In this week's Racecar Graveyard feature, we unveil one of Dale Jr.'s contributions to his own collection, the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew entry from the Bristol night race.
Driver: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Car: No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet
Track: Bristol Motor Speedway (Aug. 23, 2014)
Bio: There he was, minding his own business, running the night race at Bristol when all of a sudden...WHAM! Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet had the left side peeled off and the right side battered and bruised after Denny Hamlin’s car spun up off the wall on the front stretch.
Hamlin, who was leading at the time, rode the front bumper of Kevin Harvick’s Chevrolet through a spin that deposited him nose-first in the concrete on the inside of the .533-mile bullring. Harvick was trying to get underneath Hamlin for the top spot on lap 162 when the accident happened, and Hamlin’s journey to the unyielding wall wound up ending Dale Jr.’s night prematurely as well. With an improvised left-side car number fashioned out of tape (still visible in the pics above), Dale Jr. limped the stricken machine around for another 14 laps before retiring it for the night. Soon after, it made its long, slow trip out to the Racecar Graveyard and its final resting place.
For the record, Dale Jr. finished 39th that night, one spot ahead of Hamlin. Harvick eventually finished 11th.