James: All eyes glued to Dale Earnhardt Jr. after Daytona 500 crash

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The inevitable bump came on Lap 107 and NASCAR and a massive fan base gasped. You just couldn’t hear it over the screeching tires.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s return in the Daytona 500 after missing the last half of the 2016 Cup season with a concussion was heavily anticipated and nervously watched on Sunday. He did what Junior does. He qualified second, he raced among the leaders, eventually led eight laps and was biding his time near the front of the field when an apparent tire problem sent Kyle Busch sliding in front of him.

The right front of Earnhardt's car came briefly off the track after walloping Busch, but he told his crew under the ensuing red flag period that adjustments to his head rest before this season helped mitigate the impact.

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Earnhardt tends to be at the center of story lines, and this crash means more than a 42-year-old man being denied a chance to win NASCAR’s greatest race for the third time. Certainly, NASCAR benefits from its most popular driver of the past 14 seasons being competitive. He is the tide that floats all boats. But racing — a contact sport at incredibly high speeds in incredibly heavy dangerous machines — was inevitably going to produce a scenario in which his healed brain would be subjected to forces that have previous harmed it. Concussions are nefarious that way.

Earnhardt eventually was forced to retire from the race when his car could not be repaired sufficiently in the five minutes allotted by new rules that allow teams only five minutes to fix damage on pit road. Earnhardt brought his car to the garage, and his day was done.

He made his mandatory trip to the infield care center, he lamented the accident, asserted it “wasn’t too hard a hit,” and went about his business. All seemed well.

NASCAR and a massive fanbase exhaled. You just couldn’t hear it over the engines.

Follow James on Twitter @brantjames

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