Texas Motor Speedway is a place of firsts for Dale Earnhardt, Jr. He won his first race in what was then called the Busch [now Nationwide] Series in 1998, and won his first Cup Series race one year later. It’s also where Earnhardt first drove a Hendrick Motorsports car in last year’s Samsung 500, after Kyle Busch wrecked Earnhardt and couldn’t be found to go back on the track when he car was repaired. 

Now Earnhardt’s hoping TMS will be the scene of his first points-paying win in nearly two years. He’s well on his way to making it a reality by capturing the pole position during Friday night’s qualifying session.

Earnhardt’s lap of 28.286 was more than two-tenths of a second faster than the rest of the field, and if the pole wasn’t enough of a boost for NASCAR’s most popular driver, he also will make his first Nationwide Series start at TMS in nine years at Saturday’s O’Reilly 300, giving him valuable seat time on the 1.5-mile track.

While Earnhardt said the track is special to him because of his accomplishments here, he said he doesn’t particularly enjoy TMS any more than other tracks.

“We’ve run good here and had some good wins, but we’ve struggled too,” Earnhardt said. “We’ve struggled more often than late and we’re concentrating really hard on turning that around.”

The renewed effort extends beyond Texas for the No. 88 team.

“My heart’s really with this car, and how it does and what happens to it, and how every lap is in practice and how we make it better,” Earnhardt said.

While he’s all business in the Cup Series, running the Nationwide race is all about having a good time, Earnhardt said.

“Running the Nationwide car is just purely for the fun of driving a racecar and being on the racetrack and the competition,” he said. “It’s a fine line between fun and work.”

This year has been a huge improvement for Earnhardt’s on-track performance, thanks in large part to joining Hendrick Motorsports. He said it’s only a matter of time before he gets that elusive win, something that hasn’t already been the case.

“I’ve been winless for a long time, so I’m excited to be in a position to have that opportunity now,” Earnhardt said.

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