Flashback Friday: Remembering Dale Jr.'s fiery ride at Texas
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has enjoyed some of his greatest and most memorable moments at Texas Motor Speedway.
In 2000, the then-rookie Sprint Cup driver pulled away from veteran Bobby Labonte to capture his first top series NASCAR win in just his 12th Cup start.
So it's easy to see why Earnhardt Jr. has a strong affinity for Texas Motor Speedway. In short, the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track has been good to him.
Just three laps after the race went fully green, Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevy veered left into the infield grass on the Texas frontstretch, and his splitter caught the soft, wet turf, destroying the front of his car and sending him across the track and smashing into the outside wall.
In a downright frightening moment, the car burst into flames. But thankfully, the Hendrick Motorsports driver walked away uninjured.
Despite all his success and feelings of nostalgia at Texas, Earnhardt later admitted that he simply misjudged how close his car was to the track apron.
"Just didn't see the grass," he said. "Didn't know the grass was down there. With the way the A-post is on these cars you can't really see that good to that angle. I just didn't have a good visual of where the apron and the grass was and got down in there pretty good. You can't run through there they way they have these cars on the ground like that.
"Just a mistake on my part. I just didn't know I was that close to the grass, and made a mistake."
A mistake he doesn't plan on repeating in Saturday night's race, which begins just after 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
VIDEO: Dale Jr. discusses fiery Texas crash
