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Earnhardt retiring Amelia to his car graveyard after two big hits at Talladega

RIP Amelia.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crash

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crash

NASCAR Media

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Crash: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Crash: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet wins, while Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota spins
Race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Hendrick Motorsports performed admirably when it came to putting Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s favorite restrictor plate ride back together time and again. 

I think everyone needs to chill. There’s no reason to make a knee-jerk reaction to what we saw on Sunday

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

But on Sunday, despite the team fixing the car after Earnhardt spun out by himself in Turn 2 -- and then wrecked again when Carl Edwards blew a tire and nailed the No. 88 Chevy -- it was time to wave the white flag.

On its way to Dirt Mo' Acres

Still, Earnhardt has just the place for Amelia. As he explained on Sirius/XM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday’s Morning Drive, Amelia will join a long list of infamous race cars at the Dirty Mo’ Acres Graveyard.

“I think that last wreck with Carl bent the center section of the car so we wouldn’t be able to fix it if we wanted to, I don’t think,” Earnhardt said. “It’s going to go into the graveyard whenever they get all the useful parts off of it — whatever they need. They’ll probably pull the engine and the transmission out of it — all of that good stuff before it comes out here. But it will get there eventually, for sure.” 

 

 

Certainly, Amelia came from desirable pedigree — as does the driver. Despite finishing 40th on Sunday, Earnhardt has two poles and two wins at Daytona and one victory at Talladega since joining Hendrick Motorsports. With Amelia’s track record, it’s not surprising she was near and dear to Earnhardt’s heart.

“We ran five races with it last year and it won three and we finished second in the other two,” Earnhardt said. “That’s pretty much all it takes. Hindsight is probably 20-20, but we tried to run the car again this year. We had pretty bad luck with it. We spun out in both races for whatever reason. The car just didn’t have good balance in the race. 

“We know why it didn’t run well at Talladega — and what we needed to do and what we did to make that happen and how to avoid that in the future. At least that’s the good part about it. At least we know why the car drove like it did. It’s a little bit disappointing cause we feel like we kind of, we were good in practice and had a good opportunity to get a good run that weekend — at a place where we usually run pretty good. I would have liked to have been out there trying to compete.”

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