Auto Racing

All wrong: Earnhardt gets a dose of Murphy's Law

By Bran Strickland
Sports Editor

10-04-2008

Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost his primary car during practice on Friday for Sunday’s Amp Energy 500. Earnhardt said he thinks one of his tires was punctured, which blew off the back bumper and created a large wreck, forcing Junior to use his backup car. Photo: Brian Schoenhals/Consolidated News Service

TALLADEGA — Many of the times when Dale Earnhardt Jr. comes to Talladega Superspeedway, he's in another world compared to other drivers.

Friday he found himself in an alternate universe.

If something could go wrong, it did. He blew an engine in the first practice, wrecked in second one.

Going into today's qualifying for Sunday's Amp Energy 500, Earnhardt will climb into a backup car he's had very limited practice time in. But despite it all, Earnhardt wasn't fussing and cussing about his rash of bad luck. Instead, he was just the opposite.

"It would be worse somewhere else," he said. "This place, the way these cars drive, it doesn't matter.

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Slideshow: ARCA RE/MAX 250 View photos from the ARCA RE/MAX 250 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

"I got a really good car, but even if we weren't sure how good our car was that we are bringing for the race, I still feel pretty confident."

Earnhardt said his engine troubles started with a blow-by in the cylinder that filled the crankcase with oil, running the engine out of oil. Once they got into the second and final practice, that was when the wreck happened.

It looked all calm and mundane, when all of a sudden it blew up — literally.

"(Eanrhardt) tried to explode," said Clint Bowyer, who was trailing the Talladega fan favorite.

While Bowyer was exaggerating, he wasn't that far off.

Earnhardt was coming out of Turn 4 when the nose of his car turned down on the track and the rubber from the tire blew the back bumper off. His car then went the other direction, collecting David Gilliland and Tony Stewart, among others.

According to Goodyear officials, he likely cut a tire. Earnhardt, too, was completely sure what happened, but reserved his final judge for later.

"I think the tire seemed to come apart at the tread and the sidewall," Earnhardt said while adding that he'd like to watch the replay before elaborating. "I am just hoping that it was a rare deal."

The damage was so severe to Gilliland's car that he, as Earnhardt did, elected to go with his backup ride. Kasey Kahne also decided to scrap his starting car. Stewart, however, will run his repaired car.

"That was Zippy's (Greg Zipadelli, crew chief) decision," Stewart said. "I don't know exactly what it is about this one that he likes better than the other one, but obviously there's something.

"It was decent, but I don't know what it's going to be like now."

The cars (starting and the backup) are supposed to be prepared in identical ways. However, because of all the subtleties, that's never quite case. Those drivers will all have only today's two qualifying laps to see where there car will shake out as far as speed, but will have no real extended chance to see how it works in the draft until Sunday.

Freak things such as that don't even really surprise Stewart anymore. Not after everything he's gone through this season.

"Our season has been like this every week this year," said Stewart, 11th out of 12 in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings. "This team just can't get a break and that's the hard part. … we just had one of those weird years where we can't get anything to go our way."

As the teams scrambled to repair their cars like ants on a disrupted mound, there were plenty of long faces. Despite it all, Earnhardt tried to draw any silver lining he could out of the crumbled mound of sheet metal.

Mainly because of where he stood and where he stood in victory lane five times before.

"We have faced adversity at a lot of (tracks), but this is definitely easier for the team to handle on a day like this at this track," he said. "I feel like we'll definitely mentally be stronger and tougher on Sunday because of what happened today … like it owes us one a little bit."

Next: Amp Energy 500
Sunday, 1 p.m., ABC 33/40, 92.7 FM