BRISTOL, Tenn. – Hoping to improve on a 13th place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway during Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. struggled to keep the pace in his No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet during Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race.
The start of the 500-lap race looked promising for the sport’s most popular driver, but as the race settled into its pace, the handling of his No. 88 AXALTA / Ducks Unlimited Chevrolet faded and the team could never recover.
Earnhardt fighting a tight race car finished a distant 23rd in his final Cup race in Thunder Valley, two laps behind race winner Kyle Busch.
“We struggled,” offered Earnhardt who started 31st. “We had a real fast car for like 10-15 laps and then we would just real, real tight, so we struggled all day trying to figure it out.
“We weren’t good and we weren’t going to fix it on pit road either. We’ve got a lot of tools on pit road to really get after it, but the problems we had we couldn’t fix with wedge or trackbar.
The thing would get so tight and wouldn’t turn.”
Despite 35 races around Thunder Valley that included 1 win, eight top-five and 16 top-10 finishes, Earnhardt said he is ready to enjoy Bristol from the sidelines next year.
“I mean I think I will much rather enjoy coming here and watching (Laughs),” Earnhardt added. “I always loved watching, but this race track can be a lot of fun. It can be very difficult. There is never really no middle ground.”
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