by Lee Spencer

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While many might presume that ending a 76-race winless streak might bring tremendous relief to Earnhardt, ultimately what affected him most was "the joy."

With the strength and stability of the No. 88 Chevrolet, both Earnhardt and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. were content racking up top five finishes — including three in the last four races — and maintaining third place in the points.

"When we started the season, we were really happy and satisfied, lucky, worried about our performance," Earnhardt said. "We rattled off a lot of great finishes and good runs. We've been solid every week and it's been easy to get real impatient, because you see ... you can see up ahead at what great potential we have. Me, my cousin, with the team of guys we've got, you can see what great potential we could have over the next couple of years.

"And you grow a little impatient because you want it now."

But as the laps wound down and the cousins found themselves in the lead 41 laps into a fuel run with seven circuits remaining in the race, being content just wasn't good enough anymore.

Eury had radioed to Steve Letarte, crew chief for the No. 24 car, after Robby Gordon wrecked on the backstretch to bring out the fifth caution on Lap 153 and asked, "Are you going for it?" The answer was no. His calculations added to six laps short on gas. Given Earnhardt's ability to conserve fuel over the last few weeks, Eury believed the car would make it to the end.

When Sam Hornish Jr. spun in Turn 4 on Lap 199, the stage was set for a green-white-checkered flag finish starting with Lap 202. Eury became sick. Making 200 laps was easy. Running until 203 would be a problem. With Earnhardt on fumes and coasting beyond the pace car under yellow, the tower called for him to back off and Eury reiterated the message repeatedly to his driver.

As the race went green, Eury yearned for a caution. His prayers were answered as the field rounded the front stretch on Lap 203, with Patrick Carpentier and Michael Waltrip wrecking on the final lap.

"Coast up high, hold your position," spotter T.J. Majors calmly radioed to Earnhardt. "Checkered flag this time by, you are the winner."

"Yeah, baby," Earnhardt laughed and continued laughing as he reported the No. 88 had run out of gas turning the corner to come down pit road.

His crew met their driver and pushed the car into Victory Lane as a crowd lingered to cheer.

Regardless of his competitors complaining about Earnhardt passing the pace car, he wasn't going to allow negativity to tarnish the moment.

"I understand how it might look, especially if you're not a Dale Jr. fan," Earnhardt said. "I know exactly what they're going to say on Monday, but to hell with it.

"My fans are happy and I'm happy for them. The other half are going to tear this apart on how we won this race, but I got the trophy and I got the points and I got to see my team and my owner and my family tonight happy as they have been in a long time. So the win is pretty special to me."

Despite moving the party from Victory Lane — where his owner Rick Hendrick and teammates Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears offered congratulations — to the G1 garage as a storm rolled through, the champagne still sprayed and flowed.

As the cousins shared in the celebration, there was never a doubt that at some point they would get here.

"I never wondered, 'Will I never win again?'" Earnhardt said. "I'm going to be around here for quite a while — if I can have my way. I'll have good opportunities to drive good race cars for hopefully a good time and more opportunities to win. The winless streak didn't frustrate me as much as most people would think. I was so happy to be where I am and so satisfied with how we've ran to this point, I wasn't that frustrated about not winning. I felt really fortunate about what I had.

"Then Brad (Keselowski, Earnhardt's Nationwide Series driver) won at Nashville and I saw Tony (Eury) Sr. and the whole team ... and it reminded me of the joy that I had forgotten. I knew winning is going to make me happy, but I forgot really the look on everybody's face and the look I would see once we won on Tony Jr.'s face, Rick's face, my sister, my PR people, all my team. And I started to remember, you know, watching Brad win, I'm like, man, I've got to get back to Victory Lane, I miss it so bad."

Eury and Hendrick appeared to be the most relieved of all. Eury has endured unfair criticism this year despite the moving to a new organization and the tour completing the 15th event of a 36-race season. If he was frustrated, he never let on. He never stopped believing in his cousin.

"I've seen him lead laps, I've seen what he's capable of doing," Eury said. "We've run up front and had fast, fast race cars and get caught in accidents and stuff like that.

"It's like you love winning and you love seeing that guy's face beside of you just happy that you won. I'm content because I feel the same way he does. "

But still, at times Earnhardt's responsibility for carrying so much of the weight of the sport is heavier than some might imagine.

"That puts a lot of pressure on you too," Hendrick said. "When you talk to the folks on TV and everybody we talk to says, 'Man, he needs to win a race. It would be good for the sport.' We've been doing everything we could and we've been in some really good positions to win. Just, things have to go your way. We've had it go the other way a lot of times.

"This really feels good. This will take a little pressure off — a lot of the pressure off — and we're good in the points. We can go out there and race hard and if the wins come, they'll come, and we'll take second every race if that's what it means."

NASCAR needed a big win and its most popular driver delivered. With the sport facing an ugly lawsuit, the economy affecting attendance and sponsors, Earnhardt provided an escape from the depression hanging over the garage and reminded us why we still tune in to watch races on Sundays.