NASCAR Charlotte 2014: Broken shifter puts Dale Earnhardt Jr. in huge Chase hole

Dale Earnhardt Jr. entered the Bank of America 500 brimming with confidence, uncharacteristically predicting he would win Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

That win never materialized. A broken gear shifter near the midway point derailed any chance Earnhardt had of winning and has him on the brink of being eliminated from the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“The vibration broke the shifter in half and it just wasn’t a good night,” Earnhardt said. “The car just wasn’t handling well and the vibration was really giving us a lot of problems.”

Earnhardt was running ninth on Lap 137 when the problem became pronounced. Multiple trips to pit road to fix the shifter were unsuccessful, and the No. 88 car only had third and fourth gears for the remainder of the night. Eventually Earnhardt dropped a lap to the field, which he would get back, and finished 20th.

Teammate Jimmie Johnson experienced a similar failure during the August race at Michigan International Speedway.

“We had a good car in practice and we never could get a chance to show it,” Earnhardt said. “The vibration just tore the car all apart. Broke the shifter and made the car handle real bad.”

Because Earnhardt crashed the week before at Kansas Speedway, Earnhardt desperately needed a strong run -- if not a victory Saturday night -- to avoid Chase elimination. The lowest four drivers in points without a win will be cut following the Oct. 19 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Earnhardt is tied with Johnson for 12th, last, in the Chase standings. The two Hendrick Motorsports drivers are 26 points back of teammate Kasey Kahne for eighth-place -- the cutoff to advance to Round 3.

Due to the deficit, Earnhardt’s only viable way to make it out of Round 2 is by winning Talladega. Although not unobtainable, (Earnhardt is a five-time winner at the track,) it will be a challenge. Talladega is notoriously unpredictable with large, multi-car wrecks often wreaking havoc.

“Go (to Talladega) and win it,” Earnhardt said. “We can do it; we have won there a lot of time. I know what we need to do. We will just have to build a fast car and hope that we don’t have any gremlins and try to go out there and win it.”