Dale Earnhardt, Jr. looked to be competitive in Saturday Night's Irwin Tools Night Race At Bristol as the Kannapolis, North Carolina native led 13 laps near the 200 lap portion of the 500 lap race. This was after a lap 84 penalty handed down by NASCAR to Earnhardt for speeding exiting the pits. Unfortunately crew chief, Steve Letarte made the mistake of calling Earnhardt to the pits too early on a lap 347 stop which forced the Diet Mountain Dew car to restart at the rear of the field. Earnhardt finished the race in 12th position.
Number/Driver, Lap, Infraction, Penalty
#88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 84, Speed-Exiting pits, tail end
#18 Kyle Busch, 84, Speed-Entering pits, tail end
#39 Ryan Newman, 84, Removing equipment from assigned pit area, stop and go/tail end
#34 David Ragan, 122, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#22 Sam Hornish, Jr., 122, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end, garage
#27 Paul Menard, 149, Speed-Exiting pits, tail end
#36 Dave Blaney, 192, Speed-Entering pits, tail end
#2 Brad Keselowski, 272, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end, garage
#51 Kurt Busch, 272, Speed-Entering pits, tail end
#34 David Ragan, 273, Speed-Exiting pits, tail end
#78 Regan Smith, 322, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#51 Kurt Busch, 322, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end, garage
#36 Dave Blaney, 323, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#17 Matt Kenseth, 333, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#36 Dave Blaney, 333, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#51 Kurt Busch, 334, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 347, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#2 Brad Keselowski, 347, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#51 Kurt Busch, 372, Crew member(s) over the wall too soon, pass thru
#13 Casey Mears, 413, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#13 Casey Mears, 413, Too many crew member(s) in contact with pit service area, tail end
#13 Casey Mears, 416, Lug nut(s) not installed, pit
#36 Dave Blaney, 425, Too many crew member(s) in contact with pit service area, tail end
#13 Casey Mears, 425, Too many crew member(s) in contact with pit service area, tail end
#51 Kurt Busch, 435, Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
#36 Dave Blaney, 489, Safety violation, pit