For one cool night, the Budweiser No. 8 came back and looked the part in South Carolina. And it brought JR Nation along for the ride.
Florence Motor Speedway is a time capsule of the past and history of racing. Many NASCAR legends have cut their teeth on the tire-eating short track, located just a hop-and-skip down the road from the Lady in Black, Darlington Raceway.
The track delivered another iconic look back on Saturday as Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought back the Budweiser No. 8 for the first time in 17 years. With it came a sea of red in the stands, as Earnhardt’s passionate fanbase showed up and showed out.
It didn’t start off well for the racing legend. His qualifying effort left much to be desired in 53rd. Only a promoter’s provisional locked the two-time Daytona 500 winner into the feature.
“Honestly after qualifying I was just hoping to have something to be happy about. I was thinking if we could finish in the top 10 I’d be pretty happy about that,” Earnhardt told Frontstretch after the race. “I was thinking in the first half I needed to find myself in the top 20 or the top 15 to give myself a chance, I was driving the car really smart.”
Earnhardt was ready to throw in the towel at one point, but ran into another driver that showed him some encouragement and lifted his spirits.
“Honestly I was ready to quit doing this shit after qualifying because I was thinking if I can’t do any better than that, I don’t need to be out here,” Earnhardt admitted. “The driver of the No. 88 [Gary Greenwood] was struggling too and he came up to me and said I need to keep my head up.”
Greenwood added that he was racing because of Dale, telling the star “I lost my dad, and listening to your show has helped me. You’re doing good and helping people. I get to drive my race car and feel closer to my dad.”
“I told him I needed to hear that,” Earnhardt said.
Knowing the task ahead of him, the CARS Tour co-owner quietly rode in the back of his heat race, keeping his car clean for the main event with one of four provisionals in hand. Qualifying has always been an Achilles heel for Earnhardt. But when it comes to the main event, he knows how to work his way up through the pack.
That proved true again on Saturday. Once the green flag flew, Earnhardt began to charge his way methodically toward the front. He slowly quickly rolled into the top 25, top 15, and top 10. By the race’s halfway break, Earnhardt was up to second behind eventual winner Treyten Lapcevich.
The atmosphere was one you had to be there for as the crowd roared and stayed on their feet every time he drove by, exploding once he climbed out during the break.
“I’m hoping everyone was having fun,” Earnhardt said. “They were just like me, I’m sure they were disappointed with qualifying but driving through the field like that was fun for folks to watch.
“When you put something like this together there’s a ton of pressure, there are people really excited about this and we have to go out and do something cool.”
The top three heading into the break were the same contenders in the second half and there was optimism from the No. 8 team that he could reel in the leader, believing Lapcevich was using up his equipment and tires too soon.
Unfortunately for Earnhardt, the dream result wasn’t meant to be. The excitement faded as his car was brought down to pit road in the closing laps with a fuel pump issue. Earnhardt’s No. 8 team looked under the hood, but couldn’t get the car restarted.
Earnhardt’s late mechanical issue derailed the end result. But it still proved to be a memorable night for the sea of red that showed up to support their favorite driver in South Carolina.
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