Photo – Josh Hedges/Getty Images
Vocal that he had a strong car for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. never really had the opportunity to showcase it after being eliminated in early race crash.
Shortly after a Lap 60 restart Earnhardt’s Chevrolet was in a three-wide battle with Chris Buescher (on the bottom) and A.J. Allmendinger (on the outside). Buescher’s Front Row Motorsports Ford broke loose and hit the left rear of Earnhardt’s car, which sent both he and Allmendinger into the backstretch wall.
The damage was too severe for both Earnhardt and Allmendinger to continue placing them 39th and 38th respectively in the finishing order.
In the garage, Earnhardt vented his frustration with Buescher, the 2015 NASCAR XFINITY Series champion.
“I knew I was going to hit the wall. The No. 34 (Chris Buescher) just drove into the left front quarter panel. Oh, man. I don’t know; them restarts and all that. You’ve got a responsibility to try and take care of everybody out there even when you’re three-wide. I’m disappointed in that. But, we had a pretty good car and we were just kind of taking our time, there. And the car was great. So, it’s a shame.”
Earnhardt added,
“We were in the middle there and the No. 34 (Chris Buescher) ran into the left-rear quarter panel and knocked us in the fence. He must have just lost the nose of his car. I hate it, but you try to take care of each other out there. We all try to race hard and I wish he would have taken better care of us.
“He just lost the car and hit the quarter panel. It happens though. I’m angry, but I won’t be too upset about it later. It’s frustrating right now because we had a good car and I was happy with the way the car drove. We had good speed, we just needed to continue to work on getting our track position and we were doing that. We won’t get a chance to get the finish I think we could have got today.”
After a runner-up finish at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway Monday afternoon, the bad luck returned for the driver of the No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet. After scoring three runner-up finishes this season, the last month or has been incredibly frustrating for the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports organization.
Pocono ended a five-race consecutive slide with finishes outside the top-ten and with Sunday’s second worst finish of the season hard to swallow, Earnhardt finds himself 11th in series points without a win.
While still in safe territory from the top-16 Chase cutoff, the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team likely can’t afford any more backslides.
While undoubtedly upset, Earnhardt was asked about the rules package for Sunday’s race.
He offered a quick response,
“I think we talk about packages too much.”