The following week at Bristol, while running 5th, leader Denny Hamlin was wrecked by Kevin Harvick while racing for the lead, which then sent Hamlin's car into the inside wall. Hamlin's car then slid right back up in front of the No. 88 and slammed into the left-side door of the car, and the contact was bad enough to send Earnhardt behind the wall, and suffer a 39th-place finish. This was his second DNF of the year, after the early exit in the spring Texas race.