Earnhardt Jr. takes centre stage at Daytona 500

By Simon Evans

MIAMI (Reuters) - Popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. is aiming to mark the start of the NASCAR season with a victory for Hendrick Motorsport on Sunday in the 50th edition of the Daytona 500.

Earnhardt won the "The Great American Race" in 2004 and will look to repeat the feat in his first NASCAR race for his new team, having left DEI, the team founded by his late father, at the end of last season.

Earnhardt won two exhibition races as part of the build-up to Sunday's main event and his number 88 Chevy has looked fast and competitive.

"I'm real proud and happy to have the talent that I've got on my team. The depth that I've got in the whole organization over at Hendrick is a pleasure," Earnhardt said.

"Sure has to make a driver's job a lot easier. I'm just looking forward to enjoying that and being involved in that all season. We'll see what happens," he added.

Earnhardt's father, one of the sport's greats, needed 20 attempts to win NASCAR's most illustrious event.

"You can think about a 70-lap race and go, 'Hey, man, this is what we need to do. This is the strategy, pit stop, where we're going to stop. This is how quickly you need to be in front'. You can do things to have a better shot at winning," Earnhardt said.

"But the 500, you just got to run all day long. You're going to get passed. You're going to pass people. And you just got to be there at the end. It's just very hard to do. So many variables," he said.