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Dale Earnhardt Jr didn't have the
fastest car. It was Matt Kenseth who dominated the race,
leading 176 of 267 laps. Junior led only 11 in his
victory at Chicagoland Speedway.
"My guys won the race for me," Earnhardt said. "We
obviously didn't have the best car today. Matt Kenseth
did. I still thought he'd catch me and we'd get beat."
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Steve Hmiel, crew chief of Earnhardt's No. 8
Chevrolet, made the winning call. With 20 laps
to go it was clear that everyone in contention
for the win would need 1 more pit stop. Hmiel
called for 2 tires, while Kenseth's team opted
for 4.
Once the final round of stops cycled through
Junior was running 2nd, while Kenseth was
fighting his way through heavy traffic.
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After 3 laps Dale Jr quickly passed Scott
Wimmer for the lead. Wimmer was on old tires,
and hadn't stopped on the final round. Kenseth
finally moved into 2nd with 5 laps to go, but it
was too late for him to catch Junior.
Kenseth's No. 17 Ford finished about 5 car
lengths behind Earnhardt's Chevy.
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"You try to be a gracious loser," said Kenseth, "but
it's tough when you lead all day. You always hate to
lose to somebody you never had to race with all day."
This was Dale Earnhardt Jr's 1st win of the season,
and the 16th of his Cup career. It would be his only win
of 2005.
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The race distance was 267 laps on a 1.500 mile
speedway, for a total distance of 400.5 miles.
NACAR officially timed the race at 3 hours, 8
minutes, 16 seconds, at an average speed of 127.638 MPH.
The race was slowed from Jimmie Johnson's pole
winning speed of 188.147 MPH by 10 cautions for 47 laps.
Dale Earnhardt Jr won $325,033 for the victory in
front of 80,000 fans.
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