Dale Earnhardt Jr Finally Gets a Points Win!!!

He's proven he could win races in his new team, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had the worse luck or timing to date as far as getting the car into victory circle The Lifelock 400 was the usual fare for Michigan, the "hot dog wrapper" capital of the series, according to TNT.

Barring the rest of the chess match of the race, the last 20 laps got very interesting with fuel mileage.

My favorite dark horse driver, David Ragan, had the lead and I thought maybe the race, but he had to come in for a splash and go, and that gave the lead to Dale Earnhardt Jr., whom we know had to look to conserve gas but he got into racing with McMurray and Jr. Nation watched and worried.

Then, the worst possible anxiety inducing situation occurred.  A caution was brought out by Sam Hornish Jr spinning the the No 77 Dodge.

Under caution, Jr had to run below the white line, coasting and intermittently passing the pace car to coast to conserve as much fuel as possible.

When the green flag flew, Jr. Nation held it's collective breath as Jr. had the best car and pulled away from the pack with a good restart, followed by Kasey Kahne, who had plenty of gas.

Crossing the line for the white flag, the 55 and 10 cars got together in the front stretch, bringing an end to what we know was the inevitable.  Jr motored across the finish line getting his first win in 76 races and giving proof that he can win under his new team banner, Hendrick Motorsports.

As soon as he crossed the line, he made a U-turn up pit road but still ran out of gas and had to be pushed to victory circle.

As Jr. said, it don't matter how he got it, he got it.

He was followed across the line by Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, David Ragan, Elliott Sadler and Jamie McMurray to round out the top 10.

CONGRATULATIONS TO DALE EARNHARDT JR. IN HIS FIRST WIN UNDER HIS NEW TEAM BANNER!
Unofficial Results