Junior, Kenseth battle late, after race at MIS

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fit to be tied Sunday at Michigan after he was literally knocked back to a seventh-place finish in the Sirius 400.

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With race winner Kurt Busch, runner-up Bobby Labonte and third-place Jeff Gordon securely established at the front, Earnhardt, along with several of the other lead cars, elected not to pit when the event's record-tying ninth caution flew with less than 10 laps to go.

The race restarted with five laps left. By the final two laps, Winston Cup point leader Matt Kenseth and Michael Waltrip -- who each took four tires -- caught him.

"That was the thing to do -- it was a no-brainer, really," Kenseth said of the decision to take tires, which enabled him to come from ninth on the restart. "We were single file (so) it didn't matter. Everybody was on old tires and the new ones were going to stick."

	Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished seventh Sunday. Credit: Autostock

Earnhardt was incensed that Kenseth rubbed him in the process of passing him on the last lap, which enabled the point leader to finish fourth, ahead of Waltrip, Sterling Marlin and Earnhardt.

The driver of the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet apparently rammed his car into the back left corner of Kenseth's No. 17 DeWalt Ford on the cool-off lap, knocking the grill out of the Monte Carlo.

Earnhardt got out of his car and glared at it as he took off his safety equipment. He momentarily walked into the back of his hauler and emerged shortly after with his uniform tied at his waist, walking off the back of the truck and onto and across the hood of his car.

He asked for a moment to gather his thoughts as he walked around his car and directed a scowl toward Kenseth's transporter.

Then he muttered an expletive, spun on his heel and stalked from the garage without comment.

Later, he came back and briefly held court.

"You'll have to ask Matt what happened," Earnhardt said. "He got up inside of me (in Turn 2) and just run me up into the wall.

"I was a sitting duck out there for the final restart (because) the guys behind me with fresher tires didn't have any lapped cars to contend with. I just had to drive my (butt) off.

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"What can you do?"

Kenseth was upset enough to apologize to Earnhardt -- who is second to him in the championship -- when he was interviewed by MRN Radio after the race. But he didn't feel like what he did was uncalled for.

"I didn't have a chance to talk to him, but he was obviously mad afterwards because he knocked my whole bumper cover off after the race," Kenseth said. "If I wasn't clear, I had him by all but a half-inch.

"I guess I brushed him, just barely, going by, but I did the same thing he would have done racing at the end -- and he tore my car all up afterward. I feel bad about it, but..."

Along with losing a chance to gain points on Kenseth, Earnhardt was apparently disgusted at his car's handling deficiency at the end of the race.

"It was just too tight at the end of the race," Earnhardt's car chief, Tony Eury Jr., said. "He kept saying 'a little tight, a little tight.' We kept making small adjustments all day, but when it came time to go, it was just too tight."

Waltrip had a bird's-eye view of the last lap scramble form his NAPA Chevrolet as he scored his sixth top-10 finish of the season and maintained his sixth-place position in the championship after following Kenseth to the front.

"We felt like we could do something if we could get the car right, and at the end was when we had it so I could really drive it," Waltrip said. "It was just crazy out there.

"Honestly, it's just a fun time to be a race car driver because everybody's on their game and fighting for every inch. It's like some kind of Terminator 3 deal, with everybody just going Rrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

Kenseth unofficially expanded his point lead to 185 over Earnhardt, the largest point gap at this point in the season since Dale Earnhardt led Dale Jarrett by 251 points after 15 races in 1993.