Photo Credit: Jessica Bure/SpeedwayMedia.com
After 26 races to qualify for the Chase for the Championship and three races as part of the first round of the Chase for the Championship, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s championship bid for 2015 hinged on one thing – getting ahead of Jamie McMurray and staying there. He was able to do that, making the pass on a late race restart and holding off McMurray from there on out.
“We had a pretty good car,” Earnhardt said post-race. “I thought we were about the third to fifth best car, and we just fought all day for track position, and we passed a lot of cars and had a lot of fun.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished the AAA 400 on Sunday afternoon in the third spot to become the 12th and last driver to qualify for the second round virtue of a tie-breaker with McMurray. The pair ended off the first round tied with Earnhardt finishing third and McMurray finishing fourth at Dover. Dover marked the highest finish for both drivers throughout the Chase, handing the advantage to Earnhardt to advance.
Earnhardt ran in the top-10 early, though dropped all the way back to 18th when he had to make a second trip down pit road for loose lug nuts at the second round of pit stops. Earnhardt then worked his way back to the front, running in the top-five as the laps started to wind down.
Then, it seemed the loose wheel problems would strike once again as he was feeling a loose wheel, saying that the left rear was about to fall off.
“I was a couple laps from coming in,” he admitted “It was shaking real bad in the corner, and it started shaking on decel, and I knew it was a matter of time before it was coming off. It wasn’t going to make 50 laps. We had 50 to go at that point, and I wasn’t going to bash my head against a concrete wall somewhere for a damned loose wheel, so we just come in sooner than later.”
He would catch a break, though, as the caution would fly with 47 laps to go for Brett Moffitt getting into the wall. Both Earnhardt and McMurray headed down pit road, coming off beside of each other. McMurray was able to get the jump on the restart, getting ahead of Earnhardt and looked to be set to stay there.
“He took off on that run before last with about 50 to go, and I didn’t see that kind of speed in his car all day, so it kind of surprised me, but I thought we were going to get to him and get around him, but he took off with the laps running out,” Earnhardt commented.
Everything then changed when the caution flew with 29 laps to go for Landon Cassill blowing up. Earnhardt then made a move on the high-side, getting by both Matt Kenseth and McMurray to move up to third. Though more importantly, ahead of McMurray.
“Jamie was trying to squeeze down in front of Matt (Kenseth) into Turn 3 and get to the bottom, and they really slow-rolled that corner for some reason, both of them, and I just went to the outside because it was about the only shot I had to pinch anybody down, pinch Jamie down if I could get to his quarterpanel, and that’s how it worked out,” Earnhardt commented.
Now Earnhardt will head to into round two, looking to keep the positive momentum rolling and advance again. Earnhardt has ran well on the intermediate tracks in the past, so Charlotte and Kansas show decent light for the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet. Talladega Superspeedway will then end off the second round, in which Earnhardt won there back in April.
“I feel like we’ve got pretty good speed,” he said. “We lost a little speed over the summer, and I think we’re gaining a little bit on it. We’ve still got some more to find, but we’ll see how these next few tracks stack up. We’ve just got to get a little bit of luck and not ruin it for ourselves.”
