Earnhardt wipes out when tire explodes

Frustration and anger ruled yesterday afternoon after Dale Earnhardt Jr. wiped out several cars when his right-rear tire blew out during the final round of practice for Sunday's Amp Energy 500.

"It was wild," David Gilliland said. "I was behind him for a lap before, and there was no smoke, no rubbing. It just blew."

Earnhardt's tire apparently had only 13 laps on it, and the tire design and compound ran well here in the April race.

It was a bad day for Earnhardt in other ways, too. First he had engine problems in the opening practice, and changed motors. Then in the second practice his tire blew. So he will start in the back of the field, no matter how fast he qualifies.

"The tire seemed to come apart at the tread and the sidewall," Earnhardt said. "We looked at the car and nothing fell off it. Normally you look at exhaust straps and stuff like that; but this just come out of nowhere.

"I will look at some of the replays to see if anything came out from under it. Maybe we can find it on the replay -- something we might have run over.

"It is unfortunate. There are a lot of man hours that go into the primary car. That was our Daytona Shootout car. But we still have a good car for the race.

"We really aren't any further behind than when we unloaded here."

The engine issue? "Some blow-by in the cylinder head, and it filled the crankcase up with oil, and the pressure was blowing out the oil tank itself," Earnhardt said. "It just ran out of oil.

"Then we were just sitting there running along, and the tire exploded. It was just incredible how it ripped that car apart."

Earnhardt had a similar tire scare at Dover two weeks ago.

Earnhardt said he's not thinking there's any general tire issue here: "I am just hoping that was a rare deal. I don't think the tire is any different (from the April race). Hopefully just we got a bad tire or something.

"Maybe we could have easily run over something. Typically, chances are we ran over something than we got a bad tire.

"It is just rare you get a tire that is just going to apart on you for no reason."

The anger and frustration was evident throughout the garage. Kasey Kahne: "I just saw tires flying and smoke. Didn't really know where to go. We'll definitely need to go to our backup.

"I don't know what we're trying to learn out there."

David Reutimann: "Judging from all the debris it looked like it blew out. I put my hand up, but then somebody ran over me."

Several of the drivers involved will apparently have to go to backup cars, including Clint Bowyer. But NASCAR officials may have to make those calls this morning, before pole runs.

If that's the way Sunday's race goes, the title picture could change.

"There's a storm brewing every time you're out there," Bowyer said. "It's exciting. And intense. And it is just as wild inside these cars as it looks like from the stands."

This race is considered the wild-card race of the championship chase.

Greg Biffle, despite having two wins and a third in the first three chase events, not only is not leading the Sprint Cup standings but he even lost ground at Kansas to Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards. "I lost another 20 points … so it's kind of fun the points are that tight, kind of unique," Bowyer said. "All three of us are just like a rope hooking us together.

"But I think that's going to change this weekend. I think you're going to see the points move a little bit more this weekend than the first three. And you'll probably see the same at Martinsville as well."

One worry here -- Biffle said Edwards' final corner charge at Kansas, against Johnson, was over-the-top: "Carl is my teammate and I don't want to make him upset. It was fun to watch.

"But if you think about the thought process inside the car … he said he planned to hit the wall, grazing the wall….. but if he didn't clear Jimmie, they'd both wreck. And second, these cars aren't like the video game; things do break when you hit the fence. And he said he hit harder than he expected to.

"It was a courageous move on his part to try to beat Jimmie. But the risk is not being able to finish second….

"I'll have to think long and hard about that move…. maybe at Homestead…."

However Biffle might not have that long to wait to see just such a move again. Jeff Burton said he expected Sunday's race to be wilder than usual.

Intimidation?

The late Dale Earnhardt used to use practice sessions to scare the heck out of the competition and reinforce his reputation as The Intimidator.

At Daytona and Darlington, in particular, Earnhardt would at times run so recklessly during practice, on purpose, that car owner Richard Childress could only cover his eyes and shake his head.

Does that stuff happen anymore? Was Edwards' dramatic last-lap challenge at Kansas just a wild gamble, or an Earnhardt-type of intimidation move that will make rivals think twice the next time they see him in their rear-view mirror?

Not everyone criticized Edwards. "The move Carl made was cool…. because he put himself into position to lead the race…. and he didn't put Jimmie in jeopardy," Burton said.

■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@


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