NASCAR: Will Texas be springboard for Earnhardt?

The Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway was the surest sign that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is getting closer to his first win of the season.

Earnhardt suffered from a variety of misfortunes on Saturday night but still finished second to Kyle Busch. The result matched his best of the season, equaling Atlanta in March, and  Earnhardt feels he's ready to take the next step toward contending for a championship.

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"We finished where we should have," Earnhardt said. "We need a win. We would love to win. I know our fans want a win really bad. Trust me, man – we're all working really hard and I'm running great every week."

Earnhardt started 16th following a sub par qualifying effort but quickly made his way inside the top 10. By lap 101, he had moved into the top 5 and was running there when his car caught fire at the end of a green-flag pit stop. The flames quickly extinguished themselves but it was a scary visual nevertheless.

He later found himself trapped a lap down on lap 212 when Josh Wise crashed during the middle of green-flag pit stops. Fortunately for Earnhardt, he was ruled the first car one lap down and was awarded the free pass.

Earnhardt was lucky that the caution fell when it did, just like he was lucky when the pit road fire put itself out. More importantly, Earnhardt was fast and that's why he overcame the adversity and a continuous lack of track position.

He wasn't as fast as Busch near the end of the race, but believes his turn in Victory Lane is right around the corner.

"I didn't think Kyle was making any missteps up there," Earnhardt said. "He was running some pretty competitive laps. Kyle just kind of got too far out there, and Kyle knows how to hammer down when it matters.

"We had a great car. We got caught out on pit road there one time with a crash and got the lucky dog. We were in the top three all night. I'm really happy... The guys did an amazing job putting a great racecar on the track.

"We're fast every week. Wins are going to come. We just have to keep doing this and it'll be our day one day."