Earnhardt hopes to dominate the Budweiser Shootout in Daytona by using a new Chevrolet to get the job done. The car, built by Hendrick Motorsports, is the guinea pig for the new series of cars. He was looking for a really good car and a really good team. He thinks he has found both at Hendrick, which he joined after leaving his father’s company last year.To get back on top, he will need a good car and to start winning again. At present, he hasn’t won in the last sixty two races. He is in the shootout because of winning a 2003 race. There was a drop off in the way the cars and teams performed at DEI and that was part of the reason he decided to leave. He is in a much better place now he says.

He placed 18th out of 23 in the first practice. The Toyotas really took over the top spots. Then a fight broke out between Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch and they wound up ramming each others cars. It was actually the second accident of the season. The first occurred when Clint Bowyer tried to push Ryan Newman out of the way to pass him. Newman went spinning and all the other drivers, a total of eight, had their cars smashed in the process. Eleven out of the twenty three were damaged and had to be rushed back to the garage. After all that, Earnhardt said he wasn’t going out anymore and get his car messed up before the race.