Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved up three spots in points to sixth. Credit: Autostock

Junior clears another hurdle en route to Chase

Leaves Fontana with career-best, runner-up finish on 2-mile ovals

FONTANA, Calif. -- If and when Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes the Chase for the Nextel Cup, he can point to his performances at Fontana and Michigan as major reasons why.

Top finishersDale Jr., Gordon and Edwards talk about their night at Fontana Race Rewind - FontanaWatch a condensed version of the Sony HD 500 from Fontana Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836 SONY HD 500 •   Official Results, click here •   Official Standings, click here

NASCAR holds four races a year at the high-speed, low-banked 2-mile tracks, and those particular ovals have historically been a struggle for Earnhardt.

In 2005, when Earnhardt famously failed to qualify for the Chase, he didn't finish better than 17th in any of the four races at Fontana and Michigan.

But Dale Earnhardt Inc. made vast improvements to its superspeedway bodies in the offseason, and Earnhardt didn't finish worse than 11th in the four races on 2-mile tracks in 2006.

"This is my best finish here," said Earnhardt, who moved from ninth to sixth in the points. "We are happy to get a second anywhere, but especially here at California. These kind of racetracks -- we have really turned these around."

Earnhardt spent 201 of the 250 laps in the top 10, but he struggled mightily on short runs. Fortunately for him, the race was stopped only seven times, and four of those cautions were for debris.

The race was caution-free for the final 54 laps, and Earnhardt picked off 13 cars during that run.

Despite the runner-up finish, Earnhardt felt the engine in his Chevrolet wasn't optimal, and he maintained his momentum by running the high line for most of the night.

"I think we're down on power to some of the other teams, so running that top line really keeps the momentum up and makes it really launch off the corners," Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt is only 47 points ahead of 10th-place Jeff Burton with one race to go until the Chase begins, but the series hits Richmond next week.

Earnhardt won at Richmond in the spring for his only victory of the season. His season nearly unraveled in July, when he suffered back-to-back last-place finishes to fall to 11th in the standings.

Much of his resurgence can be traced to Indianapolis, where he struggled badly but salvaged a sixth-place finish with pit strategy. Since then, he has notched three top-10s in four races.

"We're peaking at just the right time, and we want to keep that momentum going where we can put ourselves in position to win the Chase," Earnhardt said. "We've got all of the tangibles to win -- the team, the cars, the driver and the pit crew -- so we'll see if we can keep it going."