Earnhardt Wins in Hendrick Debut

Late Saturday night Hendrick oozed obvious enthusiasm over the team’s radio, congratulating his newest driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., just moments after claiming victory in the Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway.

In what marked his first race — albeit a non-points race — in a Hendrick Motorsports entry, Earnhardt quickly quieted the naysayers of his decision to leave his late father’s Dale Earnhardt, Inc. team by claiming the win with his new Hendrick-backed No. 88 Chevrolet Impala.

Earnhardt led 15 of the first 20 laps during the first segment and an additional 32 during the final 50-lap segment. Overall, he led 47 — the most laps ever led by a single driver spanning the 30 years of running the Bud Shootout.

During the offseason Earnhardt made the much-hyped transition to Hendrick after choosing to leave his late father’s race team, now run by stepmother Teresa. During his final run with the team last season, he failed to make the Chase or visit Victory Lane. His last win came in the 2006 Spring event in Richmond.

“There’s a lot of pressure for us but we’ve always delivered. I hope we will continue,” Earnhardt said, noting his crew chief and cousin Tony Eury, Jr.

“I have to thank a lot of people for the preparation that we had coming into this season. Not just Tony Jr. and the team, there were a lot of people throughout the sponsor ranks and the PR side of it, the personal side of it, family and friends. So many people helped prepared this deal and helped to get it right to where we could come in here and be able to work under this microscope,” he said.

Tony Stewart fell just shy of overtaking Earnhardt in the race’s final two laps, but when fellow Toyota driver Dave Blaney was shuffled out of line, Stewart lost his drafting partner. Stewart had pulled off a pass for the lead with nine laps remaining but Earnhardt, thanks to drafting help from teammate Jimmie Johnson, was able to jolt his No. 88 National Guard Chevy back into the lead on a restart three laps from the finish. Stewart was leading when a caution flag fell with six laps remaining after his headlining nemesis Kurt Busch cut a tire.

“We had a lot of help at the end from Jimmie. That was half of the credit to the win. The other half was the car being capable of being up there in the first place,” Earnhardt added. “The car was really good. The race itself, I had a really good car handling all night. I tried to stay in the top three or two and we did that. You just get lucky at the end being in the right lane, getting the right help from the right guy. I think whoever wins the race, that’s the situation and we were able to be that (person). I was just really lucky.”

Despite the Hendrick group ganging up on the field, Stewart held on to second in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The Shootout marked the first race for the organization with the manufacturer since announcing their defection from Chevrolet late last season.

“For the first race with the new car at this track I thought it was pretty exciting no matter where you were at. Obviously it seemed really important to be up toward the front,” Stewart said.

“It was just a matter of trying to keep track position. When you run second to Dale Jr. like that you can’t be discouraged by any means. I think he’s probably the best restrictor plate driver that has ever lived. To run with him and the Hendrick guys I thought we fought a good fight tonight.”

Johnson, who won the pole for the 500 via Sunday’s qualifying session, teammate Jeff Gordon and Reed Sorenson, the highest finishing Dodge driver, rounded out the top 5.

Johnson and Gordon both started the event from the rear of the field after being involved in a practice crash on Friday. Rather than pulling out their 500 backup cars, the team ordered in a special delivery from the race shop just outside of Charlotte, NC. Both drivers had new cars delivered just before 9:00 AM on raceday.

“The start of the race, the car needed a little bit of work since we didn’t practice with it. The car wasn’t all that good and I lost the draft. We came in during the break, made some changes and got the car to drive better.

“I thought that I had the Kevin Harvick Daytona 500-winning move but I didn’t have the car to get it done. I waited, I waited, got the huge push, came from fifth, was rolling on the outside but the car just didn’t have anything left,” Johnson said of the finish.

Hendrick’s fourth driver, Casey Mears, finished sixth but his No. 5 failed post-race inspection for being too low. Any penalties should be announced early next week, in addition to any rulings regarding Kurt Busch and his heated retaliatory act on pit road against Stewart after Friday's practice session. 

There were four caution flags throughout the two-segment event. Bill Elliott, David Gilliland and Kurt Busch suffered flat tires causing three separate incidents. Elliott was the first to have troubles, just 15 laps into the first segment. The second caution flag of the night was brought on by a racing incident when Jamie McMurray and defending race winner Denny Hamlin made contact. Busch’s troubles are what set up the final restart that helped Earnhardt reclaim the lead.