By Jared Turner

In a season where Dale Earnhardt Jr. has at times seemed to have a target on his back, the past two weekends have provided a nice respite from the misfortune. As with the previous weekend’s race at Talladega where he managed to narrowly avoid at least three multi-car wrecks, Earnhardt steered clear of a melee at Kansas that eliminated several contenders. And, for the second race in a row and the third time in four weekends, he finished a solid seventh. “It’s all luck,” said NASCAR’s 14-time most popular driver. “A lot of times if you just run the back of somebody and push them through it, that kind of works for you, too. I did a little bit of that, too. Just real lucky. That helped us on our finish today. …  The car was fast enough at times to run up there and finish up there, but we will take it.”