Dale Earnhardt Jr. in danger of being eliminated after more problems at Charlotte
CONCORD, N.C. – On Friday night Dale Earnhardt Jr. confidently stated he would be the driver to visit Charlotte Motor Speedway’s winner’s circle on Saturday night.
It took until Lap 137 for both Earnhardt’s called shot, as well as his car, to start falling apart.
Moments after a caution for oil on the track from Paul Menard’s blown engine, Earnhardt told his crew over the radio that his gear shift had broken.
The situation, which was similar to one teammate Jimmie Johnson experienced at Michigan, forced Earnhardt to pit before pit lane was opened
“A vibration broke the shifter in half,” Earnhardt said after finishing 20th, a lap down. “I mean it is steel, it shouldn’t be breaking, but the vibration was that bad.”
Crew chief Steve Letarte had an aggressive strategy to put Earnhardt out front and give him a chance for the Chase-advancing win. He called for two-tire stops on their first two pit stops after cautions on Laps 27 (competition) and 97. Earnhardt exited pit lane first both times to take the lead, trying a different lane on both restarts only to have his car fall back each time.
Once his shifter issues emerged, Earnhardt was a frequent recipient of penalties that sent him to the back of the pack. The team was called for eight penalties over five pit stops for pitting too soon, speeding, too many men over the wall and a safety violation.
“We only had third and fourth gear there and lost a lap trying to get off pit road on a green flag stop. We had a pretty good car; a top-10 car,” Earnhardt said. “The vibration issue was causing a lot of balance issues, and grip issues.”
NASCAR’s most popular driver now finds himself tied with Johnson for the last spot in Chase standings, 26 points behind the cut off spot for the third round.
That next race is at Talladega.
Winning at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, something Earnhardt has done five times but not since 2004, is essentially the only way he can advance to the third round of the Chase.
“I know what we need to do. We will just have to build a fast car and hope that we don’t have any gremlins,” Earnhardt said. “We had a lot of gremlins tonight.”
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