FORT WORTH, Texas- Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard "Trained by Tradition" team worked through handling issues for a majority of the race to power their way to a seventh-place finish in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Texas Motor Speedway.
With his seventh-place finish, Earnhardt advanced to the seventh position in the championship standings. He trails leader Carl Edwards by 79 points with two races remaining in the 2011 season.
Earnhardt lined up 16th for Sunday's 334-lap event, and at the drop of the green flag was quick to tell crew chief Steve Letarte that he was experiencing an extremely loose-handling car. Earnhardt slipped back to the 19th position but maintained his footing inside the top 20 as long green-flag runs occurred during the early stages of the race.
Earnhardt made his way down pit road on Lap 197 during a round of green-flag pit stops for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment. Earnhardt rejoined the field and was running 15th when two cars made contact bringing out the second caution period of the day. The caution occurred in the middle of green-flag pit stops, and Earnhardt was one lap down to the leaders.
Letarte opted to stay on track and get the wave-around, putting Earnhardt back on the lead lap for the Lap 207 restart.
The day's fifth caution came on Lap 271 with Earnhardt scored 19th and was dealing with a tight-handling racecar. Earnhardt made his way down pit road for four tires and fuel and went back to green-flag racing on Lap 274 scored 18th. Some cars were hoping for another quick caution and opted not to pit in an effort to gain track position, but the caution never came and a handful of cars were forced to come down pit road for fuel.
Earnhardt was scored ninth when the final round of green-flag stops began on Lap 297 and seemed to be happier with the car.
During the closing laps Earnhardt gained two positions to finish seventh.