Junior finishes race in 5 car after Busch wrecks, leaves

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Let the rumors begin.

At perhaps the most crucial crossroads of his driving career in which he's negotiating partial ownership of the team his father created, Dale Earnhardt Jr. got a taste of what it's like to drive for the competition on Sunday when he finished the final nine laps in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Lap-by-Lap: Texas

Dale Earnhardt led 96 laps Sunday but any chance he had at winning went up in a puff of smoke. But he would finish the race, only not in his car.

• Complete story

Earnhardt had the dominant car midway through the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, getting around Jeff Gordon on Lap 153 for the lead, a position he held three different times for 96 laps.

When Kurt Busch moved by Earnhardt to take the point on Lap 249, it was the first time anyone passed the 8 car for the lead while on the racetrack.

And Kyle Busch had a front-row seat for it all, less than a second behind the front two cars battling it out.

"How's that Miller Lite taste? Tastes great," Kyle Busch yelled as his brother moved around Earnhardt to take the lead in a front-row battle of the beer sponsors.

It was the highest the younger Busch had gotten as he babied his car, picked off positions and made minimal changes to the machine that was brand new to him. He'd wrecked his backup in practice on Saturday and was forced to start from the rear of the field.

Third place for the hard-charging Busch, however, was as high as he would get.

Four laps after celebrating his brother's move to take the point, Busch's radio went wild again when his spotter tried to lead the driver through a blur of smoke that Tony Stewart produced while slipping around on the frontstretch -- his second spin of the race -- just after being lapped.

"Trying to wreck in front of you. Watch it, watch it!" Busch's spotter said on Lap 253.

But it was no good. Earnhardt slowed his No. 8 Chevrolet because of the smoke from Stewart's wreck, but Busch didn't get his bow tie slowed before he plowed into Earnhardt, sending the 8 car spinning across the start/finish line. (Continued)