Motor Racing Digest

 

Posted by: Dave Thompson, follow @phillyfan17

June 17, 2012

It’s over. No, actually it is finally over. No, not the rain that delayed the start of the race roughly two hours, but the winless streak is no more.

After four years of frustration, 143 races later, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. This was no rain shortened race or fuel mileage win, Earnhardt dominated the field to win the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

It has been nearly four years to the day that Earnhardt won a Sprint Cup race at this very track on June 15, 2008. In that race, Earnhardt did not have nearly the dominant car he had on Sunday, in fact, the win came by winning the fuel mileage game.

The fans at Michigan International Speedway were on the feet throughout the closing laps in anticipation of his winless streak finally coming to an end. His pit crew erupted as the No. 88 Batman The Dark Knight Rises took the checkered flag as they each race to the pit road wall to celebrate as Earnhardt completed his victory burnout.
Several drivers, including his Hendrick Motorsports teammates and his friend Brad Keselowski quickly made their way to Victory Lane to congratulate NASCAR’s most popular driver.

Earnhardt led 95 of the 200 laps including the final 30 laps in the 400-mile event.

Unfortunately for Earnhardt, team owner Rick Hendrick was unable to be at the track to witness the victory first hand. Earnhardt did take a few minutes before he exited the car in Victory Lane to speak with Hendrick via cell phone.

“He was just upset he couldn’t be here,” Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt made sure to acknowledge his loyal fan base for sticking by him throughout the winless streak.

“They have stuck behind me for all these years,” he said. ”I know exactly what they have been thinking about and how long they’ve been wanting us to get to victory lane, so this one is for them. I appreciate their loyalty and support. We wouldn’t have made it back to victory lane without it.”

“We just had a really good car. It was real fast,” Earnhardt said. “This is pretty amazing. Those last 15 laps were the longest laps ever. I don’t know what to think about it just yet.”

Crew chief Steve Letarte sat calm and collected on the pit box until his driver took the checkered flag.  “This one is up there,” Letarte said of his 11th career victory. “Dale Jr. drove a good race. This crew hadn’t won in a long time. They deserve it.”

Earnhardt struggled early in the race, but gave credit to Letarte for making the correct adjustments to get his car “dialed-in”.

Earnhardt started the race 17th, but by the midway point was in a battle for the lead with Tony Stewart. Earnhardt took the lead from Stewart on Lap 110 and dominated the remainder of the race. He pulled away from Stewart after the final round of green-flag pitstops on Lap 173 to win by a margin of more than five seconds.

Matt Kenseth finished in third-place and remained the points leader over Earnhardt. Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five. Johnson overcame an engine change that forced him to the rear of the field. His fifth place finish moves him to fourth-place in the standings behind Biffle.

In other news from the race, Joe Gibbs Racing had the roughest day of all the teams with all three drivers having problems on the track. Kyle Busch was the first one with problems when his No. 18 had engine issues for the third consecutive race. Busch did return to the track but finished the day 32nd. Joey Logano lost control of his car while trying to pass the slower car of David Gilliland and slammed the outside wall. Logano would finish 35th.

Just seven laps later, Denny Hamlin lost control of his car and slid onto the inside apron. As Hamlin approached pit road, his car burst into flames. Safety workers rushed to extinguish the fire as Hamlin quickly made his way from the car.

Kurt Busch had a disappointing return from his one-week suspension. Busch spun on Lap 2 and again later in the race and finished 30th.

Polesitter Marcos Ambrose was strong early in the race leading 15 laps, but faded slightly in the later half of the race to finish 9th.

Results of the Quicken Loans 400 at MIS:

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Pts	Bpts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	17	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	DietMtnDew/TheDarkKnightRises/NtnlGuard Chev	200	48	5	RUNNING	5	95
2	8	14	Tony Stewart	Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet	200	43	1	RUNNING	1	18
3	6	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford EcoBoost Ford	200	42	1	RUNNING	1	17
4	3	16	Greg Biffle	3M/Salute Ford	200	41	1	RUNNING	3	38
5	10	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe’s Chevrolet	200	39		RUNNING
6	28	24	Jeff Gordon	DuPont Chevrolet	200	39	1	RUNNING	2	4
7	13	15	Clint Bowyer	5-hour Energy Toyota	200	38	1	RUNNING	1	1
8	21	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	200	37	1	RUNNING	1	4
9	1	9	Marcos Ambrose	Stanley Ford	200	36	1	RUNNING	4	15
10	2	29	Kevin Harvick	Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet	200	34		RUNNING
11	42	99	Carl Edwards	Fastenal Ford	200	33		RUNNING
12	16	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	200	32		RUNNING
13	25	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Dodge	200	32	1	RUNNING	1	3
14	19	1	Jamie McMurray	McDonald’s Chevrolet	200	31	1	RUNNING	1	1
15	5	39	Ryan Newman	US ARMY Chevrolet	199	29		RUNNING
16	31	47	Bobby Labonte	Charter Toyota	199	28		RUNNING
17	15	43	Aric Almirola	Medallion Ford	199	27		RUNNING
18	32	83	Landon Cassill	Burger King Toyota	199	26		RUNNING
19	20	22	AJ Allmendinger	Shell Pennzoil Dodge	199	25		RUNNING
20	24	13	Casey Mears	Valvoline NEXTGEN Ford	199	24		RUNNING
21	33	31	Jeff Burton	Caterpillar Chevrolet	199	24	1	RUNNING	1	1
22	18	27	Paul Menard	Menards/Duracell Chevrolet	199	22		RUNNING
23	38	34	David Ragan	Front Row Motorsports Ford	199	21		RUNNING
24	22	33	Austin Dillon(i)	American Ethanol Chevrolet	198	20		RUNNING
25	36	36	Dave Blaney	Seal Wrap Chevrolet	198	20	1	RUNNING	1	1
26	39	93	Travis Kvapil	Burger King Toyota	197	18		RUNNING
27	35	38	David Gilliland	Long John Silver’s Ford	197	18	1	RUNNING	1	1
28	12	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row Chevrolet	197	16		RUNNING
29	14	55	Mark Martin	Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota	195	15		Engine
30	26	51	Kurt Busch	Phoenix Construction Services, Inc. Chevrolet	194	14		RUNNING
31	40	32	Ken Schrader	Federated Auto Parts Ford	193	13		RUNNING
32	34	18	Kyle Busch	Snickers Toyota	157	12		RUNNING
33	4	5	Kasey Kahne	Farmers Insurance Chevrolet	151	11		Accident
34	11	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Office Toyota	132	10		Accident
35	9	20	Joey Logano	The Home Depot Toyota	125	9		Accident
36	41	10	Tony Raines	Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet	68	8		Vibration
37	43	49	JJ Yeley	America Israel Racing/JPO Absorbents Toyota	67	8	1	Brakes	1	1
38	27	98	Michael McDowell	Presbyterian Healthcare Ford	41	6		Vibration
39	29	19	Mike Bliss(i)	Humphrey Smith Racing, LLC Toyota	35	0		Overheating
40	37	87	Joe Nemechek(i)	AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota	32	0		Vibration
41	23	23	Scott Riggs	North TX Pipe Chevrolet	27	3		Power Steering
42	30	26	Josh Wise #	MDS Transport Ford	9	2		Engine
43	7	21	Trevor Bayne(i)	Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford	7	0		Engine