"We ended up really kicking some a** there"- Dale Earnhardt Jr. looks back on his iconic Batman car win at Michigan

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has reminisced about his decades-old memorable Cup Series win in the Batman-themed #88 Chevy at Michigan International Speedway. The legendary driver revealed the big change his team did which made his high-octane car dominate the 2-mile oval.

On 17th June 2012, Dale Earnhardt Jr. entered the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 race with a winless streak for the past four years. But the then Hendrick Motorsports driver, with his 'Batman's The Dark Knight Rises' themed ride, resurrected his Cup Series game and reigned supreme during the 200-lap dash. Despite starting his run from 17th place on the grid, Junior outperformed the likes of Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, and Jimmie Johnson, among others.

Earnhardt Jr. outlined the secret of his speed, revealing how his crew chief Steve Letarte, and the team figured out a technique that made the #88 car go faster than others on the D-shaped oval.

Earlier, the teams used to skew their cars to make them go fast. Skewing is done to make the automobile's housing slightly titled towards one end, ensuring a smoother airflow as the high-octane ride runs on the ovals. However, NASCAR soon outlawed the practice and the teams were left to devise other strategies for using skew without violating the rules.

With that, Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed the amendments they went through to make the #88 car win at Michigan.

"We mounted our rear sway bar in a way that when the car traveled, the sway bar pulled the left side of the rear housing forward, and so a car goes around through tech in the garage probably inches high," the 49-year-old said via Dirty Mo Media on YouTube (5.23).

He continued:

"As soon as you go out on the racetrack and that car gets in the air, it sinks and seals to the ground. That track bar would pry that rear housing into the skew and hold it."

"I think what happened was we ended up really kicking some a** there," Junior added.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. highlighted why HMS' initial skew modification failed miserably

After seeing Penske's cars dominating the oval with crab-like maneuvers on the ovals, courtesy of the skew, NASCAR made some rules changes, disallowing the locking of the rear, and knocking out the massive advantage savored.

But the teams already had their eyes on skewing the cars as the boost in speed was too lucrative to give up. Thus, they birthed different techniques to continue using the bar, without locking the rear end completely.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team found a quick fix to the problem but that would've turned out disastrous had the #88 Batman-themed Chevy gone for it. The 2x Xfinity Series champ revealed how their initial solution could've "tear[ed]" the car apart.

"We were able to put a bushing in the left or the right trailing arm that was like rubber or some polymer or something that could flex. We had some that would move a lot but you were worried that it moving all day during the race would tear it apart. They did fail because they were moving so much in and out of the throttle," Junior said (4.31).

Dale Earnhardt Jr. snapped his 143-race winless streak after emerging victorious in Michigan.