FORT WORTH, Texas — One by one as they emerged from their cars on Texas Motor Speedway‘s pit lane in the early hours of Sunday morning, the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers stood on pit road, most allowed a smile and a couple shook their heads as they discussed and rewound their race night.
All four finished among the top eight in the Duck Commander 500 — a best overall showing for the team in 2016 — and it was a workout for each; a hard-earned, well-deserved conclusion to a busy night of close-quarter racing on the 1.5-mile high banks.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. led the team with a runner-up finish to Kyle Busch. Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Chase Elliott scored a career-best fifth-place showing, just getting beaten at the start/finish line by three-time defending Texas champ Jimmie Johnson. And Kasey Kahne rang in his 36th birthday early Sunday with a hard-fought, eighth-place rally in the race’s overnight hours. It was his second top-10 finish of the season.
But although each driver fared similarly well, each driver’s route to a successful night was widely varied.
Earnhardt ran among the top 10 most of the race, which started nearly two hours late because of rain showers. He chased down Busch in the closing laps, coming just 3.9 seconds shy of his first win of the season and that coveted automatic post-season berth for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
“We got lucky at the end to be able to restart on the inside,” Earnhardt said of the race’s final restart with 33 laps remaining. “The outside was kind of difficult and we restarted fifth and were able to get up to third and raced the 22 (of Joey Logano) at the end.
“It was fun. The car was very loose and very challenging but a lot of fun for me.”
Of the Hendrick team’s night, Earnhardt said, “I think the company as a whole is pushing real hard to improve and there’s an impression within the company that we need to grind a little bit and make some gains going forward into the middle of the season here. But I was real encouraged with my car tonight.”
Elliott echoed Earnhardt’s cautious optimism. He was encouraged to score a career-best finish, but still insistent that the only true success is a trophy as he navigates an understandably large learning curve.
“I definitely think it was a solid night,” Elliott said. “It’s not a perfect night.
“We would love to turn all four cars in the top 10 to having all four cars in the top five, and I think that’s a goal we have to shoot for. We’re excited to run in the top five. We’re also not content and we want to be contenders and running fifth isn’t a contender. You’ve got to be up a little higher. That’s our goal and we’ll keep working at it.”
Johnson, a heavy favorite to mark his fourth straight win, had to overcome multiple setbacks in the race from front-end damage on the first pit stop to navigating heavy traffic to bad timing during a caution period that put him at the end of the lead lap in the waning portion of the race.
“We had plenty of adversity tonight,” said Johnson, who now trails Busch by six points in the season standings. “What a fight this was and I’m very proud of this race team. There were four or five things that went on tonight.
“I really liked (crew chief) Chad’s (Knaus) strategy at the end to keep putting four tires on it and put us in an offensive situation. I feel like the 24 (Elliott) and I could have worked our way to the lead but it didn’t quite work out.
“Looking at the car and what I felt in the car, some other mistakes we’ve got to clean up to be as competitive as we were with a damaged car, I will sleep well tonight.”
His teammate Kahne shared the race review. He joked that he spent at least two hours just trying to race his way back onto the lead lap. The effort resulted in a season-best finish, however, after three consecutive finishes of 22nd or worse even after starting from the outside pole position last week at Martinsville.
“You’re fighting all night,” Kahne said of getting back on the lead lap. “It’s always someone different and someone fast and it was tough.
“About the time you get to be first behind the lapped down cars, someone in front gets lapped. It took a long time to get back on the lead lap and a lot of battling.”
Kahne was also involved in a late race incident with fellow Washington state native Greg Biffle, whose No. 16 Ford hit the wall and ended up scored 39th in the 40-car field.
“I feel really bad about that,” Kahne said. “I just caught Greg. I shot low, he started coming down and I hit the brakes and I was coming and he was coming down and we just hit. He shot up the track and I saw his car on the big screen and it looked pretty damaged. I feel so bad because I hate having any contact with anyone.”
Overall, Kahne was encouraged by his team’s showing in Texas. And he’s glad to be going to Bristol this week, where he won in 2013 after starting on the front row.
“It’s Bristol, a lot can happen there,” Kahne said, breaking into a slight grin. “I like it and a day race will be good there.
“This weekend was the best we’ve worked together from start to finish on a weekend with all aspects from preparing, racing to calling the race and communicating. It’s the best we’ve done in a long time.”