Junior eager to hit track at Talladega

Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows there's only one place for him to be after the green flags drops Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway -- up front, all the time, especially at the end. "We just kind of got to go for broke, really throw it out there and take some chances, take some risks," Earnhardt said this week.When his No. 88 Chevrolet rolls onto pit road at Talladega Superspeedway, there will be 73,000 fans showing their support on his Monte Carlo SS, part of a "Ride with Junior" promotion on the AMP Energy/National Guard Impala SS.He may need every one of those fans behind him if he hopes to win the Chase and his first Cup championship because time is running out on everyone -- everyone not named Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle, that is. And even those guys aren't too excited about 'Dega. "I'm not looking forward to Talladega," Johnson said last week. Earnhardt, on the other hand, relishes the opportunity.Where better than Talladega for the eighth-place Earnhardt (190 points behind), right? He's a five-time winner at the restrictor-plate track, winning four straight from 2001 to 2003. In 17 career starts in Alabama, Junior has led 616 laps and sports an average finish of 14.1. He's led in 15 of his 17 starts, and he had engine failure and a wreck in the two he didn't lead.And 'Dega is Earnhardt Country, so the 73,000 that have signed on with the promotion is just part of the legion, the beverage-hoisting minions of Junior Nation, that will be yelling with every lap the No. 88 leads. He has fans everywhere, but there's something special about the reception he receives in Alabama."You just try to get in the lead as soon as you can because that's what they came for. Try to be in the lead as much as you can -- they want you out front; they want you leading every lap, so you just work really hard to do that," said Junior. Earnhardt knows this race could be his best chance to make some noise in The Chase, but he realizes it's 'Dega, where pitfalls and potential carnage are always looming.He also knows it's an Earnhardt racing at a restrictor-plate track, and that usually equals some kind of success -- his dad, Dale Earnhardt Sr., won 10 times at Talladega."My dad was a real good plate racer," Dale Jr. said. "So I loved going to the plate tracks to watch and be a part of his success. You always knew going into Daytona or Talladega ... that you were going to have a lot of fun because he always ran well, led laps and made a lot of incredible moves."Dale Jr. could use the incredible this Sunday. He'll need to start up front. He'll need to hope the 48, 99 and 16 cars slip up. He'll need to be the first to that odd start/finish line that's closer to Turn 1 than the middle of the front stretch. And he'll need Junior Nation's loud support.But he's an Earnhardt at Talladega, and they've never really needed much help there.(Bill Whitehead covers NASCAR for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. E-mail wwhitehe@ircc.net.)