Dodge Talladega II 'Happy Hour' accident notes

WARD BURTON (No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge Intrepid R/T)

"I just sat in there with Mike Helton and Bill France and watched the replay of the accident about six times. He (Jeff Purvis) didn't have anybody on the outside of him, so I thought he had room to go up. He did. He just didn't know I was there. I had the left front on the apron. I just couldn't hold it down any more basically. He better get a rear view mirror so he can see a little better. At the same time, it takes two to tangle. I'm sorry it happened for everybody. It didn't hurt my car. Nobody is blaming anybody. NASCAR is in a touchy situation. Everybody in the world is analyzing the best motorsports program in the world. I'm sorry to have them be analyzed even more."

JOHN ANDRETTI (No. 43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid R/T)

NOTE: Andretti was involved in an accident in the last practice session on Saturday morning and will have to switch to a backup car for Sunday's race. It's a brand new Dodge Intrepid R/T that's never been raced.

"The whole race track is blocked and you get hit from behind as you're hitting the guy in front of you. It's unfortunate because our car is junk. I like Ward an awful lot, but he didn't start at the bottom and get pinched. He came from the top and came across and came down. Then he might have got pinched, which is a bad deal, but it was a stupid accident. It should have never happened. I was being pretty careful, but careful didn't do me a lot of good."

-Dodge Motorsports-