Earnhardt regroups for a tough track

            DARLINGTON, S.C. - The last two races have been at tracks, Talladega and Richmond, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. seemed likely to win.

            Darlington Raceway, site of tonight's Dodge Challenger 500, isn't one of those.

            Earnhardt Jr.'s overall statistics at the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped track are respectable, but when Darlington lost two annual races, Earnhardt seemed to lose his groove. He finished second and third in the two 2004 races. Since then, he's finished 39^th, 22^nd and 21^st.

            In spite of Earnhardt having never won at Darlington - or anywhere else in the past 72 races at the Sprint Cup level - his legions of fans will be watching him closely in the first race since the track was repaved, smoothed and otherwise upgraded.

"Oh, it's remarkable," said Earnhardt. "The track's great. It's in good shape. We're running in the corners really fast and the track surface is holding up really well."

            The winless streak could have ended a week ago in Richmond. News of the late accident involving cars driven by Earnhardt and Kyle Busch has spread far and wide and stirred up insatiable controversy. Earnhardt has done his part to quell it, but the story hasn't gone away.

            Ironically, the incident was made even more compelling because Earnhardt replaced Busch, now driving a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, at Hendrick Motorsports. Busch now leads the point standings, with Earnhardt third. It's a natural rivalry.

"I mean, we sort of pinned ourselves in that situation with the changes that were made for me and for him this year," said Earnhardt. "In a lot of ways, there's a competitive ‘us vs. them' spirit between him and me, and between maybe the teams, I guess.

"Mentally, you handle your business, and you don't let it become a distraction. If Kyle outruns me or beats me or wrecks me and wins the race, I've got to go out next week and just concentrate on what I'm doing. If I start trying to outrun him and beat him in every practice, just to prove a point, I'm going to start wadding up race cars."

            Meanwhile, back at Darlington ...

"The speeds are pretty insane," said Earnhardt. "The grip is good. It's going to be interesting to see, really, how the cars are on 40- and 50-lap runs. For three or four laps, everybody's doing OK, but it's going to be interesting to see who falls off a lot and who doesn't, and who can maintain that kind of a pace it takes to win.

"It's different. It's pretty neat, though."

            As for the Richmond incident, Earnhardt called it "hard racing" and "avoidable," but didn't absolve himself of some of the blame.

"I didn't go in there as high as I had been running ... and I think he was anticipating me going in where I had been running," said Earnhardt after studying the replays. "I anticipated him going on the bottom because he'd been running real tight on the apron. We both sort of ran into each other.

"I can see where a lot of people think it was intentional. I don't think it was. I'm pretty sure it wasn't."

            You can reach Monte Dutton at mdutton@gastongazette.com.