By David Morgan, Associate Editor
BRISTOL, Tenn. – It wasn’t the cleanest of nights, but Dale Earnhardt, Jr. certainly had fun in his return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
After starting in 13th, the problems started almost immediately for the two-time Xfinity Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer when issues with the radio system in his helmet cropped up, forcing him to pit road under the first caution for his No. 88 JR Motorsports team to try and swap the helmet out to get things resolved for him.
The issues continued after getting a new helmet as the team also swapped out wiring harnesses later in the race. Despite the changes, Earnhardt still battled issues with his radio communication between the pit box, himself, and spotter TJ Majors.
Not letting the problems get in the way of his good time, Earnhardt made the best of a bad situation and persevered through the night, eventually finding himself inside the top-10 thanks to a strategy play.
Once inside the top-10, he was a constant presence there, battling with the likes of Ryan Truex and Brandon Jones down the stretch as he tried to work his way forward.
Earnhardt would eventually find a home in seventh-place, where he would run to the end of the race, satisfying his want to run the race to completion.
Pulling to a stop on pit road afterwards, Earnhardt was all smiles as he traded handshakes with his fellow competitors.
“We had a radio harness or something, went out under the pace laps and didn’t have a radio for about 50 laps. Swapped out the ear plugs, still didn’t work, swapped out the helmet still didn’t work. So probably ran about a hundred, 120 laps without really much communication with TJ,” Earnhardt said of his radio issues.
“And finally they stuck a radio with a short harness in it. The button I could clip to my chest and I could hear them and talk back under caution. But it worked out and we didn’t lose any lap or anything. As frustrating as that is, it was important not to give up and lose a lap or anything and try to try to salvage what we could because we had a top 10, top five car and I’m glad we were able to get a good result.”
Even without radio communication with his spotter, Earnhardt explained that he was able to make do with what he had for a while until the team got everything figured out.
“I’ve been around here enough. I kind of knew where I needed to be and I kind of…
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