Dale Earnhardt Jr. advances to second Chase round on tiebreaker
Dale Earnhardt finished Sunday’s race at Dover in third, one spot ahead of Jamie McMurray. The noting of that spot is extremely important. Had Junior not gotten by McMurray in the closing laps of the race, he would have been out of the Chase’s second round and McMurray would have been in.
Instead, Junior is moving on to the second round while McMurray is eliminated from title contention. The two tied for the final spot in the next round on points. But since Junior’s third place finish on Sunday was higher than any finish McMurray had in the first three rounds of the Chase, the driver of the No. 88 is the one that’s advancing.
“I didn’t know what the points looked like but they just told me that I had to beat Jamie or [Kyle Busch],” Junior said. “We got around him on that last run. On that last restart he was trying to get into the bottom in front of [Matt Kenseth] into [turn 3] and they just kind of rolled that corner real slow for some reason. I drove in there on the outside with pretty much my only shot to get Jamie – can’t really pass here so once a guy gets in front of you he’s just going to block you and give you dirty air and you can’t go anywhere even if you’re a little better than him.
“So I just had to jump out there and hopefully it turned in the middle of the corner and didn’t push. And it worked so we got around him. He would have advanced if we hadn’t got that caution because I don’t think we could have run him down.”
Junior finished 12th, 25th and third in the first three races of the Chase. McMurray had finishes of 16th, 14th and 4th. McMurray scored more points in the three races but Earnhardt Jr. started the Chase with six bonus points due to his two regular season wins.
The caution that Junior references was when Landon Cassill had an engine problem with 30 laps to go. The caution before Cassill’s was for Brett Moffitt’s crash. In the laps preceding the Moffitt caution, Earnhardt Jr. was complaining of a loose wheel. The caution allowed Junior’s team to change tires and fix the problem.
Junior’s had fast cars through the first three races of the Chase; he’s just had a few pit road miscues. Had the two cautions not come out and Junior was forced to pit for the wheel issue, he’s not in the next round.
“We did run third and I think we should have run third,” Junior said. “We had a top five car. We had some issues on pit road and we’re going to keep working on that. I think our guys are going to remedy that and get that sorted out. Had a couple of loose wheels and stuff. [Crew chief Greg Ives] is setting up the car really well. We’ve had great speed at a lot of these tracks in the past several weeks. We’ve just got to put these races together. We can’t have any issues.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
