"We worked really hard" - Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes feeling known about Florence night ending in engine failure

Dale Earnhardt Jr. returned to race the iconic No. 8 Budweiser car at Florence Motor Speedway on Saturday night but had to end the race early due to a fuel pump issue.

Earnhardt Jr. began the South Carolina 400 for the CARS Tour in 40th place after a poor qualifying performance. However, he quickly worked his way up through the field and reached 11th place before a red flag halted the race. The 50-year-old ended up in second place and 20-year-old Treyten Lapcevich finished ahead and won.

In a post-race interview with Frontstretch, Earnhardt Jr. spoke about his fuel pump failing with 30 laps remaining and how he had to end the race.

"We worked really hard trying to free it up all weekend, and even did some more after the heat race. I got in that heat race and I was just figuring out the balance and seeing where we were. We weren’t free enough, so we made some changes before the main event, and I think all of that was just going in the right direction," he said (1:30).

Dale also talked about his thought process as the race went on.

"I was thinking, man if we just finish in the top 10 I'd be pretty happy... Then I ended up driving up to second before halfway, and I was thinking, 'Shoot, this is turning into something else. It's ain't about just trying to salvage a good run; we had a good enough car to win the race, I think," he added (00:15).

Dale Jr. further said that he was frustrated after qualifying and thought about quitting but is excited to race again.

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"We've got to go out there and do something cool" - Dale Earnhardt Jr. on racing the No. 8

In the same interview, Dale Earnhardt Jr. reflected on moving from 40th to 2nd place in the No. 8 car. He mentioned his excitement about racing and wanted to make the fans happy and not let them down.

"To be able to drive through the field like that was probably a lot of fun for folks to watch. And, you know, when you put something like this together, it's a ton of pressure... When you get here and you're at the racetrack, you're like, holy shit, there's a lot of people here that are really excited about this, and now we've got to go out there and do something cool," Earnhardt Jr. said (07:56).

When asked about longer races, Dale said it was tricky to work that into the CARS tour schedule because it might cost more and there are multiple classes in a race night.