#88- Dale Earnhardt Jr. and #1-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. 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). 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 #34-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. 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.”(USA Today)(10-5-2015)
