Debut of fourth-generation Earnhardt will have to wait

DOVER, Del. -- In the end, double jeopardy at Dover International Speedway -- a wrecked primary car and no practice laps before qualifying -- got the best of 19-year-old Jeffrey Earnhardt's attempt to become NASCAR's second fourth-generation driver to race in a national series.

Trust me, after seeing the way no less than four organizations rallied behind the kid, both before and after his 35th lap on the race track Friday resulted in it getting away from him coming off Turn 4 on his first mock qualifying lap and hitting the inside wall with the left-front and rear, it's inevitable Earnhardt's destined to make a splash.

Crash course

Crew members access the damage to Jeffrey Earnhardt's car after he hit the wall in his first Nationwide Series practice.

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A pile of former DEI employees participated in preparing their former chassis, along with Rick Ware Racing crew chief Paul Andrews. The primary was powered by an Earnhardt Childress Racing Technologies engine. Earnhardt Ganassi Racing loaned an engineer, who was assigned to the car at Dover.

And in one corner on one lap with little more than 10 minutes remaining in practice, it all went for naught.

The on-track debacle made Earnhardt's random selection for a Friday afternoon drug test, and its potentially dysfunctional order to pee on command, just a humorous welcome to big-time auto racing. It definitely delayed his return to his hauler more than an hour after his accident, which occurred with about 10 minutes left in practice.

"He's at the care center trying to pee, and you can't talk to him there," his dad said, grinning, when he returned to the hauler about 20 minutes before his son. "He couldn't go."

But that was about the only thing Kerry Earnhardt's oldest son was able to laugh about in little more than a day of competition at Dover.

And that's a shame, because after the effort expended by Dale Earnhardt Inc., whose hauler brought the cars to Dover, and Rick Ware Racing, whose personnel largely took care of it at the track, everyone deserved more.

On Saturday morning, when the younger Earnhardt had to hit the daunting Dover high banks as the final qualifier, with the memory of his last previous lap's devastating finale, the pressure was too much. (Continued)