Stewart Haas pair crash in practice

Just over 20 minutes into the session and while Newman was running ahead of Stewart in the draft at turn two, the right-rear tyre on Newman's No.39 Chevy exploded, sending him sideways.

That left his teammate nowhere to go, with Stewart crashing into the side of Newman's machine, and both then sliding up the track and against the wall.

Stewart was furious following his first major setback as a team-owner in the Sprint Cup series, and was once again critical of Goodyear.

"I just... Goodyear right-rear tyre," Stewart said. "Same thing everybody has been talking about all week, same stuff that we always talk about every year, the failures that Goodyear has.

"That's part of their marketing campaign... the more we talk about it then the more press they get. I think they forget that it's supposed to be in a good way, not in a bad way."

The two-time champion will switch to his back-up car and will thus move to the back of the field. He is set to race the same machine that he drove to third place in last week's Budweiser Shootout.

Defending Daytona 500 champion Newman will also have to switch cars, moving to a third different one after he had already switched to his back-up following his Gatorade Duel shunt. The car he is set to drive now was Stewart's back up for the Budweiser Shootout.

"This [car] is junk," said Newman. "A right-rear tyre exploded in the middle of [turns] one and two there and it gave me a hundred yards of sign and then it started like very slight vibration. I was getting ready to come in and it was too late.

"Unfortunately I took out my teammate and I don't know who else was caught up in that. It's a disappointing situation Goodyear's put us in."

Both Stewart and Newman will move to the back of the field during the parade laps of Sunday's race. While Newman was already due to drop from 36th to the back because of his Duel crash, Stewart had been expecting to start from fifth place prior to today's accident.