LOUDON, N.H. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. and David Reutimann were in similar situations Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway: Racing for nothing but wins, pride and respect as the sixth-annual Chase kicked off with the Sylvania 300.

A wreck with less than 20 laps to go ruined any chance for a win for both drivers.

Earnhardt and crew chief Lance McGrew tuned their No. 88 Chevrolet into a car that was a potential race winner, which has been a rarity for Earnhardt this season.

Junior seeing red

David Reutimann comes up the track and puts Dale Earnhardt Jr. into the wall, ending his day in Loudon.

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Reutimann was more consistent throughout the day, but by the final 100 laps he and crew chief Rodney Childers had persevered with an ill-handling No. 00 Toyota that was perched on the verge of gaining a top-five finish.

But right after a restart with 18 laps to go, Reutimann and Earnhardt were running fifth and sixth, respectively, when they went into Turn 3 side-by-side. When Reutimann's loose car washed-up the race track, it knocked Earnhardt's car into the outside wall.

Earnhardt tried to limp away to the garage, but his car was too badly damaged and he ended up out on the spot, in 35th. Reutimann soldiered through two more restarts but ultimately slipped back to finish 12th -- his fifth consecutive top-20 finish.

"Our car wasn't very good when the cars were all bunched-up," Childers said. "On long runs, when it got real spread out, it was really good. We just didn't need that caution near the end, when we were running fifth because we didn't have anybody catching us and we were in pretty good shape."

The crash set up a potential war of words, but with Reutimann's hauler the last one in line and next to the back gate into the garage -- where a fleet of drivers' golf carts waited following the event -- apparently he exited the car, and quickly left the area.

Earnhardt, however, was openly bitter when he exited the infield care center. A season's worth of frustration poured out when he was told Reutimann had relayed a message by radio accepting blame for the accident.

"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."

“

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.

”

-- 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."