JOLIET, Ill. – Happy Hour didn’t go as planned for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A faulty sparkplug slowed the No. 88 Chevy’s progress for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway. Earnhardt was 26th on the speed chart in final practice.

Despite a lack of speed, it didn’t slow NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver from giving back.

“Our final practice was a disaster,” Earnhardt said. “It was such a mess. We started out with a bad spark plug so we had to come back in the pits and fix that. It threw us off the rest of the 50-minute practice.

“We sort of struggled to understand where we were competition-wise with everyone else because we were on different tires and making a lot of changes. Things just didn’t really click like I was hoping in that last practice.”

But his recent act of kindness could prove to be Earnhardt's best move of the weekend.

Through the Dale Jr. Foundation (@tdjf) Earnhardt is auctioning off a pair of teal racing gloves to support National Ovarian Cancer Month at the request of his friend Sherry Pollex, who is battling the disease. Pollex, who has worked tirelessly with her partner Martin Truex Jr. and the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation through benefits such as Catwalk for a Cause to raise awareness for Pediatric Cancer Research, asked Earnhardt to do the same for Ovarian Cancer.

“Sherry came to me and asked me if I’d be interested in doing something for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and their color is teal, so we thought it would be a neat idea to make the driving gloves I have with the skull hands teal this month,” Earnhardt said. “So I’m going to race with a different pair each Sunday and I’m going to auction them off through the Dale Jr. Foundation and give those proceeds to a charity of Sherry’s choosing.

“You know, she’s been a long-time friend of mine and she’s been a big part of Martin’s life so I just want to support her and try to help her through her recovery,” Earnhardt added. “So I was very happy to be able to do this.

“I think Truex is wearing some teal shoes. I’m not sure what exactly he’s got going on but he’s doing the same thing and is going to be auctioning off his stuff as well. It’s a pretty neat deal.”

Truex, who drives the No. 78 Chevy for Furniture Row Racing, has worn a teal ribbon in support of Pollex. In response to Earnhardt’s second tweet, Truex posted:

For more information on Pollex and the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation, visit: http://www.martintruexjrfoundation.org/