Earnhardt happy despite odd crash

Earnhardt led more laps than any of his rivals on Sunday, completing 76 laps up front. He paced the field five different times but a bizarre brush with the turn three wall damaged his car and almost put him a lap down.

He was penalized for pitting when the pits were closed following his incident, and also for speeding on pit road when he struggled to slow down enough due to both of his right-side tyres being down after the impact with the wall.

However he was able to salvage a fifth place finish thanks to a fuel-saving strategy, which saw him move from around 20th to the top-five in the last 62 laps under green.

Earnhardt was able to complete the last segment of the race without pitting as others were forced to make a splash-and-go under green.

"We got lucky at the end," Earnhardt said. "Got gas and made it last. They beat us real bad last year. Casey (Mears) won in kind of sort of the same way. I don't know what happened getting in turn three. I think we blew a right rear tyre.

"I hate it for my guys. We were running really strong, I sure want to get me a win here. I thought we were done then I got motivated again, but the car wasn't as fast, we were just trying to hang on."

Earnhardt's car had sustained heavy damage after his brush with the wall but his crew worked hard during several stops under caution to get it back in decent shape.

The Hendrick driver praised his team's efforts and strategy, which allowed him to get another solid finish points-wise following the adversity they faced when a win looked within reach.

"These cars are tough," Earnhardt added. "You saw Kyle (Busch) beat that thing up pretty bad and win Darlington. I am proud of my team for being able to repair it and get a good finish. I was disappointed that we put ourselves back in the pack and had the incident, but, Tony Jr. (Eury) had great strategy and it worked out.

"We were runnin' good though man. I was so proud of how we were running; I just wish we could get to the end."

Earnhardt continues to be third in the points, 139 points off leader Kyle Busch.