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Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team had a great-handling car, leading 24 laps and spending much of the day among the top-five positions despite an engine that sputtered and shuddered all afternoon. The engine finally wheezed its final breath under the last of a track-record 21 caution periods. The engine failure dropped Dale Jr. from fourth place to a finish of 23rd place. Despite the disappointing final laps, Dale Jr. remains in 13th place in Nextel Cup points, leading Ryan Newman by 66 points.
Dale Jr., starting 7th, didn’t begin with a bang, as he struggled with the Bud car, dropping 12 positions in the first 11 laps. However, as the tire pressures and temperatures increased, so did the speed of the No. 8 car, and Dale Jr. began a climb back through the field. He regained a spot in the top-10 on lap 75, and fell from the front of the field only after pit stops. Despite a great handling car and lap times easily among the fastest of any car in the field, Dale Jr. began feeling the ill effects of engine issues as early as lap 100. A suspected valve spring failure hampered the straightaway speed of the No. 8 car, but because it was handling so well, Dale Jr. was able to eventually climb into the lead on lap 225, pulling away from the field until a yellow flag pit stop on lap 249 dropped them to 16th place. The engine trouble worsened, and dropped Dale Jr. as low as 27th position on lap 295 (of an eventual distance of 506 laps), but pit strategy allowed him to get back into the top-15 by lap 300 and then he sliced, diced, beat and banged his way into fourth place by lap 387.
His attempts to climb higher were hampered by a seemingly endless stream of caution flags in the final 100 laps, and then the engine finally put itself out of its misery before the final restart on lap 504, but Dale Jr. was still able to limp the car around under caution to finish the race. Foxsports
More than half dozen times this season, Earnhardt has experienced engine difficulties that have either caused him to DNF or STF. That would be Did Not Finish, or Staggered To Finish. Neither is good.
Afterward on Sunday, Earnhardt put on a good face and claimed he was not angry or upset. He was able to coax the car across the finish line to avoid another official DNF, but it was yet another bitter disappointment in a season chock full of them as he winds up his final season driving for DEI. Earnhardt will begin driving the No. 88 for Hendrick Motorsports next season.
“I am not upset at all,” Earnhardt said. “We had a great day. I had a lot of fun. We ran really good, even on seven cylinders. We had a popping and spitting motor down the straightaway. I put those tail pipes in those other boys’ ears so they could hear we were on seven cylinders and still driving by them. Joe Menzer, NASCAR.com
Dale Earnhardt Jr. left with a crinkled car, but he had fun beating and banging despite a 23rd-place finish Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
“It was very rough out there,” said Earnhardt, who led 24 laps but saw hopes for a good finish end because of a broken cylinder.
“You had to dish it back out, though. I mean every time I got ran into, I ran back into them. Or they’re just going to keep doing it to you. I ain’t going to be pushed around out there. You get angry but you get back to racing, to what your job is.
“A bunch of them drove it to my door and I would put it back in them in the next corner. It was pretty fun.”
Earnhardt’s engine woes are not new this season. He’s failed to finish six races because of engine failures. He said he lost a cylinder about 50 laps into the race, although he outran many despite being underpowered.
He said his engine problems worsened late and he lost several spots, placing last among those completing all 506 laps. Dustin Long, Roanoke.com
