BROOKLYN, Mich. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. is enjoying that old winning feel, and he doesn’t much care what his detractors have to say about it.
“I can understand how it might look, especially if you’re not Dale Jr. fans,” Earnhardt said Sunday after ending a 76-race winless by stretching his last fuel load beyond the limit to win the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway. “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.”
The most popular driver in NASCAR won this one by gambling, somehow going the last 55 laps on the 2-mile oval, including three laps of overtime, without stopping for gas.
He gave most of the credit for his first win in more than two years to crew chief Tony Eury.
“We came in on that last stop and we were going to be about six laps short, and I saved six laps of gas,” Earnhardt said. “So, (we were) just real lucky. I have to hand it to Tony Jr. for being a risk-taker. He’s done a good job this year getting us good finishes.”
A couple of late cautions helped, and Eury determined the No. 88 Chevrolet was going to be only about two laps short of finishing at that point. With about 20 laps to go, Eury radioed Earnhardt to try to save more fuel and gave him the worst-case scenario.
“We miss it by one lap, we finish 25th,” Eury said. “If we pit and put fuel in it we’re going to finish 25th. So, who cares? Go for it.”
As the laps wound down, driver after driver was forced to pit for a splash of gas, and Earnhardt, whose last victory came on May 6, 2006, inherited the lead with five to go in regulation. It appeared he had things under control until former IndyCar star Sam Hornish Jr. spun on lap 198, bringing out another caution.
Knowing the race was going to be extended beyond its scheduled 200 laps, Eury told Earnhardt to shut the engine off and coast whenever he could under the caution flag in a desperate effort to save more gas.
Earnhardt did that, coasting fast enough at times that he passed the pace car — until NASCAR warned Eury to have Earnhardt cut it out.
“I didn’t know how much they were going to worry about it,” Earnhardt said. “All the cars out there are gassing it, shutting ’em off, coasting about a half straightaway, cranking ’em back up, gas it, coast. Everybody’s doing it.
“There’s no rules specifically against that, but I was getting a little greedy. . . . I wanted to coast farther, so I’d gas it harder and coast past the pace car and just let him come on and catch back up, and that way I could keep my motor off longer.”
It worked out just right as the green flag came out on lap 202 for a two-lap sprint to the finish, which was then cut short when Patrick Carpentier spun on lap 203, freezing the field and allowing Earnhardt to coast — this time behind the pace car — to his 18th career victory.
“They can write what they want, but we won one,” Earnhardt said.
Kasey Kahne, coming off a victory the previous week at Pocono, finished second and almost came up with his fourth victory in his last five starts. Matt Kenseth finished third, followed by Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart and two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.
