Earnhardt wins rain shortened Phoenix race

Dale Earnhardt led when it counted – when the rain fell

Persistent rain forced Sunday's Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway to end early after 219 of 312 laps.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was credited with the win at the end of a long day. Kevin Harvick was second, with Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson rounding out the top five.

Harvick, Busch and Martin Truex Jr. will join Jeff Gordon in the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday.

Rain began falling around 1:25 p.m. ET at Phoenix, which underwent a ceremonial race-day name change to Jeff Gordon Raceway to honor the four-time series champion. A fleet of NASCAR Air Titan track dryers began circulating the 1-mile track approximately 20 minutes later as precipitation began to taper off.

The race was called at approximately 11:40 p.m. ET after rain began to fall once again.

The race was initially scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. ET, but was pushed to approximately 9:15 p.m. ET.

There had previously been just one rain-shortened race among the 38 premier-series events in the track's history. NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace prevailed here in October 1998 in a race cut from 312 to 257 laps.

The 312-mile event was the last of three races in the Eliminator Round, which determined the four drivers eligible for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crown.

The Championship 4 has been determined following the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, which ended at Lap 219 of a scheduled 312 due to rain.

Four in, four out: Here's the bubble picture following Phoenix. The four drivers listed as 'Out' below failed to advance to the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway while the four drivers listed as 'In' will be racing on Sunday, Nov. 22 for the title in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

In
1. Kevin Harvick
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Kyle Busch
4. Martin Truex Jr.

Out
5. Carl Edwards
6. Brad Keselowski
7. Kurt Busch
8. Joey Logano

DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CHEVROLET SS – RACE WINNER

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]YOU HAD A FAST CAR, BUT YOU WERE ALSO IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME. TELL US ABOUT THAT PIT CALL:
“We had an idea that the rain was in the area, but all the circumstances that played out at the end of the race are just kind of luck I think. I want to give Greg (Ives, crew chief) a lot of credit and the guys. They gave us a good enough car to come here and qualify well. I think the reason why we won this race is because of the way we qualified to give ourselves a position to be up front all night. When something like this quirky happens we were able to capitalize. It’s a rain-shortened win, but my guys are very proud of it because of how the car ran all weekend and we put ourselves in this position. A lot of guys would love to see this race continue and have an opportunity to race to the Chase. If I had four or six inches at Talladega we would be going there to Homestead to race for a championship too. It works out for some and some it doesn’t. We will take this win it has been a long year and we put a lot of effort into it and we are starting to see somethings turn around and work for us like we want. We were fast all weekend, so real proud of this."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 2^ND

TALK ABOUT THE DAY AND HOW STRONG YOUR CAR WAS AND HOW THAT MAKES YOU FEEL GOING INTO HOMESTEAD NEXT WEEKEND

“I want to thank everybody on our Budweiser/Jimmy John’s team for just a really, really fast car. We made great adjustments overnight and got that little bit of balance that we were looking for from practice, and just the way that the caution fell, I didn’t get all my distance back on the race track under green and Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) was able to beat us out. But hey, you lose some and you win some like that. And sometimes you’re on the right side of it and sometimes you’re on the wrong side of it. Today, we were on the wrong side of it, but in the big picture we’re racing for a championship next week. So, I’m just really proud of everybody on our team.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN THROUGH A CRAZIER DAY THAN THIS IN TERMS OF THE WEATHER?

“I’ve been through a lot longer rain delays than this one. You just can’t control a lot of these things. Who would have thought you’d come to the desert and it’s going to rain? But, bring NASCAR, and you’ll catch-up on your rain."

TALK ABOUT FIGHTING FOR ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER ALL YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH THIS YEAR

“Well, I feel like we’ve overcome a lot of things throughout the Chase. We’ve survived and advanced. It hasn’t been 100% pretty from one end to the other, but I think as you look at the Chase, it’s been championship material and that’s proven by making it to the championship race. I’m just really proud of everybody and we’re going to go down there and just do like we’ve done and race as hard as we can.

Race Results