James: Dale Earnhardt Jr. can't summon Daytona magic despite best efforts
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — They hugged and posed for pictures like it was the last time. Because it is, for now. Now all they needed was the storybook ending, just in case.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has accomplished much in 17 years of racing at Daytona International Speedway: 17 total wins, two Daytona 500s, four victories in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.
He did not have a storybook ending in him on Saturday night, though. But he gave it a valiant try.
Earnhardt worked back to sixth place from an early incident but was eliminated in a second mishap not of his doing with 56 laps left and finished 32nd in the Coke Zero 400.
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He had brushed the Turn 1 wall on Lap 51, possibly after contact from behind from Paul Menard, after slowing in because he’d sensed a flattening tire. The Goodyear was inflated during a pit stop to repair body damage, however. The pole-sitter surrendered sixth place in the incident, returning two laps down after requiring multiple stops to mediate the damage to the car’s aerodynamics.
A Lap 90 caution allowed Earnhardt to rejoin the lead lap as the highest-scored car a lap down, and he began grinding forward from a seemingly untenable 31st-place position. Exploiting a top lane that was dictating the pace, he was ultimately caught in a wreck when Kevin Harvick lost control directly in front of him.
“I definitely had enough race car,” Earnhardt said. “Just a matter of getting back up toward the lead and we got real close. We were just going to have to have to be real aggressive. Yeah, the car was good.”
With his car unable to be repaired into serviceable condition in the five minutes allowed by NASCAR rules, he retired and finished 32nd, applauded loudly as he sat in a fire rescue cart bound for a mandatory evaluation in the infield care center.
Before the race, Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevrolet was expectedly encased with friends, well-wishers and the curious. Maybe it was that he’s already begun speculating about possibly racing in the Daytona 500 again, but this didn’t feel like a last stop at the scene of some his greatest accomplishments.
“It doesn’t,” team owner Rick Hendrick agreed, standing outside the circle of bodies around the car on the pre-race grid. “But I never say never, so I don’t know. It’s up to him.”
Earnhardt said he was surprised at “a ton of damned build-up” before the race, including how much of pre-race broadcasts were dedicated to it. He hoped fans hadn’t been fatigued by it.
Starting from the pole, he finished second in the first segment to earn nine stage points.
Earnhardt has won the Daytona 500 and the summer race twice each, and Xfinity Series events six times, cultivating a well-earned reputation as a master manipulator of a form of racing dependent as much on forging and breaking alliances as invisible tunnels of air. His No. 8 Chevrolet at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and later No. 88 at Hendrick Motorsports became bellwethers and much-sought-after drafting partners with drivers hoping that a shove or a pull from Earnhardt would position them to win in the most glorified form of NASCAR racing.
Earnhardt demystified some of all that on Friday, claiming he’s had cars so good “you could just do whatever you wanted with them.”
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Whether lesser cars or rule changes in 2016 are to blame, Earnhardt's aura has subsided at Daytona and Talladega in recent years. Where once he was able to place his race car in places where his competitors could not, Earnhardt had led just 23 laps at Daytona since winning the summer race in 2015 (he led one on Saturday), crashing twice and finishing 36th, 21st and 37th since.
He won the Talladega spring race in 2015, was second in the fall, but has finished 40th and 22nd in subsequent starts.
Earnhardt, winless since 2015, really could have used this one. He entered the final 10 races of the regular season 22nd in driver points, 130 behind Matt Kenseth, who currently holds the last points-transfer position into the 16-driver playoff field.
He seemed intent on assuring anyone within earshot that his final season was not ostensibly over.
“I know everybody thought this was our best shot to win,” he said. “But things like this give us a little more fuel to work hard and show people where we can win at these other race tracks. We’ve done it before. I know we can go somewhere like Pocono and Michigan and get it done and we’re going to work hard to try and make that happen.”
Daytona has a way of resolving storylines and the rain-delayed Xfinity Series race concluded on Saturday afternoon laced itself around Earnhardt's saga. Nineteen-year-old William Byron, a Hendrick Motorsports prospect racing for JR Motorsports, became the youngest to ever win at the track, providing a grand opportunity for speculation as to whether he could replace Earnhardt next season in the No. 88.
Byron has won twice and finished second to a car that was later ruled in violation of rules in the past three races. But unlike after the 2004 Daytona truck race, when owner Jack Roush declared winner Carl Edwards the eventual successor to Mark Martin on his Cup team, Hendrick was mum.
“William’s doing a great job,” Hendrick said. “That’s all I can tell you right now. … There’s a lot of moving parts there.”
After a final set of interviews, Earnhardt had his cart stop a few feet from the care center to allow him to sign autographs, sending a grown man in a kilt into a fit of whooping. He handed a soldier the blue and white hat off his head.
And then he was gone. Maybe for the last time as a driver at Daytona. But there’s a lot of moving parts there, too.
Follow James on Twitter @brantjames
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