale Earnhardt's appalling lack of judgment in driving a passenger vehicle 60 mph in rain so hard he couldn't see the highway, narrowly averting collision with numerous vehicles stopped in front of him because of the bad visibility ["An Unforgettable Drive," Feb. 20]

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is enjoying one of the strongest starts of his 14-year career, but can the popular NASCAR driver finally win in Southern California? Earnhardt mostly has struggled at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana but might have one of his best opportunities to reach Victory Lane this year as the Sprint Cup Series returns Sunday for the Auto Club 400. Adapting well to the new Gen-6 car used in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, Earnhardt is second this season in the title standings, nine points behind leader and reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski.

AVONDALE, Ariz. - "I'm no health freak," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said of his recent effort to eat healthier by cutting down on "stuff like pizza and wings. " "I just think the older you get, the more you have to do to kind of maintain a healthy weight," the popular NASCAR driver said. "Not getting too crazy about it, though. " At 38, Earnhardt is entering his 14th full season in the Sprint Cup Series. He finished second to teammate Jimmie Johnson in the Daytona 500 a week ago, and hopes to extend his strong start Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- As the cars barreled into the final lap, there was a chance the improbable might happen at the Daytona 500. Jimmie Johnson, the five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, led the field with Greg Biffle on his tail and Danica Patrick stuck to Biffle's rear bumper. If Patrick could find a way to maneuver around Johnson and Biffle, Patrick would become the first woman to win the sport's crown-jewel race, in only her second attempt. But for as strongly as Patrick ran Sunday, at the end her inexperience showed.

It was another rough practice session at Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday as drivers in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series prepared their new Gen-6 cars for twin qualifying races Thursday. Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran only 11 laps in practice before his engine failed. Ryan Newman lost control of his car when leading Carl Edwards and Mark Martin around the track, with all three cars sustaining damage in the crash. For Martin, it's the third time he's had a car damaged in a crash while preparing for the Daytona 500, which is Sunday.

AVONDALE, Ariz. - Dale Earnhardt Jr. is Jimmie Johnson's teammate and Brad Keselowski's former boss, so who does Earnhardt see winning this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup? "I think Jimmie is going to win it" for a sixth championship, Earnhardt said Friday. Johnson has "great equipment . . . one of the best crew chiefs in the business" in Chad Knaus, and Johnson "is one of the best drivers in the business. " "It's going to be hard to beat those guys," Earnhardt said. Johnson has a seven-point lead over Keselowski in the title standings with two races left: Sunday's AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway and the season finale a week later at Homestead-Miami (Fla.)

Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR's most popular driver by a mile, admitted he was anxious and frightened when he first began dealing with a concussion following a crash three weeks ago at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. But the veteran Sprint Cup racer also said he was glad that he took all the precautionary steps that led to his return to the track this weekend in Martinsville, Va. “Some concussions are really bad, and I don't care how tough you think you are, when your mind is not working the way it is supposed to, it scares the [expletive]

The mystery surrounding Dale Earnhardt's health problems at the Southern 500 took a new twist Tuesday when a close aide said the driver twice nodded off at the wheel before the race. The revelation by Don Hawk, president of Dale Earnhardt Inc., came as Earnhardt underwent more hospital tests in an attempt to determine what happened at the start of Sunday's race in Darlington, S.C.

Al Unser Jr. out-raced and had more luck than teammate Bobby Rahal on Sunday to win the fastest 500-mile race in history, the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway. Unser and several competitors drove laps in the 224-m.p.h. range, and he won $172,684 for averaging 189.727 m.p.h. despite eight caution periods. That was faster than the previous 500-mile mark of 186.288 set by stock-car star Bill Elliott at Talladega in May 1985. It easily outdid the Indy-car mark of 185.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who missed the last two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races with a concussion, will return for Sunday's race at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, his Hendrick Motorsports team announced Tuesday. The popular driver was cleared by neurosurgeon Dr. Jerry Petty after Earnhardt drove 123 laps in a Cup car during a test Monday at the half-mile Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga. "Dale Jr. has done everything asked of him" in various tests, Petty said in a statement.