Mechanical issues keep Junior from making move

DOVER, Del. -- Tony Stewart's 25th-place finish in Sunday's AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway tightened the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings considerably, but with a sway bar and a wheel threatening to fall off his car, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn't able to take advantage of Stewart's problems.

Earnhardt faded early with a car that handled atrociously, thanks to a sway bar that was dragging the asphalt because a mounting bolt hadn't been tightened. Earnhardt lost a lap while his team rectified the problem, but he regained it with a free pass as the highest-scored lapped car under a competition caution on Lap 44.

Though Earnhardt drove back into the top 15, an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel delivered the coup de grace to his comeback effort. Earnhardt finished 24th, two laps down and only one position ahead of Stewart.

"That's racing -- that's all I can say," Earnhardt said after the race. "I've had a lot of stuff happen to me over the years, good and bad, and you just have to roll with the punches. I don't think I'm BS-ing myself when I think that we brought a good car to the track. ... There were a couple of promising things today, but we didn't finish like we wanted to.

"We had a pretty good car and ran well, and we didn't do anything stupid. We just kind of got snake-bit there a little bit today, so we can't be too upset with ourselves."

Earnhardt leaves Dover 10th in points, 34 behind leaders Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards. A spread of 19 points covers the top nine drivers.

Related:
Broken sway bar for Junior
Points leader stumbles on concrete at Dover