Dale Earnhardt Jr. was knocked from contention Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, sent behind the wall by a crash that ended his day in the 61st of 200 scheduled laps. Based on Kyle Busch's early exit from the race as well, Junior finished in 39th-place for the day.
Earnhardt -- a two-time Michigan winner -- started 27th in the FireKeepers Casino 400, the first of two races this season for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at the 2-mile track. He took the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet to the garage for repairs after driving away from the incident.
Shortly after a restart, rookie Chris Buescher slid up out of the lower groove in Turn 2, his Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford making contact with the left-rear fender of Earnhardt's No. 88. Earnhardt slid high, collecting the JTG Daugherty Racing No. 47 Chevrolet of AJ Allmendinger and sending both cars into the outside retaining wall.
Buescher accepted blame for the crash over his radio communications during the race's third caution period. Earnhardt agreed in an interview from the garage.
"(The impact) wasn't too bad, actually," Earnhardt Jr. told FS1. "I knew I was going to hit the wall. The 34 (of Chris Buescher) just drove into my left rear quarter panel, man. I don't know. On restarts you have a responsibility to take care of everyone out there, even when you're three-wide. I'm disappointed in that."
Dale Jr. later tweeted about his vacation getting an early start with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series off next weekend.