Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the 2015 Quicken Loans Race For Heroes 500 at Phoenix

In a strange rain-plagued race featuring a controversial penalty and NASCAR’s championship field ultimately determined by Mother Nature, Dale Earnhardt Jr. came out ahead when the Quicken Loans 500 ended before its scheduled finish Sunday night at Phoenix International Raceway.

A yellow flag for an accident involving Joey Gase and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with 115 laps remaining set off a sequence of events that vaulted Earnhardt into the lead under caution as several drivers had already completed green-flag pit stops. As track workers struggled to clean up the carnage left by Gase’s car, a light drizzle began falling that quickly turned into heavy rain forcing officials to call the race 93 laps short of its 312-lap distance.

Persistent rain delayed the start of the race just over six hours.

The win was Earnhardt’s third of the season, snapping Kevin Harvick’s streak of four consecutive Phoenix victories.

“We had an idea that the rain was in the area, but all the circumstances that played out at the end of the race are just kind of luck,” Earnhardt said. “When something like this quirky happens we were able to capitalize. It’s a rain-shortened win, but my guys are very proud of it because of how the car ran all weekend and we put ourselves in this position.”

Harvick, who led a race-high 143 laps, finished second, followed by Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson. Their respective finishes secured Harvick and Busch spots in next week’s championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. They join Jeff Gordon, who clinched by winning Martinsville two weeks ago, and Martin Truex Jr., who finished 14th Sunday.

Truex claimed the final transfer position by five points over Carl Edwards. Also failing to advance were Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

Kurt Busch entered Phoenix in a must-win situation and having qualified second and posting the fastest single laps in both practices Saturday, appeared poised to race his way into the deciding round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff.

But on the initial start of the race Busch got to the start/finish line before pole-sitter Johnson and subsequently earned a pass-through penalty down pit road. Busch stayed on the lead lap and had worked his way up to seventh before the race was called.

“That wasn’t a penalty,” Busch said. That’s a reason to start a survey and right now, I encourage everyone to go on to Twitter, my Facebook, my Instagram and follow it and we’re all going to have a survey.

“I don’t think it was a penalty.”