Auto Racing: Dale Earnhardt Jr. hopes to shake winless streak at Pocono

Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted this week that he had become a fan of the cult series “The Walking Dead.”

Fitting, perhaps, because Earnhardt has found nothing but dead ends as he tries to race into victory lane for the first time in 2016.

Earnhardt is winless for the season through 13 races, and his recent swoon has him hoping he can dig out of his slump at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Earnhardt’s late-career renaissance in the No. 88 Chevrolet really took off at Pocono in 2014 when he swept both races.

Back at the tri-oval track, Earnhardt starts eighth in Sunday’s race.

He won seven Sprint Cup races in 2014-15 and does have three runner-up finishes this season. But over the last five races, Earnhardt has been pedestrian with no finish better than 13th and two at 32nd or worse.

Long NASCAR’s most popular driver, Earnhardt said he wasn’t worried yet his winless streak. He would clinch a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship with a victory. He already had a spot secured at the point in the season each of the last two years. Earnhardt is 13th in the points standings, and the top 16 make the Chase field. He wasn’t won since Phoenix in November 2015.

“At 41 years old you kind of get over that stuff,” he said. “I spent the first 18 years worrying myself to death. I think we are a good enough team to make it whether we get a win or not. We are a good enough team. That is not a guarantee, I just feel confident that we will get in.”

The two-time Daytona 500 champion has never won a Cup championship, the lone void in a career that has made him a surefire NASCAR Hall of Famer.

“It’s been a rough month, but I think we can turn it around here,” he said. “I think we should run great here. I’m not so much worried about end of the race results. I’m more concerned with consistent speed in the car and running up front throughout the day and having consistency on pit road and in the race car.”

Larson wins rain-shortened Xfinity race

Kyle Larson won the rain-shortened Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway on Saturday for his first NASCAR victory of the season.

Larson led when the rain hit 53 laps into the scheduled 100-lap race and the race was called 1 hour, 35 minutes after the red flag came out. One of the most promising young drivers in NASCAR, Larson had come close this season to victory lane in both Sprint Cup and the second-tier Xfinity Series but failed to win.

Thanks to some rain, he has his fourth career Xfinity win. Larson has yet to win at Sprint Cup.

Xfinity raced for the first time at Pocono. The track has long held two Sprint Cup race weekends and added the Truck Series in 2010. The 250-miler is the first second-tier race on a track that has hosted NASCAR-sanctioned events since 1974.

Erik Jones, Ty Dillon, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.

Bourdais races to first win of season

Sebastien Bourdais raced to his first IndyCar victory of the season, beating Conor Daly by 2 seconds at Belle Isle, Michigan.

Bourdais had not led a single lap in any of the season’s first six races, and he hadn’t finished higher than eighth. He led only 12 of the 70 laps Saturday on the 2.35-mile street course, but Bourdais was able to hold on the rest of the way after Daly made a pit stop on lap 61 and gave up the lead.

Bourdais won for the second time at Belle Isle. He took the latter half of last year’s doubleheader at the Detroit course.

Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi finished 10th.

Bourdais won for the 35th time in his career.

Mingay in serious but stable condition after crash

Australian driver Matt Mingay crashed during a trucks race at Belle Isle, leaving him with facial injuries and in serious but stable condition.

Mingay was in critical condition shortly after the crash, according to Detroit Receiving Hospital. SST later said the hospital was listing him as serious but stable.

Mingay’s truck overturned during the third lap of the race, which was eventually suspended after a long delay. Mingay’s family said the driver’s face was injured, according to SST’s statement.

The SST circuit features high-horsepower trucks designed to take flight off jumps. Races feature ramps set up throughout the course, and trucks can be launched 20 feet in the air, covering more than 150 feet.