NASCAR Junior avoids errors to win

Dale Earnhardt Jr. climbed back into the points race.
AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. thought about it all week long: No more mistakes.
A week after crashing a top-five car and costing himself precious points in the NASCAR Nextel Cup championship chase, Earnhardt did everything right in winning Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway and moving solidly back into the points picture with two races remaining.
"It's been bothering me all week," Earnhardt said, alluding to a late-race collision with rookie Carl Edward the previous week at Atlanta. "I just didn't want to make a mistake like I did last week and wanted to put ourselves back in position to run for the championship."
He did just that, jumping from fifth to third in the standings and moving within 47 points of series leader Kurt Busch, who had to overcome a couple of mistakes to finish 10th Sunday. The top four drivers are separated by just 48 points heading into next Sunday's race at Darlington.
The scenario
Earnhardt, who had a dominant car through most of the Checker Auto Parts 500, leading a race-high 118 laps, was in third place, trailing Gordon and Casey Mears when a caution came out on lap 282 of the race scheduled to go 312.
Junior argued with crew chief Tony Eury over the radio, lobbying to pit for tires, but Eury made him stay on the track and maintain his position.
Eury, known as Tony Sr., said he insisted Earnhardt stay out because it was so hard to pass lapped cars on the mile oval and "it was just better to keep track position."
Earnhardt was a bit sheepish when asked about the argument.
"Yeah, I was just getting worried, man," he said. "I cannot control myself inside a race car. I want tires, this that and the other. I didn't want to lose.
"I told Tony Sr., 'The car's covering the field the best we ever did.' We've had good race cars and won races but nobody could run with this car today and I didn't want to lose this race."
Careful with language
He didn't. And, after reaching Victory Lane, Earnhardt also was careful to watch his language. The use of a vulgarity during a live TV interview after his last victory -- Oct. 3 at Talladega -- cost him $10,000 and, far more important, 25 points.
"I was really scared that I might slip up because I have a lot of bad words in my vocabulary," Earnhardt said. "I will always from here on out be nervous about that. Tony Sr. came up to me before I got out [of the car] and said, 'Now, don't cuss.' I was glad he reminded me because you get excited."
After staying out during the caution, Earnhardt wound up passing Mears for second place on lap 298, moments before another caution came out for Jamie McMurray's wreck.
On the restart on lap 303, Earnhardt swung his No. 8 Chevrolet to the inside of Gordon's car, pulled alongside and shot into the lead.
"Junior had a dominant car all day long and we needed it to go green the whole way to have any chance," Gordon said.
Earnhardt began to pull away when Mears, with a tire going flat, spun into the wall, bringing out yet another yellow flag on lap 307.
Gordon's engine goes
Moments later, Robby Gordon's engine blew. NASCAR stopped the cars on track on lap 310 as safety workers cleaned up the debris from Mears' crash and the oil from Gordon's engine failure.
Once the race resumed, NASCAR ordered one extra lap of caution, then finished with only the second green-white-checker overtime since the rule was adopted earlier this year.
Earnhardt easily pulled away once the green flag waved, running off to his sixth win of the season and second straight Phoenix victory. Ryan Newman, who struggled most of the day after starting from the pole, came on for second.