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DALE EARNHARDT JR. NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD/AMP ENERGY CHEVROLET POST-RACE RECAP / TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY DATE: April 26, 2009 RACE: Aaron's 499 START: 11th FINISH: Second POINTS POSITION: 15th RECAPPING THE RACE: Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, dodged a late-race accident and captured a second-place finish in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Using patience, Earnhardt led seven times for 20 laps on his way to his first top-five finish of the season. With his third top-10 finish of the season, Earnhardt improves three positions in the driver standings to 15th. He trails 12th-place Matt Kenseth by 45 points. During Saturday's qualifying session, Earnhardt turned a fast lap of 51.042 seconds (187.610 mph) on the 2.66-mile superspeedway to post the 11th-quickest time of the day. Earnhardt lined up on the inside of the sixth row for Sunday's 500-mile event. The 43-car field took the green flag under sunny skies, and Earnhardt brought the crowd to its feet by Lap 5 when he used the draft to sling his way to the front. He was running seventh two laps later when an accident broke out behind him. A 14-car pileup was triggered in Turn 3 and brought out the day's first caution. Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. called his driver down pit road for four fresh tires and fuel. Quick work by the over-the-wall crew netted three positions on pit road for the No. 88 Chevy. Earnhardt restarted fourth on Lap 13. While running fourth on Lap 81, another competitor made slight contact with the blue and white No. 88 Chevy, and Earnhardt shuffled back to the 21st position. The 34-year-old driver wasted no time making his way back through the field. Caution flags continued throughout the day, and Earnhardt moved up and down the scoring pylon in normal Talladega fashion. He was 12th at the race's halfway point (Lap 94), the leader on Lap 111 and eighth on Lap 130. Finally, during the last 30 laps, Earnhardt held his ground inside the top five. The final caution flag of the day waved just seven laps shy of the checkered flag for a 10-car accident on the backstretch. With his driver running second, Eury radioed to Earnhardt to stay on track during the cleanup. The field went back to green on Lap 184 for a four-lap shootout. Earnhardt pushed the leader out ahead of the rest of the field and waited to make his move. As the field took the white flag, the No. 99 and No. 09 cars teamed up to draft in the middle, while Earnhardt and the leader were holding strong to the bottom of the track. As the two-by-two pack approached the checkered flag, the No. 09 nudged then- leader No. 99 and sent the car spinning into the fence. Earnhardt dodged another spinning car to cross the finish line second. QUOTING DALE EARNHARDT JR.: EARNHARDT (ON SUNDAY'S RUN.): "So I felt like today, we had another shot at it, a better shot at it. And we almost made it work, but the (No.) 99 (Carl Edwards) and Brad (Keselowski) hooked up and, I don't know, they are just a little bit faster and they moved up. They were coming, they were catching us and running the middle, and the middle had been a little quicker." "I guess we showed our hand a little early, maybe a lap or two too early, and everybody saw what they were going to have to do if they wanted a shot at winning. Our car ran great all weekend, and we qualified good and handled, you know, about like everybody else's car. They all handled the same." "And the engine was great, pushed Ryan (Newman) there for four laps, and it didn't blow up. It was running about 260 (mph) on an oval, and it held for about a lap and a half like that. I was just glad to get a good finish. I was just concentrating on trying to win, what should I do, where should I be, but I didn't want to screw myself out of a good finish if that was all I was going to be dealt. I got lucky and came home with some points."  ***** Courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports. Media Relations | No. 88 AMP Energy / National Guard Racing ***** Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Official Site - www.dalejr.com |
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