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Dale Earnhardt, Jr, took home a win in Sunday night's rain delayed and rain shortened Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. More important than the race win, however, defending champion Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr, joined Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon in the final four of NASCAR's Chase for the Championship.

Earnhardt, Jr, only led 22 laps and inherited his lead during a round of green flag pit stops when the yellow came out for a two-car accident between Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, and Joey Gase. Then the rain started and it didn't stop, forcing NASCAR to make the race official having run only 218 laps.

"You like to win them at the checkered flag but a win is a win, though," Earnhardt, Jr, said. "You take it and put it in a record books. My team guys are very proud of this because they gave me a great car to get a good qualifying lap in, we've qualified so poorly all year. The reason why we won tonight is because of how we qualified. This is something they are going to enjoy. I'm happy -- a win is a win. It is a rain shortened race and I know there are some guys in the field who would love to see this thing get going again and get the opportunity to race their way into the last round. Myself, if I had four to six inches at Talladega, I'd be going to Homestead racing for a championship, too. It works out for some, for others it doesn't."

Kevin Harvick has dominated recently at Phoenix and did a bit of the same during the race by leading 143 laps. Harvick was forced to settle for a second place finish which was good enough to punch his ticket to compete for a championship next weekend at Homestead. It's Harvick's 27th top-10 finish of his stellar 2015 campaign.

While there certainly is disappointment in not winning, Harvick knows the championship is what he's racing for.

"It's kind of bittersweet," Harvick explained. "The car just really performed well today and we were able to lead a lot of laps and just really proud of the guys for the decisions that they made overnight to get that last little bit out of the car today and how it performed was really good. The caution came out at the wrong time and we didn't get to make up the ground on the racetrack under green, where Dale was pitted and the way that they came out of the pits just didn't time out well. But still proud of our group, and sometimes you win some of those things, sometimes you don't. 

"In the end the big picture is what it's all about."

Joey Logano suffered dismal finishes in the two races leading up to Phoenix which put him behind the eight ball in terms of advancing to the final round of four. Logano was not able to overcome this defecit and despite finishing in third place, the driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford was eliminated from championship contention.

Kyle Busch finished in fourth place and joined Harvick by punching his ticket to the championship weekend. Busch ran what he described as a boring race for the most part but had his mind set on surviving and advancing.

"Our race was pretty uneventful," Busch said. "I had a little mishap on pit road, just overshot my marks a little bit  being a little bit slick and got my guys too close to the wall but past that we had a really good race car. The M&Ms Camry was fast. I felt like we had a good top-three, top-four race car and long runs seemed to be our friends and we got some of those tonight, so couldn't be more pleased to finish where we did and be more pleased to go to Homestead."

Jimmie Johnson finished in fifth place with Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, and Aric Almirola rounding out the race's top-10 finishers. Like Logano, Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski both needed to win to advance to the final round so while they both grabbed top-10 finishes, it's short of where they needed to end the race.

Carl Edwards was also in contention for the final spot in the championship round but a 12th place finish left him five points out. The fourth and final spot would go to Martin Truex, Jr, who drove his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet to a 14th place finish. 

Truex, Jr, knows his team didn't have the car to compete for a win but also knows he did what he needed to do to keep himself in contention for the championship.

"We weren't near as good as we needed to be," Truex, Jr, admitted. "We struggled at practice some yesterday and made some changes last night trying to get better and just weren't that good at the start of the race and never really got it figured out. I mean, we had a top-10 car, but it wasn't much better. All in all, we did what we needed to do to move on to next week, and really don't matter how we did now."

With the Earnhardt, Jr, win and the Harvick runner-up finish, Chevrolet also clinched their 13th consecutive Sprint Cup manufacturer's championship.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race Number 35
Unofficial Race Results for the 28Th Annual Quicken Loans Race For Heroes 
500 - Sunday, November 15, 2015
Phoenix International Raceway - Avondale, AZ - 1 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 219 Laps - 219 Miles - Purse: $5,202,126
Leader
Fin    Str    Car    Driver    Team    Laps    Pts    Bns    Driver Rating    Winnings    Status    Tms    Laps
1    3    88    Dale Earnhardt Jr.    Nationwide Chevrolet    219    47    4    125.7    $213,465    Running    2    22
2    8    4    Kevin Harvick    Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet    219    44    2    144.7    $230,380    Running    2    143
3    14    22    Joey Logano    Pennzoil Ford    219    41        120.0    $176,588    Running        

4    10    18    Kyle Busch    M&M's Crispy Toyota    219    41    1    111.3    $164,166    Running    1    1
5    1    48    Jimmie Johnson    Lowe's Patriotic Chevrolet    219    40    1    107.8    $168,836    Running    1    44
6    11    24    Jeff Gordon    Pepsi Chevrolet    219    39    1    103.3    $147,276    Running    1    4
7    2    41    Kurt Busch    Haas Automation Chevrolet    219    37        93.7    $110,715    Running        
8    13    11    Denny Hamlin    FedEx Express Toyota    219    36        98.4    $105,940    Running        
9    18    2    Brad Keselowski    Miller Lite Ford    219    36    1    91.3    $134,881    Running    1    4
10    17    43    Aric Almirola    United States Air Force Ford    219    34        83.7    $134,126    Running        
11    22    31    Ryan Newman    Caterpillar Global Mining Chevrolet    219    33        81.2    $121,790    Running        
12    4    19    Carl Edwards    Stanley Toyota    219    32        110.1    $94,065    Running        
13    15    27    Paul Menard    Duracell/Menards Chevrolet    219    31        90.4    $94,340    Running        
14    5    78    Martin Truex Jr.    Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet    219    30        98.9    $111,360    Running        
15    12    1    Jamie McMurray    Sherwin Williams Chevrolet    218    29        83.2    $113,981    Running        
16    21    10    Danica Patrick    GoDaddy Chevrolet    218    28        66.4    $91,440    Running        
17    25    51    Justin Allgaier    Brandt Chevrolet    218    27        63.7    $108,798    Running        
18    29    55    David Ragan    Aaron's Online Dream Machine Toyota    218    27    1    62.8    $109,404    Running    1    1
19    7    20    Erik Jones(i)    Dollar General Toyota    218    0        83.1    $118,826    Running        
20    16    3    Austin Dillon    Bad Boy Buggies/Realtree Chevrolet    218    24        79.0    $119,076    Running        
21    6    42    Kyle Larson    Target Camo Chevrolet    218    23        85.8    $109,298    Running        
22    24    13    Casey Mears    GEICO Military Chevrolet    218    22        66.8    $105,273    Running        
23    27    15    Clint Bowyer    5-hour Energy Toyota    218    21        64.0    $115,048    Running        
24    23    47    AJ Allmendinger    Fry's/Clorox Chevrolet    218    20        58.7    $109,598    Running        
25    20    16    Greg Biffle    Jardiance Ford    218    19        67.3    $111,548    Running        
26    9    5    Kasey Kahne    Farmers Insurance Chevrolet    217    18        69.8    $95,190    Running        
27    31    14    Tony Stewart    Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet    217    17        55.5    $107,354    Running        
28    30    83    Matt DiBenedetto #    VooDoo Barbeque Toyota    217    16        52.3    $93,048    Running        
29    33    26    JJ Yeley(i)    Maxim Toyota    216    0        44.7    $76,765    Running        
30    34    38    David Gilliland    Love's Travel Stops Ford    216    14        45.5    $98,687    Running        
31    28    9    Sam Hornish Jr.    Go Bowling/G1GABLAST Ford    215    13        45.6    $105,360    Running        
32    36    46    Michael Annett    Pilot Flying J Chevrolet    215    12        42.2    $76,340    Running        
33    38    35    Cole Whitt    Ford    215    11        36.0    $76,215    Running        
34    26    6    Trevor Bayne    AdvoCare Ford    215    10        46.8    $120,665    Running        
35    32    40    Landon Cassill(i)    Interstate Moving Services Chevrolet    215    0        38.2    $75,965    Running        
36    40    34    Brett Moffitt #    Dockside Ford    215    8        36.0    $75,810    Running        
37    41    98    Ryan Preece    Xyience Ford    214    7        29.5    $75,666    Running        
38    35    7    Alex Bowman    Nikko RC/Toy State Chevrolet    214    6        44.8    $69,202    Running        
39    37    23    Jeb Burton #    Dr Pepper Toyota    213    5        30.8    $65,130    Running        
40    42    33    Ryan Ellis(i)    Science Logic Chevrolet    211    4        27.8    $61,130    Running        
41    19    17    Ricky Stenhouse Jr.    Cargill Ford    194    3        57.0    $65,130    Accident        
42    39    32    Joey Gase(i)    R Factor 2 Ford    161    0        27.3    $53,130    Accident        
43    43    62    Timmy Hill(i)    Prairie Auto Credit/Financial Concepts Chevrolet    127    0        23.3    $49,630    Running        
 Race Comments:    Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500, his 26th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. 
 Failed to Qualify:    N/A
 Time of Race:    2 Hrs, 03 Mins, 22 Secs.    Average Speed:    106.512 MPH    Margin of Victory:    Caution
 Caution Flags:    2 for 29 laps: Laps: 42-47 (Competition [7]); 197-219 (#32 accident turn 3 [19]).
 Lead Changes:    8 among 7 drivers: J. Johnson 1-44; K. Harvick 45-118; Kyle Busch 119; B. Keselowski 120-123; D. Ragan 124; K. Harvick 125-193; D. Earnhardt Jr. 194; J. Gordon 195-198; D. Earnhardt Jr. 199-219.
Top 16 Driver Points:     (1) K. Harvick 4,123;(2) J. Gordon 4,121;(3) Kyle Busch 4,121;(4) M. Truex Jr. 4,106;(5) C. Edwards 4,101;(6) B. Keselowski 4,093;(7) Kurt Busch 4,085;(8) J. Logano 4,054;(9) D. Earnhardt Jr. 2,306;(10) D. Hamlin 2,293;(11) R. Newman 2,286;(12) J. Johnson 2,280;(13) J. Mcmurray 2,264;(14) P. Menard 2,239;(15) M. Kenseth 2,197;(16) C. Bowyer 2,174.
3M Lap Leader    : Kevin Harvick, #4 143 Laps    American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award    : Dale Earnhardt Jr, #88 
Coors Light Pole Award    : Jimmie Johnson, #48 143.158 mph    Duralast Brakes "Brake in the Race"    : Jimmie Johnson, #48 
Ingersoll Rand Power Move    : Dale Earnhardt Jr, #88 6 positions    Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race    : Hendrick Engines, #4 
Mobil 1 Driver of the Race    : Kevin Harvick, #4     Moog Chassis Parts Problem Solver of the Race    : Aric Almirola, #43 T. Owens, -.178 sec
Sherwin-Williams Fastest Lap    : Carl Edwards, #19     Sunoco Rookie of the Race    : Matt DiBenedetto, #83 
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race:    Nov. 22, 2015 - Homestead-Miami Speedway
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