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Nascar and Racing

Tempers Boil After Junior's Daytona Dare

Posted Feb 15, 2009 8:20PM By Holly Cain (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Daytona Int'l Speedway, NASCAR Crashes, Sprint Cup

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the talk of the Daytona 500 once again.

Only this time it was all about a punt, not a pass.

Contact between his Chevy and Brian Vickers' Toyota on Lap 125 took out eight other cars -- including the race leader -- and left some of his competitors questioning the fairness of how NASCAR doles out penalties.

More Coverage: Daytona 500 Results | Kenseth Wins | Junior Triggers Crash

"He hit me the first time on the way down, which is fine, we all do that," Vickers said. "Then when he came back up, he just hooked me in the left rear and typically NASCAR penalizes. ... I guess they're not going to penalize him for that."

Earnhardt denied he was intentionally wrecking anyone, instead claiming that he was just trying to regain control of his car after Vickers blocked his pass and forced his car down the race track.

"Penalize me? For what?" asked Earnhardt. "I got run into and sent down below the yellow line. What the hell am I supposed to do? Stay down there? No.

"I got to get back up on the race track. ... It was unfortunate man. If he wasn't so damn reckless, we would have never had that problem, that would never happen.

"As far as I'm concerned, it is all his responsibility," added Earnhardt, who stayed in the race and finished 27th.

"I don't hate it for him, but for everybody else that got wrecked."

Those collected in the accident weren't as understanding. Especially Kyle Busch, who was leading the race at the time, led a race-best 88 laps and insisted he was "100 percent" confident in winning.


"Some guys having some bad days and not doing their best made their bad day, our bad day," said Busch, who ended up 41st. "It's just a shame. That M&Ms Toyota was so, so strong today and led all those laps. It was just unfortunate that two guys got together that were a lap down and were fighting over nothing."

Busch didn't buy Earnhardt's explanation either.

"I'm not really very surprised (Earnhardt made the move), but it doesn't matter -- it could be anybody out there," Busch said.

"It's not very difficult to ease back in, you just roll out of the throttle and fall back in line," he said.

There was precedent for a penalty. NASCAR handed Jason Leffler a 5-lap penalty in Saturday's Nationwide Series race here for causing a very similar incident. In that case, however, they deemed Leffler's move as aggressive driving.

And actually Earnhardt did receive a penalty in the race. Officials held his car for one lap after his tire was slightly on the line, therefore the car not technically in the pit box during a stop. He was trying to make up that lap when he was racing Vickers for position.



Ironically, the only race Vickers has won in the Cup Series was at Talladega, Ala. in 2006 -- and he took the checkered flag after spinning out the leader Jimmie Johnson -- then his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports.

Then, as in Sunday's incident, Vickers maintained he was within his rights of competition.

"I think I was doing what I had to do," Vickers said. "That's superspeedway racing. You watch your mirror and try to keep the guy behind you, behind you.

"People blocked me the whole race. ... but I don't just hook them in the left rear and turn them in front of the field. I don't think that's an excuse to do that.

"Everybody has their own opinion I guess."

Tags: brian+vickers, BrianVickers, dale+earnhardt+jr., DaleEarnhardtJr., daytona+500, Daytona500, fanhouseindaytona, kyle+busch, KyleBusch

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