For Junior, a successful second at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. -- As Dale Earnhardt Jr. moseyed calmly into the Atlanta Motor Speedway media center Sunday evening, leaving in his wake a raucous mob of fans crooning for his time and signature, the smile on his face screamed the relief felt by his entire team.

He had just exited his car following a runner-up finish in the MBNA America 500, his best career run at the 1.54-mile Atlanta oval.

Once settled into his seat, he voiced the dire necessity of Sunday’s effort. The Budweiser Chevrolet had been up front here before, and for much of the 2002 campaign, but had yet to close the deal.

“We’ve been up front in a lot of these races in Atlanta, we just haven’t been there at the end,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Today was a good day for us to be able to race for the finish and just be part of the action. We’ve always run good here, we just haven’t been there at the end to be part of the show.”

Well, that all changed Sunday. No competitor ran more laps among the top 10 than Earnhardt Jr. -- not even dominator Tony Stewart, who led a race-high 143 laps. Junior was in the top 10 literally all day, and even led 38 of the 325 laps.

The second-place finish allowed Earnhardt Jr. to gain 11 points in the standings, moving from 25th to 14th by the end of the day.

“It seems like we always need a shot in the arm, but hopefully we can get to where we can run up front all the time,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I love driving these cars and we couldn’t have a better sponsor than Budweiser, but we need to be up front more often and we need to figure out how.”

Earnhardt Jr.’s rear tire changer, Steve Wolfe, struggled Sunday during the first two stops. But on the final stop, he performed flawlessly, enabling Earnhardt Jr. to make up vital spots of track position.

After the first two stops “(Wolfe) said he was having a bad day and had it figured out,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I told him that we had run 390 (miles) and if it took him that long to figure it out, we were going to have some decisions to make. But he had a great stop the last pit stop that picked us up a few spots in position to race Tony for the win.”

Stewart said Earnhardt Jr. had the only car capable of running on the bottom all day. Still yet, Junior was forced to use a higher line late, and Stewart promptly used the same line. That disallowed any shot for him to pass.

“He was good all day down on the bottom. He had the only car that could stay on the bottom lap after lap,” Stewart said. “He was really strong on stickers at the beginning of a run. I thought he’d fall off more than he did.”

“My car was real tight and (Stewart’s) car was great,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “He drove a good line. I moved up a little bit and it seemed to help my car and I thought I was going to be able to catch him like that. But then he moved up in that same line. He’s a smart race car driver.”

Thus, Earnhardt Jr. rolled home second, a run that marks his first top-five effort since winning at Talladega last October.

“We’ve just got to do this more often,” he said.