Jul 2, 2005 3 min read

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) – 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.

“As long as I was leading, I was in good shape,” Truex said.

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.

But how long Truex remains with Earnhardt under the Dale Earnhardt Inc. umbrella is unclear. His Busch contract expires at the end of this season, and although the team has said he’ll drive one of its Cup cars next year, he has yet to sign a new deal.

“We’re going to win this championship and worry about this next year,” Truex said.

The prolonged negotiations have thrust Truex’s name into the free agent pool, and garage rumors had him in line to replace Rusty Wallace at Penske Racing. Truex maintained that his intention is to get a deal worked out at DEI, where he has grown into one of Earnhardt’s close friends.

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.

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