Earnhardt upbeat despite crash

Earnhardt led the race for the first time after overtaking Jeff Gordon on lap 97 and was up front during 96 laps for the joy of his numerous fans on the grandstands.

"Am I disappointed? Yeah - but there are a lot of ways to deal with it," Junior said. "We didn't do anything ourselves to cause the misfortune. We just had some bad luck.

"It was a lot of fun while it lasted. It's cool to be able to see the fans in the stands going crazy like that when we take the lead. Add it all up and that's how I'll be able to sleep well this week."

Earnhardt looked a clear contender for victory until the incident on lap 252, caused by a spinning Tony Stewart, put him out of the fight for victory. He later rejoined the race but his engine gave up with 45 laps remaining.

"Tony (Stewart) came out of the pits and blended in on the backstretch," Earnhardt explained. "He went into Turn 3 and I saw he was wild loose - sliding and wobbling. He finally spun in Turn 4 and I couldn't see anything in all the smoke.

"I just slowed down. I couldn't see anything but a lotta smoke and I figured the guys behind me couldn't either and they'd slow down too. But Kyle hit me from behind. He's a good guy, and I know he didn't mean to do it, but he hit me hard."

In a bizarre situation, Earnhardt finished the race in the car that crashed him from behind. He drove the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kyle Busch, as the Hendrick driver was not at the track when his mechanics were done with repairs.

"I have some friends on that team - and I'll always jump at a chance to climb into someone else's car to see what it's like," Earnhardt said.

"They used to do that all the time back in the day. You'd have relief drivers getting into someone's car almost every week, so it was kind of like a step back into NASCAR history or something. Old school! It was cool."

Earnhardt Jr was classified 36th while the No. 5 car finished 37th, driven by him, eventually beating defending champion Jimmie Johnson, who was also trying to grab some points after being involved in an earlier crash with Stewart.

The DEI driver currently lies 18th in the Nextel Cup points standing.