Earnhardt’s Day Ends Early at Brickyard

INDIANAPOLIS— In his final voyage to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400, the day for Dale Earnhardt Jr finished on a sad note. Earnhardt Jr was sidelined only 76 laps into the 160 lap event.

The day ended prematurely after damage concurred to the radiator. Earnhardt made contact to the rear of Trevor Bayne. Shortly after contact, smoke billowed from the front of the Earnhardt’s damages car. Earnhardt took the car straight to the garage.

Earlier in the race, Earnhardt had contact with Brad Keselowski. At that impact, the bumper bar was knocked out of the car resulting in no protection for the radiator.

“We had a great car and I was having a lot of fun. The car was fast. We had a top 10 car for sure. It’s kind of frustrating because I was really enjoying being out there,” said Earnhardt. “Hopefully our luck’s going to turnaround. It’s been pretty tough and this is a difficult one to put up with.”

Earnhardt’s accident in the Brickyard 400 came when the race was restarting.

“You’ve got to push hard and that got us in a little bit of trouble there when they all started checking up on the outside. I was just trying real hard to get as much as we could on restart, and we got bit,” said Earnhardt.

Earnhardt’s not the only Hendrick driver to have retired from the event. Chase Elliott retired from the event earlier on due to engine issues. Earnhardt will be credited with a 36th place finish.

Caleb Whisler
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