Notes: Strong runs don't soothe thoughts on COT

DOVER, Del. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seemingly giddy to finish a race Sunday without blowing an engine.

After a third-place finish in Sundays' Dodge Dealers 400, the No. 8 driver held his ball cap in the air and saluted the media gallery as he exited Sunday's post-race news conference.

"We had a lot of luck go our way and we also worked really hard to get to where we got. I am real proud of my team, they gave me a great opportunity [Sunday] to run great and we ran up front early in the race and were able to stay there most of the day," Earnhardt said. "We had some down parts in the race and got a lap down but were able to get that back."

Lap-by-Lap

Follow the passes, lead changes and crashes in Carl Edwards' wreck-filled win at Dover.

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The "down parts" may have something to do with Earnhardt's less-than-glowing review of the Car of Tomorrow.

After multiple races and development, drivers are still taking issue with the new chassis meant to make racing safer and competition closer.

"The COT and the concrete surface here made it difficult to race," Earnhardt said. "Cars don't have any downforce on the front. It's either hitting the ground or too high; the car is really tight or really lose. There's no middle ground."

Chase points leader Jeff Gordon finished 11th and said his car wouldn't do anything he wanted it to do; the driver of the No. 24 battled an ill-handling racecar all day.

When asked to give the COT a letter grade at this stage of the game, after 13 COT races, Gordon simply said, "no." But he agreed with Earnhardt's comments.

"There are guys out there making this car work ... I need to hold back what I really want to say," Gordon said. "I just don't see how we're going to get it done under the current conditions of this car and put on the kind of races that we need to put on. And we haven't even gotten to the 1.5 miles [tracks] yet."

Crewman injured by loose tire
Art Harris, gas man for Michael Waltrip's No. 55 crew, was loaded on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a local hospital for evaluation after the crew member was hit in the head by a bouncing tire during pit stops on Lap 76 (watch video).

In order to accommodate the ambulance, NASCAR threw a competition caution on Lap 147 so the emergency vehicle could cross the track and leave the racetrack. Dover has no tunnels under the track from the infield.

The injury occurred when Waltrip's car left its pit stall. The car of David Ragan hit a loose tire, sending it bouncing into Harris. Initially, he was taken to the infield care center, where a NASCAR official reported "he was awake and alert."

Later in the race, NASCAR reported the gas man was treated and released from the local hospital.

A native of Asheboro, N.C., Harris is a suspension specialist for the team and has worked in racing for 14 years.

Injured crew members are not uncommon on the chaotic pit roads of NASCAR.

At the most recent race in California, T.J. Ford, jack man for the No. 15 of Paul Menard, was clipped by the No. 40 car of David Stremme and had to be replaced by another crewmen.

Josh Yost, the jack man for driver Jeff Burton, underwent surgery on his left ankle following a pit-road incident during this season's Daytona 500.

Montoya scores top-10 after rough seven-race stretch
Not since his second-place finish in Indianapolis at the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard has Juan Montoya seen a top-10 finish.

That, of course, changed Sunday after the Chip Ganassi Racing driver brought his No. 42 Dodge home to a 10th-place finish at Dover, the fourth top-10 of his rookie season.

This was a welcomed turnaround for Montoya, who finished 31st in the spring race here after his machine suffered electrical problems.

"We just really stayed out of trouble," Montoya said. "That was the key thing. The last few weeks have been annoying when we had a good car and this week we finally figured something out."

Crew chief Donnie Wingo said he was impressed with Montoya's performance for only having raced at Dover one other time.

Roush, Ford Motor Co. celebrate 100th victory
Sunday's victory by Carl Edwards gave Roush Fenway Racing its 100th Nextel Cup Series win.

Jack Roush began his career as a team owner with Ford Racing in 1988 when Mark Martin drove the No. 6 Ford Thunderbird.

His first win came in October of 1989 when Martin won the AC Delco 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway.

Roush apparently had lost count because until it was brought to his attention, he didn't realize he had reached such a racing milestone.

"The track owner here that passed away last year, Melvin Joseph, was a Ford man all the way and he really enjoyed celebrating every time we won here," Roush said. "It feels like we won eight or 10 times here at Dover for him. This is where he'd have wanted us to win our 100th win, and he wanted a Ford win, I'm sure."

Mikey likes it
Michael Waltrip has a reason to celebrate as well.

The Toyota driver, who for the most part of this season has struggled to make races, finished 15th on Sunday despite power-steering issues and a poor-handling racecar.

"We had gotten ourselves in a bind as far as the points because if it had rained out qualifying then we wouldn't have been in the race here this weekend," he said. "Now we have ourselves back in so if it rains in Kansas next weekend, we'll race [due to his number of starts]."