| | | | | | NOT YOUR FAULT | Junior refuses to blame | Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he's benefitted from collisions as well |
| | Dustin Long / The Roanoke Times Dale Earnhardt Jr. can't hide his disappointment, but he won't badmouth Kyle Busch for their incident Saturday that cost Earnhardt a chance to end his two-year winless drought.
"I took him out at Kansas last year during the Chase,'' Earnhardt said Monday during a break in testing at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
"That's really why I wouldn't be any more angry about [the Richmond wreck] because I would just be hypocritical in that sense.
"We both kind of been on each side of it now between the two of us. Hopefully, once me and him have a chance to talk about it, we can come to some kind of understanding that we don't ever have to deal with it again and we just go out there and race and try to race each other with a little more respect and have a better outcome.''
They hit racing side-by-side for the lead three laps from the scheduled end at Richmond. Earnhardt slid into the wall. Busch lost the lead to Clint Bowyer, who went on to win. It was at least the fourth time since last spring that contact between Earnhardt and Busch caused an accident in a Cup race.
Busch said he left a message on Earnhardt's cellphone Monday morning to discuss Saturday's skirmish. Busch said that the Richmond incident "had nothing to do'' with the Kansas crash last year.
"That's behind me,'' Busch said of Kansas. "I'm focused more on what is going on with my new team with Joe Gibbs Racing. From what I remember, they signed me on in order to go out and win races and that's what I'm trying to do.''
How Busch tried to do that on the inside of Earnhardt in turn 3, though, left Busch vulnerable to trouble, said Jeff Gordon, a teammate to Earnhardt.
"I would say it was hard racing,'' Gordon said. "I think everybody knows that at Richmond when you're racing for the lead ... the guy on the outside, he's going to race hard and make it very difficult for the guy on the inside to make the pass. The guy on the inside has to be a little more bold and aggressive.
"At the same time, you know that going into turn 3, you can't get in deep if a guy is on the outside of you, it takes the air away and the car gets real loose. So, it looked to me that Kyle just kind of drove in there a little bit too hard, too close to Junior and it took the air off him and got him loose.''
Busch labeled the contact a result of "hard racing'' for the win.
"Dale Jr. and I were both driving extremely hard and we both were getting into the corner probably deeper than we had been all day,'' Busch said.
"Unfortunately, he got the worst brunt of it.''
Busch is taking the brunt of the abuse. Busch said a few fans yelled at him as he left Richmond International Raceway after the race.
"I pretty much told them, 'Grow up, that's racing,' '' Busch said. "We're racing hard, and I feel like there's a lot more worst cases in the world than someone getting spun out in a race.''
Incensed Earnhardt fans disagree. They have riddled the Internet with angry notes of varying degrees, upset at Busch for denying Earnhardt a chance to win his first Cup race since May 2006.
Brian Vickers can relate. Vickers upset Earnhardt fans in 2006 when he tapped teammate Jimmie Johnson, who got into Earnhardt on the final lap. Earnhardt and Johnson spun. Vickers won.
"Kyle's probably going to get a lot more boos,'' Vickers said. "In all honesty, he got a lot anyway. I got a few more after the whole Talladega thing.''
Earnhardt's biggest frustration was finishing 15th in Saturday's race when he was headed for a top-three finish at worst.
"I've had a lot of pride in what we've been able to do this year and the way we've been consistent,'' Earnhardt said. "That is just a little bit of a bruise on the stats for what we've had this year. It won't show at the end of the year how good we really were that particular weekend.''
Hamlin injured
Losing Saturday's race at Richmond after dominating the first 380 laps wasn't the only bad part of Denny Hamlin's weekend.
Hamlin injured his left hip playing basketball Sunday night, a night after a cut tire prevented him from winning a Sprint Cup race at his home track. He limped in the garage Monday during testing at Lowe's Motor Speedway and said if it got worse, he'd see a doctor.
"I'd like to say that I was going up for a dunk, but I think everyone would know that ain't true,'' Hamlin said with a smile.
Hamlin said he was hurt when he leapt for the ball and clipped the shoulder of a ducking player.
"I was horizontal to the ground and that was bad on the way down,'' Hamlin said.
| | Posted May 06, 2008 , 10:02 pm EST
Last Updated May 09, 2008 , 10:03 pm EST | | | | | | | | | | |
