Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 National Guard NASCAR racecar, improved from his 27th starting position to finish 15th on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Earnhardt now ranks ninth in the driver standings.
Earnhardt started the 301-lap race in the 27th position, and by Lap 28, he radioed to crew chief Steve Letarte that he was struggling with the handling of his blue-and-white racecar, but Earnhardt raced inside the top 30 for the first half of the race, and Letarte used every caution period to work through the handling issues and fine-tune the car for Earnhardt.
Earnhardt was running 24th when the day’s sixth caution flag waved on Lap 172, but Letarte told Earnhardt to stay on track to gain track position.
Earnhardt restarted 20th and began making forward progress. He was running 15th when another caution flag waved on Lap 185.
Letarte again told his driver to stay on track, and Earnhardt restarted ninth on Lap 188 and continued to maintain his footing inside the top 10 for the next 50 circuits.
Conserving fuel became the hot topic on pit road as teams calculated if they could make it to the checkered flag without stopping.
The 10th caution flag waved on Lap on 241, and Letarte told his driver to come to pit road for fuel and right-side tires. During the pit stop, the team was assessed a penalty, and Earnhardt was forced to start at the tail of the field.
Earnhardt restarted 33rd on Lap 244 and spent the remaining laps working his way toward the front. He crossed the finish line 15th.