NNS: Earnhardt’s Victory Top Moment

Nationwide

NNS: Earnhardt’s Victory Top Moment

It was a busy year for the NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2010...

Tom Jensen | Posted December 28, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove a No. 3 Chevrolet carrying the blue-and-yellow Wrangler colors to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series Subway Jalapeno 250 at Daytona International Speedway in 2010. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Kyle Busch dominated the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series landscape, winning a record 13 races and breaking his own prior mark by scoring 24 race victories in NASCAR’s top three divisions. In the process, Busch led Joe Gibbs Racing to its third consecutive NNS owners’ title.

Brad Keselowski wound up winning the series driver championship by nearly three full races in a breakout season with Penske Racing.

In terms of individual races, though, plenty of other guys got in the act. Here’s SPEED.com’s five best NNS races of 2010:

1. Subway Jalapeno 250, Daytona International Speedway — Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored the most emotional and popular victory of the season at the sport’s most iconic track. In a special one-time arrangement involving Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt drove a No. 3 Chevrolet carrying the blue-and-yellow Wrangler colors his late father had immortalized.

“I was so worried that I wasn't going to win, 'cause nothing but a win would get it — for everybody,” Earnhardt said. “If we didn't win, what a waste of time.”

Justin Allgaier pushed Earnhardt into the lead on Lap 70, and from there on NASCAR’s most popular driver held on, surviving a green-white-checkered finish to win his 23rd career NNS race and the first since Aug. 19, 2006, at Michigan International Speedway. For Earnhardt, a two-time NNS series champion, it was his first victory in any of NASCAR's top three series since June 15, 2008, when he had captured the Lifelock 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan. It was the debut event for NASCAR’s new-generation NNS car, which was raced four times in 2010 and will run the full schedule in 2011 and beyond. Earnhardt took the Daytona checkered flag ahead of
Joey Logano, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.

2. NAPA Auto Parts 200, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve — Boris Said, the Brillo-headed road racing specialist, has always had a flair for the dramatic. And he proved that with a stunning last-lap of Max Papis to win the NAPA Auto Parts 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Montreal’s fabled Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Boris Said celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Napa Auto Parts 200 on August 29, 2010 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo: GETTY Images)

Papis passed Said on the last lap and led through the 14th and final turn on the 2.71-mile road course. But as they accelerated out of the corners and onto the frontstretch, Said was able to edge ahead, with his Zaxby’s-sponsored No. 09 Ford crossing the line just .012-seconds ahead of Papis’s No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet. The margin of victory was the closest ever on a road course in the Nationwide Series, the fifth closest overall in series history and the closest since 1998 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Jacques Villeneuve, son of the late Gilles Villeneuve and local Montreal hero, finished third in his No. 32 Braun Racing Toyota.

The victory was the first in 22 NNS starts for Said, who had a previous best of second in Mexico City in 2006. It also was the first Nationwide win for car owner Robby Benton and the first for the new pairing of Said and crew chief Scott Zipadelli.

Page 1 of 2

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

CUP: 2014 NASCAR Hall Of Fame Class A Family Affair
Dale Jarrett will join his father Ned in the NASCAR Hall of Fame...…
CUP: Tim Flock, Maurice Petty Lead 2014 Hall Class
Tim Flock and Maurice Petty were two of five legends voted into the…
CUP: Voting Day At NASCAR Hall Of Fame
The next five members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame will be voted in…