Junior has enough fuel at MIS to end winless streak

First win for Earnhardt since Richmond race in 2006

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended his 76-race winless string Sunday, coasting to victory at Michigan International Speedway under a caution flag with little but fumes left in his gas tank.

NASCAR's most popular driver gave his new boss, Rick Hendrick, only his second victory of the season as he somehow squeezed enough gas out of his last fill-up to go three laps beyond the regulation finish in the LifeLock 400.

A spin by Patrick Carpentier on Lap 203 brought out the final caution and probably saved the victory for Earnhardt, who ran out of gas moments after crossing the finish line behind the pace car.

"It is what it is, man," the jubilant Earnhardt said. "We were going to stay out there no matter what."

Asked if he could have made it if the green flag had stayed out, Earnhardt said: "We were going to stumble to the finish and probably not win the race. We weren't going to finish. The yellow saved us.

"They can write what they want, but we won one."

After leaving the team his late father founded to drive for Hendrick's juggernaut this year, Earnhardt began the new phase of his career with two non-points victories at Daytona in February. But, despite running well so far this season, that promising start did not lead to any victories in the first 14 Cup races.

"We started out and he won the [Budweiser Shootout] and the 150 [qualifying race] and we said, 'we don't have to worry about winning a race now.' Then nobody counted it because it wasn't a points race," Hendrick said in Victory Lane. "We've been waiting for this -- been so close."

It was a typical Michigan race, coming down to who saved the most gas at the end.

As the laps wound down, driver after driver was forced to pit for a splash of gas. But Earnhardt, whose last victory came on May 6, 2006, at Richmond, wasn't about to stop.

Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. kept telling his driver to slow down and try to conserve gas.

It was still a big gamble with more than two laps to the scheduled 200-lap finish when former IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr. brought out a caution flag with a spin. That extended the race to overtime and, by the time the green flag waved again on Lap 202, Earnhardt and his team had no idea if he could make it to the finish.

He did, barely.

Kasey Kahne, coming off a victory the previous week in Pocono, finished second, followed by Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart and two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

Kahne overcomes pit snafu to dominate Pocono race

Points leader Busch finishes 43rd on final leg of trifecta

LONG POND, Pa -- Pole-sitter Kasey Kahne recovered from missing lug nuts that dropped him to the back of the field -- and weathered myriad strategic ploys from his rivals -- to win Sunday's Pocono 500 Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway.

The victory was Kahne's second of the season and the ninth of his career in 158 starts, but it wasn't as easy as Kahne's 3.702-second margin of victory over Brian Vickers might suggest.

After a restart on Lap 182 of the 200-lap event, Kahne passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Lap 183 and Vickers on Lap 185 to take the lead for the final time.

Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Earnhardt and Jeff Burton, who trimmed the series points lead of 43rd-place finisher Kyle Busch to 21 points. Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin completed the top 10.

Kahne is riding a wave of momentum that dates to the May 17 Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway. After Kahne failed to qualify for the event, fans voted him in. Kahne made the most of the opportunity and won the race. Eight days later he won his first points race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600.

"The fans gave [momentum] to us in the All-Star Race when they gave us that boost," Kahne said. "It's done a tremendous amount for our confidence in the last month."

It gave Kahne and his No. 9 Dodge crew enough presence of mind to recover from a snafu in the pits on Lap 58. Crew chief Kenny Francis changed his call from a four-tire to a two-tire pit stop under caution, but the front-tire changer didn't pick up on the change and removed three lug nuts from the left-front before Kahne left the pits.

Kahne had to pit again a lap later to replace the lug nuts and fell to 38th in the running order for a restart on Lap 64. With the race's dominant car and excellent subsequent performance in the pits, Kahne worked his way back to sixth by the halfway point. On Lap 116, he passed teammate Elliott Sadler for third.

With both Earnhardt and Vickers on fuel-mileage strategies, Francis kept Kahne on a normal cycle of pit stops and let the strength of the No. 9 car make the difference.

Because of the fuel-mileage ploy, Vickers' tires were 10 laps older than Kahne's at the finish, and Vickers thought that was the critical issue.

"I'm so proud of our guys," said Vickers, who gave Red Bull Racing its best finish in the Cup Series. "We needed tires. He [Kahne] had a lot newer tires, and that's all we needed. We had a great car."

Hamlin, who won both Pocono races from the pole in 2006, had a run on Vickers soon after the final restart but couldn't make the pass.

"I got to the 83 [Vickers], but as soon as we got there, he moved down into our line, and we couldn't make any headway," Hamlin said.

Notes: Edwards made an astounding run through the field after puncturing a left-front tire and starting deep in the field on the final restart ... Pit-road speeding penalties cost Greg Biffle (15th) and Tony Stewart (35th) dearly. Both had contending cars. Stewart fell to 12th in points, just seven ahead of 13th-place David Ragan ... Kyle Busch turned right into the path of Jamie McMurray on Lap 46 and slammed the frontstretch wall, severely damaging his front suspension. Busch return to action late in the race but completed just 95 laps and finished last.

Good pit stops help Busch pull away to easy victory

Outruns Roush drivers over a long green haul at Dover

DOVER, Del. -- Same song, different verse.

Points leader Kyle Busch made mincemeat of the competition and a mockery of Sunday's Best Buy 400 at Dover International Speedway.

In a race that stayed green for the final 153 laps, Busch gained a total of 5 seconds over runner-up Carl Edwards on his final two pit stops, built a lead that topped 8 seconds and cruised in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a 4.225-second win, his fourth of the season and the eighth of his career (watch video).

Pole-sitter Greg Biffle ran third, followed by Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr., as only six cars finished on the lead lap.

Busch grabbed the lead from Edwards during a cycle of green-flag pit stops that ended on Lap 237. NASCAR called a caution on Lap 243 for debris in Turn 2 -- under which the leaders remained on the track -- and after a restart on Lap 248, Edwards dogged Busch until both drivers brought their cars to the pits under green on Lap 319.

Results
Dover

POS.	DRIVER
1	Kyle Busch
2	Carl Edwards
3	Greg Biffle
4	Matt Kenseth
5	Jeff Gordon

Busch gained almost 3 seconds on pit road and pulled away steadily for the next 60 laps before backing off in the closing circuits.

"We didn't have the car to beat [Sunday]," said Busch, who expanded his lead in the championship standings over eighth-place finisher Jeff Burton to 142 points. "Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle did. But our guys on pit road [were] phenomenal -- got us out front -- and that's what won the race for us. The guys that pitted this thing on pit road definitely won the race for us."

Edwards acknowledged he was slow getting off pit road on his final stop, but he gained two positions to fourth in the Cup standings with the second-place finish.

"It's not what we came here for, but the car was good [Sunday]," Edwards said. "I wish we could have put on a better show for the fans. I wish we could have had a caution there at the end -- but Kyle deserved it.

Biffle led 164 laps to Busch's 158, but he developed an ignition problem on Lap 169 and surrendered the lead to Edwards before switching to his second battery. Biffle ran the rest of the race without the use of air conditioning or brake fans in his car.

"The engine started missing, but we changed batteries, and it came back on line," said Biffle, who vaulted six positions to fifth in the Cup standings. "We were just a little too tight all day. That's really what the problem was."

The monster that inhabits the Monster Mile woke up early Sunday. Seventeen laps into the race, contact in Turn 2 between David Gilliland and Elliott Sadler triggered an 11-car wreck that ruined the afternoon for Chase contenders Dale Earnhardt Jr. (35th), Clint Bowyer (36th), Kevin Harvick (38th), Tony Stewart (41st) and Denny Hamlin (43rd).

Earnhardt, who held third in the points standings (now 271 behind Busch), was the only one of those five drivers who didn't lose at least three positions in the standings, though none of the drivers dropped out of the top 12 (read more).

Notes: Roush Fenway Racing put three cars in the top five -- Edwards, Biffle and Kenseth -- for the first time since July 2006 at New Hampshire. ... Sam Hornish Jr. drove his No. 77 Dodge back into the top 35 in owner points with an 18th-place finish. The No. 66 Haas CNC Chevrolet, driven by Scott Riggs, suffered a 150-point penalty on Tuesday for a rear-wing mount infraction May 24 at Lowe's Motor Speedway and fell to 36th in owner points.

KASEY KAHNE WINS 600

Labonte salvages his 600 after flirting with disaster
Almost two laps down, aggressive pitting saves night

CONCORD, N.C. -- Bobby Labonte came back from the brink of the racing abyss to match his best finish of the season in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

In the end, the driver of the famed No. 43 Dodge for Petty Enterprises was pleased with his 11th-place finish but frustrated nonetheless that it didn't end up being even better.

"Early on we were a lap down on Lap 62. We were at the tail end being a lap down, almost two laps down, and we got a lucky break with the caution coming out. That kept us only one lap down," Labonte said.

That caution came out when Robby Gordon's engine blew ending Gordon's night but helped give new life to Labonte when he was on the verge of going those two laps down to the leaders. He credited crew chief Jeff Meendering for making the right calls in the pits to then help him get into position to get the free pass for being the first car not on the lead lap.

When that caution came out on Lap 193, Labonte found himself back on the lead lap. Meendering then made some additional aggressive calls in the pits, taking on two tires and fuel when most others on the lead lap took fuel and four tires. That strategy allowed Labonte to jump into the top 10.

From there, he took advantage -- driving the car to as high as third place on Lap 300 before eventually falling back.

"We stayed OK after that, but track position meant so much all night," Labonte said.

Robbie Loomis, general manager for Petty Enterprises, said he was pleased with the way his driver and crew chief worked together to relentlessly fight back after a tough start.

"Bobby and Jeff did a good job. We battled back. We got [almost] two laps down at one point and we came back from that," Loomis said. "We've just got to get to the point where we start these races better. But I like the way Bobby and Jeff are communicating, and it paid off there at the end."

The 11th-place finish matched Labonte's best finish of 2008 in the season-opening Daytona 500 back in February. Labonte lost his shot at a top-10 finish when he and Meendering figured they had to make a late stop for gas and four fresh tires.

"We had to put tires on at some point in time and that cost us some spots and dropped us to 11th," Labonte said. "It was tough because we wanted to stay out [on the same tires] and keep our track position, but they give you a false sense of hope. You're never really sure about the tires in a situation like that. We decided to pit and put new tires on and try to get us a top-10 finish that way."

It didn't quite work out as well as they had hoped, but Loomis said the entire No. 43 team has reasons to be encouraged moving forward.

"I think they learned some stuff over here at the [recent Lowe's Motor Speedway] test that helped us to get that thing right," Loomis said. "Track position is just so important. So you have one car when you have a clean track, and you have a different car when you don't have it. You've just got to balance whether you're in clean air or not, but I think this is definitely something we can build on."

Loomis insisted that he has seen the No. 43 team coming on stronger in recent weeks, even when its finishes perhaps haven't reflected that.

"The Richmond race comes to mind, but each race we think we're taking away something that can help us," Loomis said. "There have been a couple races where we've run lap times that were in the top five. But the majority of the race we're a 12th- through 18th-place car. We've just got to get on the front side of it; right now we're on the backside of those top 10 guys."

Overall, Sunday's eventual 11th-place finish was pretty satisfying for all involved.

"We'll take it," said Labonte, who moved up one spot to 18th in the points standings.

Kahne garners All-Star Victory

CONCORD, N.C. -- Sometimes it pays to be popular.

On Saturday night, it paid Kasey Kahne $1 million.

Voted into the Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway after he failed to make the field in the Sprint Showdown qualifying race, Kasey Kahne made the most of his opportunity by winning the All-Star event and the $1 million prize that goes with the victory.

Taking fuel only during his final pit stop between the third and fourth segments of the four-segment, 100-lap event, Kahne won the All-Star race for the first time. Matt Kenseth ran third, followed by Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart, the only Joe Gibbs Racing driver whose car survived the night.

The first driver ever to win the race after a fan vote entry, Kahne also gave Dodge its first victory in the event. After finishing fifth in the Sprint Showdown, from which only the top-two finishers transferred to the main event, he learned that the fans had voted him into the All-Star Race via balloting on the internet, by cell phone and in Sprint stores (read more).

"I would have loved to have raced my way in, but we have great fans, and it's cool they voted for us and got us in the race," Kahne said. "We need all the fan support we can have. They've stuck behind us.

"I was going to head home, drink a couple of Budweisers and watch the All-Star race."

As it turned out, Kahne got to do a lot more than that, and he gave crew chief Kenny Francis his due for making the right call at the end.

"The car was mediocre in that open [Showdown]," Kahne said. "But we just kept fighting. I just can't believe we won a million dollars. Kenny made the right call -- no tires at the end. I didn't think we needed them, either."

After a fuel-only pit stop between the third and final segments, Johnson led the field to a restart on Lap 76 but soon surrendered the top spot to Denny Hamlin. But Kahne took the lead for good off Turn 4 on Lap 84 when Hamlin's engine expired.

From that point on, Kahne held off a determined charge from Biffle, who faded in the closing laps after challenging for the lead (watch video).

Soon after Kahne took the lead, Biffle powered his No. 16 Ford beside Kahne's No. 9 Dodge but couldn't wrest the top position from the race winner.

"I could have forced the issue," Biffle said. "I had one opportunity, and he kind of closed the door on me a little bit, and I figured, 'No sense pressing it right now -- I've got plenty of laps to go.'

"Then it just got tighter and tighter as it went, and I never got a chance to get back at him again.

"I had good tires. I had taken two, and he hadn't taken any. I can't believe I got beat [by a car] with no [new] tires."

Pole-sitter Kyle Busch finally found a foe that could slow him down -- a mechanical problem. After leading all 25 laps of the first segment, Busch was cruising with a 1.5-second lead over Carl Edwards in the second segment when his No. 18 Toyota dropped a cylinder on Lap 36.

Edwards overtook Busch on Lap 39 and remained at the point for the remainder of the second segment. Three laps later, Dale Earnhardt Jr. screamed past the hobbled Camry entering Turn 2. When the segment ended eight laps later, Busch had fallen to sixth (watch video).

After a lengthy diagnosis during the 10-minute break between segments two and three, crew chief Steve Addington finally pronounced, "We're done."

"We just didn't make it [Saturday]," Busch said, before his crew pushed the car to the garage. "We'll have to go back to the shop and work on some things."

Notes: In a race usually typified by more than its share of accidents, the All-Star event featured only three cautions -- all planned competition yellows between segments and none for incidents on the track. ... Edwards faded to 10th place at the finish. ... Earnhardt led briefly during the third segment but dropped to eighth at the finish.

Busch overcomes car, wall, pits for Darlington victory

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- The high speeds and new pavement at Darlington Raceway didn't bother Kyle Busch one bit.

If a wall got in his way, the Sprint Cup points leader just bounced off and kept going. And after his primary competition, polesitter Greg Biffle, left the race with a blown engine, it was clear sailing for Busch, who cruised to the win in Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500 Sprint Cup race.

At a track-record average speed of 140.350 mph, Busch, who led a race-high 169 laps, pulled away after a restart on Lap 308 of 367 and ran away from the rest of the field en route to his third Cup win of the season and the seventh of his career.

One week removed from last Saturday's controversial finish at Richmond, where Busch spun Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a late-race battle for the lead, Busch finished 3.115 seconds ahead of runner-up Carl Edwards and extended his lead in the Cup standings to 79 points in front of second-place Jeff Burton.

Jeff Gordon was third Saturday night, followed by Earnhardt and David Ragan. Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Travis Kvapil, Dave Blaney and Burton completed the top 10.

"Luckily, the team gave me a really strong car tonight, because I like to knock the wall down," quipped Busch, who recovered from a loose lug nut that brought him back to the pits on Lap 60 and cost him track position. "We had a really good piece tonight."

Gordon had a close-up view of Busch's contact with the wall -- until Busch pulled away.

"I can't tell you how many times he [Busch] tried to give the race away by hitting the wall," Gordon said. "You wouldn't believe how torn up the right side of his car was."

Whether Busch's car was torn up or not, Gordon knew his No. 24 Chevrolet was no match for the No. 18 Toyota.

"We didn't have a car that could get up there and challenge for the win, so we just brought it home in one piece," said Gordon, who jumped from 13th to 10th in the championship standings. "The No.18 was in an unbelievable class of his own. Carl and his crew got their stuff better there at the end.

"We tried and tried and tried a lot of things, and every time we got it a little bit better. But every time we tried to get it better than that, we went the wrong way with it. So, we just had to settle for a car that was a third-place car and hope we could get track position -- and we did."

Edwards, who is tied with Busch for a series-best three victories this season, likewise had nothing for the 23-year-old driver, who became the youngest winner in Darlington history.

"I wanted to beat him real bad," said Edwards, who gained three spots to seventh in the points standings. "Now we're tied for most wins."

Biffle had the dominant car for the first two-thirds of the race, despite pitting early on Lap 194 with a loose right rear wheel. By Lap 210, Biffle had regained the lead as pit stops cycled through, but he brought the car to pit road again on Lap 224, this time with a blown engine. Biffle finished 43rd.

"I had loose wheels all night," said Biffle, who led 95 laps before his early exit. "Then I think the motor blew up. All I want is equipment that stays together."

Fourth-place starter Tony Stewart lost his bid to win his first Cup race at Darlington on Lap 2, when contact with Elliott Sadler's Dodge sent the No. 20 Toyota into the Turn 1 wall. Stewart finished 21st, one lap down.

News and Notes:

• Ragan climbed two spots in the Cup standings to 12th, the last Chase-eligible position. Ryan Newman (37th) and Kasey Kahne (22nd) fell out of the top 12.
• Blaney's No. 22 Toyota supplanted the No. 77 Dodge of Sam Hornish Jr. (38th) in the top 35 in the owner points standings. Blaney won't have to qualify on speed at Charlotte in two weeks. Hornish will.
• The average speed of 140.350 mph broke the record of 139.958 mph set in March 1993 by the late Dale Earnhardt.