Dale Earnhardt Jr. thought he could win the AAA Texas 500 on Sunday night but he needed one of two things to happen. The race end in a fuel mileage situation or the leaders, teammate Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski, to wreck themselves as they raced hard during the final few laps.

[media-credit name=”Greg Author” align=”alignright” width=”236″][/media-credit]Neither ended up happening – there’s going to be cautions at the end, he said – and Earnhardt Jr. came home with a seventh place finish. A hard fought finish he thought he was going to have last week as well, before being wrecked. In Texas though, he closed the deal in his second race back after sitting out two weeks following his second concussion in six weeks.

“That was pretty crazy. I was thinking I might have a shot to win if they kept on going like that,” said Earnhardt Jr. afterwards. He had a front row seat when Keselowski and Johnson made contact and raced hard during the final few restarts. “Somebody else might win the race, but I was glad to see Jimmie take it at the end. What a battle this championship is. Brad is putting up an awesome fight.”

Johnson and Keselowski finished the race 1-2, while Earnhardt Jr. lost a few spots and fell outside the top five. But he was as much impressed with his team as he was with what Keselowski and Johnson have been doing in the Chase. Earnhardt Jr. was mathematically eliminated from contention on Sunday night, he sits 12th in points.

“They have been real impressive. But I’m a company man so I’m glad HMS [Hendrick Motorsports] is on top tonight.”

Coming from the 19th starting position, Earnhardt Jr. spent much of the first half of the race battling for a top 15 position. His car wasn’t bad, just not dialed in enough for him to make a run for the front. As the sun went down and the lights came on though, Earnhardt Jr. found his rhythm.

Taking up residence with the leaders as his pit crew continued to gain him spots on pit road, he was in prime position to make a challenge for the win. He ended up saving enough gas that when he made it into the top five crew chief Steve Letarte let him race, he was good to go to the end of the race had there not been a caution. Those in front of him were either going to be really close, or not close enough. It would have put him in the catbird seat.

A rash of cautions in the final 50 laps however, changed everything. It became a fight to the finish and having restarted on the outside, Earnhardt Jr. was unable to go forward.

“We just restarted on the outside and it’s a little tough out there to make any ground,” he said about the end. “We had been on the inside all day making up time. We had a pretty good car at the start of the race. We dialed it way out and got real slow and made some great changes near the end. The pit crew did a good job, they gained us about eight spots on pit road those last two stops.”

“Real happy with the way we were able to rebound. I would have liked to have run in the top five, maybe been a little closer to the front, but we definitely run a little bit better like we should.”

The finished marked the fifth time in his last six Texas races that Earnhardt Jr. finished in the top 10. The NSCS heads to Phoenix next week, where he’s a two-time winner.

Seven weeks ago Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski started the Chase by finishing first and second at Chicago. In doing so, they traded words about what took place during the race, disagreeing, of course. [media-credit name=”Getty Images for NASCAR” align=”alignright” width=”235″][/media-credit]

Sunday night in Texas he was more of the same. This time around, Johnson was the one finishing first. Keselowski was close behind in second, remaining second in the point standings to Johnson. Oh, and there’s two races remaining on the season.

But, that’s not what they were jabbing about afterwards. Again, it was how they raced each other on track. In Chicago the issue was blend lines coming off pit road. In Texas it was restarts and caution flags.

Keselowski was leading late, Johnson running third and he wasn’t happy about it. After a restart on lap 315, Johnson radioed, “Come on NASCAR, look at the tape. That’s bull[expletive].” Keselowski, he said, had jumped the restart and gotten away with it.

“It seemed real early to me, it caught the 18 [Kyle Busch, who also thought Keselowski went early and said there must be no restart rules] off guard and myself,” said Johnson after the race.

“It seemed early. We have this grey area exiting on the racetrack off turn two when you leave the pits. Two weeks ago we had a hard reference point, this week we don’t. It’s just in the area. And we all know at Chicago the situation that was there.

“On the frontstretch for the restart there are two lines that are there for a reason. I felt like he went real early and caught us both off guard.”

Crew chief Chad Knaus quickly calmed Johnson down, refocusing him on running Keselowski and his two tires down. Johnson had four tires and two more cautions and restarts were just enough for him to clear Keselowski going into turn one on the green-white-checkered finish.

It was Johnson’s second straight win, second win at Texas, his fifth of the season. It was also his second straight win from the pole after leading the most laps. But Keselowski made no bones afterwards that Johnson had a little help. Making it clear that in this dogfight to the finish, neither one is willing to give or concede an inch.

On the track, the battle was just as fierce. The two were up front running hard all day, leading laps and never letting the other out of their sights. Johnson lead seven times for 168 laps, where Keselowski led five times for 75 laps. They even made contact while racing for the lead on lap 327 with Keselowski emerging the leader. Johnson pulled alongside Keselowski when the caution flew a few laps later to let him know it wasn’t over.

“I just pointed at him and wanted him to use his head, there’s no sense in taking us both out in the process. If he was taking me out, you can count on the fact that I would have been in the gas and trying to take him with him,” said Johnson.

“Just doesn’t need to come down to that. Brad also, after the race came into Victory Lane and shook my hand. The cool thing about it is, we walked right up to that line, we got right to the edge and then it stopped. He showed a very class move coming to Victory Lane and shaking my hand afterwards, too.”

Both said it was just hard racing, something that will continue to the finish of the Chase. A caution from a Mark Martin spin with five laps to go set up the races final restart, a GWC finish. Johnson beat Keselowski to the line but NASCAR made no call for a penalty.

“Every restart I didn’t have very good drive today for some reason,” said Keselowski. “Every restart I spun the tires. Just one them deals, and we fought through it the best we could. Just one of them deals.” He acknowledged that it was probably fair play on both sides, since NASCAR isn’t going to measure it.

Johnson’s side, “Yeah, he spun them pretty bad, I was pedaling trying to let him catch up as he got to the start- finish and then he kind of surged past right at it or just past it. NASCAR’s been aware of that in the past and allows you, if you give that nose back, you’re in good shape.”

Going forward, Johnson says he’s in control of the championship and Keselowski knows it won’t be easy to catch him. He lost ground to Johnson today and they head next for a track that Johnson has won four times at. But Keselowski’s still happy with his position, proud of how he and his team are performing. The best is bringing brought out of everyone, and running for a championship is fun. And just as he said to his team after the checkered flag on Sunday, he refuses to lose this championship.

“It don’t feel good, but there is a part of you that just feels like you’re first in class,” said Keselowski about finishing second to Johnson. “When you catch the breaks that he caught today with the yellows and then you execute like they can, you’re unbeatable. I’m confident that we can execute at a high level. I’m confident that the way it’s worked over the last three weeks — we haven’t caught good breaks or bad breaks, and he’s caught several really good ones.

“I’m confident that that will come back around, and when it does, we’ll change these seconds and fifths or whatever they are over the last few weeks into wins. I feel like that’s bound to happen over the next two weeks, and we have the team to pull it off. I also feel like the way the points are right now, we still control our own destiny, which is if we win the race, we get the points lead. So, that’s all you can ask for.”