Driving the No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet in honor of his late father, Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke a NASCAR Nationwide Series drought of almost four years in winning Friday night’s Subway Jalapeno 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Earnhardt’s emotional win was the result of a collaboration between owner Richard Childress, Teresa Earnhardt, JR Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports, which supplied the engine for the No. 3 car.
The victory, the 23rd of Earnhardt’s career, was his first in the series since Aug. 19, 2006, when he took the checkered flag at Michigan. It was his first points win in any of NASCAR’s top three series since June 15, 2008, when Earnhardt captured the Lifelock 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race, again at Michigan.
In a race that saw the debut of NASCAR’s new Nationwide Series car, Earnhardt held off runner-up Joey Logano and third-place finisher Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the race two laps beyond its scheduled distance of 100 laps.
“It’s emotional,” he said. “I’m proud of myself. I’m proud to have done what I did with this group.”
Childress, who won six Sprint Cup championships as Dale Earnhardt Sr.‘s car owner, told Earnhardt Jr. his father would have been proud.
“He just said that daddy would have been happy, real happy,” Earnhardt said. “And who would know better than him?”
FIN CAR DRIVER MAKE 1 3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 2 20 Joey Logano Toyota 3 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. * Ford 4 22 Brad Keselowski Dodge 5 33 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 6 21 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 7 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 8 1 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 9 16 Brian Ickler Ford 10 7 Steve Arpin Chevrolet 11 60 Carl Edwards Ford 12 15 Michael Annett Toyota 13 26 Parker Kligerman * Dodge 14 38 Jason Leffler Toyota 15 66 Steve Wallace Toyota 16 87 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 17 12 Justin Allgaier Dodge 18 10 Tayler Malsam Toyota 19 40 Mike Bliss Chevrolet 20 35 Jason Keller Chevrolet 21 88 Greg Sacks Chevrolet 22 32 Reed Sorenson Toyota 23 5 David Starr Chevrolet 24 34 Tony Raines Chevrolet 25 9 Ken Schrader Ford 26 70 Shelby Howard Chevrolet 27 99 Trevor Bayne Toyota 28 98 Paul Menard Ford 29 62 Brendan Gaughan Toyota 30 11 Brian Scott * Toyota 31 28 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 32 23 Robert Richardson Jr. Chevrolet 33 107 Danny Efland Chevrolet 34 1 Mike Wallace Chevrolet 35 81 Michael McDowell Toyota 36 24 Eric McClure Ford 37 104 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 38 73 Derrike Cope Dodge 39 156 Kevin Lepage Toyota 40 89 Morgan Shepherd Chevrolet 41 49 Mark Green Chevrolet 42 43 Johnny Chapman Chevrolet 43 27 Jennifer Jo Cobb Ford
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