Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s frustrating final full NASCAR season continued Sunday at Pocono Raceway, as a mechanical failure sent him to the garage and ended race his race early.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes blame for transmission failure at Pocono
A mistake by Dale Earnhardt Jr. while shifting caused an engine problem that sent him to the garage early.
Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Earnhardt was attempting to shift from third gear to fourth gear, but instead shifted into second gear as he exited on Lap 59 of 160. That mistake badly damaged the engine of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports car and sent Earnhardt to the garage where his team determined repairs could not be made.
Earnhardt experienced a similar issue during practice Friday, necessitating his team make an unapproved engine change and start Sunday’s Pocono 400 at the rear of the 39-car field.
“The shifter is not different, the handle is not different, the location, everything is the same,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know. It’s something about my motion that’s going in the wrong gear. I wish I could blame it on something else, because this is awful, it feels awful.
“It’s just my fault. I wish I could say that the shifter is different and something is out of line or not something I was doing last year as far as where we had the shifter mounted for Pocono. This really concerns me coming back here and the road courses.”
Earnhardt, who announced in April he would retire from full-time racing at the end the 2017 season, struggled to find much success on the track. His 38th-place Sunday marked his sixth finish of 30th or worse in 14 Cup Series races this season. He had entered Pocono 22nd in the points standings, but will likely fall lower. To qualify for the championship playoffs, he will almost certainly need a victory in the remaining 12 regular season races.
“The car was fast,” Earnhardt said. “We drove up into the top 15 there running great lap times. Really, really happy with the car.”
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