Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final Brickyard 400 ends with an engine failure

INDIANAPOLIS -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t win in his final Brickyard 400 start Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with an engine failure sending NASCAR’s most popular driver to the garage prematurely and an unceremonious exit.

Earnhardt was lined up behind Trevor Bayne on a Lap 77 restart when the field stacked up ahead. That caused Earnhardt to rear-end Bayne, though the contact appeared minimal. But Earnhardt’s radiator was punctured, causing the engine to quickly overheat.

“You’ve got to push hard and that got us in a little bit of trouble there when they all started checking up on the outside,” Earnhardt said. “I was just trying real hard to get as much as we could on restart, and we got bit.”

Earnhardt announced in April he would retire from full-time racing at the end of the current season, and was likely making his final start the historic Indianapolis track that hosts NASCAR’s second-biggest event. He entered the weekend hopeful of finishing well in a race where he typical struggles.

But instead of a strong result Sunday, Earnhardt left with another frustrating finish in a season full of them. He’s recorded just four top-10 finishes in 20 Monster Energy Cup races and needs a victory in one of the final six regular season races to earn a playoff berth.

“We had a great car and I was having a lot of fun,” Earnhardt said. “The car was fast, we had a top 10 car for sure. It’s kind of frustrating because I was really enjoying being out there. Hopefully our luck’s going to turnaround. It’s been pretty tough and this is a difficult one to put up with.”