CHARLOTTE NC- -Dale Earnhardt Jr. nearly pulled it off.
In Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway Earnhardt took the lead on a green white checkered flag restart and was firmly in control of his own destiny, when he ran out of fuel exiting the final corner.
Earnhardt, who hasn’t won a Sprint Cup point’s race since 2008, was strong in the early part of the 600 mile race. A miscue during a pit stop on lap 107 left him mired outside the top 15 and he was forced to work his way back towards the front.
During a final round of pit stops with about 30 laps to go, most teams had to decide if they would have enough fuel to make it to the end.
A final caution caused by Jimmie Johnson’s blown engine saw Earnhardt in third with Greg Biffle leading followed by Kasey Kahne in second. During the caution period, Biffle was forced into pit and Earnhardt moved up to second. Kahne ran out of fuel on the restart and Earnhardt shot to the lead and held it as the white flag flew.
Coming out of turn four however, his Chevy stumbled and the engine died allowing Kevin Harivck to charge past for the win. Earnhardt was able to cast home in seventh.
"I'm going to have a good time tomorrow,” Earnhardt said laughing. “I'm not kidding about that. I'm pretty happy. I was sitting there...I'm disappointed about running out of gas, but we knew we were...we knew we were short. You saw the No. 16 (Greg Biffle) give up the lead. Everybody knew they were short. We were just fortunate enough to get around to the back straightaway and have enough momentum to carry us around to the front straightaway and get a seventh place finish.”
Earnhardt said he knew he was out of fuel before coming into turn four.
"I was already out,” he said. “I was out on the back straightaway. My car just kept up enough speed it didn't look like it was out. But, I was out. The spotter is like 'man, they are comin', they are comin' and I'm like I'm just crusin' here, what am I supposed to do? Get out and pedal this thing with my feet?”
Earnhardt added that he and the team could still take some positives out of the run for the future.
"Well, I know we are doing a good job,” he said. “I know we are unloading good cars and the car we unloaded for the Shootout, I didn't get into the meeting for what our plan was and it wasn't a good car. So we knew better so we came back with a good car. It showed it and we're really happy with our effort. These guys just have to lift their heads up man, because we are doing a good thing. We're building a good team and building good chemistry and they keep their heads up and we'll keep proving. That's what is important. If we let this bother us too much, we won't improve as much as we should. So, we want to win races and we are getting close enough that a couple of them are about to fall in lap and when we get that little extra stint, we'll be in business."
It was a long race and a really hard race and I haven't ran good here in a long time. We ran really, really good tonight. Real good and I'm real happy about that. The wins are going to come; we just have to keep working'."
NASCAR’s most popular driver is also aware of what the finish will mean to his legions of fans.
“To be honest, I know there will be disappointment about coming so close tonight,” he said. “But our fans should be real happy about how we are performing and how we are showing up at the race track. How competitive we are. We've definitely improved things and we want to keep getting better and better. I think they are pleased with our efforts and pleased with the results so far this year and I'll be the first to admit we need more, but this is going in the right direction. I felt like a true front-runner tonight. I've felt like that several times this season, but Charlotte is a true test. The 600 is a true test of our team and we performed well all night long."
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