DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. climbed out of his race car, started walking toward his pit and was accosted by Jeff Burton.

Earnhardt was lucky a few more drivers weren't waiting for him.

NASCAR's most famous driver wrecked a good chunk of the field on a restart late in the Daytona 500 on Sunday, the low point in a race filled with mistakes by the Hendrick Motorsports star. Believe it or not, Earnhardt looked more like a rookie than one of the sport's best restrictor-plate racers.

He finished 27th in the rain-shortened season-opener, struggling in the pits, taking out several contenders and leaving some so fuming mad that he might have needed his firesuit just to get through the garage.

Burton was the first to grab his ear, but Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers were way more vocal.

Earnhardt brushed the complaints aside, saying he was merely doing what he needed to do to get back on the lead lap and back in contention.

"We were good. I just had some bad luck," Earnhardt said. "Every time I would get to the front, there was something that took me to the back, whether it was something I would do or something else. But I had a great car. I could run up in the top five all night."

Maybe so, but problems overshadowed prowess.

His issues started early, when Earnhardt missed his pit stall during a caution nearly 60 laps in. He had to drive the entire length of pit road, then circle the 2Z\x-mile tri-oval before getting the car back to his crew.

He said the problem was that his pit sign was pink, a color that was supposed to stand out. Instead, several other teams used a similar color, making it difficult to find his spot.

It got worse.

On a later pit, Earnhardt stopped with his right front tire barely touching the outside line of his stall and incurred a one-lap penalty.

"A lap for that is ridiculous," he said. "If somebody's pitting outside the box, what's the big gain that they need a lap taken from them?"

The penalty forced him to line up inside the leaders on the restart, where Earnhardt triggered a nine-car accident that knocked Busch and several others out of the race.