The rain held off, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. held on.
And when it came down to it at Michigan International Speedway, crew chief Tony Eury Jr., who readily admits he is not the Las Vegas type, finally found a gamble he was willing to take. Earnhardt simply agreed to go along for the ride, for better or for worse.
It turned out to be the perfect combination that allowed Earnhardt to drive—or rather coast—to victory in the LifeLock 400. It had been 76 Sprint Cup Series points races since Earnhardt had gone to Victory Lane, and he couldn’t have made it without his teammates.
“The engine might have cranked,” said Earnhardt, smiling. “I thought it would be a better story to be out of gas and get pushed.”
“Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there — I hope it was it was a good one for them. I sure had a good day,” Earnhardt shouted in Victory Lane as he kissed his No. 88 Chevrolet. “I have to give my team a lot of credit.”
Earnhardt’s win snapped a losing streak that dated to May 6, 2006, when he won at Richmond for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Junior joined Hendrick this season and has been rock solid, but he hadn’t won in 14 races with them.
“I can understand how it might look, especially if you’re not Dale Jr. fans,” Little E 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.”
He gave most of the credit for his first win in more than two years to crew chief Tony Eury.
Earnhardt stayed out and maintained his track position, while Eury and Hendrick engineer Darian Grubb furiously recalculated the fuel mileage for the No. 88 every single lap. The caution laps saved enough fuel that they figured they had enough to coax it through Lap 198—still two laps short.
But they knew there were others behind Earnhardt that had enough fuel to go the distance. So pitting, even for merely a splash of fuel to make sure, would have robbed them of any chance of winning.
“I’m not a gambling man,” Eury said. “I don’t even like going to Las Vegas to put $20 down. ... But if we ran out of gas, we were going to finish 25th. If we came in and pitted, we were going to finish 25th.
“So I told him we were going to go for it. We were either going to win or run out of gas and finish 25th.”
That decision was made with 20 laps to go. They were feeling pretty good about it while leading with two laps remaining—when a spin by Sam Hornish Jr. brought out another caution and suddenly turned the 200-lap race into possibly a 203-lap event because of a green-white-checkered finish.
“I was pretty sick. I was like, ‘OK, we’re done. I could make 200, but 202? We’re in trouble,’” Eury said. “I told him as soon as the caution comes out, shut it off.”
While workers cleaned up the track, Earnhardt was told by crew chief Tony Eury Jr. to shut his car down and coast. Earnhardt kept the Chevy going behind the pace car by flipping the switch off, rolling along, then restarting the engine.
Earnhardt had last fueled up on lap 148. When the field got the green flag for the two-lap shootout, Earnhardt mashed the pedal and shot away from the pack, the Waltrip-Carpentier incident bringing out the yellow, and ending the winless drought for Junior.
Earnhardt said he wasn’t worried about running out of fuel. It was a win or nothing for him.
“So if we ran out of gas, we ran out,” said Earnhardt. “We were going to try it and have a shot to win the race. We knew we really didn’t have enough (gas).
“We ran out coming to the white (flag), stumbled off the straightaway, so we were close. We were going to stumble to the finish, probably not win the race, but the final caution saved us. They can write what they want but we won one.”
Asked what a victory on Father’s Day meant, Earnhardt said: “It’s special — my daddy meant a lot to me. It means a lot to win on Father’s Day and it’s special for my sister; she’s in tears on the phone. I know I can’t tell my father ‘Happy Father’s Day,’ but I get to wish all fathers a happy day. I mean it.”
Kasey Kahne, winner two of the past three weeks, continued his hot streak with a runner-up finish. He, too, relied on fuel strategy and was ready to pounce had Earnhardt’s car sputtered.
“We had enough (fuel) to finish if it had stayed green,” Kahne said. “It was a great finish for (us) for what we had all day.”
Matt Kenseth was third, followed by Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson.
Fifth place was worth $136,986 to Stewart, who pledged his share of the winnings to the American Red Cross in his flood-ravaged hometown of Columbus, Ind.
“I’m just happy we can do something to help our community out,” Stewart said. “It’s been on my mind all weekend. That’s what this top-five is for.”
Earnhardt stayed third in the Sprint Cup standings, but his 18th career win moved him to within 84 points of leader Kyle Busch (13th Sunday). Jeff Burton finished 15th and trails Busch by 32 points.
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