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Associated Press 19y

Truex wins Busch race at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. is having more
success as a car owner than a driver this season.

Martin Truex Jr., driving a car partially owned by Earnhardt,
passed Kevin Harvick with four laps remaining and held on after a
late restart to win the Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona International
Speedway on Friday night.

"He's real proud of all our success," Truex said of his boss.
"He's part owner of our team and what car owner wouldn't be proud
of leading the points and winning the race."

The reigning Busch series champion won his first race at Daytona
and extended his lead in the series standings to 71 points over
Clint Bowyer. Reed Sorenson finished 20th and dropped to third in
the standings.

Truex took over the top spot last week with a second straight
runner-up finish, and he carried that momentum to Daytona.

He led a race-high 67 laps in his Chevrolet and won for the
fourth time this season. Nextel Cup points leader Greg Biffle was
third, followed by Kenny Wallace and Bowyer.

Earnhardt, who has no victories in the Nextel Cup series this
season and is a disappointing 18th in points, ran second behind
Truex for much of the night before blowing an engine with 21 laps
remaining.

It was another setback in a season filled with them for NASCAR's
most popular driver. In fact, Truex's success has been one of the
few highlights for Earnhardt.

It got even better an hour before the race, when Truex signed a
new three-year contract with Dale Earnhardt Inc. He will drive one
of the team's Cup cars next year.

"I'm glad it's out of the way and I don't have to read all over
the Internet that I'm driving this car or that car," Truex said
after the race.

Truex said he received several offers to race for other teams.
One report had him in line to replace Rusty Wallace at Penske
Racing.

"You've got to explore your options, but nothing really
materialized," Truex said. "I just tried really hard to stay
where I am at. The loyalty that they have showed me is something I
felt like I should return. I've made a lot of friendships there."

Truex could have used Earnhardt's help near the end of Friday
night's race.

The 25-year-old New Jersey native had the lead following a
restart with eight laps to go, but he quickly got shuffled behind
Harvick and Biffle.

Truex made several runs at them on the outside before finally
getting to the front. But just as he took the lead, a 16-car
accident -- started when Randy LaJoie ran into Jon Wood -- turned the
100-lap race into a shootout with three laps to go.

The race was red-flagged for nearly 28 minutes while officials
repaired a portion of the wall.

After the delay, Truex blocked a strong attempt from Harvick to
retake the lead and stayed in front the rest of the way.

"I thought I was in good position there on the restart,"
Harvick said. "I got up underneath him, but he came down and I had
to let off. It was just good, hard racing."

Paul Menard, Joe Nemechek, Mike Wallace, Jason Leffler and Tony
Raines rounded out the top 10.

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