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Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. barely advances in Chase for the Sprint Cup

Mike Hembree
Special to USA TODAY Sports
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Dale Earnhardt Jr (88) races during the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway.

DOVER, Del. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jamie McMurray had a "game seven" moment in the third race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Earnhardt Jr. outran McMurray in a late-race battle that could be the dividing point between an ultimate payday of millions of dollars. Earnhardt Jr. finished third and McMurray fourth in the AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway, and that one position kept Junior in the running for the championship and closed the door on McMurray.

Earnhardt Jr. passed McMurray on the outside on the race's final restart and stayed in front of him the rest of the way to drive into the 12th and final Chase spot going into Race Four next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"I just drove it in there, and it stuck," Earnhardt Jr. said of the critical pass. "I hate some guys make it and some guys don't, but I'm glad to move on to the next round."

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Earnhardt Jr. and McMurray tied in points (2,098) after the first three Chase races, but Junior won the tiebreaker (best finish in the round).

Earnhardt Jr. climbed out of his car on pit road after the race and immediately walked over to talk to McMurray.

"I just told him, 'Good job, man,' " Earnhardt Jr. said. "Me and him are pretty good friends. I know he's disappointed, and I would be, too. I was sitting in that situation with about 50 [laps] to go. I didn't know how I was going to get around him.

"He was a little faster than us. He was going to advance if we didn't get that last caution."

The last green flag flew on lap 377 (of 400) after a caution for oil on the track.

Twenty laps earlier, Earnhardt Jr. got a season-saving break when Brett Moffitt hit the wall and caused the race's next-to-last caution. Junior had reported a loose wheel to his pit and later said he would have had to pit under green if the caution had not flown.

"The left rear was falling off," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I was a couple laps from coming in. It was shaking real bad in the corner, and it started shaking on decel(eration), and I knew it was a matter of time before it was coming off.

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"It wasn't going to make 50 laps. We had 50 to go at that point, and I wasn't going to bash my head against a concrete wall somewhere for a damn loose wheel, so we just came in sooner than later."

When what turned out to be the big confrontation between Earnhardt Jr. and McMurray occurred, McMurray said Junior simply beat him.

"He did a tremendous job getting by me on the outside," McMurray said. "I never expected the 88 to get by me on the outside. He just did a really good job. And once he got in front of me, it was just hard to pass, you know?"

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McMurray said Earnhardt Jr. made "a deserving pass. Our car wasn't that good on the outside, and I didn't expect anyone else's to be that good. I know I was better than him the run before, so I just didn't expect it. I went through that corner as good as I could. He just got a little bit of a run on me."

Junior said he rolls into the Chase's next round in good shape.

"We'll sit down with Greg (crew chief Greg Ives) and the guys and brainstorm on what we need to do," he said. "Hopefully, when you show up, your car's fast. That's what happened this week."

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