CONCORD, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make his last start at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a backup car.
The driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports had run just four laps here Friday when his car shot up the track and into the wall.
Earnhardt was not injured; the car, however, was damaged badly enough that his crew quickly began unloading a backup entry and prepping it for practice and qualifying here today at CMS.
Earnhardt said the car slid up the track when he drove through the adhesive compound put down by track officials. The resin has been used by a handful of tracks this season to help create more lane options and enhance competition.
"We're out there running laps and I put the rights in that stuff and the car just went in the fence," Earnhardt said when interviewed by NBCSN. "Blew a right front tire.
"Have to get another car out and see how that works out. I think I'm fine. The car is junk. It was actually driving pretty good but the backup will be just as good.
"It’s just disappointing, man. I don't know. That stuff out there on the track, it ain't good right now; I wouldn't touch it."
Earnhardt said he wasn’t sure why officials used the substance this weekend as CMS prepares to host Saturday's Drive for the Cure 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race and Sunday's Bank of America 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.
The BOA 500 (1 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR) is the first race of the Round of 12 in this year's championship-determining Playoff.
"I don't even know why they sprayed it down, we're going to run this race in the daytime; it ain't like we needed any help getting the top worked in," he said. "That was more to help this place at night. If you can't even run in it without plowing into the fence, what good is it?"