Disaster averted: Dale Jr. rallies to likely ensure Chase advancement

Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway had all the makings of a disaster for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Instead, NASCAR's most popular driver rallied to a ninth-place finish -- and all but guaranteed himself a spot in the 12-driver Contender Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

After restarting sixth on Lap 112 of what ultimately became a 303-lap race, Earnhardt Jr. suffered a major setback when his No. 88 Chevrolet headed to pit road on Lap 120 with a loose wheel.

Following his green-flag pit stop, Earnhardt Jr. returned to the track in 24th-place, one lap down to the leaders.

After missing out on the Lucky Dog when caution flags waved on Lap 171 and Lap 181, Earnhardt Jr. was finally in position to snare the free pass when the caution flag waved on Lap 189 for a multi-car incident involving Chase drivers Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman, along with Jamie McMurray.

Finally back on the lead lap, Earnhardt Jr. restarted 21st on Lap 193 and began moving forward in a hurry.

"I like the way we worked all day," Earnhardt Jr. said. "We had to put on some real old tires there. We ran out of tires, so that last set of tires we put on had some practice laps on them. We still hung in there and had some good restarts.

" ... I'm proud of my team. You're going to have mistakes. I'm going to make mistakes, but nobody really got on anybody (and) everybody sort of regrouped and we finished out the day."

The Hendrick Motorsports driver climbed as high as seventh before losing two spots on the final green-white-checkered restart.

"Everybody gets on my ass about them restarts; we had some pretty good ones today," Earnhardt Jr. said. "The last one wasn't too good, but I was on the inside slipping around. We had fun, and I'm glad we were able to rebound. That was pretty dramatic there for a while."

Earnhardt Jr. leaves New Hampshire tied with Kyle Busch for fifth place among the 16 Chase drivers with one race remaining before the championship field is whittled to 12 drivers.

Perhaps more importantly, Earnhardt Jr. has a comfortable 28-point buffer on 13th-place Denny Hamlin, the first of four drivers who as things currently stand wouldn't advance from the Chase Challenger Round to the Chase Contender Round.