The crew for the No. 8 Chevrolet joins driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Victory Lane. His win was due in large part to his team's late pit strategy.
JOLIET, Ill. - The roar from the crowd told the story after Sunday's Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway: Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back.
The fan favorite finally appears to have broken out of a nearly seasonlong slump.
A sellout crowd of about 100,000 at the suburban Chicago track howled its approval as Earnhardt celebrated his first win of the season by smoking the tires of his No.8 Chevrolet and hugging crew members in the infield grass.
"I was worried I was going to go winless this year," Earnhardt said after his 16th series victory and first since November in Phoenix. "Now, let's go out and do it again, win some more."
Earnhardt and his team beat dominating Matt Kenseth with late-race strategy. Kenseth led 176 of 267 laps on the 11/2-mile oval, but wound up second after choosing to change four tires and falling behind on his final pit stop in the USG Sheetrock 400.
"We obviously didn't have the best car," Earnhardt said. "Matt Kenseth had the best car, hands down."
But this was Junior's day.
Since opening the season with a third-place finish in the Daytona 500, Earnhardt has had a mostly miserable season and little to smile about until a third-place effort July 2 in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. He started 25th Sunday and spent most of the day hovering near the back of the top 10.
On Lap 216, during a caution, Earnhardt's crew made a lightning-fast, four-tire stop, moving their driver from eighth to third, just behind Kenseth and Tony Stewart.
He fell to fourth after the restart, losing a spot to Greg Biffle, but then the caution flew after Mike Bliss and Jeff Gordon crashed. All of the leaders got a last chance to pit on a day when right-side tires were blistering and causing numerous blowouts and crashes.
Scott Wimmer stayed on the track and took the lead and Earnhardt and several others took only two tires and moved ahead of Kenseth and Stewart, both of whom took four.
The green flag came out on Lap 255, and it took Earnhardt three laps to get past Wimmer, who faded quickly. Kenseth charged toward the front, grabbing second from Brian Vickers on Lap 261. But Kenseth finished 0.291 seconds - about five car lengths - behind Earnhardt, who led only the final 11 laps.
Jimmie Johnson, the series points leader, came back from a lap down to finish third, followed by Vickers and Stewart.
Kenseth, who has not won since March 2004 at Las Vegas, was bitterly disappointed.
"Our car was awesome," he said. "I'm trying to be a gracious loser, but it's a tough one."
Biffle, second in the season standings, finished 11th Sunday and fell from 73 to 108 points behind Johnson. The victory moved Earnhardt up to 13th place, 115 points behind 10th-place Kurt Busch and 491 points behind Johnson.
The top 10 drivers and any others within 400 points of the leader after the 26th race of the season will be eligible to race for the series championship over the final 10 events.
For four-time series champion Gordon, who finished 33rd, it was his sixth finish of 30th or lower in eight races. He fell to 15th in points, 502 behind Johnson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.
