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He struggled at the start of the Coca-Cola 600 with a loose car. When the sun went down, his No. 88 Chevrolet came alive and he rolled out to a big lead, much to the delight of thousands of fans at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Just when it appeared he could contend for a victory, it was snatched from him again when his right-rear tire went flat and he got hit from behind by J.J. Yeley. A last-ditch fuel strategy allowed Earnhardt Jr. to end the night with a respectable fifth-place finish.
“These cars are tough—you saw Kyle [Busch] beat that thing up pretty bad and win Darlington,” Earnhardt said. “I am proud of my team for being able to repair it and get a good finish.
“I was disappointed that we put ourselves back in the pack and had the incident, but [crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. had great strategy and it worked out. We were runnin’ good though.
Man, I was so proud of how we were running; I just wish we could get to the end.”
It seemed even odder that Yeley would have hit Earnhardt while the No. 88 was skimming along the wall atop Turn 3, but while Yeley was contrite, he was even more disgruntled to have his race ended on the spot.
“I was running up in the same spot and I don’t know why [Earnhardt] slowed down as fast as he did, whether he was going to try to get to pit road, but he came to an abrupt stop there,” said Yeley, who finished 38th. “I was just trying to get off the fence and get down out of the road and couldn’t get turned quick enough and I ran in the back of him.
“When I [hit Earnhardt], it punctured the oil cooler and made it to where they are going to have to cut the front clip off this thing to get it going again. I was a lot faster running around the top. I just moved down to the bottom to let Junior go by and just passed another car and was getting my momentum built back up.
“As I dove into Turn 3, I saw him get up there and it didn’t look like he was going to hit the fence and then he got into it. I just had no place to go and couldn’t get slowed down and couldn’t get turned and ran right into the back of him.”
“I don’t know what happened getting in to (Turn) 3. I think we blew a right-rear tire. I hate it for my guys. We were running really strong, I sure want to get me a win here,” said Earnhardt Jr.
“We tore the car up pretty bad when we blew the tire. I thought we were done, then I got motivated again, but the car wasn’t as fast, we were just trying to hang on.
“We got lucky, same way (Casey Mears) did last year. We were running second last year and Casey and those guys stretched (their fuel) out and won the race. We were on the other side of the fence tonight, so we will take it.”
