Filed under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Nationwide Series, NASCAR
Dale Earnhardt Jr. survived a final overtime restart and green-white-checkered finish in the Nationwide race at Daytona International Speedway and and held on for an emotional victory.
A relatively small but very enthusiastic crowd witnessed Dale Jr.'s self-professed last ride in his father's famous No. 3 car and watched him drive it all the way to victory lane.
But the victory did not come without a nail-biting, double-file restart at the end of the race that was prompted by a yellow flag with just four laps to go when
Paul Menard blew a tire.
With a massive push from
Joey Logano, Earnhardt shot out ahead on the final restart and held on through the final two laps to win over Logano.
Kevin Harvick was third, followed by
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and
Brad Keselowski.
"Well, I'll be damned," Dale Jr. said on his radio after taking the checkered flag. "Good job, guys."
To crew chief Tony Eury Jr. he said, "Tony Jr. I appreciate your work, man, I love racing with you."
At about that moment, Eury Jr., who was Dale Jr's longtime crew chief, was overcome with emotion on the pit box. And when the ESPN television camera got to him, Eury could barely speak. "We lost everything here and to come back with that number and do this, that means everything," he said.
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