Photo Credit: Mike Holloway
If there’s a word that could be used to sum up Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s day – roller-coaster. From a tire issue to contact with the wall, Earnhardt was all over the map during the day. However, it worked out in the end as he finished the race in the sixth spot.
Running in the fifth spot, Earnhardt Jr. was running solidly and looked to have a strong enough car to continue to move up through the pack. However, on lap 48, he would go up the track, slowing down with a flat right front tire. Earnhardt would make his way down pit road, getting it changed, without the tire doing further damage to the car. The caution would then fly four laps later for a spin by Tony Stewart, resulting in Earnhardt getting the lucky dog and able to get back on the lead lap.
Restarting from the tail of the field, Earnhardt would begin to make his way back up through the field, running as high as seventh. Then on a restart at lap 156, he would bounce off of the wall after getting loose while trying to go three-wide, damaging the right-rear quarter panel. The damage would make the car even more loose, resulting in Earnhardt going for the spin at lap 168 and bringing out the caution. Between the spin and the repairs made by the team, Earnhardt would go a a lap down to the leader. However, once again, he’d catch a lucky break as the caution would fly at lap 196 for Trevor Bayne blowing a tire, allowing Earnhardt to once again get the lucky dog.
He would then work his way back through the field during the rest of the event, finishing the day in the sixth spot.
“We just think about what would have happened had we not had the drama,” Earnhardt commented post-race. “I was having too much fun out there and got loose, three-wide after a restart and tagged the wall real good and bent the car up pretty bad and knocked the rear deck lid off of it. We got the chance to fix it and we just had a real fast car. I think we had the best car here. Just can’t hit the wall, but man we were just having fun, running hard. Got to do that every once in a while. I made a mistake today.”
