Earnhardt sad to miss Chase

The DEI driver, who is in his final season with the team he has raced for all of his Nextel Cup career, was a contender for most of the distance at Richmond, but even a second place finish, which looked to be on the cards, wouldn't have been enough for him to break into the top 12 in the points.

Reliability issues, specifically to do with engines, cost him hundreds of points which in the end made the difference in a season where he has been unable to get a win, despite his teammate Martin Truex Jr taking a victory and a place in the Chase.

"I'm really sad for my fans, but especially for my team," said Earnhardt Jr. "If you knew how hard they have all worked this year, and to run as well as we have, it breaks my heart.

"We've been a top-five car and a top-five team almost every week and yet we struggled with engines that wouldn't get us to the finish line."

Earnhardt Jr has won at least once every year since his first full Nextel Cup season in 2000. He says he and his team will not give up despite not running for the championship, targeting victories in the final ten races of the season, where the pressure will be off having to worry less about points.

"I have a lotta pride - and I think the whole team has a lotta pride - in how well we ran and how hard we competed and that's gonna be the same in the final 10 races," Earnhardt added. "We're not gonna give up - we're gonna go out there and have fun and laugh and try to win races.

"Maybe we'll be a spoiler in the final races. When that last lap is completed at Homestead (the final race of the year), I want everyone to know we all worked hard and we did all we could to race hard and never gave up.

"I want to go out (at Dale Earnhardt Inc.) with integrity and that means never letting up."

Dale Earnhardt Jr will join Hendrick Motorsports next year after signing a multi-year deal earlier this season. His new team, where his current crew chief Tony Eury Jr will join him, will have three of their four drivers fighting for this year's Nextel Cup title.