Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn't surprised he was wrecked on the green-white-checkered restart in Sunday's NASCAR race at Sonoma. That sort of thing happens on a late restart at a road course, he said.
But what did surprise him? His No. 88 car wasn't very good throughout Sunday's race.
"I'm just mad because we didn't run better," he said. "We're better than this. I've run better here. We weren't good all weekend.
"I mean, I ain't the best road-course racer out there, but I can damn sure do better than that."
Earnhardt Jr. had a shot at a top-10 finish until he was run over behind on the GWC restart. He started 13th and had fresh tires to give him a chance at one of his best Sonoma finishes, but he finished 23rd instead and fell to third in points.
So who was the driver who hit Earnhardt Jr.? The Michigan race winner said it was Jeff Burton, but he said Burton was likely being pushed from behind by some others (and made it clear he thinks Burton is a clean racer).
"I just got hit in the back and spun around," he said. "I'm sure there's a bunch of people running into each other there to have made that happen. I don't think it was anything intentional; it was just the way green-white-checkers are here. We see it every year."