NASCAR Cup Series

Dale Earnhardt Jr. battles back from bad start for second-place finish

Published Apr. 17, 2016 5:17 p.m. ET

foxsports

When the green flag dropped to start the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in trouble. Deep trouble.

As the field roared away to start the race, Earnhardt’s No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet stumbled and stalled, forcing him to the pits, where he immediately went two laps down to the entire field.

It turns out the battery was dead in Earnhardt’s car, a potentially devastating setback

Despite that awful start, Earnhardt twice used the wave around to get one of his laps back each time and move into contention for a good finish.

When the green-flag flew after the 15th and final caution ended on Lap 496, Earnhardt made a great restart and managed a surprising second-place finish.

Given the way his day began, Earnhardt was understandably happy to end up behind only Carl Edwards after 500 long laps.

“We got a luck on those last few restarts, starting on the outside,” said Earnhardt. “And gained some spots just by being in the right lane. We didn’t have a good enough car to run in the top-five today, but Greg (Ives, crew chief) and those guys did a great job getting our laps back.”

Earnhardt said his Chevrolet was not especially fast on the day, but being in the right place at the right time paid dividends when it mattered most.

“We had about a 10th-place car. We weren't really that good all day,” said Earnhardt. “We tried a setup that we've never really ran here before, just trying to learn a little something going forward, and we'll go home and science it out a little bit.”

Lining up in the preferred outside lane late in the race was a huge help.

“We got real lucky the last three restarts to be on the outside line,” said Earnhardt. “We restarted 10th, sixth and fourth, and when you restart 4th you're typically going to come out in second place after that. I was hoping we didn't have any more cautions after that. So it was good. We'll take it.”

Yes, indeed. Earnhardt earned his third runner-up finish and his fourth top-five in eight starts to what’s been a stellar season so far.

Still on the to-do list, though, is scoring his first victory of the season.

“I like finishing good, and that's going to help us get into the Chase pretty comfortably if we don't have any major issues, but we certainly want to win,” Earnhardt said after his second consecutive runner-up finish. “Going to victory lane is important to our sponsors, and it's obviously fun. But it's good for our team to set ourselves up to not have to worry about the Chase anymore.”