Dale Earnhardt Jr’s 3 Worst Crashes

 

Dale Jr & Girlfriend Amy Reinman | Photo

 

Dale Earnhardt Jr’s 3 Worst Crashes

The Corvette Crash at Infineon

Dale Earnhardt Jr crashed his Corvette and it erupts into a fireball as he prepares to compete in an American LeMans Series race at Infineon Speedway in California date on July 18, 2004.

Dale Earnhardt Jr 2002 California Speedway Crash

California Speedway, Fontana, CA in April 2004

On lap 229 Dale Earnhardt Jr slammed the Bud Chevy into the No. 29 of Kevin Harvick as Harvick was attempting to get to pit road for a flat tire.

The contact sent Earnhardt’s car careening into the wall nose first.

He climbed from the car limping from an injury to his ankle, and was immediately taken by ambulance to the infield care center.

When he emerged after getting medical attention Junior was walking with crutches.

“That was about as hard of a hit as I’ve ever taken,” Earnhardt Jr said. “It just took every bit of air out of me. I could hear the guys on the radio, but I couldn’t answer.”

Despite being bruised and battered Dale Jr was back at work the next day for a meeting at Dale Earnhardt Inc. in Mooresville.

Earnhardt was scored with a finish of 36th at California.

Dover Monster Grabs Earnhardt Jr

Dover International Speedway in September 2003.

While wrestling with an ill-handling race car Dale Earnhardt Jr lost control of the No. 8 Chevrolet, colliding hard into the wall on the driver’s side.

When emergency personnel arrived on the scene they found the driver unconscious — a fact that Junior himself disputes. After all, he had let the window net down on his car immediately following the crash.

Track safety workers helped him climb from the wreckage.

Dale Jr was placed onto a stretcher with his head and neck immobilized, and loaded into an ambulance.

Doctor’s in the infield care center examined Earnhardt and ordered him to be taken by helicopter to Dover’s Bayhealth Medical Center for further diagnosis.

He was diagnosed with a concussion.

After being treated and released from the hospital Earnhardt flew home to North Carolina.

Dale Jr’s status for the following week’s race at Talladega, where he was going for his 5th win in a row, was in question.

“It’s our understanding he has seen a doctor and is feeling fine, but we don’t expect to make any sort of decisions about him until Wednesday, at the earliest,” NASCAR Vice President of Communications Jim Hunter said the following Tuesday.

Junior would need clearance from NASCAR approved doctors before he could return to competition.

“We’re going to talk to the doctors,” Hunter said “It’s not going to be as simple as him just showing up to race.”

By Wednesday he was cleared to return to the track at Talladega — a race he would finish 2nd in.

When NASCAR analyzed the data from the car’s black box the forces in the crash were the worst they had seen since implementing the data recording devices.

“I heard some hearsay. They said that Kyle Petty’s at Bristol was the hardest they’d ever recorded with the black box, and they said it was more than that,” Earnhardt Jr reported.

The crash at Dover left Dale Jr 37th in the final finishing order.

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