Earnhardt up to 8th in standings

Earnhardt overcame a pit road speeding penalty Sunday to finish seventh, pushing him up five spots in the standings to eighth. The last time Earnhardt was this high in the points was the third Chase race of 2008, and it was all downhill from there.

He was winless last year, finished 25th in the final standings, and Hendrick Motorsports made getting Earnhardt back on track its offseason priority.

So for as thrilled as team owner Rick Hendrick was with Jimmie Johnson’s victory at Bristol, he was equally proud of the progress made with Earnhardt’s No. 88 team.

"They’ve worked really hard,” Hendrick said. "That team is really coming together. I’m excited about the rest of the year. So we made a lot of progress there.”

Earnhardt had worked his way to fifth shortly after the halfway point Sunday, but he was called for speeding with 174 laps remaining. The penalty dropped him down to 26th and he was furious about the call. He was slightly rattled as he questioned NASCAR over his in-car radio in an expletive-laden rant.

"Getting busted at Bristol for speeding ... it’s not the way it should be,” he said. "There should be a different way to do it.”

Crew chief Lance McGrew was able to get the focus back on track, and Earnhardt salvaged the day with his finish.

"Lance and Dale have great chemistry,” Hendrick said. "I think if you listen to them on the radio, they’re working well together. Dale had a great car. I think he would have been in the top-five or had a real shot at it himself had he been able to not have that speeding penalty.”

All was calm between the drivers Sunday at Bristol, a place where on-track retaliation is easy and often expected.

But tempers never seemed to boil over, not even when Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski were near each other.

The two had been the center of attention the past two weeks after Edwards intentionally wrecked Keselowski at Atlanta, triggering a crash that sent Keselowski’s car airborne and earned Edwards a three-race probation.

Both drivers met with NASCAR on Saturday, vowing to move forward with their tense relationship. Still, the tight confines at Bristol raised doubt that the two could resist any further contact.

Not only did they succeed in a drama-free day, but they both notched their season-best finishes. Edwards was sixth, Keselowski 13th.

"That’s the best we ran all day was sixth,” Edwards said, "so that’s pretty decent.”

Keselowski’s run helped him move up three positions in owners points to 30th, giving him some breathing room from falling below the top-35 mark that guarantees a driver a spot in the race.

"We did what we had to do and that was run hard, run smart and bring the car home in one piece,” Keselowski said. "That’s great for our team. It’s a great step for everyone on our Penske Dodge team.”

Keselowski, who skipped a pit stop to inherit the lead when a light rain fell over the track, even led 26 laps. He did, however, stay true to his aggressive driving style by making it difficult for eventual winner Jimmie Johnson to pass him midway through the race when the two were racing for position.

"He’ll never learn, man,” Johnson said over his radio.

Jamie McMurray, who struggled in the three races following his win in the season-opening Daytona 500, had a strong day at Bristol to stop his monthlong slide.

McMurray, who was 17th, 34th and 29th in the three races after the 500, ran inside the top 10 most of Sunday and wound up eighth. It was his highest finish at Bristol since he was seventh in 2004.

"I will say that I haven’t run this well here in any of my years at Roush,” said McMurray, who had just one top-10 at Bristol in his four seasons driving for Roush Fenway Racing.

"It felt really good to be able to come back.”

McMurray, who was the points leader after Daytona and then slipped to 19th in the standings, moved up to 15th. And he did it despite feeling ill early in the race.

"I don’t know if it was the fumes or something in my drink bottle or what, but 60 laps into the race I felt like I was going to throw up,” he said. "And it just seemed like it got worse every time there was a caution.”

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BYE-BYE WING: The race was the final one for the wing NASCAR has used on the back of its cars since it phased in the current model in 2007.

Starting next weekend at Martinsville, the more traditional spoiler will be returned. The swap is an effort to both improve racing and give fans the aesthetic look they prefer for a race car.

"I’m anxious to see what the spoiler is going to be like,” said Jeff Gordon. "I’m really looking forward to it and I don’t know how much change there is going to be, but I certainly look forward to trying it.”

NASCAR will hold an open test session Tuesday and Wednesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway for teams to get track time with the spoiler.

Meanwhile, no one expects the switch to ensure cars will never again go airborne, something the wing has been blamed for recently.

"There is no evidence that suggests going from a wing to a spoiler will stop cars from getting airborne,” Ford aerodynamicist Bernie Marcus said.