Kurt Busch's rough weekend at Auto Club Speedway continued on Sunday.
Busch was moving up through the NASCAR Sprint Cup field after starting from the rear in his backup car when he was hit in the right rear quarter panel by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Footage on the Fox broadcast from Earnhardt's in-car camera showed Busch's car move up too high in front of him as Junior was quickly closing.
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Busch had smoke in the cockpit and pitted with less than 10 laps completed in the Auto Club 400.
Busch was in a backup car because of heavy damage to the right side of his car during Saturday's practice at the track.
His crew did metal work and tape repairs to get the No. 41 back in form.
Earnhardt wasn't happy.
"Well, that (freakin) sucked," says @DaleJr as he dropped to p29 #NASCAR
— Lee Spencer (@CandiceSpencer) March 20, 2016
“I don’t know what I could have done, the 41 just pulled up there, I couldn’t react fast enough for that," Junior said on his team radio. He also complained of having little front grip.
After the race's first caution, in an accident by Chris Buescher, Junior was 32nd on the restart. Nephew Jeffery Earnhardt, who qualified 39th and last, was 35th.