Earnhardt wins Pocono 400

Posted: Monday, June 9, 2014, 12:16 AM

LONG POND, Pa. - Brad Keselowski led the most laps by far in yesterday's Pocono 400. Then, with five laps remaining in the 160-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Keselowski suddenly backed off the pace between Turns 1 and 2, allowing Dale Earnhardt Jr. to lead.

Keselowski was hoping to clear the paper off the grill of his red No. 2 Ford by drafting Earnhardt, then surge back in front. It didn't happen. Earnhardt kept his No. 88 Chevrolet ahead of Keselowski and gained his first Pocono Raceway victory in 29 starts.

'I was trying to do something to help my car out: It was starting to blow up [from high engine temperature],' Keselowski said after leading 95 laps and finishing second. 'I knew it was going to break and I was going to get passed, so I was trying to make whatever move I could to help clean it off.

'I'm not sure I did enough to make a difference, but I made enough of a difference to lose the lead.'

Keselowski, first tried to draft Danica Patrick's lapped car. That maneuver slowed the 2012 Cup champion enough for Earnhardt to pass him.

To say Earnhardt's victory was popular with the estimated crowd of 65,000 is putting it mildly. They stood and roared when he crossed the start/finish line and then cheered even louder when he performed his victory burnouts.

'I've always wanted to win here,' Earnhardt said after his second win this year. 'I've been so close [two seconds]. I really enjoy racing here. I used to come here as a kid [when his late father Dale Sr. raced Pocono].'

Earnhardt, celebrating his first multiple-win season in 10 years, said crew chief Steve Letarte told him with about eight laps to go that Keselowski was complaining about high temperatures in his car.

After passing Keselowski, Earnhardt said, 'I knew if I just ran tidy corners he would have trouble. I wanted to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. I kept telling myself under the [late] caution laps just to drive, that we weren't beaten, that if we did something right and maybe [Keselowski] slips, maybe we get by him.'

Letarte, in his fourth and final season as Earnhardt's crew chief before he moves to NBC Sports next year as a race analyst, is credited with restoring Junior's confidence as a racer.

'He's a tremendous talent behind the wheel, with a tremendous amount of desire to run well,' Letarte said. 'Then you throw the world's expectations on him that no one could measure [or] understand. But he handles it with grace. When you get to win races with him and see him put on that genuine smile and have a good time, it's a blast.'

Earnhardt returns the mutual admiration.

'Steve had a great strategy for races like this,' Earnhardt said. 'I don't know how he has the vision and understanding of where he wants to be 200 laps ahead [but] he just delivered that [win] to me wrapped with a bow. The rest of our competition, the guys that he been running up front all day, were mired in traffic [near the end] and we weren't.'

Kurt Busch finished third, his first top-five finish since he won at Martinsville, Va., in the season's sixth race. Polesitter Denny Hamlin was fourth (only four laps led).

Winning Saturday's ARCA series at Pocono race paid off for rookie Kyle Larson: He finished fifth for his second-best Cup-race finish of the season. He was second in the California race March 23. Larson is 10th in Cup points.

Just before the race's halfway mark three Stewart-Haas Racing cars ran one-two-three: Tony Stewart led, followed by Busch and Kevin Harvick. With 44 laps to go Harvick had a flat tire on his No. 4 Chevrolet and finished 14th. A few laps later Stewart was assessed a speeding penalty on pit road and placed 13th.