Sad finish for Earnhardt

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was unhappy after running fourth in the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway. It seems his 73-race winless streak is beginning to take an emotional toll.

"We were a little bit off from where we ran all weekend," Earnhardt said with his head hanging Saturday night. "It wasn't near the same race car. But when you are off and you run fourth, I guess you should be happy.

"It was a long race. How did the fans like it?"

At that point, Junior fans cheered him. Earnhardt finally forced a smile.

Burning down the track

Kevin Harvick and others are looking forward to the weekend's burnout competition at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Harvick said it's hard to imagine anyone burning out as Jack Sprague did in Richmond seven years ago.

"Really, the only burnout that's really impressed me, probably the best one that I've seen, is the Sprague burnout," Harvick said. "I think it was 2001 at Richmond when all the tires caught on fire."

Stuck in the tunnel

Robby Gordon still was fuming after losing two batteries that left him with a 33rd-place finish. Things didn't get any better when his transporter couldn't squeeze through the Turn 2 tunnel at Darlington.

"If I would have known and not worn out both batteries from the get-go," Gordon said, "it probably would have been OK.

"A mistake on my part. On the other side, we shouldn't have failures. Too be honest, stuff shouldn't break. These are pretty archaic race cars and simple to work on."

Ahead of the game

Kurt Busch figured he couldn't get it done at Darlington. So he spent part of last weekend preparing for the events in Charlotte over the next two weekends -- all-star race and the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Yet, he put together his best performance in six weeks. He finished 12th after starting fifth.

"The Charlotte test paid dividends," Busch said. "With the right sides [on the track] being the same as Charlotte here at Darlington, we just kept the same frame of mind for four days straight, which really helped us."

It's a mind game

Travis Kvapil has had an up-and-down season, but he's performed well at venues in which he believes he has a psychological advantage. He was able to race wide open in Las Vegas (eighth) and Talladega (sixth).

Mentally, he was tough at Darlington in storming back for an eighth-place finish after starting 24th. While some drivers complained about the newly repaved racetrack being too fast, Kvapil didn't blink.

"I like this track, and the reason I like it so much is because it seems like the driver can make a pretty big difference," he said. "I was a little nervous about the surface because I felt like that took a little big of it away, but I still felt like you could make some things happen."

Lug nuts