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NO. 88 AMP ENERGY / NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET
DALE EARNHARDT JR. - POST RACE RECAP
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POST-RACE RECAP / MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
DATE: Oct. 18, 2008
RACE: Tums 500
TRACK: Martinsville (Va.) Speedway
START:10th
FINISH: 2nd
POINTS POSITION: 10th
RECAPPING THE RACE:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard team notched a second place finish this weekend at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. For a record ninth time this season, qualifying was washed out due to rain, and the field was set by the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings. Earnhardt lined up 10th.
The No. 88 car was good from the start, although Earnhardt noted that the Chevy was tight in the center. He was running 11th when crew chief Tony Eury Jr. told him to make a stop on Lap 28. Earnhardt was deemed speeding on pit road and sent to the end of the longest line on the Lap 34 restart. He was 40th, but passed his way up in the 29th spot by the time the next caution flag flew. In order to gain track position, the team stayed out and moved up to sixth. On Lap 81, Earnhardt made contact with the No. 26 car of Jamie McMurray, and McMurray spun out. Earnhardt took responsibility for the incident, but said McMurray came across the nose of his Chevy. The team didn't pit during the ensuing caution and moved into third for the Lap 87 restart.
A long green flag run forced different pit strategies, and during the next pit stop on Lap 116, Earnhardt was in 16th. He said the car was very good and didn't want any changes made to the car. In the final 100 laps, Earnhardt began to chase down the leader Jimmie Johnson. Earnhardt was running fourth on Lap 380. He passed the No. 99 car on Lap 414. He was running two-tenths of a second faster than Johnson with 60 laps to go. Just as Earnhardt was about to challenge for the lead on Lap 458, a caution halted his progress. The frontrunners pitted on Lap 459, and the No. 88 team got Earnhardt back out in second. With the green flag flying on Lap 466 Earnhardt made two final attempts to pass Johnson. The final caution sent the race into overtime, but Johnson was too strong for Earnhardt, and the No. 88 team finished second.
Earnhardt is now ninth in the Sprint Cup Series championship standings with four races remaining in the 2008 season.
QUOTING DALE EARNHARDT JR.:
(ON THE FINISH.): "Yeah, I have to hand it to Chad (Knaus), and the whole team. Jimmie (Johnson), he did it a great job today. Really he had such a good race car. He was able to cut, roll the center. It was pretty difficult for me at the end, and I feel like I was going to just try to do what I could with Jimmie, but he was too strong. Pretty proud of my team. We had a long day, and it was a tough day. You have to run so hard here every lap, and to get what you want, to get the finish you want, you can't really take any time off or pace yourself any. I'm proud of my team. We did a good job on pit road and had some good pit stops that helped us stay up front. I had some good adjustments from Tony (Eury) Jr., too. We started the race car really tight, and we had it running up there real good at the end. I'm just proud of my team."
(ON WHY HIS TEAMMATE JIMMIE JOHNSON IS HARD TO BEAT IN THE CHASE.): "Oh, man, it's pretty obvious. I think to everyone that they are such a great race team. I don't know, there's a lot of great teams that were huge in the sport -- obviously Daddy (Dale Earnhardt Sr.) had a great run and was dominant. He run a lot of races on just brute instinct and determination. But they only really dominated the sport in '87 and maybe a little bit in '86. All of the other things they did in sport were just by brute determination. But Jimmie and those guy are slick, and they are faster (every) week, and they win races by being the best car. I look at the history of the sport, and I think about Richard Petty and David Pearson and the Wood brothers and (Cale) Yarborough, and later on Darrell (Waltrip) and Junior (Johnson), and I put them right up there with them teams there. There's maybe only a good handful or half a dozen teams that are in that group, and I feel like they are really achieving that. To do it, Dad and Jeff (Gordon) and several other great competitors, Rusty (Wallace) and all those guys were great race car drivers and had awesome careers. But to pack it in three years and just dominate like that, there's only a good half a dozen teams that's ever been good like that and been that strong consistently year after year after year."
NEXT UP: The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday. The race will air live on ABC at 1 p.m.
Photos courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Official Site - www.dalejr.com
Thanks to Amy Walsh for the race recap.
Courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports.
Media Relations | No. 88 AMP Energy / National Guard Racing
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