Junior retains series lead with Rock steady run

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finished in the top five at North Carolina Speedway for the first time in his career Sunday, enabling him to retain his Nextel Cup Series championship points lead.

	Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"We got real lucky all day long, catching everybody a lap down on the yellow (flags) and stuff," said Earnhardt, who finished fifth. "I had a pretty decent car, we were real bad at the beginning and we kept working on it and kept getting better and better, and I knew all I had to do was get on the lead lap and we'd get a good finish.

"I about drove it into the fence in Turn 2 on the last lap watching Kasey (Kahne) about win his first race, so that was pretty exciting.

"Just glad to get a top-five, it's my first top-five here. It was just great pit strategy. We didn't have that kind of car."

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Earnhardt, who by winning the Daytona 500 last week claimed the points lead for the first time in his career, heads into the coming off-weekend seven points ahead of 2003 series champion and Sunday's race winner, Matt Kenseth.

"This has been, admittedly, my worst track on the schedule," Junior said. "This is awesome. My fans are probably sighing a big sigh of relief, anyway."

Entering Sunday's race, Earnhardt had never finished better than 13th at Rockingham, and in eight career starts here had finished 33rd or worse four times.