Junior posts best qualifying run of season

Earnhardt will start fourth in Sunday night?s Coca-Cola 600 as he tries to snap a 37-race winless streak. He?ll do it with an interim crew chief ? regular Tony Eury Jr. is serving a six-race NASCAR suspension ? but plenty of confidence that he can drive to his first points victory at Lowe?s Motor Speedway.

Earnhardt made his first Cup start at Lowe?s in 1999, and won his first career pole in this event the next season. But he?s never finished higher than third in NASCAR?s longest race.

?We can win any race we enter, we?re a competitive team,? he said. ?One of these days we?re going to make the whole thing happen, but 600 miles is a long ways. There were times I came in here and felt like I?ve had winning cars, only to see something happen. You?ll age 30 years running a race here, with all the things that happen.

?It?s a long, long race and hopefully I can be patient and put myself in position to win.?

The 600 is typically a race of attrition, as many cars struggle to make it to the finish because of the changing track conditions. The race begins in the daytime and ends at night, and not all teams can make the numerous technical adjustments.

It?s also a strain on the drivers, who must concentrate for the entire four-plus hours they are strapped into the steaming hot cockpit of a race car.

Earnhardt has struggled with the mental aspect of completing 600 miles before. But since announcing May 10 that he?s leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. at the end of this season, Junior says he has reached a level of clarity and calmness he?s lacked recently.