Earnhardt Jr. does the double

Talk around pit road on Saturday included Dale Earnhardt Jr., but most of it was not about him winning the Sharpie 500 on Saturday; it was about his win on Friday night in the Food City 250, the Busch Grand National race. There were not many advocates to his winning both races, a feat that had never happened at Bristol before.
The start of the race looked like it would be a normal Bristol night, as the caution flag flew early when Joe Nemechek hit the wall hard, sending him to the pits for the afternoon. Nemeckek probably suffered the hardest hit of the afternoon, but only received a bruised foot in the accident. The caution afforded some of the cars a pit break early, but Earnhardt decided to stay out on the track and pick up some much needed track position. It was that move that Earnhardt attributed to getting him in the position to win the race.
“We got enough track position on the first pit stop,” said Earnhardt. “The guys did an awesome job and got us out where we should have been to begin with.”
Earnhardt’s move put him right in the thick of things on the restart. Rusty Wallace showed a lot of strength early, swapping the lead with Earnhardt four times in nine laps at one point in the race, and the caution flags helped some of the drivers that started in the back of the field. Jeff Gordon had a good run going until the fifth caution of the day when he slid through his pit stall and had to have the car backed into the stall. It only cost him a few seconds, but with Earnhardt dicing through the field, Gordon went back to 10th and was almost a lap down after the stop.
At that point, Earnhardt has almost a 10 second lead on the field and only 10 cars were on the lead lap.
“I had no idea I was that far ahead,” said Earnhardt. “Tony (Eury Sr.) would tell me to go get another car and I would. He would say, ‘there’s ninth, go get him,’ and I’d try to race him until he got passed.”
The strategy worked for the Budweiser driver as he pulled away after every restart and kept the other drivers at bay.
After the early cautions, the field settled down and the race went over 100 laps without another caution period. The lack of caution periods at Bristol turned it into a physical race. Kevin Harvick had to get relief from Kyle Petty for his arm falling asleep. Petty finished the race five laps down.
“I’m glad I’m 26 years old,” said Earnhardt. “This was a physical race. It’s big for me, I’m glad to finally have one of these trophies. We hung in there and I’m just really proud of the effort of my team.”
Jeff Gordon had a good run going, but after going a lap down, he got the “lucky dog” and had to go to the back of the field after the final caution of the night. Gordon went around the track and took his place behind all the lead lap cars, but was black flagged for not going to the end of the longest line. The black flag penalty cost Gordon a top 10 finish, taking him back to the 14th position at the end of the night.
Ryan Newman took the second spot, trying to get a spot in the final ten for the Chase to the Championship. Newman fought hard all day, almost going a lap down early; he fought his way back and finished strong.
“We just kept adjusting on the car,” said Newman. “We got some track position late and were able to pick off a couple of guys toward the end. We were strong, but we didn’t have anything for the eight car.”
Jimmie Johnson bounced back from three DNF’s for a third place finish, keeping him in the second position in the points chase and making his team look to the brighter side of the last few weeks.
“We didn’t do well in the last few races,” said Johnson. “This helps us gain some momentum back going into the final ten races, it was a good points night for us.”
Jeff Burton finished in the fourth spot, his first top five of the year and his first for Richard Childress. Elliott Sadler rounded out the top five.
Earnhardt summed up his feelings about the race in the post race interview. “This is one of my biggest wins ever,” he said. “Being at Bristol makes the win sweeter. I know wherever my daddy is, he smiling about this one.”