Follow in his footsteps? Forget it.

Just being able to drive cars was enough for Dale Earnhardt Jr., and if it made his daddy proud, well, hopefully somebody would tell him.

The Earnhardt era of NASCAR opened its final chapter Tuesday when the driver known simply as Junior said he will retire at the end of this season, his 18th in the Cup series. It will bring to a close the golden days of the sport, when Lee and Richard Petty helped build a stock car series that they turned over to Dale Earnhardt to carry into the next phase.

”When my dad was doing so well and there were a couple of guys coming into the sport that were sons, it was difficult for them to replicate their dads’ success,” Earnhardt said. ”I just saw even at an early age, before I was a driver, that growing up in that man’s shadow was going to be a real hard challenge.

”I wanted to race, but I knew racing would put me in that shadow. I knew the odds of me really having any talent at all and being able to do it were thin. They are for anyone. So at a very young age, all I wanted to do was be able to make a living driving cars. I didn’t set goals. I didn’t dream of winning championships or Daytona 500s or working with one of the best owners in the business, driving for one of the best organizations. I was afraid of not being able to do it. So I guess what I’m saying is I’ve accomplished way more than I ever dreamed – way more than I ever thought I’d accomplish.”

Earnhardt called the decision, revealed to team owner Rick Hendrick on March 29, ”very bittersweet” and admitted there were tears as he prepared for Tuesday’s announcement. But he wanted the opportunity to go out on his own terms.

”Having influence over my exit only became meaningful when it started to seem most unlikely,” Earnhardt said. ”As you know, I missed a few races last year and during that time I had to face the realization that my driving career may have already ended without me so much as getting a vote on the table. Of course, in life we’re not promised a vote, and that’s especially true in racing.”

Colorful, candid and talented, Earnhardt has been plagued by concussions the last several years and he missed half of last season recovering from a head injury. He had delayed contract talks on an extension to drive the No. 88 Chevrolet, and the two-time Daytona 500 winner will now call it quits when the season ends in November.

”You deserve everything, all the awards and all of the accolades,” Hendrick said. ”There will never be another Dale Earnhardt Jr. You’re the one.”

The news shocked and saddened drivers throughout the paddock.

”He has a tremendous sense of the history of NASCAR and, while he shares his father’s name, Dale has made a name for himself with his accomplishments in racing,” said Jeff Gordon, former teammate at Hendrick and once one of Dale Earnhardt’s biggest rivals.

Steve Letarte, the crew chief tasked with rebuilding Earnhardt’s shattered confidence during a lengthy slump in his career, said Earnhardt can’t be measured simply as a race car driver.

”Dale is all encompassing,” said the NBC analyst. ”He carried the popularity of a sport on his shoulders. Anyone who tries to separate what he does behind the wheel to what he does in the sport doesn’t know Dale Jr.”

Added NASCAR chairman Brian France, ”His passion for the sport will leave an impact on NASCAR that will be felt over its entire history.”

The post NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. to retire after season appeared first on IdealCapper.

He was walking briskly to the care center for a mandatory health check after a crash. Flanked by a television reporter on one side, a handler on the other, he was explaining why he wrecked while hustling to his destination. A fan approached him from behind, Earnhardt turned, and the fan was shoved away when it became clear he just wanted a selfie.

Earnhardt never broke stride. He just gave his aw-shucks smile and continued on his way. Once cleared by the medical staff, he found the fan and posed for the photo.

Earnhardt is a 14-time winner of NASCAR’s most popular driver award for a reason. He’s personable and authentic and as close to the roots of racing as any driver alive today. When he walks away from NASCAR at the end of this season , he will take a lot more than 26 Cup wins.

NASCAR has already lost Jeff Gordon, the driver who took the sport mainstream and announced his retirement two years ago at 43, just like Earnhardt. Then a year ago it lost Tony Stewart, the talented, volatile rebel who said what everyone was too scared to say out loud.

Carl Edwards, friendly and a strong ambassador, walked away from NASCAR at the start of this year.

Now here goes Earnhardt, the blue-collar everyman. A third-generation racer from North Carolina who says ”ain’t” and ”Daddy” and talks the way the good ol’ boys always did.

So what does NASCAR do now, with its most bankable stars rapidly exiting stage left at a time when the sport needs to rebuild its audience?

”It will be an important year for fans to look at what other drivers are out there and who will make them interested in continuing to watch,” said Jill Gregory, chief marketing officer for NASCAR. ”We knew these days were going to come, we just didn’t know when.”

Gregory said the biggest challenge for NASCAR is introducing the current crop of young talent to fans and giving the drivers a chance to make their own marks rather than pigeonhole them in roles as the next Gordon, Stewart or Earnhardt.

”What is true to them? What is authentic?” asked Gregory. ”You look at Kyle Larson, he loves to race. That’s what he is going to do, and allowing him to do what he naturally loves, that’s what we want to highlight. I don’t think there’s an effort to say `We’re going to make this guy into the next Jeff Gordon.’

”We have to let it come naturally and what do they gravitate toward, because if it’s natural, that’s what makes it real to the fans. If we are trying to manufacture it, that’s how it is going to be seen. We have to let it play out.”

Earnhardt didn’t hesitate to name the future of the sport: Larson, the current Monster Energy Cup points leader, and Chase Elliott, his current teammate who replaced Gordon last season.

Elliott is the son of Hall of Famer ”Awesome” Bill Elliott, a Georgia native who grew up at NASCAR tracks. Larson is a dirt tracker from California who will race anything at any time and is likely headed in 2018 for a seat in the Indianapolis 500. Earnhardt also praised Ryan Blaney, another second-generation NASCAR driver, and Bubba Wallace, who have used social media to show the life of a millennial and not been afraid of overstepping their place.

Although their personalities are often overshadowed by the veterans, they are settling into their own niches and engaging a much younger fan base for a series whose origins are steeped in the bootlegging days of Prohibition.

The post NASCAR has huge hole to fill after Earnhardt retires appeared first on IdealCapper.

Earnhardt said Thursday that he wouldn’t be driving the No. 88 car if he didn’t feel like he was 100 percent healthy.

”You can’t go out there with any kind of limitations,” he said while headlining a media and fan event for Texas Motor Speedway.

Earnhardt has suffered numerous concussions in his career, and was sidelined for the final half of last season.

”I just enjoy working with my team and my guys, the camaraderie and the friendships,” he said. ”That’s why I drive. Obviously we’ve got a big fan base that has a lot of fun when we do well, so you’d like to be out there and run well while you’re doing it.”

—

More AP auto racing: www.racing.ap.org

The post Earnhardt says he has felt great all season after concussion appeared first on IdealCapper.

He still recalls his conversation with Tony Eury Jr., his cousin and crew chief, as he sat on that starting grid in Charlotte in 1999.

”I remember telling Tony that I would switch with him for a million dollars so he could do this instead of me,” Earnhardt recalled Friday with a chuckle. ”Because I was scared to death. … I was overwhelmed with the weight of the situation, and how much attention it was getting, and it made it really hard to soak in and enjoy it, I guess.

”We just wanted to do so well and not fail. It was fun. It was a wild time.”

”I just wanted to drive,” the 42-year-old Earnhardt recalled. ”I wanted to race cars for a living. I wanted to do it well enough to be able to afford to make a living doing it. I didn’t have vision or assume that I was going to make all of the money and success that we have made, but all I really wanted to do was to do it long enough so I didn’t have to get a real job.”

Earnhardt has done it effectively and consistently for 17 straight years. Only 24 drivers in NASCAR history have started 600 races, and Earnhardt would love to celebrate his entry into the club Sunday with his first win on the well-aged asphalt at Fontana, where he has typically run well for most of his storied career.

Earnhardt hasn’t won a race since late 2015, and he has never won at Fontana in 24 starts despite finishing second twice and landed inside the top 12 in six consecutive outings at Auto Club Speedway.

He missed the second half of last season with a concussion, at least the fourth of his racing career. The absence was his longest break from competition since his debut season back in the 20th century, but he has returned with optimism and confidence, if not results: He hasn’t finished higher than 14th in the first four races of this season, leaving him 23rd in the standings.

Yet Earnhardt has evolved into an elder statesman of the garage, and his easygoing personality even allows him to squash most beefs with a smile – and some beer.

After Ryan Blaney cursed him out on the radio last week in Phoenix, Earnhardt played it off by texting with his young rival – and forcing Blaney to furnish the beverages whenever they hang out this spring.

Blaney incurred the wrath of Earnhardt’s legion of fans, particularly on social media, but Junior himself took it good-naturedly. Blaney had ample reason to make good with his neighbor in North Carolina.

”He owns the land that I live on,” Blaney said with a grimace. ”So strategically, that may not have been the best thing for me to do that to him last week, but we’re good. He’s a great guy and a good friend of mine.”

While he crosses his latest historic mark, Earnhardt doesn’t appear to be done soon. He confirmed Friday that he intends to begin talks soon with Hendrick Motorsports about a new contract to replace his expiring deal.

”It’s only been a few races, but I feel really good and we have had some discussions about planning to get together,” Earnhardt said. ”It’s not something that I put on the shelf, for sure. We’re getting closer and closer.”

Although he realizes some fans, including legendary driver Richard Petty, would have liked to see him retire for his health after that last concussion, Earnhardt is feeling new appreciation for the simpler aspects of this high-profile job.

The post Dale Jr prepares for 600th race after creating own legacy appeared first on IdealCapper.

Busch won his third consecutive Nationwide race by leading 91 of 200 laps Friday night at Texas, where he became the first six-time winner in the series at the 1½-mile, high-banked track.

“It’s fast. It just suits right into my style,” Busch said. “It’s such a fun race. … It’s also being part of this JGR team.”

While driving a car he owned last season, Busch didn’t win in the Nationwide Series. This year back in the Gibbs ride, since having engine problems and finishing 32nd in the opener at Daytona, he has four wins and a runner-up finish to push his series victory record to 55.

Busch, who described his Toyota as “flawless,” Busch finished 2.27 seconds ahead of Brad Keselowski in his Ford. Austin Dillon finished third and Dale Earnhardt Jr. fourth, both in Chevrolets.

“Definitely Kyle is really strong, he’s a great driver for sure. But I think you have to look at the cars they have at Gibbs,” Keselowski said. “I think last year was a bit of an eye-opener for us. … Joey (Logano) won a bunch of races in that same car, and Kyle had the reverse fortune. I think that shows you the effort that Gibbs puts into the series, and they’ve been rewarded as they should for that effort.”

Logano was a nine-time winner in 22 Nationwide races for Gibbs last season. Busch did have nine top-five finishes without winning in his car last season, and now is the first driver to win four of the first six Nationwide races to start a season.

Even Busch acknowledged that the guys at Joe Gibbs racing sure make it seem easy.

“If you put an elite driver in an elite car, you should get elite results and that’s what you’ve seen,” Keselowski said.

Busch now has 110 victories in NASCAR’s three top series, including 25 in the Sprint Cup Series and 30 in trucks.

Right before the start of the Nationwide race, Busch won the pole for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race at Texas.

After sweeping both Nationwide races in Texas in 2008 and 2009, Busch won the spring race in 2010 before finishing second that fall to end his Lone Star State winning streak.

Friday night’s race featured a Texas-record 11 leaders and 22 lead changes. Busch led five times, including the final 31 laps after going back in front out during the last caution.

Sam Hornish Jr. maintained the series points lead despite finishing 34th. He made contact with Jeremy Clements and spun into the infield grass with just more than 55 laps left, doing significant damage to his car.

His lead over Regan Smith shrunk from 20 to two. Smith finished seventh.

Alex Bowman, who was dealing with flu-like symptoms when he won the pole earlier Friday, finished 14th.

Eric McClure got out of his Toyota early in the race because of his own illness. He was replaced by Jeff Green, who had already parked his car after three laps. He drove McClure’s car (14) to a 30th-place finish.

The post Kyle Busch wins at Texas for 6th time appeared first on IdealCapper.

“In my opinion, it was just hard racing,” Earnhardt said during Tuesday’s national conference call. “The guy is leading the race, he’s trying to do what he can to win.”

Stewart didn’t agree.

The three-time Cup champion cut off Logano’s car on pit road after the race and went after him physically before being separated by crew members and officials. He then went on a verbal tirade against the 22-year-old Penske Racing driver.

“He has that right, he has the choice to do that,” Stewart said of blocking. “If he ever turns down across in front of me again, I don’t care what lap it is, he won’t make it through the other end of it.

“I’m tired of these guys doing that stuff. Especially out of a kid that’s been griping about everybody else and then he does that the next week. He sent Denny [Hamlin] to the hospital and screwed our day up.”

Stewart, who finished 22nd, was referring to a last-lap crash involving Logano and Hamlin racing for the lead. Hamlin, who wrecked Logano a week earlier at Bristol, suffered a compression fracture in his lower back when his car hit a concrete inside retaining wall and will miss up to five races.

Earnhardt understands there are some who get more upset about blocking than others. He’s just not one of them.

“Every driver is going to have a different opinion,” said Earnhardt, who took advantage of the last-lap crash to finish second and move into the points lead. “I might block in certain situations. I would expect and accept to be blocked in certain situations.

“But you’ve got to give me racetrack. You’ve got to give me somewhere to run. You can’t just run me up into the fence. You’ve got to give me a lane. If you give me a reasonable amount of racetrack to race on, then I really can’t complain in regards to what you’re trying to do to maintain the position.”

Earnhardt said the time of the race also is a factor when it comes to blocking.

“Is it time to be blocking?” he said. “Is the position that important at that moment in time? Again, everybody will have a different opinion. But when somebody blocks me, I’m not blown away by the notion.

“You know, I’m not going to say that I’ve never blocked anybody because I have, and you do, you will. Being in certain situations, that’s your only alternative. But you’ve got to give people racing room or expect to get turned around or expect to make a few people upset.”

Stewart caused a 25-car pileup in which Earnhardt suffered a concussion that sidelined him for two Chase races defending the lead in the closing lap at Talladega last fall.

Stewart, who has been outspoken about blocking several times the past few years, apologized after the race.

“I just screwed up,” he said. “I turned down and cut across Michael [Waltrip] and crashed the whole field. It was my fault, blocking and trying to stay where I was at.”

Logano never got a chance to discuss what happened with Stewart. He said after the race he had to slow down so as not to jump the race leader on the restart, and that when he did Stewart was able to get a jump on him.

“I had to throw the block there,” Logano said. “That was the race for the lead. I felt if [Stewart] got underneath me, that was going to be the end of my opportunity to win the race.”

Logano said he planned to tell Stewart the same thing when they spoke. Asked if he was willing to talk to Logano, Stewart said, “Hell no.”

“After he threw the water bottle at me like a little girl, we’ll go at it now,” he said.

Stewart also referred to Logano as a spoiled rich kid who never worked a day in his life. That brought up another issue that Earnhardt discussed in relation to how his 12-year-old niece Karsyn has many of the same financial advantages Logano had as she pursues a career in racing.

“Hopefully, she’s talented enough, no matter what your background or what your path is to where you are … if you have talent, you belong, and you earn respect through that talent,” he said. “If you’re really good at your job and really good at what you do, it won’t matter how you got there.”

Opinions will vary on that just as they will on blocking. Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman, called blocking a “chicken way to drive.”

“It’s just something I don’t do,” he said. “If you’ve got a run on me, take it. If I can get through the corner better than you, then we’ll race, but blocking is an IndyCar form or F1 form or an open-wheel type move it seems like.

“It’s not to say they don’t do it in NASCAR; obviously they do. But to me, it’s just a chicken way of driving and not very respectful for the guys around you. You’re there to race. You’re not there to block.”

Newman didn’t know if Stewart and Logano had talked or planned to before Sunday’s race at Martinsville, but he said you have to be aware if they’re around each other on the half-mile track where contact is expected.

“You have to know what’s going on and watch out for the dramas, but at the same time I have a race of my own to run, and a part of that is watching out for what’s going on, whether it’s something that’s carried over from the past few weeks or something that has happened that day,” Newman said. “Going to have to keep tabs on who turns who or who’s angry or where’s everybody at on their scorecards as you go through a race like Martinsville sometimes.”

The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. backs Joey Logano appeared first on IdealCapper.

But NASCAR’s most popular driver, according to the magazine’s estimates, saw his total earnings drop from $28.2 million the year before to $25.9 million this year.

The $25.9 million is based on a $12.9 million salary and winnings and $13 million in endorsements. In just salary/winnings, five-time champion Jimmie Johnson ranks No. 1 at $16.3 million. His total with endorsements is $23 million, ranking second to Earnhardt.

Danica Patrick, in her first full season in the Sprint Cup series, came in at No. 7 with an estimated worth of $12.9 million from salary, winnings and endorsements.

Reigning champion Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10 at $11.4 million — $10 million of that in salary/winnings.

The top 10, according to Forbes:

• Earnhardt Jr. — $25.9 million ($12.9 salary/winnings, $13M endorsements)
• Johnson — $23 million ($16.3M salary/winnings, $6.7M endorsements)
• Tony Stewart — $18.7 million ($12.7M salary/winnings, $6M endorsements)
• Jeff Gordon — $18.1 million ($12.6M salary/winnings, $5.5M endorsements)
• Carl Edwards — $13.7 million ($12.2M salary/winnings, $1.5M endorsements)
• Kevin Harvick — $13 million ($11.5M salary/winnings, $1.5M endorsements)
• Patrick — $12.9 million ($6.4M salary/winnings, $6.5M endorsements)
• Kyle Busch — $12.5 million ($9.6M salary/winnings, $2.9M endorsements)
• Kasey Kahne — $12 million ($11M salary/winnings, $1M endorsements)
• Keselowski — $11.4 million ($10M salary/winnings, $1.4M endorsements

The post Dale Earnhardt tops Forbes list appeared first on IdealCapper.

Kenseth knows a bit about risk after his offseason move to Joe Gibbs Racing, and this latest gamble paid off with his third victory in Vegas.

Kenseth won on his 41st birthday in just his third start for his new team, barely holding off Kasey Kahne at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his 25th career victory Sunday.

“I was real nervous all day,” Kenseth said. “(Kahne) had the best car. I told (crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) with about 12 to go that I was sorry we were going to lose. We were just too tight. … We didn’t have the fastest car there, but we had it where we needed it to be.”

Kenseth took charge by taking only fuel on the final pit stop during caution while almost everybody else replaced two tires. He took the lead and held onto it, using his veteran savvy — and a few screamed instructions at his new spotter — to keep Kahne’s impressive Chevrolet behind him to the finish.

The frequently laid-back Kenseth celebrated with uncommon vigor after his JGR Toyota crossed the line. He’s still getting comfortable with his new teammates after leaving Roush Fenway Racing in the highest-profile driver move of the offseason, joining Gibbs after 13 seasons with RFR.

“I’m not a huge goal person, but my goal was to win, and to win early,” Kenseth said. “Nobody has put any pressure on me except for myself, but I also know that Coach hired me to come in there, climb in that car and win races. You certainly want to do that, and you don’t want to disappoint people. I’m glad we got a win, but it’s still only Week 3. I feel like this is the beginning.”

Pole-sitter Brad Keselowski finished third, with Kenseth’s teammate, Kyle Busch, in fourth and Carl Edwards fifth. Jimmie Johnson, the overall points leader, was sixth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. seventh.

Defending Vegas champion Tony Stewart finished 11th, while Gibbs driver Denny Hamlin was 15th after an eventful week featuring a $25,000 fine from NASCAR for criticizing the new Gen-6 race car.

The win was the 50th for Toyota in Sprint Cup Series competition. Kenseth is just the third NASCAR driver to win on his birthday, joining Cale Yarborough — who did it twice — and Busch.

“I showed them a fake ID when they hired me,” Kenseth said with a laugh. “Told them I was 28, going to be 29 this year.”

Kenseth has won at least one race in 11 of his 14 full seasons in the Sprint Cup series, but the first 13 were all in Fords with Roush Fenway, the team that gave him his break in NASCAR and fostered his development into a likely Hall of Famer. Kenseth’s decision to leave for a seat on Gibbs’ team was an open secret for much of last season, although the veteran star never really explained his move.

“I had a lot of confidence after our first meeting and decided to go do this, and just had a great feeling about it, and still do,” Kenseth said.

Gibbs had his own worries before the race after a rough start to the season for Toyota. Kenseth and Busch both had serious engine trouble at Daytona two weeks ago.

“Lots of times, a victory, the thrill of it, depends on kind of what happens leading up to it,” Gibbs said. “We’ve had a tough couple of weeks, as everybody knows. … In tough times, everybody bands together around our place. We started fighting, and we worked our way out of some tough things.”

The 400-mile race was the first real test for NASCAR’s new Gen-6 car on the intermediate tracks they’re built to race. Although Hamlin commanded the week’s headlines with his pessimism amplified by the NASCAR fine, most drivers were curious how the Gen-6 would work in its ideal 1.5-mile environment.

Any drivers who still think it’s too tough to pass in the new car must not have been watching Busch, who made two lengthy charges up to early leads, doing it both before and after a pit-row speeding penalty dropped him back to 18th.

“I just hate it for my team,” said Busch, a Las Vegas native and graduate of nearby Durango High School. “We had by far the best car in practice. I don’t know where that went. Today was a different day. The worst Gibbs car ended up winning the race. It’s funny how this game works.”

Busch, who finished second in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, charged through the field with impressive ease and took the lead out of a restart with a daredevil move on the apron with 102 laps to go. He went three wide and got underneath Kahne while kicking up dust well below the white line.

Kahne set the qualifying speed record on the Vegas track last year, but rain wiped out qualifying this week. He reclaimed the lead and held it until Kenseth nosed ahead out of another restart with 36 laps left when Kahne had trouble getting out of pit row, nearly hitting Stewart.

“I had an unbelievable car throughout the whole race,” Kahne said. “We just came out, I think, sixth (out of the pit). Tough to say we would have got by him anyway.

“I had a great day. I drove so hard every single lap today, and that’s just the new Gen-6 car. It was a lot of fun. I love it.”

The Gen-6 is still a work in progress, however. Several drivers reported various problems with their cars early on, with Clint Bowyer and Stewart both dropping far back in the opening laps. After three days of chilly weather in the desert, warmer temperatures Sunday changed the track’s feel, and teams struggled to adjust to the slickness.

Danica Patrick, the pole winner two weeks ago at Daytona, struggled with her car from the start, going two laps down by the 60th lap and later getting penalized for a tire violation. She finished 33rd.

The post Matt Kenseth wins at Las Vegas appeared first on IdealCapper.

Earnhardt topped the speed chart for the final practice session before Sunday’s season-opening Daytona 500.

The 2004 Daytona 500 champion turned the fast lap by averaging 198.592 mph around the 2½ -mile superspeedway. David Gilliland was second, followed by Clint Bowyer, Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola.

Pole-sitter Danica Patrick and Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Tony Stewart were among 10 drivers who skipped the 1½ -hour final tuneup. Patrick is trying to become the first driver win the Daytona 500 from the pole since Dale Jarrett in 2000. Only nine drivers have accomplished the feat in 54 years.

Three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon, 2010 Daytona 500 champ Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears, Terry Labonte and Joe Nemechek also sat out the session. So did Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth.

“We don’t have any plans to go out,” Gordon said. “We feel like this entire week we have been able to learn everything we need to get prepared for the race tomorrow. … We’ve got a great race car. We are excited. We’ve got a great opportunity here.”

Before Saturday, Earnhardt had done little during Speedweeks. He finished eighth in the Sprint Unlimited and ninth in his qualifying race. He will start 19th in the “Great American Race,” his lowest opening spot in 14 years at NASCAR’s premier event.

His speed in the final practice had to boost the team’s confidence.

Almirola, however, posted the best 10-lap average. He averaged 196.195 mph over 10 laps on new tires. Earnhardt was sixth on that chart.

“We are excited about this weekend and feel like we have a good car and got it driving good in that last practice session,” Almirola said.

The final session involved little bump-drafting and even less side-by-side action — no doubt because teams were leery of wrecking race cars about 24 hours before the Daytona 500.

Defending Sprint Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski provided the most action when he hit a bird.

“I killed a Tweetie bird,” said Keselowski, one of auto racing’s top Tweeters.

Keselowski was 17th in the final practice.

“This is our 500 engine, so trying to get an idea of how it’s going to perform,” he said. “My car is really good. Definitely faster than what it was, so that’s good, right? I’m definitely optimistic.”

Of the teams that didn’t practice, most of them valued keeping their car intact over incremental gains that could be found so late in Speedweeks.

Patrick, Stewart, Gordon and the Gibbs cars have been some of the fastest all week.

The post Dale Earnhardt Jr. leads final practice appeared first on IdealCapper.