Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s frustrating final season continues at Talladega

After an uneven afternoon where he couldn’t get his car to his liking, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was surprised when he found himself third with a handful of laps remaining in Sunday’s Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

But any enthusiasm that he might snap a sluggish start to the Monster Energy Cup Series season proved short-lived. On a restart with 19 laps remaining that followed an 18-car accident ensnaring several contenders, Earnhardt couldn’t maintain his position due to what he thought was a soft left-rear tire necessitating a green-flag pit stop. The No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team determined there was no flat, but that the wheel was loose because of an issue with how it was fastened to the hub.

Earnhardt would pit and fall a lap down, which he got back when a caution for Landon Cassill’s stalled car brought out another caution and set up an overtime finish. But with so few laps left, he couldn’t rally and finished 22nd.

“We were about to wreck,” Earnhardt said. “We were lucky to get to pit road and get it changed. The glue build-up on the stud didn’t allow them to get the tire tight and it just kind of worked its way loose.

“I hated it because we were right there in good position to get a great finish, if not win the race, and I had to bail out.”

It’s been that kind of season for Earnhardt, who announced last month that he will retire as a full-time driver at the end of the year. Whether it’s a wheel becoming loose because of the glue used to secure it, getting swept into accident not of his own creation, or getting body-slammed into the wall by teammate Jimmie Johnson, Earnhardt’s experienced a frustrating season for a host of reasons.

Through 10 races, Earnhardt has just a lone top-10 finish and five times has finished 30th or worse. He entered Talladega, a track where his six wins is most among active drivers, hoping to snap the early season skid. That promise increased after he qualified second on Saturday and spoke confidently about his chances to reach victory lane.

But on Sunday, it was more of the same. The No. 88 car lacked speed for much of the race, and when he did find himself near the front with a chance to salvage a solid result, the issue with the loose wheel occurred.

“Our car wasn’t very good in the pack,” Earnhardt said. “In traffic, it wasn’t very good at all. We didn’t run many laps inside the top five or top 10 all day because the car just really didn’t have a lot of speed doubled-up with everybody side-by-side.

“The car runs great by itself. But anytime we got a bit close to the front, those guys around me were just a little stronger to do things to put us in some bad spots and drop us back to the back. It happened time and time again. We’ll just have to see what we’re doing with the car and what we can improve.”