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Dale Earnhardt Jr was involved in a crash and is going to a backup car just moments after posting the fastest lap of practice (to that point) at 199.526 mph. Earnhardt was pushing teammate Jimmie Johnson in a two-car draft as the came up on some slower cars that moved up a lane. Johnson got loose as he tried to slow for those in front. Another two-car draft of Martin Truex Jr and Brian Vickers came up on the back of Earnhardt and couldn't slow in time. Both Truex and Earnhardt slid down the track off turn four with Earnhardt crashed into the wall. Both Earnhardt and Truex are going to backup cars.
"I didn't feel good about good about being out there in practice, and I didn't think I needed to be out there practicing,'' Dale Jr. said. "I just had a bad feeling.''
Dale Jr. will start at the rear of his qualifying race now on Thursday. Because he is in a backup car, he'll also have to start at rear of the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
Said Jimmie Johnson: (Robby Gordon) and (David Gilliland) and (Michael Waltrip) started at the bottom of the track in turn 3 adn kept creeping their way toward the top. I was running out of space and I thought the hole was going to close and I lifted and I got turned sideways.''
The consensus from the drivers invovled in the incident was the that slower cars have to be better aware of what is going on around them and stay in their lanes because the closing speed is so significant.
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