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Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrates in victory lane with team owner Rick Hendrick after winning the Budweiser Shootout. (Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
All year long, people have been asking what’s wrong with Hendrick Motorsports. No one left Martinsville Speedway on Sunday wondering that, despite the fact that the team still is winless for 2008 and couldn’t get into victory lane at a track where it won eight of the prior 10 races.
But the team certainly flashed its powerhouse form all afternoon, putting all four of its cars in the top seven, with Jeff Gordon second, Jimmie Johnson fourth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. sixth and Casey Mears seventh. This was the first time this year all four Hendrick cars finished the same race in the top 10 and it elevated Gordon and Johnson back into the top 12 in points, joining Earnhardt. All in all, it was the best day of the season so far.
No, it wasn’t a victory for the team that won 18 of 36 points races last season, but it was a stellar performance on every level, as Hendrick drivers led 371 of 500 laps and overcame both Gordon and Johnson getting caught in wrecks not of their own making. Both rebounded nicely, and with the solid runs from Earnhardt and Mears, everyone was happy afterwards.
“I just really appreciate the fans sticking it out and I think they saw a great Martinsville race,” said Gordon, who had his best finish of the season and finished second in this race for the second year in a row. “A lot of great lead changes and pit strategy, bumping and banging and all the great action that happens here. I'm real proud of this Dupont Chevrolet team to come home second.”
“It was a really good day. It definitely was what we needed so far this year. We had a rough start to the season and some bad luck,” said Mears, who also had the best finish of the season and moved up six positions in points to 27th. “The good thing is everybody held their heads up pretty high. We know that we are competitive and this is a good start for us to rebound
As for Earnhardt, he led a race-high 146 laps, but burned his tires off on the last run, which cost him a chance at winning. Still, he was delighted to have his fifth top-10 finish in six starts, the kind of consistency he struggled to muster in his last two years at Dale Earnhardt Inc.
“I ran too hard at the start of it and used up my stuff a little bit and didn't have any tires at the end to hold them guys off,” said Earnhardt. “I should have been more patient. Jeff (Gordon) was patient and he was riding and I got by him and I thought ‘All right, now I can get these other guys on old tires,’ but I just burned it up so we didn't get the finish we could have or needed to have. We got a good finish, I am real happy about that. We led a lot today, we can't be too upset. That would be ridiculous to be disappointed with how we did today because we did really good.”
And now the challenge is to keep it up. “We have to do this every week,” he said. “If we can't get those wins right now, it is best to get what we can get and build upon making the Chase. We tried really hard today and it just didn't work out for us.”
But as a team, it worked out, which is exactly what the organization has been looking for in 2008 and hadn’t found until Sunday.
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association.
GOODY’S COOL ORANGE 500 RESULTS
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