TALLADEGA, Ala. – A loose race car cost Dale Earnhardt Jr. a chance at victory again.
During Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Earnhardt’s No. 88 Nationwide Insurance Chevrolet broke loose off Turn 2 and spun directly into the path of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kasey Kahne who slammed into Matt DiBenedetto, igniting the event’s first caution flag of the day.
The incident looked identical to Earnhardt’s crash in the season-opening Daytona 500 when his car, nicknamed “Amelia” broke loose in Turn 4 and slammed into the inside retaining wall, denying the sport’s most popular driver his third Daytona 500 triumph.
Earnhardt was running 10th at the time of the incident ending his bid for a seventh Talladega victory.
“Just got loose,” explained Earnhardt. “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.”
Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, who was one lap down following a speeding penalty, accepted some responsibility for the incident as he was the car ahead of Earnhardt.
“I tried to stay up I think I got the 88 bottled up there,” Stewart said. “He was the car behind me. I saw him, had to check up.”
After repairing Amelia, Earnhardt returned to the track but was eliminated when Carl Edwards blew a right front tire on Lap 100, destroying what was left of his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“Yeah, I feel good. It was pretty hard,” Earnhardt added. “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.”
Following his 40th place finish, Earnhardt dropped to eighth in points, 72 behind leader Kevin Harvick.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
