Rick Hendrick texted Dale Earnhardt Jr. midrace after Kyle Larson, Justin Allgaier incident at Indianapolis

Late in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Kyle Larson and Justin Allgaier tangled with each other. Fighting for the lead, Allgaier ended up in the wall and out of the race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a text from Rick Hendrick soon after.

Justin Allgaier was in a position to win the 100th race for JR Motorsports. Then he was out of the race with only a few laps remaining. Not to mention the threat of rain getting increasingly higher.

“You know, I told Mr. Hendrick just now, he’s texting me about that wreck off of two, and I said, you know, we’ve done this a long time,” Dale Jr. said on The CW. “You put good race car drivers in good cars, they’re going to run together and sometimes wreck together. Larson’s a guy that’s going to lay it out on the line. I know it wasn’t intentional, and it hurts. But, you know, we’re racing for the lead and he’s racing for the win, too. You know, it is what it is. We’ve seen that, I’ve been in this game a long, long time, seen a lot of crazy things happen.

“I hate it for Justin because he wants to do it. He’s been our, he’s kind of our cornerstone of our company for so many years. Just very dependable and reliant and so great to our partners over he years, and he wants to do these things for us.”

Rick Hendrick is involved with JR Motorsports, of course. He never wants to get involved with the JRM cars when it comes to wrecks. But things happen. The 7 team will move on and try to bounce back next week at Iowa.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets 100th win regardless

The great thing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. is that his JRM organization is deep with talent. So, he got his 100th win regardless. Connor Zilisch was excellent down the stretch and came away with the win today over Taylor Gray and Kyle Larson.

In the last nine races, Zilisch has four wins and no finishes worse than P5. Dale Earnhardt Jr. knows he has a special driver behind the wheel of the 88 car.

“Yeah, I was, uh, a lot of people to thank,” Dale Jr. said after the race on The CW. “But he [Zilisch] did a good job, man. Just awesome driving to him. We got some help from Sam on the back straightaway. Just a good little driver. Hey, these races are tough on your heart. Up and down, up and down. 100 wins for our team. That’s a big deal. I know my sister and everybody’s very emotional, and we’re going to enjoy this one.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked what he thought at the end when Zilisch temporarily lost the lead. What was that like? Well, it wasn’t fun. But he had the right driver for the job.

“Oh man. He’s a hell of a driver,” Earnhardt continued. “You know, he just went up there and got it back. We’ve got great race cars, a good race car underneath him to do what he needed to do. So, it takes a lot of us and want to thank the engine shop. Hendrick Motorsports engine shop, that’s what wins races in places like this and at Dover. So, thank y’all for all the hard work, they’ve worked hard this year. And all the support we get from HMS, it’s important to our performance.”