RELATED: Harvick heads to Victory Lane after photo finish | Full race results
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- For Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Ives, there were no regrets over the decision to stay out under the final caution in the Good Sam 500 at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday afternoon.
An accident in Turn 3 involving his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne on Lap 306, with Earnhardt running in second place, brought out the fifth and final caution flag to set up a NASCAR overtime finish.
Eventual race-winner Kevin Harvick, Earnhardt and Austin Dillon stayed out while the Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch led a brigade of cars onto pit road for two tires.
In the closing two laps, Earnhardt slid back to fifth after starting on the inside, which he said "doomed us." Harvick and Edwards bumped and battled for the victory with Harvick emerging as the victor by 0.010 seconds.
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"I like the call we made," Earnhardt said after the race. "If another car, one more car would have stayed out and been on that outside, second row that would have been the decision maker that that was a good call. The guy in fourth place (Edwards) had tires so he could jump to my right rear and get on me and pinch me down. He's got new tires, I got old tires. He's going to win."
Ives told NASCAR.com that the gamble to stay out was one they needed to take, but not what he was initially thinking.
"I was hoping that more people would stay behind us and we could have just raced the 4 (Harvick)," Ives said on pit road. "At the time, I wasn't going to tell him to do the opposite. You come down pit road and you never know what is going to happen. The plan was two tires and I just called him off there at the end. I was hoping there would be a row or two in between us but there wasn't. That's the gamble you got to take to try and win one of these races."
And Earnhardt backed Ives' decision all the way.
"I know our fans are wondering why we made the call we made, but it's not an easy deal," Earnhardt said. "The guy that won the race stayed out. It's not easy to make those calls so I don't hold anything against Greg and I love what he did and I back it. Second, fifth. I mean who the hell cares in the long run, really. We want to win."
The start of the race saw Junior moving through the field at a blistering clip in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. After starting the day 26th (although scored in 24th at the time of the green flag since teammates Kahne and Jimmie Johnson had to move to the rear of the field due to qualifying mishaps), Earnhardt wasted no time moving up the field. By Lap 21, he was in the top 10. By Lap 60, he was in second. By Lap 75, he had caught Kyle Busch and taken the race lead, which he held for 34 laps on the day.
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The loop data from the day backed up how fast Earnhardt's car was. The 41-year-old had the second-fastest laps run (62) as well as the fourth-most quality passes (22) on the afternoon.
And that came amid Junior admitting he burned the front brakes off of the car in the middle of the race.
"Lost a lot of track position (in the middle of the race) just because I couldn't run hard," Earnhardt said. "We fixed that and got the car running good and I took care of it so we were good at the end of a long run. What a car.
" … This new aero package gives you the ability to pass. I would have never been able to do that with that old aero package. I would have been stuck behind them guys. What we're doing in the sport, you're seeing some good racing.
"It's been a blast. I had a good time today."
MORE: Edwards: 'We made (Harvick) work for it' | Tire trouble for Kes at Phoenix