Monday, August 8, 2011

Ninth place earns breathing room for Earnhardt

LONG POND, Pa. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. got exactly what he needed Sunday -- a ninth-place finish that gave him a reasonable margin for error heading into next Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen.



It was hardly a perfect performance. Glitches on pit road probably cost Earnhardt three or four spots at the finish. Nevertheless, Earnhardt solidified his 10th-place position in the Cup standings and goes to the Glen with a 23-point advantage over 11th-place Denny Hamlin.


"We had a real good car, and we had some real good speed in the car," Earnhardt said. "We had some struggles on pit road, and I know the guys on the team will get that sorted out -- and sometimes we just have mistakes.



"Sometimes the driver makes them, sometimes -- there's so many guys on the team it's rare when everyone is kind of clicking. We'll get it sorted out. We had good speed, though, we had a good car all day long, and [I'm] real happy how that worked out."



That kind of finish, Earnhardt's first top-10 since June 12 -- the last time the series came to Pocono -- gives him breathing room at the road course at the Glen, not one of his strongest tracks.



"Well, we're just going to try and go up there and steal a good finish -- like everyone else, you know," Earnhardt said. "You've got to do different strategy at the road-course races and pit once you get inside the [fuel] window and it's all kind of craziness. It's not really much fun, but that's the way it is."

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