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CONCORD — Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he's ready for the NASCAR Sprint Cup season to begin after going through his worst campaign last year.

Earnhardt's struggles began at Daytona and lasted as he finished 25th in the points. He carries a 65-race winless streak into this season.

While Earnhardt struggled, his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates each finished in the top three in points with Jimmie Johnson winning a fourth consecutive championship. That fueled more questions about Earnhardt's woes last season.

"I hate talking about last year," he said. "It was miserable. I have to own up to all that stuff.

"I'm looking forward to getting to the race track. I miss the track, I miss the car, I miss the environment, all the people. We did make some changes, and I feel pretty good about them. I feel pretty good.

"We have to rebound."

A few personnel changes were made to Earnhardt's team, including getting Mark Martin's race engineer. Also, the teams of Earnhardt and Martin will work more closely together. Previously, there was some interaction between the teams but not as great as team officials say it is now.

Car owner Rick Hendrick knows that won't be enough for some people.

"There's no way to silence the critics," he said. "Just get the job done. I'm not going to do a whole lot of explaining. This is show time."

FIRST TEST: Drivers got their first experience driving with a spoiler instead of the wing on the rear of the current car. NASCAR had teams run part of a Goodyear tire test with the spoiler this week.

Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers took part in the test, which ended Wednesday.

"(The spoiler) didn't seem to be a big balance change, which was good," Stewart said.

Said Vickers: "I thought it added a little bit of front downforce, which is a good thing. We haven't been in a lot of traffic yet, so the big question is how it's going to handle in traffic. Theoretically, from what I've been told, the difference between the two is that the spoiler is better in traffic."

NASCAR has not determined the spoiler's dimensions. The spoiler used Tuesday was 64.5 inches wide and four inches tall with no contour in design. Also, the rear quarter panels were extended four inches toward the ground.

ONLINE VIEWING: The Gatorade Duel qualifying races next month Daytona and the All-Star race in May will be shown online for the first time.

Both races, broadcast by Speed Channel, can be seen on NASCAR.com. More Cup races could follow, according to Scott Doyne, senior director business operations at NASCAR.com. Doyne said there are "active talks" with other networks to air their races online.

What fans can expect online will be similar to NASCAR.com's Race Buddy that shows the six TNT races online. That allows fans to see four different camera angles of the race.

Fans viewing the qualifying races and all-star race online, though, will not hear the Speed broadcasters. The only sound online will be in-car audio and that of the cars.

There will be no fee to view the race online. It is meant to compliment Speed's broadcasts of those events.

PIT STOPS: The Camping World Truck series will run Aug. 14 at Darlington Raceway, returning to that track for the first time since 2004. ... Tim McGraw will perform in the Daytona 500 pre-race show. ... Aaron's has added more races to its sponsorship of David Reutimann in the Cup series. The company will sponsor Reutimann in 24 races this year.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com