No. 88 driver moves to tail end of the field
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to make an unscheduled stop on pit road after experiencing issues with his shifter after a caution on Lap 137 of Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
He first came to pit road before it was open, sending him to the tail end of the field. The No. 88 crew removed the passenger side window in order to get better access to the shifter, with one teammate half inside the car as he made repairs. Not wanting to go a lap down, Junior headed back onto the track without the issue fixed, and returned to pit road once it opened, falling to 23rd on the restart but staying on the lead lap.
“I gotta come back, it didn’t work,” Junior said after the second stop, where he was penalized for speeding. As he was still able to shift from third to fourth gear, he stayed on the track as his team came up with an alternate plan.
“You handle the track,” crew chief Steve Letarte told his driver. Earnhardt restarted 22nd, and was last in the Chase standings at the time of the restart.
After a spin by Brian Vickers brought out the caution flag on Lap 237, the No. 88 team decided to pit and try to fix the issue once again. Following the repair, they made another pit stop for tires, and restarted once again at the tail end of the field one lap down with just over 90 laps to go.
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