Junior tweets car better than driver

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. saved his first tweet for the night of his 2014 Daytona 500 win.

About 5,100 tweets and one year later, Earnhardt lamented on Twitter his lost shot at back-to-back championships.

“That car should have won the race,” he tweeted Sunday.

Earnhardt stalked the leaders late until a mistake on a restart with 19 laps left dumped him from contention. Earnhardt rallied for a third-place finish in his first race with new crew chief Greg Ives.

“I’ve got a great team,” Earnhardt said. “I feel like Greg is going to be awesome.”

Earnhardt led 32 laps in the No. 88 Chevrolet and had the checkered flag in sight until that restart misstep knocked him to 20th.

Busch’s wreck sparks safety changes

Kyle Busch’s wreck in Saturday’s Xfinity race prompted a quick and self-critical reaction from the Daytona International Speedway.

“The Daytona International Speedway did not live up to its responsibility today,” speedway president Joie Chitwood III said. “We should have had a SAFER barrier there. We did not. We are going to fix that problem right now.”

Busch was knocked out of the Daytona 500 when his Toyota slid through the infield grass and hit an inside wall. He was taken to Halifax Hospital. Busch sustained a compound fracture of his right lower leg and a left mid-foot fracture, and is expected to be out five to six months.

Fill-in drivers non-factors

Replacement drivers Regan Smith and Matt Crafton were in the spotlight and out of contention.

Smith, filling in for suspended Kurt Busch of Stewart-Haas Racing, finished 16th. Crafton, a last-minute sub for injured Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing, crossed the finish line less than 2 seconds later in 18th.

Smith stepped into the No. 41 Chevrolet on Saturday, a day after NASCAR suspended Kurt Busch indefinitely. A Delaware judge said the 2004 champion almost surely choked and beat his former girlfriend at Dover International Speedway last fall.

Crafton, a two-time Truck Series champion, got no seat time in the No. 18 Toyota. Kyle was ruled out after breaking his right leg and left foot in a harrowing crash Saturday in the Xfinity Series season opener.

Tony Stewart now 0 for 17 in Daytona 500

Tony Stewart was involved in a five-car accident early, sustaining enough damage to his No. 14 Chevrolet that it ended his chances.

Stewart is now winless in 17 tries in NASCAR’S premier event.

“Well, it’s just part of it,” said Stewart, the driver nicknamed “Smoke.” “It’s not what we had planned.”