Earnhardt Jr has wild Daytona 500

Earnhardt was at the centre of controversy after he made contact with Brian Vickers on lap 125 while the pair were battling to be the first car a lap down, in order to get back on the lead lap in the next caution period, as NASCAR rules allow.

Vickers tried to block Earnhardt's move on the inside, forcing him to drive bellow the double yellow lines. The Hendrick driver then steered to the right and hit the left-rear corner of the Red Bull Toyota, sending it into a spin that ignited chaos behind them.

At least ten cars were involved in the incident, taking out a number of drivers including Kyle Busch, who had looked dominant until that point. Earnhardt blamed Vickers for causing an avoidable incident, although he was unaware of the fact that the Red Bull driver was actually fighting him for position.

"On the back straightaway, I was a lap down trying to get my lap back and I had a really, really good run and Brian (Vickers), he was side-by-side with somebody for the lead and I went on the inside and he drove me down, down almost into the grass below the line and I didn't have much control over the car at that point.

"I was just trying to get back on the race track and I hit him in the quarter panel and spun him out, If he'd have just held his ground, I was the lapped car. I wasn't even racing for position. That was unfortunate."

A few laps before the incident Earnhardt had got held for one lap in the pits by officials for parking his car on the white lines that limit his pit box to the right. The penalty put him a lap down and only five laps later he had his incident with Vickers.

Busch, who led most of the race until getting caught up in the crash ignited by Earnhardt, was critical of the Hendrick driver.

"One guy that had problems all day on pit road made his problems our problems and then our problems a big problem," said Busch. "It was just unfortunate with that and it was really uncalled for to have two lapped cars to be racing each other and bumping each other like that. You'll have that I guess in big time auto racing."

Earlier in the race, Earnhardt missed his pit box while he was leading the field into the pits, something he admitted blame for.

"If you look down this pit road, my sign is pink and every other sign is pink so it's hard to see," Earnhardt said. "They're all about the same color. Everybody says all right I'm going to make mine yellow this week then two weeks later everybody's is yellow.

"I was under a lot of pressure too. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to get up in there and try to lead a lap and all that and I just wasn't thinking good. I mean I can't really blame it on anybody but myself."

Even after all his incidents Earnhardt was classified 27th, finishing the race on the lead lap.