DOVER, Del.?Tony Stewart?s 25th-place finish in Sunday?s AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway tightened the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings considerably, but with a sway bar and a wheel threatening to fall off his car, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn?t able to take advantage of Stewart?s problems.
Earnhardt faded early with a car that handled atrociously, thanks to a sway bar that was dragging the asphalt because a mounting bolt hadn?t been tightened. Earnhardt lost a lap while his team rectified the problem, but he regained it with a free pass as the highest-scored lapped car under a competition caution on Lap 44.
Though Earnhardt drove back into the top 15, an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel delivered the coup de grace to his comeback effort. Earnhardt finished 24th, two laps down and only one position ahead of Stewart.
?That?s racing?that?s all I can say,? Earnhardt said after the race. ?I?ve had a lot of stuff happen to me over the years, good and bad, and you just have to roll with the punches. I don?t think I?m BS-ing myself when I think that we brought a good car to the track. ? There were a couple of promising things today, but we didn?t finish like we wanted to.
?We had a pretty good car and ran well, and we didn?t do anything stupid. We just kind of got snake-bit there a little bit today, so we can?t be too upset with ourselves.?
Earnhardt leaves Dover 10th in points, 34 behind leaders Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards. A spread of 19 points covers the top nine drivers.
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