NASCAR Cup Series

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Cup return comes to early end after Daytona 500 crash

Published Feb. 26, 2017 8:26 p.m. ET

Tom Jensen

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - In his first race back since last July, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was exactly where he wanted to be Sunday afternoon, with his No 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet leading the Daytona 500 just past the halfway mark.

Then, through no fault of his own, Earnhardt’s day ended abruptly.

As the field headed down the backstretch on Lap 105 of 200, Kyle Busch was in front of Earnhardt, but nearly a full lap behind.

Suddenly, Busch’s car lost a rear tire, spun and hit the wall. And when he did, Earnhardt couldn’t avoid the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, driving over the back of it.

Earnhardt was able to drive the car back to the pits, but it was heavily damaged and his crew was unable to get the car repaired and up to speed in the allotted five minutes under NASCAR’s new repair rules.

As a result, Earnhardt headed to the garage, out of the race. It was a disappointing end to what had been a very successful Daytona Speedweeks up to that point.

“Appreciate the car, sorry about the results,” Earnhardt told his crew on the radio.

Fortunately, Earnhardt was uninjured and in good spirits after the crash.

“I really enjoyed the whole week. We had a lot of fun,” said Earnhardt, who qualified second for the Daytona 500 and led 53 laps in his Can-Am Duel 150.

“Everybody was looking forward to getting back to the race track,” Earnhardt said. “It meant a lot to me. And I’m just sorry we weren’t able to deliver a better result today for all our fans and everybody that was looking forward to today. We had a great car. At least we went out leading the race.”

As far as the wreck, Earnhardt couldn’t avoid it.

“I tried to get the wheel turned and get down the race track but I lifted off the gas to miss it, and got on the splitter a little bit and the car went straight,” said Earnhardt. “We jumped him, and got in the wall a little bit. Wasn’t too hard of a hit. We thought we could get the car fixed, and get back out there and see what we could do with the rest of the day and make up some spots maybe. But, there is just too much damage.”