Earnhardt Jr. upset after 10th-place finish

JOLIET, Ill. -- Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was quite disgruntled after finishing 10th on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. A late-race pit call cost him several positions in the final running order.

A late-race pit decision cost Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Sunday's Tropicana 400. Credit: Autostock

Earnhardt Jr. was running in the top five when Joe Nemechek hit the Turn 2 wall with 25 laps remaining to bring out the day's final caution. Earnhardt Jr. dove to pit road, but while fellow frontrunners Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart opted for fuel only, the Budweiser Chevrolet crew opted for four tires and fuel.

That cost the No. 8 team crucial track position and effectively ended any chance they had to win the Tropicana 400.

The crew "thought the tires would be faster," said an irate Earnhardt Jr. following the race. "When you're 13th, 15th, or whatever in line, then you got 15 lapped cars on the inside ... you just can't pass 30 cars in 20 laps, nobody can.

"Nobody's that good. I said, 'God, we should've just got gas or whatever.' Damn, we'll be all right. It's a good run, felt good to run up front."

For a time Sunday, Earnhardt Jr. was utterly untouchable. With 120 miles remaining in the race he had an eight-second advantage on the field.

"We got to whoop some (butt) for a little while, and that felt really good," he said.

Overall, Earnhardt Jr. led 81 laps, second only to Ryan Newman's race-leading total of 87.

"We took four tires and got beat," he said.