Earnhardt Jr. frustrated after late crash at NHMS (cont'd)

"That don't mean it's all right now -- my car is tore up and he ain't got enough talent to run in the top five, I guess," Earnhardt said. "He ran down into the side of me and spun me out late in the race.

"I mean, we're all running real hard but you've got to know how much race car you've got and you've got to know how much talent you've got before you go down in the corner. He never knows. It's disappointing."

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I know that [Reutimann] can't hold his line and I should have known that -- but I gotta run hard and try to win. Some people you just can't race side-by-side with. We're disappointed. David just ran out of talent there.

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-- DALE EARNHARDT JR.

Before he left the race track, Childers spoke in defense of Reutimann -- who remained 16th in the standings while Earnhardt stayed in 21st. Childers acknowledged that hard racing late in the event, in heavy traffic on double-file restarts leaves drivers with the choice of staying on the gas or getting run over.

"The car was good, but it had been loose on entry [to the corners] all day -- especially in a pack on restarts," Childers said. "It was just a racing deal. They can say what they want to, but we're racing just like anybody else and we were just as close -- or way closer -- to making the Chase than they were.

"So we've got just as much right to race as they do. It was just one of them deals. Ten races from now he might have a car that's just as loose and he'll slide up into somebody and take them out. It happens and this is probably the worst place for it [because] it's just real flat down on the bottom and it's easy to get away from you."

Earnhardt, who has only five top-10 finishes this season and 13 top-20s, compared to eight and 18, respectively, for Reutimann -- who also has a victory -- rued the failure of his men getting the payoff of a better finish.

"We had a good car," Earnhardt said. "We ran hard and worked hard all day long and we had the best car at certain times in the race. I felt like we had a top-three car. I hate it for my guys that worked real hard. We worked hard all day trying to get a good finish out of it."

For Earnhardt, who's led only six laps in the last 18 races, with all of them coming at Michigan, the frustration seemed to mount the more he was confronted with his demise.

"We're pretty ticked off about how we've been running [and] this definitely makes us more upset," Earnhardt said. "We've been driving in the middle of the mess all day long and rooting and gouging and having fun. We didn't slap drive down in the corner and knock anybody out -- but it happens to you sometimes."

Earnhardt said he knew Reutimann's car was loose but that he had no choice.

"I know that he can't hold his line and I should have known that -- but I gotta run hard and try to win," Earnhardt said. "You've just got to know who you can race and who you can't. Some people you just can't race side-by-side with. We're disappointed. David just ran out of talent there."