DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — With a full moon overhead and the sun yet to crest the horizon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. stood near his team’s hauler Wednesday morning and watched as JR Motorsports’ first Cup car was unloaded in the Daytona International Speedway garage.
Earnhardt pulled out his phone to capture the moment. Car owner Rick Hendrick had encouraged him to do so.
When JR Motorsports — which first competed in the Xfinity Series in 2005 — announced January 15 that it would field its first Cup entry and seek to qualify for the Daytona 500 with Justin Allgaier, Earnhardt vowed to be there when the garage first opened.
Fourteen hours after walking with his crew and the No. 40 car to the team’s garage stall Wednesday morning, Earnhardt blended into the crowd on pit road and melted away after Allgaier missed securing a spot in the Daytona 500 by eight-hundredths of a second.
“I think he’s a little gut-punched right now,” Kelley Earnhardt said about her brother Dale after qualifying.
One of nine non-chartered cars entered, there is no guarantee that Earnhardt’s car will be on the grid for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
All is not lost. Allgaier gets another chance to make the 500 in Thursday’s qualifying races.
About 45 minutes after Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson secured the two qualifying spots for non-chartered cars and forced Allgaier to wait one more night to find out if he’ll be in the 500, Dale Earnhardt Jr. provided an uplifting message on social media.
“Damn it woulda been nice to lock in tonight. But we get to come back tomorrow and race our way into the Daytona 500 in a dual. Living the dream.”
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He and Austin Cindric are on the front row for the 67th Great American Race.
Said Kelley about what the team faces: “(Thursday) just worries me because everything is not within our control.”
That’s always the case at drafting tracks. A mistake a few rows ahead can lead to a crash that collects several cars behind. That could alter who makes this year’s Daytona 500.
But as the third fastest of the nine non-chartered cars, Allgaier has multiple ways to make the Daytona 500. If he finishes highest among the non-chartered cars in his race, he’s in the field. If Johnson or Martin Truex Jr. finishes highest among non-chartered cars in their qualifying race, Allgaier is in the Daytona 500.
Allgaier is scheduled to start 17th among 23 cars in the first qualifying race (7 p.m. ET Thursday on FS1). The other non-chartered cars in his race are: Truex (starting 12th), Helio Castroneves (20th), Chandler Smith (22nd) and JJ Yeley (23rd).
Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr. locked into the Daytona 500; Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car still waiting
Former NASCAR Cup champions qualify on speed to claim two of the spots available to open cars.
Still, Allgaier came within .08 seconds of not needing to worry about Thursday’s qualifying races. Where does that difference come from over a 2.5-mile track?
“When I look at the (data), it almost looks like maybe we caught a bit of a headwind on the frontstretch, maybe kind of slowed us down,” Allgaier told NBC Sports.
Allgaier then began to look ahead.
“You can’t hang your head about the effort today,” he said, “because you’ve still got a chance to get it (Thursday).”
Wednesday’s result gives Dale Earnhardt Jr. another day to relish — as a Cup car owner — all that is Daytona.
“Most car owner are not thinking that this could be the one and only time they do that,” Earnhardt told NBC Sports last week about his desire to be in the garage, on the qualifying grid and around the car and team as much as possible at Daytona.
“Just in case that we never get back to that situation or that opportunity to enter a Cup race, I want to make sure there wasn’t anything about it that passed me by or I wasn’t able to experience.
“I miss all of that. I miss that as a driver. Showing up at Daytona, how good is our car? I’ve been watching the guys put it together for three months.
“How are we going to qualify? How is it going to race? Standing on that grid, standing out there in that lineup for qualifying at Daytona, it’s just a special moment, waiting on your opportunity to go, waiting on your opportunity to climb in.
“It’s one of the great things about being a competitor, whether you’re the driver, crew chief or the car owner, you’re a competitor. I kind of miss, I miss the emotions you go through, the highs, the lows, the anxiety of performance, and will we make it? Will we get in?”
He’ll find out Thursday night.
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