Earnhardt Jr's season starts with a bang

Earnhardt Jr, who won Saturday's Busch race, ran a convincing second in the early stages behind his team-mate Michael Waltrip, but a piece of metal was flicked up by Waltrip's car giving 'Little E' a 180mph right-front blow-out and bodywork damage. After pitting for repairs and rejoining last, Earnhardt rose as high as 10th before a second puncture, this time the rear right, sent him hurtling into the infield at 160mph.

"I had a good weekend, a fun weekend," said Earnhardt Jr. "Winning that Busch race, overcoming the flat tyres and being competitive with no fender. That was cool. Sliding through the infield at 160mph with no brakes and no right rear tyre. That was cool. A lot of neat things happened this weekend.

"I think we ran over something and it cut the right front tyre and I was just trying to hang on and not crash. Even with the car all torn up, I was still able to run with anybody out there. It felt like we passed the whole field and then we had the second cut tyre. That was wild. It blew coming off of turn four. Once it blew, I had no control over which way the car was going, so the best bet just seemed to be running through the grass."

After being further delayed in the 18-car pile-up in the closing stages, which required a trip to the medical centre, Earnhardt Jr rejoined the race to finish 29th.