Dale Earnhardt Jr. has early exit in final road-course race

RELATED: Earnhardt, 88 crew 'going to work hard all the way to the very end' Dale Earnhardt Jr. endured an early setback in the final road-course race of his full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career, retiring after the end of the first stage at Watkins Glen International. Earnhardt's Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet fell off the pace near the end of the first 20-lap stage. The 42-year-old driver took his car -- hampered by valvetrain issues -- behind the pit wall and to the garage after 22 laps. Just 10 laps later, Earnhardt was officially declared out, scored last in the 37-car field. "We can't fix it, but it's just been a really difficult week," Earnhardt told NBCSN. "We've been way down on speed and we had a pretty good car for Sonoma, so I was kind of looking forward to coming here. The guys worked really hard. We changed this car inside and out twice this weekend, and we had made it better. We were kind of hanging in there and think we had a shot at maybe a top 20 at best. When we showed up, we were about four seconds off." Earnhardt started a disappointing 28th in the I LOVE NEW YORK 355, and was outside the top 25 in both pre-race practices. "I don't know. Kind of a little frustrated this weekend, and this doesn't make it much better," Earnhardt said after the 17th start of his career at the 2.45-mile road course, "but sure have enjoyed racing here. Really appreciate the fans here, the track, the staff. They've treated us so good every time we've been here." [gallery_content baseUrl="https://www.nascar.com" galleryID="1362" photocount="4"]