Dale Jr's fitness worries

The burns he received in a crash during an ALMS race at Sears Point last month are still causing him problems and he was forced to hand over his DEI Chevrolet Monte Carlo to the team's substitute driver John Andretti.

"(I figured) I should be out of the car trying to get better," said Earnhardt, "I think I'll be able to go to next week's race without any problem. We had a terrible racecar today so there wasn't any use in me being in there flying around in it.

"The car wasn't running too well. And I thought if we was gonna make a change, we should make it then. I could have run the rest of the way, but the car was so bad there really wasn't no use of me being in there wasting my time. I felt fine. The bumps hurt a little bit but my foot was going to sleep. I haven't been using it a lot - I haven't been standing on it much and it just goes to sleep and cramps up real easy."

Earnhardt, who pulled in on lap 53, said it was harder to hand over a badly handling car than to be forced to pull out of another race. "It was driving pretty bad this weekend and last week," he said. "I hated more giving it to the guys I was giving it to than to get out of it.

"We threw John in there and he ain't had a lap this weekend. The sway bar bolt was missing and the car was rolling over and spinning out on him, and I just hate it for him.

"I hated to put Martin in that situation last weekend (because) I know the car wasn't that great. But I just didn't really have any business trying to run it and hopefully we'll come to Indy and be able to get through it."