Dale Earnhardt Jr. hopes a couple days of IV fluids will have him in decent shape for the Brickyard 400

   Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualifies third for the Brickyard 400, despite a bad case of the stomach flu (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   INDIANAPOLIS
   When it's not your year, it's just not your year.
   And now Dale Earnhardt Jr. is fighting off a bad stomach virus, on the eve of the Brickyard Allstate 400.
   Rookie Brad Keselowski will be standing by Sunday if Earnhardt needs relief.
   Earnhardt, who has been getting intraveneous fluids, says the stomach bug hit Thursday night, and he called it "about the worst thing I ever went through in my life.
    "I am feeling much better. Just getting a lot of fluids. We're ready to go."
    The car Earnhardt has for the 400 is a new car, the first one that new crew chief Lance McGrew built just for Earnhardt. "He is really proud of it, and I want to do a good job for him," Earnhardt says. "So I want to stick it out. And I think we'll be all right."