Dale Earnhardt Jr. may not have had a car capable of challenging Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson late in Sunday’s race at Atlanta, but Earnhardt never got a chance to find out-thanks to an unlucky turn of events.
Earnhardt’s No. 88 Chevrolet ran over a wad of tape on the track in the late going, and the mishap adversely affected the aerodynamics of his car.
As a result Earnhardt was unable to fend off Kevin Harvick in the closing laps and had to settle for his second straight third-place finish.
“It knocked the whole grill out of the car,” Earnhardt said of the debris on the track. “Just destroyed the aerodynamics of the car, and it cost me a spot to the No. 4 (Harvick). But I’ve got to tell you that my guys did a great job on pit road. They were fast all day on pit road-real consistent.We’ve got some new guys over the wall.
“(New crew chief) Greg Ives did a good job setting up the Kelly Blue Book Chevrolet. We struggled a little bit Thursday (in testing), but we got better and better each day. Our communication is really, really good. He is doing a great job cheerleading this whole team. I’m real proud of the effort the whole crew did, man. To start off like this and get some traction and have a couple of good runs is giving us some confidence and it is helping Greg out a ton.”
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