Notes: Junior's N'wide car impounded after changes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Four years removed from his 2004 Daytona 500 victory, Dale Earnhardt Jr. still doesn't have a handle on the emotions he felt in Victory Lane.

"You do anything in the world just to get in the Daytona 500," Earnhardt said. "Once you're in the race, there's no feeling like it. Daddy [Dale Earnhardt] ran [this race 23] times, and the first one I saw [in person] was the first race I was in [2000]. It's real intimidating. It's just a crazy feeling to be in that field, let alone win the race. Winning is just pot luck, mainly.

"You've got to have a fast car, but circumstances and variables throughout the race dictate who's going to be around at the end with a shot to win. I just had an amazing racecar that day. It's an incredible feeling. There's no way to describe it. It's impossible to answer the question on what it's like to win the Daytona 500."

Despite wins in last Saturday's Budweiser Shootout and in Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying race, however, Speedweeks haven't been completely positive for Earnhardt. On Friday, NASCAR confiscated the spoiler from the No. 5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet that Earnhardt will drive in Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

NASCAR impounded the car after Thursday's practice and confiscated the spoiler Friday morning, noting that it had been modified after inspection in a way that would produce an aerodynamic advantage. Earnhardt was allowed to replace the car's rear decklid and spoiler before qualifying Friday afternoon.

NASCAR is expected to announce fines and penalties by Tuesday afternoon. The seriousness of the infraction could lead to a suspension for crew chief Chad Walter.

Kyle talks retirement

At age 22, having just begun a new phase of his career with Joe Gibbs Racing, Kyle Busch isn't ready to start thinking about retirement.

Kyle Busch

In a lunch meeting with reporters, however, the fourth-year Sprint Cup driver did stop to consider where his career might be by the time he reaches 36. By then, Busch says, he probably won't be competing in all three of NASCAR's top series -- Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck.

"I'll probably cool out and stop running all three by the time I'm 30, and then [with] maybe six more years in Cup, it might be time to ease out," Busch said.

By then, he hopes to have a few championship trophies on his mantel.

"I'd like to have at least four by the time I'm done," he said. "That would be sufficient. What's that -- 14 years? By then, I'd better have a hundred wins."

Those are lofty ambitions for Busch, who has scrupulously avoided taking sides in the recent dispute between his brother Kurt and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Tony Stewart. As to which one he'd side with, Busch replied: "It depends on who's stupider."

And who was stupider in the Kurt-Tony altercation? "They were both pretty stupid," Busch said. "I don't care. That's their fight, not mine. I've got my own battles to take care of."

Johnson was Hendrick of his era

Former Daytona 500 champion Buddy Baker's tenure in NASCAR coincided with the enhanced role of engineering in stock car racing, and Baker has a healthy respect for the team owners who pioneered the development of the sport.

"We came along at a time when engineering started, and Junior [Johnson] started building racecars," Baker said Friday during a gathering of former Daytona 500 winners in Daytona International Speedway's media center. "Anybody who ever watched Junior's cars run when Cale Yarborough or Darrell Waltrip or some of the other guys who raced for him -- he was probably the benchmark.

"He was the [Rick] Hendrick of the early eras. If you beat him, you pretty much had the race won. Then there's the [David] Pearson guy who came along in the Wood Brothers' car. That shared the limelight. In my opinion, if David Pearson had ever hooked up with Junior Johnson, we'd be writing about them forever and ever, because they were the best two in the sport -- and the Wood Brothers were phenomenal also."

Yarborough won't begrudge Johnson winning third title

As Jimmie Johnson faces the daunting task of trying to win three consecutive championships, Yarborough, the only driver to accomplish that feat in NASCAR's top series, will be in his corner. As a child, Johnson rooted for Yarborough, who won Cup championships in 1976, 1977 and 1978.

"Evidently it's pretty hard to do, because nobody had done it before, and I'm surprised nobody has done it since," Yarborough said Friday. "Jimmie is running good, he has a good team, and he's a good racecar driver. Eventually, somebody will do it, and if Jimmie does it, it will suit me fine.

"For me, it was hard to do, to put three championship years in a row. You'd think that, somewhere along the line, you'd have some misfortune. But [car owner] Junior [Johnson] had an excellent team, and we wanted to win -- and we did."