Earnhardt Jr. shows strength with Duel 1 win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - When Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s qualifying time was disallowed last Sunday after a rules infraction, NASCAR's most popular driver sent a single angry-faced emoji on Twitter as a response.

On Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway, he sent an emphatic message to his competitors about who's the favorite to win the 57th Daytona 500 on Sunday by driving from last (25th) to the win in Duel 1 of the 150-mile qualifying races.

'We knew the car was really fast when we got on the track Sunday with the car,” Earnhardt Jr. said. 'It finishes a lot of moves. It kind of surprised me. It does a couple things that surprised me out there in the race. So I felt like the car made the job a lot easier.

'I'm just excited to be able to put this car on the grid for Sunday. I wouldn't want to be driving anything else. The car's so spectacular, it's just going to be great. A proud moment to put it on the grid because I think it's such a good racecar.”

Earnhardt said in television interviews and various other points after the first Duel finished that he believes this year's car is the best he's had at Daytona since his race-winner in 2004, and much better than last year's car - the one he drove to his second Daytona 500 victory.

Despite the message his performance sent, knowing he's got such a strong car didn't lead Earnhardt to boast of anything for Sunday quite yet.

All the experience he has tells him nothing is certain, and a lot more work is left to do. The biggest help he sees in running so strong Thursday night is proving to his competitors he'll be one they'll want to draft with on Sunday.

'Well, I don't think it boosts our confidence a lot. Winning the Daytona 500 is a real challenge. The challenge didn't get easier tonight,” Earnhardt said. 'The one thing that I think it might help, when I have been down here and had really, really good cars, was able to show that in practice or a Duel or whatever, it does tend to let the field see that you do have a fast car, and if they do tend to draft with you, they might go somewhere.

'When you're able to kind of show the field, show your competitors that you got some speed, they can be confident if they get with you they're going somewhere. Tends to make Sunday a little easier where you might get more drafting help.”

Earnhardt gave a ton of credit to his new crew chief Greg Ives, who was in his first race atop the pit box for the No. 88 team.

Ives, who jokingly asked if the Duel win put his team in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, pushed the credit back to his driver. The two have seemed to mesh quickly after Steve Letarte left Hendrick Motorsports and Ives replaced him.

'The relationship is gelling as quick as I knew it would,” Ives said. 'When you bring great attitude, have some fun at the racetrack, have good finishes like today, you're going to gel pretty quickly.

'We're going to continue that going into this week and the 500.”

Confidence has always driven the 2-time Daytona 500 champ, and he's got plenty of it headed into Sunday, as he searches for a second-straight win in the sport's biggest race.

That feeling propels him to want to try and run up front all day, as opposed to the alternate strategy of dropping back and biding time until the end.

'Hopefully I make good decisions on Sunday and we don't get ourselves in any trouble or get ourselves in any situation where we feel like we got to back up. I feel anytime you go, I don't want to get in the middle of this, I want to get out of here, it's unnatural to do that as a driver,” Earnhardt said. 'Whenever you do do that, you don't have confidence in your car, you don't have confidence in what you're doing, the decisions you're making. It just kind of goes downhill from there. You don't really ever recover emotionally and mentally for the rest of the race.

'We have a fast car. We can stay confident and keep moving forward in the race and stay on the offense.”

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