Dale Earnhardt Jr. (R) and crew chief Steve Letarte pose with the trophy in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia, Sunday. — AFP
MARTINSVILLE, Virginia — Dale Earnhardt Jr. earned his fourth win of the season Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in an emotional victory a week after he was eliminated from the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
Jeff Gordon was second, giving Hendrick Motorsports a 1-2 finish on the 10-year anniversary weekend of the fatal plane crash that killed owner Rick Hendrick’s son and nine others aboard.
“This means so much to all of us,” Earnhardt said. “I lost my daddy a long time ago and I know how hard that is. I can’t imagine losing the amount of people Rick lost. My heart goes out to him during this weekend. This honors them.”
Gordon was the highest finishing Chase driver. Without a Chase driver in Victory Lane, no driver clinched an automatic berth in the championship finale at Homestead.
“That means so much to Hendrick Motorsports,” Gordon said. “That’s the best way you can possibly pay tribute to those that we lost 10 years ago. To have a 1-2 finish, that’s pretty awesome. I would have loved to have gotten that win to move on to Homestead, but this is certainly a great start for us.”
Chase driver Ryan Newman was third, and Tony Stewart finished fourth. Chase drivers Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth were fifth and sixth.
Running fifth, Stewart gambled and stayed on the track after the race was red-flagged with 10 laps left. Earnhardt and Gordon pitted for fresh tires, and that one final stop was just enough for the successful finish.
“If we had to do that 100 times over, we’d do the same thing,” Stewart said. “We didn’t have anything to lose. It was worth the gamble.”
Other Chase driver results included: Denny Hamlin eighth, Carl Edwards 20th, Brad Keselowski 31st and Kevin Harvick 33rd.
Earnhardt got the win he needed a week late and is simply running for trophies down the stretch instead of a championship. “We tried to win here so many years,” he said. “This place is so special to me. I wanted to win here so bad. We’ve brought some good cars.”
Eight-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson, who was eliminated from the Chase last week, finished 32nd. — AP
