Dale Jr shows his stuff again, wins first Gatorade Duel
Quote selected text Published February 14th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is 2-for-2 in his Hendrick Motorsports debut, winning one of Thursday’s qualifying races and establishing himself as the favorite to win the Daytona 500.
Earnhardt led 26 of the 60 laps to score his second win of Speedweeks, proving NASCAR’s most popular driver is a perfect fit with the sport’s most dominant team. Earnhardt, who also won the exhibition Budweiser Shootout five days ago, was out front for much of the race but still needed a late pass of Ryan Newman to secure the win.
“I didn’t think I had (Newman) cleared, I don’t know if he lifted to let me have it ’cause I might have wrecked the deal there,” Earnhardt said. “I come on in front of him, but it must have been inches. He had to lift a little bit, but he got a run on the inside of me there. That was pretty fun.”
RESULTS:
FIN, ST, CAR, DRIVER , MAKE, SPONSOR, PTS/BNS, LAPS, STATUS
1 5 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet AMP Energy / National Guard PE 60 Running
2 18 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge Target PE 60 Running
3 9 12 Ryan Newman Dodge ALLTEL PE 60 Running
4 3 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Kellogg’s / CARQUEST PE 60 Running
5 15 99 Carl Edwards Ford Office Depot PE 60 Running
6 23 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios / Betty Crocker PE 60 Running
7 19 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Texaco / Havoline PE 60 Running
8 11 187 Kenny Wallace Chevrolet Furniture Row / DenverMattress.com PE 60 Running
9 20 77 Sam Hornish Jr. * Dodge Mobil 1 PE 60 Running
10 16 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet PEAK / Menards PE 60 Running
11 6 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull PE 60 Running
12 2 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row Racing PE 60 Running
13 7 84 A.J. Allmendinger Toyota Red Bull PE 60 Running
14 17 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker PE 60 Running
15 8 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters PE 60 Running
16 22 21 Bill Elliott Ford Little Debbie PE 60 Running
17 10 01 Regan Smith * Chevrolet Principal Financial Group PE 60 Running
18 21 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s PE 60 Running
19 4 160 Boris Said Ford 7-Eleven Slurpee / No Fear PE 60 Running
20 12 70 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon PE 60 Running
21 25 109 Sterling Marlin Chevrolet Miccosukee Resort & Gaming PE 60 Running
22 14 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Best Buy PE 60 Running
23 1 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s PE 60 Running
24 27 08 Carl Long Dodge MILLSTAR Tools / Rhino’s Energy Drink PE 59 Running
25 26 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV PE 59 Running
26 24 45 Kyle Petty Dodge Wells Fargo PE 59 Running
27 13 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite PE 9 Out of Race
Bookmark to:
- DW named starter for the Gatorade Duels
- Blue Ox to sponsor Jeff Green’s #66 in Gatorade Duel race
- Stewart earns 100th victory for Joe Gibbs Racing
- Gatorade Duel at Daytona will send many NASCAR teams packing
- Stewart attempts to make history at Daytona
Awesome! Can you say weekend sweep?!? First the Shootout and now the Duel…Come on 500!!
Go Kenny! Glad the Herminator was able to get in… I’ve been listening on the radio and he sounded genuinely excited.
Junior’s got something to prove this year and it looks like he’s off to a good start! He’s still not starting on the pole for the 500… :0)
Well, well, well!
i dedicate this win to all the JR NATION haters….when are you guys going to shut up? 3 for 3…when he becomes the first person in nascar history to win the shootout, the duel, the nationwide race and the 500 in the same season?..probably not…keep up the trash talking biatches
ERICA,
starting on the pole means absolutley nothing except prestige…..has johnson WON in speedweeks..NO…thats prestige…when johnson gets passed by that 88 car in the first few laps you can think of me..
I am really excited about this weekends race! Dale Jr is showing everyone what proper equipment can do for an AWESOME Driver!!!
GO JUNEBUG!
One JR Fan no matter what!
what else did you think was going to happen?
It was really nice to see Herm get in the race!!
hey darrell dont count your chickn before they hatch, he won a shootout and a duel, good for him great job, hell he even impressed me, but dont get to excited until he wins a point race. congrats to JR, but JR nation hes still has not won a point race in over a year so once again dont count your war chickens before they hatch
Bud Shootout 70 laps (20 and 50 laps), Duels 60 laps each, 500 is 200 laps. We’ll see how well he runs sunday but
so far I’m impressed, but we’ll see how he does at California, Jr. good at Daytona isn’t a surprise
lol…. no matter what Junior does, it’ll never be enough for the morons. So don’t be throwin’ anything in the face of the haters, because trust me… it will NEVER be enough.
I give him credit. He has done pretty good this week thus far. But guess what? He isn’t saving his stuff like the smart drivers are. Johnson knew when to stop. It started getting aggressive out there and he went to the back (while leading I might add). I knew it would be ike this with you Jr fanboys. The dang 500 hasn’t even started yet and you’re already talking about how Jr is unstopable. Um. No. You’ll see who is unstopabale during the last 20 laps of the 500.
I money? = Jimmie Johnson.
Laura wrote:
It’s the same way for you Johnson haters. No matter how good he does, it’s always because he cheats… You know deep down in your little minds that that’s not the case but you just don’t want to admit it.
Give it a rest, Trey. I already know that Junior isn’t going to win the 500(nobody wins everything during speedweeks), heck, he might not even win any points race this year. But going to Victory Lane, ANY VL, has been pretty damn sweet for Junior and his fans. I know he’s not unstoppable, it’s just great to see him have a chance again. Why do people have to be so damn bitter to see Junior have a little bit of success? It just KILLS them!
Trey wrote:
It’s amazing that from what I said, you managed to conclude that I’m a Johnson hater. Oh.. how predictable, I love it. LMFAO
Bobby take the 43 back to victory lane, the king would love being back in victory lane for the 50th
How about those Furniture Row boys!!!! They are representing Colorado, and damn well!!! That team needed this
All I have to say is look out for that 88 this year!!!!!
The racing gods had a sense of humor Thursday and put Andretti and Kenny in the show. Actually, Kenny hung in there. I give him credit. Andretti helped trigger a 6 car wreck and drove away unscathed. I hate when that happens.
jr. sucks just like his dad did, since he is with henrick nascar will take care of the a-hole
” Truex1Fan Feb 14th, 2008 at 2:17 pm Quote
hey darrell dont count your chickn before they hatch, he won a shootout and a duel, good for him great job, hell he even impressed me, but dont get to excited until he wins a point race. congrats to JR, but JR nation hes still has not won a point race in over a year so once again dont count your war chickens before they hatch
“
hey Truex1Fan,
you make me laugh..seriously..you think Truex is awesome huh? he sucks…and he sucked until JR said he was leaving..a week later he wins a race…get out of here…i garuntee u Dale Jr wins 10 times the amount of races truex does in his career…Truex is a good driver…and another one that doesn’t belong at the DEI stable…so don’t count your chickens b4 they hatch pal…JR passing people on the bottom WITHOUT help…seems pretty fitting for me…truex lasted 3 laps in the top 5 and then faded…TYPICAL DEI….enjoy cheering for the losing team man
Trey wrote:
The incentive was to get the highest possible starting position
for the 500 on Earnhardt’s behalf. Better chance of escaping
a wreck if you’re qualified up front rather than
in the middle or back of the field.
Johnson had nothing to gain except track time, so of course
he was going to stay low and out of the way.
I do hope TRUEX finds a better team and go Junior
A win is a win period and in testing at vegas an fontana jr had the best hendrick car top 5 10 at both tracks hes gonna win races haters.