Dale Earnhardt Jr. Burned At Bristol As Teammate Justin Allgaier Wins NASCAR Xfinity Playoff Race
Dale’s dream drive went up in flames on Friday night, but he left Bristol with a smile.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. made a rare appearance driving for his JR Motorsports team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, where he was vying for the win in the closing laps.
Earnhardt started the Food City 300 in 16th, but quickly worked his way into the top 10 before disaster struck three of the JR Motorsports cars.
Josh Berry and Sam Mayer bumped, which apparently cut Berry’s tire and caused him to slide up the track in the corner and spin Mayer as Brandon Jones ran into Berry.
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The incident took all three of them out of the race, jeopardizing Berry and Mayer’s playoffs hopes.
Earnhardt was at the front of the field for the restart after stage two and ended up leading 47 laps on the night.
Richard Childress Racing teammates Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill made contact on lap 217, dashing their hopes to book a trip to the next playoffs round.
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Earnhardt continued to challenge for the lead until he suddenly drove onto the apron with smoke coming from his car with 29 laps to go.
He pulled into John Hunter Nemecheck’s stall and was helped out of the car as emergency crews used extinguishers in the cabin.
After the race, Earnhardt showed off his burned pant leg and told NBC there was a fire in the car.
“Somehow or another the shifter tunnel caught on fire,” he said.
“That last lap I saw a fireball in the tunnel in the car and I felt it, obviously, my uniform was burning up.”
The night wasn’t a total loss, however, as Allgaier had taken a chance on a late pitstop for fresh tires and was able to hold off fellow playoff driver Daniel Hemric for the win.
Despite the incident, Earnhardt plans to be back in the car for the Xfinity Series race at Homestead-Miami on October 21.
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