Earnhardt Continues His Winning Ways

Dale Earnhardt Jr. began his career as a Busch Grand National team car owner with a win Saturday in the Koolerz 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

Little E formed his Chance II team this year “to get the feel of what it was on the outside, to understand the problems Teresa has with the Winston Cup team.”

Teresa Earnhardt, Dale Jr.’s step-mother, owns the Dale Earnhardt Inc. team for which Junior drives.

When pole-sitter Joe Nemechek woke up with flu, he turned his car over to Jeff Green, the 500 pole-sitter. However, because of a driver change, Green had to start last in the 43-car field. This moved Earnhardt to the No. 1 position. Although he let fellow Winston Cup driver Kevin Harvick lead off the starting line, Earnhardt grabbed the lead on a pit stop and never relinquished it.

The win was Earnhardt’s second straight in the Daytona Busch race and his 16th career series win. It was also his third consecutive victory here this year, after the Budweiser Shootout and a twin 125 qualifying heat.

Although there was only one lead change in the race -- Earnhardt passing Harvick in the pits -- the Koolerz 300 was entertaining.

Matt Kenseth, who finished second in a Ford, battled most of the day with Harvick, who was forced to drop to 30th, at the rear of the lead pack, in mid-race when he was penalized after the fuel catch can fell off his car.

“We just made that one little mistake there in the pits and once we gave up the lead it was hard to get it back,” Harvick said.

Five accidents caused 13 cars to drop out of the race. The most serious involved Jason Keller, whose car caught fire after being bounced into the wall by Mike McLaughlin, who was rebounding from a hit by CART driver Jimmy Vasser. Keller was taken to Halifax Medical Center with a possible concussion.

That accident occurred on Lap 119, one lap from the finish, so Earnhardt took the checkered flag under yellow caution conditions.

Green’s hopes of winning in Nemechek’s absence ended when he was spun around by Scott Riggs and sent careening into the retaining wall. “I was feathering it a little bit up off the corner and the 10 car [Riggs] just run over me and turned me around. I’m glad I didn’t tear it up any more than I did. I hate tearing somebody else’s car up.”

Earnhardt led the final 67 laps, averaged 143.770 mph for 300 miles.