Earnhardt hopes for better luck after wrecking out at Indianapolis

While a win in his final Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be a remarkable feat, neither did he envision his race ending with his damaged No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports sitting in Gasoline Alley with the race still going on in the background.

For the sixth time this season, Earnhardt failed to finish a race, this time suffering severe damage when cars stacked up on the outside line on Lap 76 of 160 and he ran into the back of Trevor Bayne.

Smoke began billowing from his car and it appeared the radiator had been damaged.

“There were just a bunch of cars slowing down and stopping and it was a chain reaction and we got into the back of (Bayne) and I guess they were all kind of running into each other and it just knocked the radiator out of it,” Earnhardt said.

“We hit (Brad Keselowski) earlier in the race kind of doing the same thing and it damaged the front end and I think it knocked the bumper bar out of it then, so we really had no protection after that.”

Earnhardt announced early in the season this would be his last as a full-time competitor in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, but it’s been a difficult one on the performance side.

He has just one top-five and four top-10 finishes in 20 starts and had was ranked 21st in the series standings before Sunday’s race.

Any chance to participate in this season’s playoffs, likely rests in Earnhardt’s ability to visit Victory Lane in the next six races.

Sunday, he said he felt he had a car that could compete for the win.

“We had a great car and I was having a lot of fun. The car was fast,” he said. “We had a top-10 car for sure. It’s kind of frustrating because I was really enjoying being out there.

“Hopefully our luck’s going to turnaround. It’s been pretty tough and this is a difficult one to put up with.”