Photo Credit: Jessica Bure/SpeedwayMedia.com
On Lap 51 Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet, was in the midst of the pack when he got loose. He shot up across the track taking out Kasey Kahne, driver of the No.5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, amongst others.
“Just got loose, ”Earnhardt Jr. said. “I was in a bad spot with the wind. It pinned the nose real hard off the corner and the car was a little bit loose off the corner that run. Real, real tight the first run that is why we fell back, we were just on the splitter real bad pushing. I could only run the top, I couldn’t even run the middle or the bottom because the car just would plow across the race track. So, we missed something this morning, I don’t know, but the thing shouldn’t have been on the splitter that hard. We couldn’t fix that. You have to put packer in the front or something when it is on the splitter as bad as it was. It was still on the splitter that second run. I had a lot of wheel in the car in the middle of the corner and then the back was swinging on the exit with the adjustments we made on the pit stop. Just a bad combination.”
It certainly put a damper on Kahne’s mood, as he had started off the season solidly.
“I couldn’t really tell what happened,” Kahne said. “ I know Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) went to go left and then came back right. I’m not sure exactly why, maybe there was something in front of him that happened, I don’t know. We had a great car. We had a really good Farmers Insurance Chevrolet. I’m surprised something like that happened right then. It wasn’t like it was four-wide or anything. It was fairly simple at that point in time I thought.
“I saw the No. 88 went left and then he came back right spinning in front of me. So, I didn’t really know exactly what happened. We didn’t have anywhere to go once he came back across the track. We were done at that point, but we had a great Farmers Insurance Chevrolet. I felt really fast. I got in with the Gibbs guys because they stick to their plan. They were doing a really good job of it. I just got in with them and we were running and something happened on the pit stop. I’m not exactly sure there. I don’t think it was our team because our guys are strong as can be on pit road. So, we got back, but we were coming back through we had a good car.”
There seemed to be an increase in accidents, in which Kahne attributes to drivers being real aggressive.
“Guys were being aggressive and it felt like it was late in the race the whole race,” Kahne said. “That first run was as wide-open as I’ve had it. As I remember it in a while at times of the first run, probably three-quarters of that first run. It was pretty wild how all that went down, but we had a good car. It was going to be a strong race if we just stayed out of trouble.”
After spending plenty of laps behind the wall, Earnhardt returned to the track, but had another issue not soon after. His steering wheel fell off, however he was able to steer the car by grabbing the shaft it connects to until he was able to reconnect the wheel.
“Yeah, the steering wheel came off and I was trying to get it back on and the car was headed toward the wall,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Well I wasn’t going to let it hit the wall so I grabbed the column and steered it with that. Tore my hands all up, but didn’t hit the wall. We have to look at something to keep that from happening anymore. We were just out there riding around and something broke on the No. 19 and he came over and got into us. We just had no luck this weekend.”
On Lap 110, Junior was involved in another crash. This time it was with Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 19 Arris Toyota, who blew a tire, crossing into Junior putting him into the wall. Junebug’s day was done at the point as his car, dubbed Amelia, went a flame.
“I don’t know,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I was just riding around there at the back of the draft and I think something broke on Carl’s car. He just flew up the track into us.”
Junior was taken to the infield care center where he was released.
“Yeah, I feel good,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It was pretty hard. I don’t know. I think Carl (Edwards) hit harder. He had a longer way to go to get the fence than I did. That is why I was riding up there in case anything happened to our car we wouldn’t have far to go before we hit anything. I was in a pretty good spot to withstand something like that.”
Edwards day was also done.
“Yeah, the biggest thing is just something just let go there and you hate to collect anybody, so definitely sorry to the 88 (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) guys for getting their car involved in that,” Edwards said. “We had something torn up there, drove down into turn one and I just felt the right front fall down and that was it. You’re kind of just along for the ride, but we appreciate the fans coming out. I appreciate everyone from ARRIS being here – wish we could have had a better run for them, but we’ll go racing at Kansas.”
