Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch both hit wall in Food City 500

Tricky track conditions at Bristol Motor Speedway proved to be too much for NASCAR’s most popular driver and one who’s won the spring race several times in the past.

When Bristol bites, it doesn’t discriminate. The victims of bad luck in the first ever Monday running of the Food City 500 included both the popular and the accomplished alike.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who came into Bristol with some momentum for the first time in 2017, saw it go away just like that. Earnhardt was running 20th when he made hard contact with the wall, ending his day in 38th place.

Oil appeared to be the culprit, as Junior himself explained to the Fox Sports crew:

Earnhardt Jr. likes Bristol, but he hasn’t had as much success there in the spring as Kyle Busch, a three-time Food City 500 winner. That still didn’t help him later in the race when he, too, had a close encounter with the wall of the high impact variety.

They were hardly the only drivers to have issues. Brad Keselowski, considered one of the favorites going into the Food City 500, had mechanical problems and ran dozens of laps down for most of the race. Danica Patrick crashed out of the race and four-time Bristol spring winner Kurt Busch has trouble that left him multiple laps down as well.

Cup Series points leader Kyle Larson avoided all of the issues during the first 400-plus laps (leading more than 200 of them after the green flag) but was stymied by a self-inflicted gaffe, speeding on pit road. Martin Truex Jr. did the same thing even later, making the final dash to the end of the Food City 500 a complete toss-up.