Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins on fumes

In his first season with Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had to be happy with consistency -- until now.

NASCAR's most popular driver won a Sprint Cup race Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, getting to the finish line in the race that went three laps past regulation on little but fumes in his gas tank and ending a 76-race winless string.


"Finally!" Earnhardt said as he walked into the postrace winner's interview.

And Junior isn't about to apologize for winning on fuel strategy.

"I can understand how it might look, especially if you're not Dale Jr. fans," he said. "I know exactly what they're going to say Monday.

"I mean, my fans are happy and I'm happy for them. The other half are going to tear this apart on how we won this race. But I got the trophy and I got the points. I got to see my team and my owner and my family tonight as happy as they've been in a long time. ... It's a pretty big day for me."

Earnhardt won this one by gambling, somehow going the last 55 laps on the two-mile oval without stopping for gas.

He gave most of the credit for his first win in more than two years to crew chief Tony Eury Jr.

"We came in on that last stop and we were going to be about six laps short, and I saved six laps of gas," Earnhardt said. "So, (we were) just real lucky. I have to hand it to Tony Jr. for being a risk-taker. ... He's done a good job this year getting us good finishes, better finishes than we should probably have."

A couple of late cautions helped and Eury determined the No. 88 Chevrolet was only going to be about two laps short of finishing at that point. With about 20 laps to go, Eury radioed Earnhardt to try to save more fuel and gave him the worst-case-scenario.

"We miss it by one lap, we finish 25th," Eury said. "If we pit and put fuel in it we're going to finish 25th. So, who cares? Go for it."

As the laps wound down, drivers were forced to pit for a splash of gas, and Earnhardt, whose last victory came on May 6, 2006, at Richmond, inherited the lead with five to go in regulation. It appeared he had things under control until former IndyCar star Sam Hornish Jr. spun on lap 198, bringing out another caution.

Knowing the race was going to be extended beyond its scheduled 200 laps, Eury told Earnhardt to shut the engine off and coast whenever he could under the caution flag in a desperate effort to save more gas.

Junior did just that, coasting fast enough at times that he passed the pace car -- until NASCAR warned Eury to have Earnhardt cut it out.

It worked out perfectly as the green flag came out on lap 202 for a two-lap sprint to the finish, which was then cut short when Patrick Carpentier spun on lap 203, freezing the field and allowing Junior to coast -- this time behind the pace car -- to his 18th career victory and first at Michigan.

"They can write what they want, but we won one," Earnhardt said in the jubilation after the Lifelock 400.

He gave his new boss, Rick Hendrick, only his second victory of the season. Hendrick's team won 18 of 36 races a year ago, but has struggled to reach Victory Circle in 2008, with a lone victory by two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson until Sunday.

After leaving the team his late father founded to drive for Hendrick's juggernaut this year, Earnhardt began the new phase of his career with two non-points victories at Daytona in February. But, despite running well so far this season, that promising start did not lead to any victories in the first 14 Cup races.

"I'm working hard to get wins, but I just think we've had the best car sometimes and things have happened," said Earnhardt, third in the points behind Kyle Busch and Jeff Burton. "And the rest of the time, we've had a top-five car and that's what we've got.

"I've really anticipated every weekend, going to the race track with Hendrick Motorsports equipment, and I've been positive and eager ... to get it on the race track and see just how we measure up to everyone every weekend because I got to the race track with what I feel like is the best stuff, motors and cars and personnel.

"You can put pressure on yourself and say there's no excuse (for not winning), but I look at it as an opportunity."

Hendrick, who spent a few quiet moments with Earnhardt in Victory Circle, leaning into the car and talking with his newest driver, was excited for Earnhardt.

"We started out and he won the (Budweiser) Clash and the 150 (qualifying race) and we said, 'We don't have to worry about winning a race now.' Then nobody counted it because it wasn't a points race," Hendrick said. "We've been waiting for this. Been so close."

Kasey Kahne, coming off a victory the previous week in Pocono, finished second and almost came up with his fourth victory in his past five starts, including the non-points all-star race last month in Charlotte.

Matt Kenseth finished third, followed by Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart and Johnson.

Junior OK with Hendrick's intense testing sked

Truth be told, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would rather be back in North Carolina celebrating his protege's first victory and recovering from Sunday's grueling race at Pocono.

But team owner Rick Hendrick wants even more success from Earnhardt and his team in their first season together, so he added Tuesday's test session at the Milwaukee Mile to an already intense midweek testing schedule.


Although Earnhardt admits he might grumble when he's asked to work more in the middle of the week than he did in previous years, he knows it's for the right reason: winning.

"I told Rick, 'I'm going to complain, but I'm going to do it anyway,"' Earnhardt said during a brief break Tuesday afternoon. "And I like to shoot off at the mouth and complain about things, but everybody likes to blow off some steam. I'll test as much as I need to test -- whatever we need to do as well as we need to do."

Earnhardt is having success since leaving the team his father founded, Dale Earnhardt Inc., to drive for Hendrick Motorsports this season. He is third in the Sprint Cup series points standings going into Sunday's race at Michigan International Speedway.

But he has yet to earn his first win with the new team, and Hendrick as a whole hasn't dominated the way many expected. So Hendrick sent them back to work.

"Rick personally wanted to add some tests, and I hear that that's not uncommon for him to come in and say, 'Guys, get to work for a couple of weeks and go to the racetrack during the week and see what you learn,"' Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt isn't being singled out. Hendrick had three of its four teams at Milwaukee on Tuesday, including Casey Mears and Jimmie Johnson.

"We work hard every year, but this year we've tested more than pretty much any other year," two-time series champion Johnson said. "I'd say my rookie year was the only year we tested more. We're running well, but we want to run better. We liked the success we had last year, and we're trying to find out the areas we need to work on."

NASCAR places restrictions on teams' ability to test at tracks where the Sprint Cup series runs races, so Cup teams often use Milwaukee to simulate racing conditions at tracks such as New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway.

Most top teams test frequently, but Earnhardt was surprised how much more testing he's doing at Hendrick.

"We've tested six, seven times in the last two months," Earnhardt said. "And I wouldn't test six or seven times in a year before."

Earnhardt had to work in a celebration around his test, hosting a beer toast for his JR Motorsports team and driver Brad Keselowski, who won the Nationwide Series race in Nashville. Mark Martin gave JR Motorsports, which has partnered with Hendrick, its first win earlier this year -- but Earnhardt considered Keselowski's win a milestone.

And it was a reward for all the hard work his employees had put in since Earnhardt founded the team.

Earnhardt started with about 20 full-time employees. Now he has 105 -- including about 15 who have been with him since the beginning.

"When we first started, we were in a tiny, tiny building, and I made everybody go through so much crap, with the working station they had and how much room they had and it was very frustrating -- but they managed," Earnhardt said. "And we went through a lot of struggles and changes in personnel, and it wasn't easy to win a race in that series. But we did, and I realized a dream for that company."

Earnhardt wrangles bucking car to fourth place

Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked worn out and perhaps not a little disappointed following Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Earnhardt battled an ill-handling car for much of the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway, but held on for a fourth-place finish.

That was enough to keep him third in the standings, where he now trails points leader Kyle Busch by 145 points.

Asked to describe his day, Earnhardt said it wasn't exactly thrilling.

"Fun wouldn't be in there," he said. "We were pretty good at the start of the race, then I got a little bit loose, then a little bit tight there in the middle part and lost a lot of track position. But we gained it back with a little bit of strategy in the pits. ...

"We worked the gas mileage to our advantage."