Earnhardt: ‘I feel good’
Fan favorite emerges unscathed after being involved in multicar crash.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The bad news for Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans was that his car was a mess after Sunday’s race.
The good news was Junior’s head wasn’t. “I feel good,” he said. That’s a much better selfdiagnosis than Earnhardt offered after his last wreck. He missed the final 18 races in 2016 season after suffering a concussion.
Dizziness and other symptoms were so severe that Earnhardt thought he might never race again.
That thought horrified fans who have voted Earnhardt NASCAR’s favorite driver for 14 straight seasons.
Doctors cleared him to race in December, but the experience left Earnhardt contemplating his racing mortality.
He hinted he might retire if he wins this season’s championship.
Some speculated the 42year-old might even walk away if he won the Daytona 500.
That possibility ended on Lap 105. Earnhardt had been running strong and led for eight laps, but he got tangled up in the wreck that claimed Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Erik Jones.
Busch blew a tire to start the melee, and Earnhardt slammed into Busch’s car hard enough to lift both tires on the right side of Earnhardt’s No. 88 into the air.
After Earnhardt brought the car to the pits for repairs, it was later decided to bring the car to the garage.
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t want to drive no wrecked race car the rest of the day,” Earnhardt said. “I’m glad we took it to the garage.”
He’d met with NASCAR officials in the off-season to discuss ways to improve safety.
After study and testing, Earnhardt decided to tighten the stabilizing system around his helmet.
“I know we say that so much it sounds cliché,” he said. “But if they hadn’t put that money into it to do the studies that they’ve done I probably would have been injured right there.
“I just need to thank NASCAR.”
— David Whitley
Blaming Goodyear
Kyle Busch is now 0-16 in Daytona 500 starts.
“Goodyear tires just suck,” he said. “Goodyear just can’t build tires that hold air. That’s so disappointing.”
— George Diaz
Disappointing day
What a roller coaster of a week for Chase Elliott. From the highest of highs — qualifying on the pole for the second straight year and becoming the youngest driver to win the Can-Am Duels on Thursday — to Sunday’s finish.
Elliott was looking to join his father, Bill Elliott, as one of a select few drivers to win the Daytona 500 from the pole position.
And for a few moments, it looked as if he would do just that — leading the Great American Race with three laps to go — before his No. 24 Chevrolet ran out of gas.
For the second straight season Elliott was left to wonder: what if?
“It was a disappointing finish to a good day,” Elliott said in a statement from his manufacturer, Chevrolet. “Just one of those things you can’t do anything about. I’m happy with how the NAPA team performed, and we are going to learn from it. I’m proud of how hard everyone worked all week.
“We’re looking forward to getting back at it in Atlanta.”
— Matt Murschel