 | | Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s final pit stop helped give him a top-10 finish at Kansas. Credit: Autostock |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM October 11, 2004 12:55 PM EDT (16:55 GMT)
KANSAS City, Kan. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. took on two tires on his final pit stop for the second week in a row. The call didn't get him a win like it did at Talladega, but it did help Earnhardt Jr. score a top-10 finish at Kansas.  |  | VIDEO | |
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He was running 12th with just 25 laps to go when Kasey Kahne spun on the backstretch, allowing Earnhardt to duck onto pit road. He took on two right-side tires and gained three spots in the closing laps. Junior nearly caught Dale Jarrett for eighth. "We got closer and closer to the front, but just never could get all the way there," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It was real fun racing (Dale) Jarrett at the end." Junior had a scare on Lap 77 when Ward Burton spun in front of his Chevrolet while entering pit road. NASCAR does not allow passing on pit road until a car has reached its stall, so he lost a lot of track position waiting for Burton to get to his pit box.  |  | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | |
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"NASCAR says you can't pass on pit lane, and I thought he was out of gas, so I pushed him down the pit lane," Earnhardt said. "They told me he had lost his brakes, so I apologized, but I think his team was OK with the push. "It really slowed us down and we lost a lot of spots that we never seemed to be able to regain." The finish was Earnhardt Jr's fifth top-10 in a row and kept Kurt Busch, who finished sixth, from gaining significant ground in the standings. Busch left Kansas with a 29-point lead. |