Dale Earnhardt Jr. has back-to-back top-10 finishes for the first time since July -- and now heads to Phoenix, where he was fourth in the spring race. Credit: Autostock

Another top-10 run, but 8th not enough for Junior

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Even though he barely avoided disaster when Greg Biffle spun directly in front of him, Dale Earnhardt Jr. couldn't capitalize on his good fortune in Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Still, an eighth-place finish gave Junior his first back-to-back top-10 finishes since July, when he was third in the Pepsi 400, won at Chicagoland and ninth at New Hampshire. Earnhardt Jr. moved around Jeff Burton to reclaim 18th in the Nextel Cup points, two weeks after dropping all the way to 20th.

Inside the Chase Standings after Texas Rank Driver Pts. Behind 1. T. Stewart 6,255 -- 2. J. Johnson 6,217 -38 3. C. Edwards 6,178 -77 4. G. Biffle 6,133 -122 5. M. Martin 6,132 -123 6. M. Kenseth 6,120 -135 7. R. Newman 6,081 -174 8. Ku. Busch 5,974 -281 9. R. Wallace 5,940 -315 10. J. Mayfield 5,848 -407 • Race Results, click here • Series Standings, click here Final lapsA pit decision by Edwards earns him a second consecutive win Texas showdownCatch all the highlights from TMS with TrackPass Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"It was OK," Earnhardt said. "It wasn't great. We were tight all day. We got a good finish out of it. I was pretty happy about that."

Driving the same No. 8 Chevrolet that dominated huge hunks of last weekend's race at Atlanta before finishing fourth, Earnhardt expected a similar situation at Texas.

Early on, that seemed to be the case, as Junior moved from his 10th-place starting spot up to fourth within the first 30 laps. However, the car progressively tightened as the track cooled, leaving Earnhardt having to wrestle it around the corners. He fell back as far as 19th at one point before rallying late to get back into the top 10.

"The car didn't drive as good as I wanted it to, or as good as my team wanted it to," Junior said. "I had to work real hard [Sunday], so it was a little bit more work than play."

Earnhardt's one big scare came on Lap 83. Running directly behind the lapped car of Biffle as the two cars headed for the dogleg frontstretch, Junior had to jam on the brakes, swerve to the right and then correct back to the left -- all at speed -- in order to miss the spinning No. 16 Ford. Somehow, Biffle also avoided the wall.

"It's good to get a finish like that after all that effort," Junior said.