Driver: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Car: No. 88 TaxSlayer Chevrolet Camaro
Track: Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 23, 2013)
Bio: Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a chance to win the season-opening DRIVE4COPD 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona in 2013...until he didn’t. A lot of other drivers were in the same boat, too, as a massive crash marred the finish and allowed Tony Stewart to take the victory.
Earnhardt Jr. was 12th when the green flag waved for the final time on lap 119, pushing Kyle Larson toward the front. The leader on the restart was JR Motorsports teammate Regan Smith, and two Penske cars were in the row behind Smith and Stewart on the break. Earnhardt Jr. pushed Larson, just beginning his climb toward the NASCAR Cup Series, up to the top four inside a lap and the duo were on the outside digging for the finish line when everything went sideways.
Smith, trying to block the insistent Brad Keselowski (another former JRM driver), went up the track and Keselowski’s left front fender turned Smith’s Chevrolet sideways in front of the field. The rest of the lead pack—Stewart, Sam Hornish Jr., Justin Allgaier, Alex Bowman, Travis Pastrana, Parker Kligerman, Larson, Earnhardt Jr., Brian Scott and Elliott Sadler—piled right on in.
You might notice that some of those drivers have JRM ties, too. Stewart, Allgaier, Bowman and Sadler all have driven or currently drive for the team.
As the cars scattered, Earnhardt Jr. and Larson were pinned to the high line, and as cars spun and went up the banking, the two cars were sitting ducks. Larson and Earnhardt Jr., hard on the brakes, became passengers. Earnhardt Jr.’s car pushed Larson sideways in the scrum, and Larson’s car went up in the air, pinioning its front end in a gap in the fence and tearing the front clip off the car.
Bowman’s pinballing machine slammed into Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 and sent him heavily into the outside wall, virtually destroying the TaxSlayer-backed Camaro and peeling the sheet metal off much of the front half.
Earnhardt Jr. was credited with a fourth-place finish, best of the JRM machines that day despite Smith leading all but the last 100 yards of the race. Smith was scored 14th, and Kasey Kahne, involved in the first Big One on lap 117, was scored 20th in the No. 5 Chevrolet.
The No. 88 was taken to the Racecar Graveyard soon after and graces a spot in the trees near the creek at Dirty Mo Acres.