No advantage to running in Shootout

Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn't think he'll have an advantage by being one of the 23 drivers in the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Whatever his Hendrick Motorsports team learns, he figures everyone else will know by the time of the Daytona 500 qualifying races Thursday.

"The information that we learn will leak through the garage before the qualifying races, and we won't have that advantage," Earnhardt Jr. said. "That information that we gain it will be hard not to keep from everybody."

Talking during NASCAR's media day Thursday, Earnhardt Jr. talked about a variety of topics, including once again reiterating he just wants to run up front with new team after leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc. following last season.

"What I have to prove is I want to go out and run in the top five regularly," he said. "And I have to prove that to myself. And once that's cool, I'm fine.

"If I'm running up front, that's all I wanted. … If I can make that happen, I'm in good shape. I'm fine. I won't really feel like I will have to prove anything to anybody or myself."

Will that be difficult?

"I don't think it should be too challenging," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We did that, I would say, 75 percent at DEI, and if we could take the tools and the new stuff that we're learning and seeing as an opportunity and an advantage for us at Hendrick Scenedaily.com