Earnhardt Jr bemoans lack of horsepower.

Defending Daytona 500 Champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. was far from satisfied with his effort in Sunday's Bud Pole qualifying session at Daytona, setting the 39th fastest speed in a car that, by his own admission, just didn't have enough horsepower.

Despite DEI's rich restrictor plate pedigree, Earnhardt Jr ran only 41st fastest in practice and stated that while his #8 Budweiser Chevrolet performed well in the all important draft, on its own his car simply can't contend with many others.

"We're way, way down on horsepower," said Earnhardt Jr, who will start 21st in Thursday opening Gatorade 150. "And that's just the simple fact of it. The car races really well in the draft. If everything works fine, we'll have a good race on Thursday and get up front sooner or later. But, to run by ourselves, we need more steam underneath the hood. I've kind of seen it coming and the test wasn't that good."

Like several of his main rivals, Earnhardt Jr and the #8 DEI team elected to forego searching for a pukka qualifying set-up, although his rivals will have taken note of Earnhardt Jr's lack of single-car speed and should be formulating their Daytona 500 plans accordingly.

"We've been real slow since we've been here," continued Junior, who finished seventh in Saturday's Bud Shootout after recovering from engine worries in the first segment. "We were slow in the test. So our expectations have been pretty low as far as qualifying. We picked up a little bit so that made the team happy. We picked up about a tenth. But we didn't expect to be real high on the board."

Armed with the knowledge that the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet may not be as potent around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway as in seasons past, Earnhardt Jr. may find it harder than ever to find a friend in next Sunday's draft.