Dale Jr.’s highly anticipated run at Daytona comes to premature end

WATCH: Pre-race ridealong with Junior | Early race trouble for No. 88 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It was definitely a dramatic final run at Daytona International Speedway for Dale Earnhardt Jr., just not the drama the two-time Daytona 500 winner – or his massive fandom – had in mind. An inspiring early race rally from two laps down was negated when his Chevy was tagged in the waning laps, collected by Kevin Harvick's crashing Ford. It ended Earnhardt's night and possibly capped his incredible Daytona Monster Energy NASCAR Cup career with a 32nd-place finish in Saturday's Coke Zero 400. It wasn't the finish Earnhardt or his fans had hoped for, although he provided plenty of energy and excitement to the night. "Kinda got shuffled back early, not in the right line for a while but got back up there and finished second in the first stage trying to win that thing," Earnhardt said. "We had a little flat tire, got four-wide a couple times. Man, it was a lot of fun. Everyone was real aggressive banging doors and sliding against the fence. It was pretty wild; like a short track race out there tonight." RELATED: Earnhardt Jr. finds trouble in Stage 2 Earnhardt went down two laps after hitting the wall only a quarter of the way into the 200-lap race. The right side of his No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet suffered some damage in the impact and his crew struggled to change his right-front tire on ensuing pit stops. But Earnhardt and team were not about to give up. This is Daytona, after all, where he is hailed as a hero and boasts 17 career wins in both points and exhibition races. His Hendrick Motorsports crew made quick work with the repairs, losing only the two laps – one of which he got back less than 20 laps later when a multi-car crash brought the field to yellow. He got back on the lead lap on a Lap 90 caution when Brendan Gaughan slapped the outside wall. He worked his way into the top five only to have his run ultimately cut short while running behind a spinning Harvick. WATCH: Dale Jr.'s night ends early "The 4 car (Harvick) cut a tire down and there really wasn't much I could do," Earnhardt said. "Wasn't a hard hit. We'll get it going for next week." Despite the rough ending on the night, Earnhardt smiled during his interview and acknowledged the tributes and well-wishes he had received all weekend. “There was a ton of buildup with this being our last Daytona," Earnhardt said. "I was going crazy today with all the media talking about this being our last Daytona. "We've got a lot of racing left. ... We'll be back next weekend. I know a lot of people thought this was our best shot to win but we'll have a little more fuel to work hard and try to win at these other race tracks we go to. We'll work hard to make it happen." After graciously thanking the media for their interest, Earnhardt wished everyone a good night and hopped onto a golf cart to be whisked away to his motor coach. RELATED: Junior thanks fans He didn't get much more than 20 feet before the cart stopped abruptly for the sport's Most Popular Driver to sign a few final autographs for a handful of enthusiastic fans. Just as the cart was about to pull away, he took off his own cap and signed it. He asked the first hand that reached out to him to give the hat to a youngster standing nearby. As he looked up to hand the hat off, however, he saw the person standing in front of him was Army National Guard specialist Stacy Entwistle Jr. -- a nearby Deltona, Florida, resident dressed in full camouflage uniform. So instead, Earnhardt smiled, and told Entwistle, "You keep the hat and thank you for your service." Entwistle walked away feeling like he’d been given a national treasure. For him, it certainly was. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, this is incredible," Entwistle said. And for Earnhardt, it has been incredible, too. [gallery_content baseUrl="https://www.nascar.com" galleryID="1261"]