CONCORD, N.C. -- Through 500 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway, one word helped define the day for the Hendrick Motorsports drivers: restarts.
"We got real lucky the last three restarts to be on the outside line," Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained.
From two laps down due to a power issue at the start of the race, Earnhardt raced the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet SS all the way to the top 10 for a restart on Lap 330.
That began a trend that propelled Earnhardt forward for the remainder of the race.
"We restarted 10th, sixth and fourth, and when you restart fourth you're typically going to come out in second place after that," he said.
To his point, lining up behind the leader in the preferred outside lane helped him accelerate into the runner-up spot and ultimately hold on for his second consecutive second-place result.
"I was hoping we didn't have any more cautions after that," he said. "So it was good. We'll take it."
Meanwhile, Chase Elliott -- who similarly battled back from two laps down to move all the way up to second place -- had to take both of the final two restarts from the inside lane.
He managed to hold on to finish fourth, but the positioning made it tough to advance his place down the stretch.
"That's just a tough spot to restart," Elliott said. "It seems like the banking kind of falls away a little bit off Turn 4 there, and the guy on top has got a little more grip up there. Whatever it is, seems like it's easier to get rolling up there for whatever reason. Just hard to get going. Unfortunately didn't do a good enough job down there."
The same fate befell Kasey Kahne, who moved into the top five with less than 50 laps remaining. He got caught up in traffic on a restart with 34 laps remaining, however, that pushed him out of the top 10 and he ultimately finished 17th.
That's why Earnhardt was pleased with the little bit of luck involved in restarting in the preferred lane down the stretch.
"We just did a lot of good things today and got real lucky on a lot of restarts," the driver said. "We had a little trouble early, and it just made (Sunday) more difficult and made the challenge more fun, made it a bigger challenge than it was, and to run second, it's a great feeling to come back from what we did.
"It's something to smile about."