Junior's recovery drive continues in Loudon.

The first Nextel Cup race of the year at the New Hampshire International Speedway in 2004 was an unmitigated disaster for Dale Earnhardt Jr on what was his first outing since sustaining burns in an American Le Mans Series accident at the Infineon Raceway.

But while New Hampshire 2004 may have been a stumbling block for Earnhardt Jr's title ambitions, the 2005 New England 300 went a long way towards putting the driver of the #8 DEI Chevrolet back in the frame for the end of year Chase for the Championship.

After finishing third in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona earlier this month, Earnhardt Jr pinpointed the flat one-mile New Hampshire oval as one of the tracks where his #8 team needed to raise their game if they were to make it back into the Chase for the Championship. After a surprise but welcome victory last weekend in Chicagoland, Earnhardt Jr drove from 24th to 9th in Sunday's 300-lap race to claw back further ground in his fight to make it into the end of season Chase.

"We gained on some guys in front of me today," said Junior as he soothed a painful foot in his motorhome after the race. "Obviously my situation looks a heck of a lot better than it did six weeks ago. We were on our way out at a fast pace, and now we seem to be climbing back. Hopefully we have what it takes. It's going to take some hard work. We had a good and steady piece today. It was dependable. I drove it up there as far as I could get it."

Although he is still 477 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt Jr scored more points on Sunday than both Johnson and Dale Jarrett, who currently occupies the final place in the Chase for the Championship, a mere 59 points ahead of the #8 team.

While this year's race wasn't half as painful for Junior as last year's was, NASCAR's most popular driver didn't come away unscathed after spending his afternoon in a seat that didn't quite fit correctly.

"It's a brand new car with a brand new seat and all that," added Junior. "We've just got to work the bugs out of it. You get sore when you get a new seat and you can't really get out until you race it and figure out where it hurts and how to move it and fix it."