Earnhardt Jr. Taken out in Early Wreck

Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have the best of days in the Irish Hills after a wreck in the early stages of today’s race.

Rounding Turn 2, the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet threaded the needle of AJ Allmendinger and Chris Buescher. Buescher got loose and clipped the left-rear corner of Earnhardt. This got Earnhardt loose and sent him up into the left-front of Allmendinger. Both ended up in the wall. Earnhardt continued to hit the wall down the backstretch before his car spun out down across the track onto the runoff area.

“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad, actually,” Earnhardt said in response to being told his wreck looked hard. “I knew I was going to hit the wall. The No. 34 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 that he wished Buescher “would have taken better care of us.”

“He just lost the car and hit the quarter panel,” he said. “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.”

When asked about the wreck from his point of view, Allmendinger said he wasn’t “really sure. I think Junior got hit and I was on the outside of him and that was it. It was kind of weird back there. I’m not really sure what kind of car we had. I thought in clean air we weren’t too bad, but I guess a lot of people could say that. Just not a lot of fun racing there.”

The damage done to both cars was significant and neither continued on in the race. Allmendinger finished 38th and Earnhardt finished 39th.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

Tucker White
Tucker White
I've followed NASCAR for well over 20 years of my life, both as a fan and now as a member of the media. As of 2024, I'm on my ninth season as a traveling NASCAR beat writer. For all its flaws and dumb moments, NASCAR at its best produces some of the best action you'll ever see in the sport of auto racing. Case in point: Kyle Larson's threading the needle pass at Darlington Raceway on May 9, 2021. On used-up tires, racing on a worn surface and an aero package that put his car on the razor's edge of control, Larson demonstrated why he's a generational talent. Those are the stories I want to capture and break down. In addition to NASCAR, I also follow IndyCar and Formula 1. As a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, I'm a diehard Tennessee Volunteers fan (especially in regards to Tennessee football). If covering NASCAR doesn't kill me, down the road, watching Tennessee football will. I'm also a diehard fan of the Atlanta Braves, and I lived long enough to see them win a World Series for the first time since 1995 (when I was just a year old). I've also sworn my fan allegiance to the Nashville Predators, though that's not paid out as much as the Braves. Furthermore, as a massive sports dork, I follow the NFL on a weekly basis. Though it's more out of an obligation than genuine passion (for sports dorks, following the NFL is basically an unwritten rule). Outside of sports, I'm a major cinema buff and a weeb. My favorite film is "Blazing Saddles" and my favorite anime is "Black Lagoon."

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