DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. could have used some help from his new Hendrick Motorsports teammates.

Too bad all of them were out of contention.

Four-time champ Jeff Gordon had mechanical failure, while two-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears wrecked in the 50th running of the Daytona 500 yesterday.

None could offer Junior any assistance. And he couldn't get it done by himself, ending his chance at becoming the first driver to win the exhibition Budweiser Shootout, one of the twin qualifying races and The Great American Race in the same season.

Earnhardt finished ninth, the highest of the Hendrick cars, but still a disappointment for NASCAR's most popular driver who got off to a great start with his new team.

"I made the wrong choices with the runs I got," Earnhardt said. "If you're in the right line, the help goes with you."

Earnhardt was strong in the Shootout and even better in his 150-mile qualifier, establishing himself as one of the favorites for the season-opening 500.

His Hendrick teammates were right up there, too.

But Gordon, Johnson and Mears ended up way back -- unable to team with Earnhardt and help him get to the front.

"That's what happens when you get a lot of hype and expectations," Gordon said. "You've got to go out there and make it to the finish."

Johnson was 27th, Mears was 35th and Gordon was 39th.

Kyle Busch ran more laps than anyone during Speedweeks. He led a bunch of them, too. Just not the ones that really mattered.

Busch finished fourth in the Daytona 500 yesterday, ending a hectic weekend that also included strong showings in the Craftsman Truck Series and the Nationwide Series. Busch was second in both of those.

He was considerably better in the big one, leading a race-high 86 laps and dominating most of the race.

But several late cautions kept the field bunched together and prevented Busch from getting to Victory Lane.

"Just frustrating to come home fourth," Busch said. "But that's part of the Daytona 500 when you run as good as we had all day long. Those guys couldn't keep up with us, but there were all those cautions at the end that propelled them forward enough in order to get them ahead."

Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough sat next to each other, maybe the perfect pairing for NASCAR's celebration of the 50th running of the Daytona 500. The two former series champions were at the center of an on-track brawl in 1979, the one in which Yarborough and Bobby and Donnie Allison were kicking, swinging and scuffling at the end of NASCAR's first live, flag-to-flag televised race. The fight sparked more interest than ever before in the sport.

Nearly 30 years later, Yarborough and Bobby Allison joined nearly two-dozen Daytona 500 winners brought together by NASCAR before The Great American Race.