Earnhardt happy after cracking top 10 at Michigan
Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn't ready to say he's back. Not by a long shot.
Yet after posting his best finish in nearly three months by surging to seventh at Michigan on Sunday, NASCAR's most popular - and sometimes most sullen - driver sounded downright giddy.
``We were able to be competitive at the end of the race,'' Earnhardt said.
That hasn't been the case too often during this frustrating season for Earnhardt. He began the year by finishing runner-up to Jamie McMurray at Daytona but has struggled finding any sort of consistency in the ensuing weeks. His performance at the two-mile oval was his highest finish since running seventh at Bristol in March.
Even better, he managed to beat cars he felt were better than his No. 88 Chevrolet. Earnhardt outdueled Jeff Burton over the final laps by laying hard on the wheel and going low.
``I felt like I could hold my own on the bottom in (Turns) 1 and 2 and run around the middle in 3 and 4 and my momentum would keep me ahead of him and it worked,'' Earnhardt said.
Earnhardt moved up to 14th in the points race with 11 races to go before the 12-driver cutoff for the Chase. He trails 12th-place Mark Martin by 81 points heading into next week's trip to the road course at Sonoma.
There's plenty of time to make up ground, and on the two-year anniversary of his last win, Earnhardt was quick to praise crew chief Lance McGrew. McGrew called Earnhardt to the pits when a late caution came out. The crew slapped on new tires, giving Earnhardt enough grip to climb into the top 10.
``Lance and the guys unloaded a good car and it stayed good all weekend,'' he said. ``We had a good call at the end to get four tires. That worked out for us, got a couple more spots. We had about a 10th-place car today.''
----
WHERE'S TOM: Two days after Kevin Harvick scolded Tom Logano for being too involved in son Joey's racing career, the elder Logano was noticeably absent on Sunday.
Instead, it was Joey's mother Debbie who watched her son work his way to a 10th-place finish. Debbie also tagged along for Logano's victory in Saturday night's Nationwide race at Kentucky.
Joe Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs said Tom Logano simply ``didn't want to be the center of attention'' and that's why he chose to take a rare weekend off.
Tom Logano has been a fixture in the garage since his son broke into the Cup series two years ago but drew heavy criticism from Harvick for his actions during a postrace scrap last week at Pocono. Joey Logano charged Harvick's pit stall after Harvick knocked Logano out of contention late in the race.
Harvick chastised Tom Logano for prodding his son into the scuffle. NASCAR officials summoned Tom Logano to the hauler after the race but he was not officially disciplined.
His absence didn't seem to bother his son, who deftly moved around Harvick early in the race.
----
FORD TOUGH: The new FR9 engine used by Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports drew raves after five drivers using the Ford-based motor finished in the top 14.
Kasey Kahne led the charge, matching Matt Kenseth's second-place finish in Atlanta as the best performance by a Ford car all season. Greg Biffle was ninth, AJ Allmendinger 11th, Carl Edwards 12th and Kenseth 14th.
``The FR9 is so fast,'' Allmendinger said. ``It's good to come off the corner and get a good run and just blow by guys.''
Biffle said ``the power is there'' but handling continues to be a problem.
``If we do that, we should be able to get things figured out,'' he said.
A Ford car hasn't won since Jamie McMurray won at Talladega last fall.
----
WAIT 'TIL 2012?: Kentucky Speedway's long wait to get a coveted Cup race is likely going to extend until at least 2012.
Track owner Bruton Smith said before Saturday's Nationwide race at the 1.5-mile tri-oval that he hasn't asked NASCAR to move a Cup date to the track in 2011.
While Smith, whose Speedway Motorsports Inc. purchased the track in late 2008 from the original ownership group, won't rule out the possibility of finally bringing a Cup race to the Bluegrass, he's not planning on it.
``There are so many things that would have to be done to get to that point,'' he said.
It's highly unlikely NASCAR would choose to assign the track a Cup date following a lengthy legal battle with the original owners, who filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp., in 2005 claiming they conspired to keep the track from getting a Cup race.
Both the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the claims. Last month the original owners opted not to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case.
Smith has maintained the lawsuit has long been an obstacle to getting a Cup race. He could move one of the races at his other SMI tracks to Kentucky, but has remained coy about which track would lose a Cup date.
There are already plans to expand the track by 50,000 seats to accommodate a Cup race. About 61,000 turned out on Saturday night to see Joey Logano edge Carl Edwards for his third straight Nationwide race at the speedway.
----
ALMIROLA READY: Jimmie Johnson's entourage grew by one on Sunday.
Johnson's crew was joined by part-time Cup driver Aric Almirola, who will be the emergency fill in for Johnson if Johnson's wife Chandra goes into labor during a race. She's due with the couple's first child in July.
Almirola, who won Saturday's Truck race, said he's just hoping to get a feel for how the No. 48 team works. He has no plans to head to Sonoma next weekend, but will be on call through the July 10 race in Chicago.
----
STAR GAZING: Actors Kevin James and Adam Sandler, who were promoting their upcoming movie ``Grown Ups,'' served as grand marshals for the race.
Sandler who has played roles as a football player and a golfer was asked if he has plans for a movie about auto racing.
``Will Ferrell beat me to the punch on that one,'' Sandler said. ``We'd like to. We like speed.''
Detroit Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom served as the honorary pace car driver and Ndamukong Suh, the Detroit Lions' first-round draft pick this year from Nebraska, was an honorary official for the race.
Suh attended the Indianapolis 500 last month.
``I had a blast at Indy. This is NASCAR, so I'm trying to figure out what the difference is,'' said Suh, who nonetheless recognizes where his bread is buttered. The Lions are owned by the Ford family. ``I'm happy as long as a Ford car wins.''
