Drivers unhappy at fans antics

The cans were thrown after Jeff Gordon moved ahead of Dale Earnhardt on the all-time winners list, on what would have been Earnhardt's birthday.

"That's terrible, they're going to hurt somebody," said reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, who finished second to Gordon.

"Throwing them at our cars and damaging them, that's not a way to show that you support our sport and our racing."

Johnson added that he wasn't only concerned about the cans that made their way onto the track.

"I just can't believe that people who love this sport would take the chance to hurt a kid or hurt another person. I'm sure there are cans that didn't make it onto the track," he said.

Last week at Phoenix, Dale Earnhardt Jr. congratulated Gordon in victory lane after he equalled Earnhardt Sr.'s record.

This week he decided not to get involved, but he had pleaded with fans to throw rolls of toilet paper instead of cans in the days before the race.

"I told Jeff this week: 'You win this one and I ain't coming to victory lane this time,'" he said. "That caused too much trouble, and it doesn't look like it's something you can control."

Gordon was surprised that the fans didn't listen to Earnhardt Jr., as very few of them opted for throwing paper instead of cans.

"I thought Junior had more power," he said. "I thought they'd throw toilet paper, which is what he asked them to throw. I saw maybe one roll.'

"I certainly didn't want to cause a riot today. Hopefully nobody got injured with what happened."

Gordon's victory at Talladega in 2004 had been met with a similar reaction by angry Earnhardt Jr. fans, and this year security at the track had been increased in an attempt to prevent a repeat.

Fans caught throwing the cans were arrested, but the number of people involved was too great for the police to prevent the trouble entirely.

NASCAR's vice president for communications Jim Hunter also expressed his disappointment with the fans on Sunday.

"It's very unfortunate that a few unruly fans can ruin things for a lot of people," he said. "The track put a lot of effort into preventing this behaviour."