TALLADEGA, Ala. ? Put yourself in Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s shoes for a second. (No, you don't get any of his endorsement coin for doing so.) You've got a 100-race winless streak that everybody and his dog reminds you about. But you're coming to home turf, you're among your people and you're running as well as you have in nearly a decade. How much would you give to win? And what would it take for you to step back and play the role of spear-carrier rather than king?
On Sunday afternoon�in the Aaron's 499�at Talladega, Earnhardt and shopmate Jimmie Johnson clearly had the class tandem of the field; no other duo reached the front as often and as consistently as the 48/88. But as the race wore on, thoughts turned to the finish: Would the 48 push the 88? Would Earnhardt try the slingshot move on his teammate? How far would Earnhardt go to end this miserable winless streak?
With the laps counting down and Junior leading Johnson, the pieces fell into place. Earnhardt came over the radio and told Johnson that they were better with him pushing the five-time defending champion.�And so they switched places, with Junior now pushing Johnson in their closing-laps charge.
"We didn't know what would unfold at the end, and after the last pit stop I was pushing him for while and we were getting disconnected pretty easily," Johnson explained. "And at that point, he just said, 'Hey, you need to lead, it works better with you leading.' And [crew chiefs] Chad [Knaus] and Stevie [Letarte]�confirmed that our lap times were faster with the 48 in front of the 88, and we made a swap going into Turn 1 and just kind of stayed that way from there on out."
And "there on out" went from that point right on to the checkers, where Johnson learned of his victory from a familiar source: "I didn't hear anything on the radio, and the first voice I heard as we went into Turn 1 was Junior," Johnson said. "It was something like, 'Hell, I think the 48 won.'�"
Johnson made sure that Earnhardt got his share of the credit. After Johnson got the checkered flag, he handed it to Earnhardt, who initially declined.
"Man, I don't want that," Earnhardt said. When Johnson insisted, Earnhardt replied, "No, that's what teammates do."
"Take the damn flag," Johnson said. "I'll give you the trophy, too."
"No, I don't want the trophy," Earnhardt said, and then reconsidered. "I'll take the flag, though."
It's not the way�Junior wanted to get a checker at Talladega, but that ? and his fifth top 10 of the year, which puts him in third place overall in the standings�? will do until he can get his hands on the real thing.
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