| | Results
RICHMOND, Va. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr., driving like a veteran against one of the best, passed Mark Martin with seven laps to go Friday night and outdueled the Winston Cup star to win the Autolite
Platinum 250 Busch Grand National race.
|  | | Dale Earnhardt Jr. hoists the trophy after defending his AutoLite 250 title. |
Earnhardt, the defending series and race champion, drove like he
was defending his turf against Martin and Jimmy Spencer, another
Winston Cup regular who dropped down to run in the BGN series in
preparation for Saturday night's Exide 400.
Throughout the second half of the crash-filled event, the three
moved to the front and battled for the lead, with Martin's car
stronger on long green-flag runs and Spencer and Earnhardt better
in bursts like the 24-lap sprint to the finish.
"Unfortunately, they had a short run at the end. We did
everything we could. We got to the front, we got the lead and we
got a little room between us," Martin said. "But the 3 car was
stronger and they whupped it on us at the end."
Martin led when he passed Spencer with 20 laps to go, and
Earnhardt followed closely behind one lap later. The two cars then
steadily pulled away, with Martin opening a lead of several car
lengths before the youngster reeled him in.
"We could get around and move it high or low when we needed
to," Earnhardt said of his Chevrolet. "I just steered it, mashed
the gas and it did the rest."
The cars battled side by side and bumper to bumper as the 61,000
fans at Richmond International Raceway stood and roared until the
24-year-old Earnhardt finally passed Martin in turn two and pulled
ahead, winning by .548 seconds.
"I want to ask the race fans, `How was the race from up
there?"' Earnhardt said in Victory Lane. "It looked pretty good
from where I was at."
"He put it on me there at the end," said Martin, who had won
five of his 10 previous Busch starts this season. "There wasn't
anything I could do about it."
Spencer finished third, followed by Kenny Wallace and Kevin
Grubb.
The victory was Earnhardt's series-high sixth of the year and
extended his lead over Matt Kenseth from 26 points to 103 points
with six races remaining.
Kenseth started 29th, had problems and finished 17th, a lap
down.
The race featured 12 lead changes among eight drivers, eight
cautions for 53 laps and ended with 11 cars having gone to the
garage area early with damage.
The victory was the 13th of Earnhardt's career.
| |
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the checkered flag.
avi: 693 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
This caution came out with 31 laps to go.
avi: 838 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Earnhardt Jr. says he had a great car.
wav: 105 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
 |
