TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. had better days at Talladega.
Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevrolet blew an engine in the first practice Friday and blew a tire in the second and it cost him any shot of starting in the front of the field.
When the right tire exploded in the afternoon practice, it triggered a multicar wreck that affected Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, David Reutimann and a few others. Earnhardt spun and hit the wall, debris flying all over the track and collecting other drivers up in the mess as well. His car was towed off NASCAR's biggest track.
Stewart and Kahne connected and Stewart's No. 20 Toyota slid down the track and into the grass.
Earnhardt, who already had to start in the back because of the engine change, was forced to go to his backup car. It was the same car he used in Daytona to win the 150-mile qualifying race.
"I feel like we'll definitely mentally be stronger for Sunday because of what happened today," Earnhardt said.
Stewart's team briefly considered moving to the backup car, but crew chief Greg Zipadelli ultimately decided to instead fix the primary. The repairs apparently required full participation, as Zipadelli and vice president of competition Jimmy Makar crawled under the car to hammer away at sheet metal and weld parts in a hurried effort.
"I don't know exactly what it is about this one that he likes better than the other one, but obviously there's something," Stewart said. "It was decent, but I don't know what it's going to be like now."
Earnhardt was hoping for a strong finish to spark his way up the Chase standings. He's in eighth place, 190 points behind leader Carl Edwards, but is driving at one of his favorite tracks. Earnhardt was won here five times -- including four straight from 2001-03 -- was second two other times and 10th in the spring race.
"We've had troubles here and we always came back," he said. "It's a place where you can kind of rally back. We're still last anyway because of the motor change."
