Junior Races to Top-10 Finish at Bristol

Tyler Overstreet | JR Motorsports | 8/23/2015

Bristol Dale Jr. NASCAR Nationwide News Sprint Cup Series

Dale Jr. earned a ninth-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway after overcoming adversity throughout the event.

Race: IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway
Track Specs: .533-mile concrete oval / 500 laps
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 67 degrees
Race Winner: Joey Logano
Dale Jr.’s Finish: 9th

Dale Earnhardt Jr. battled through a tough race to finish ninth at Bristol Motor Speedway. The restult marks Earnhardt’s 15th top-10 effort in 24 starts this season and keeps him third in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with only two races remaining before the annual Chase for the Sprint Cup.

After reporting he was happy with his car’s handling early on, crew chief Greg Ives made the call to change only right-side tires on the team’s first pit stop. Before the ensuing restart, Ives told Earnhardt to bring the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet back to pit road to ensure all lug nuts were applied to the right front and also to change the left-side tires. The second pit stop dropped the No. 88 from 13th to a race-low 38th position when the field went green again at lap 57. The uphill climb facing Earnhardt resulted him falling a lap down at lap 102 despite reports that the car was handling just fine.

Ives made a gutsy call to have Earnhardt take the wave around and rejoin the lead lap under a lap-125 caution. A caution several laps later allowed Earnhardt to remain on the lead lap and pit for four fresh tires. Being mired back in the lower half of the top 20, the No. 88 went a lap down again at lap 248 after a heated battle between Earnhardt and race leader Joey Logano. Earnhardt spent a handful of laps fending off Logano before slipping in turn four and brushing the outside wall. Luckily for Earnhardt, the caution waved again two laps later and provided him the free pass to rejoin the lead lap.

Despite restarting 16th at lap 258, Earnhardt dropped another lap down again to leader Carl Edwards, but received another free pass when the caution waved at lap 359. From there, Earnhardt began climbing the leaderboard in the final quarter of the event. Taking the lap-380 restart 10th, the No. 88 dodged the spinning Nos. 15 and 55 cars to move up to sixth at lap 384.

Capitalizing on the favorable outside groove on a lap-391 caution, Earnhardt shot up to third on the restart before reporting his car’s handling began fading the longer the green-flag stint lasted. After a final pit stop under caution at lap 431, Earnhardt restarted sixth and managed to remain in the top 10 for a ninth-place finish.

Logano earned his third victory of the season over Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer.