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DATE: April 10, 2010 RACE: SUBWAY Fresh Fit 600 START: Fifth FINISH: 12th POINTS POSITION: 10th RECAPPING THE RACE: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy team used patience and strong pit strategy to capture their fourth consecutive top-15 finish of the 2010 season on Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway. With his 12th-place finish, Earnhardt maintains the 10th position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship standings. He trails leader and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson by 207 points, but is only 19 points away from sixth-place Clint Bowyer. Earnhardt lined up fifth for Saturday's 372-lap event and quickly radioed crew chief Lance McGrew that he was struggling with the handling of his blue-and-white Chevrolet. By Lap 50, Earnhardt had slipped eight positions to 13th when he notified the team that he had a bad vibration in the left front tire. McGrew kept his driver on track after he and spotter T.J. Majors visually assessed the tires and saw all four Goodyear's appeared to be inflated. A spin in Turn 3 on Lap 57 brought out the evening's third caution period. Earnhardt followed the leaders down pit road for four fresh tires and fuel. The No. 88 crew also gave the Chevy an air pressure and track bar adjustment. During the stop, the team noticed a broken splitter brace, which was the culprit for the vibration. But McGrew decided to leave the repair for the next caution period. During the ensuing green-flag run, Earnhardt dropped as far as the 25th position. When the fourth caution flag waved on Lap 136, he brought his Chevy down pit road twice during the caution period to fix the splitter brace and get four fresh tires. Quick work by the crew kept Earnhardt on the lead lap and running 24th for the Lap 149 restart. Despite the repairs, Earnhardt continued to work with a loose-handling machine. The setting sun and cooling track temperatures prompted McGrew to call for adjustments during every pit stop. The adjustments seemed to do the trick, and Earnhardt climbed up the leaderboard to the 15th position by Lap 321. He was running 14th when the evening's final caution flag waved just four laps shy of the checkered flag. Earnhardt followed the field down pit road, and McGrew called for a two-tire pit stop in an effort to gain valuable track position. The No. 88 team worked quickly, and Earnhardt lined up sixth for the green-white-checkered flag finish. Earnhardt crossed the line 12th. ***** 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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