Earnhardt Jr. wins at Phoenix as Kyle Busch, Harvick, Truex advance to Miami
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won Sunday’s rain-delayed and rain-shortened race at Phoenix while Kyle Busch, defending champion Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. will join Jeff Gordon to race for the championship in the final race of the season.
Junior inherited the lead during a round of green flag pit stops. As cars were coming to pit road at regular intervals for fuel and tires, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Joey Gase collided. Earnhardt Jr.’s pit box was on the turn 4 side of the start-finish line.
He was in his pit stall when the caution came out and as he crossed the start-finish line under caution he became the first driver who had pitted under green to be scored by NASCAR. Since he stayed on the lead lap, he took over the lead when the drivers who hadn’t previously pitted came to pit road.
The race never got restarted because of rain. After starting over six hours late because of rain, the race was shortened after 219 laps. The caution was lengthy because Gase’s car had spilled fluid all over the track. By the time the track was ready to go, it had started to rain.
Yes, NASCAR’s second-to-last race of the season, a race that cuts the Chase field in half to determine the four drivers who will race for a championship at Homestead, didn’t get to the full distance.
Of course, the rain isn’t NASCAR’s fault. A Sunday night race is better for television eyeballs than a Monday afternoon one. And since Phoenix has lights and is in the Mountain Time Zone, NASCAR had time to delay the race with the intermittent showers that plagued the area. But when a downpour hit less than 30 minutes before midnight on the east coast, the sanctioning body pulled the plug on the race with 93 laps to go.
Harvick finished second and Busch was fourth. Truex was the last driver in on points as he finished 14th, five points ahead of Carl Edwards, who finished 12th. Edwards, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch are eliminated from Chase contention. Busch was penalized on the start of the race for beating polesitter Jimmie Johnson to the line.
The Phoenix win is the third for Earnhardt Jr. this season. He previously won at Talladega in the spring and Daytona in the summer.
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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!
