Junior Nation can celebrate: Dale Earnhardt Jr. finishes third at Michigan
Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Junior Nation finally has something to cheer about, as Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. led six laps and finished third in Sunday’s Carfax 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
Earnhardt Jr.’s finish was his best since coming home second at Talladega Superspeedway in April. Talladega also marked the last time Earnhardt Jr. led laps in the Cup series.
But the Michigan race could have been more for Earnhardt Jr. and his No. 88 Chevrolet team. He was one of a handful of drivers who pitted to top off their fuel tanks under the race’s final caution, meaning Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have to conserve fuel over the final 39-lap green-flag run.
Earnhardt Jr. was one of the fastest cars on the track in the closing laps, but Brian Vickers and Jeff Gordon didn’t run out of fuel, and Earnhardt Jr. had to settle for third.
“The way our luck has been, I wasn't sitting there thinking I was in the catbird seat,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I was thinking maybe I'll get on the podium.”
Earnhardt Jr. said he wasn’t counting on many drivers in front of him running out of fuel because drivers have learned a lot on how to save fuel in the past couple of years.
“I was trying to catch them. I think I was there,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We were the fastest car up until we got to within about 15 car lengths of Jeff. I got real tight. I [thought] by that time, they have to race for the win eventually. Somebody is going to start to try to chance it first. It looked like Vickers was the one that did that. He pushed the 48 [of Jimmie Johnson] much harder than probably Jimmie was wanting to go.
“I think Jeff and me both were sitting there knowing we didn't have a real shot at catching him because of the way the cars were all kind of equal. But we were running pretty hard.”
Earnhardt Jr. said he figured Gordon was running hard the final 10 laps, and at that point, Earnhardt Jr.'s car started sliding the front end.
Still, the race was his best since interim crew chief Lance McGrew replaced Tony Eury Jr., and likely will reinvigorate Earnhardt Jr.’s fan base.
“Well, I don't want to get too excited,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “You want to be up front every week like this. You want to be there the whole race. You don't want to just come up there through the last 50 laps and surprise everybody.
“We're getting better as a team. It's just really, really hard to be patient, be mindful and respectful of everybody, just hold your tongue every once in a while. But we're working really hard. [I've] never worked so hard to run third. I've won races working a whole lot easier than this.
“But it's competitive with this car, and there's not really a real edge for anyone right now. You just got to work hard all the time. My team deserves a lot of credit. They worked hard all weekend, got a good car, made a lot of changes, we leaned on our teammates a lot in setup knowledge. We made some good changes in the race. Just some really smart stuff we had Lance and the guys doing all weekend.”
