Dale Earnhardt Jnr. has taken an emotional victory at the Nationwide Cup round at Dayton Speedway.

Driving the Number 3 made famous by his late father, who died in an accident at the same track, Earnhardt gave Chevrolet the perfect debut for their next generation Impala.

Wearing the original blue & yellow livery of his fathers car, “Junior” held his nerve and his twitchy car to just edge out the Toyota of Joey Logano. Rookie driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was third in the new Ford Mustang.

“A win was the only acceptable result.” said an emotional Earnhardt after the race. “if we hadn’t of won then everybody would have been saying ‘what’s the point’.

The race started in emotional circumstances for Earnhardt Jnr. as fans around the famous track stood as one on lap 3 to give a three fingered salute to the memory of the man they called “The Intimidator”.

The win broke a NASCAR Nationwide Series drought of almost four years for Earnhardt, who remains one of the sport’s most popular drivers.

“I worked hard to try to win, not only for daddy—I’m proud of him going to the Hall of Fame, and he would be proud of this, I’m sure—but just all these fans. I hope they enjoyed this..” he said.

The race also marked the last time that Earnhardt Jnr. would carry the famous Number three. “This is it—no more ‘3′ for me. That’s it.“

The race saw the debut of the Next Generation Nationwide Cup car and despite the cars somewhat twitchy handling the feedback from drivers and teams was generally positive.

Certainly from the fans point of view, both the new car and the race result were big winners.

IMAGE: © NASCAR Media