CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -Dale Earnhardt Jr. was frustrated as he climbed out of his car following a testing session Monday.
But Earnhardt's angst wasn't directed at his fans' newest villain.
His throng of supporters loudly blamed Kyle Busch for the wreck Saturday night that ended Earnhardt's best chance to end his winless drought. But Junior was more concerned with the hit he took in the Sprint Cup standings after a possible win turned into a 15th-place finish at Richmond International Raceway.
``The only thing I'm upset with is not being able to get the points out of it I should have been able to get,'' Earnhardt said after the morning test at Lowe's Motor Speedway. ``We've been working hard to stay consistent all year. I want to get as good of a finish I can with my car each week.''
While Earnhardt hasn't won since 2006, he's been consistently good in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports. He had seven top 10 finishes in the first nine races, and when Denny Hamlin's dominance in the first 381 laps of Saturday's short-track race ended with a flat tire, Earnhardt moved to the front.
But after Hamlin stopped on the track instead of limping to pit road, the caution allowed Busch - whom Earnhardt replaced at Hendrick - to get on Earnhardt's bumper for the restart.
They raced side-by-side until Busch's car appeared to get loose and they made contact in turn 3. Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevrolet spun and hit the wall.
The winless streak would hit 72 races.
Earnhardt said Saturday night he needed to watch replays before commenting on the wreck. Outside his hauler Monday, Earnhardt was careful not to take a shot at Busch.
``It was just hard racing,'' Earnhardt said. ``Kyle has his style of driving. I would have been a little more - I don't know. Maybe I would have ran as hard at it as he did. I don't know what I would have done.''
After finishing second to Clint Bowyer on Saturday, Busch moved into the points lead ahead of Jeff Burton. It came with Busch facing boos and insults from Earnhardt's fans.
``It's nothing new to me. I'm used to it,'' said Busch, whose aggressive style has helped cultivate a bad-boy image. ``I pretty much told them, 'Grow-up, that's racing.' We were racing hard and I feel like there are a lot of worse cases in this world than someone getting spun out in a race.''
It doesn't mean the 23-year-old Busch didn't learn from the close-quarters wreck.
``We probably could have given each other a little more room,'' Busch said. ``I probably could have dove further to the bottom, Junior probably could have run somewhat similar to the line he had been running on the previous run than he was on the first couple laps of that restart.
``He was trying to find something that would work better for his car so he could get away from me and we just made contact. Unfortunately, he got the worst brunt of it.''
Earnhardt remained in third place, but he trails Busch by 104 points. That stuck most with Earnhardt on Monday.
``I've been real proud of that with what we've been able to do this year and the way we've been consistent,'' Earnhardt said. ``It's a little bit of a bruise on the stats. It won't show at the end of the year how good we really were that weekend. I want to minimize that throughout the season.''
Saturday marked the third time Busch and Earnhardt have wrecked in less than a year. Earnhardt, who blamed himself for a crash at Kansas last year, expects to talk to Busch to avoid another frustrating day of lost points.
``Hopefully once me and him have a chance to talk about it we can come to some kind of understanding of where we won't have to deal with it ever again,'' Earnhardt said. ``Then we can just go out there and race and try to race each other with a little more respect and have a better outcome.''
