Dale Jr: It's been a rough week.

Dale Earnhardt Jr certainly didn't cover himself in glory during last Sunday's Coca Cola 600, wrecking himself and his DEI teammate Michael Waltrip and struggling to another disappointing finish in his #8 Budweiser Chevrolet.

Still doing little more than making up the numbers despite the appointment of Steve Hmiel as his interim spotter, Earnhardt Jr and Waltrip had both moved into the top ten as Sunday's 400-lap race reached the lap 245 mark.

But as Earnhardt Jr chased Waltrip's #15 NAPA Chevrolet through the tri-oval of the 1.5-mile Lowe's Motor Speedway, a slight error of judgement saw the front of Earnhardt Jr's machine clip the rear of Waltrip's car, sending Waltrip into a wild spin that also caught up the closely following Matt Kenseth and Terry Labonte.

While Waltrip, Labonte and Kenseth were eliminated on the spot, Earnhardt Jr was able to soldier on despite being almost 30 laps down to cross the line in 33rd place.

His performance however, drew little praise from none other than his own uncle, Tony Eury Jr, who is now Waltrip's crew-chief following DEI's much publicised #8/#15 crew swap at the end of last year. Eury Jr was incensed at the collision, saying of his nephew; 'I don't know what his problem is.'

"It's been a rough week," admitted Junior, now sits 15th in the points table, 350 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. "All of us at DEI want to win so bad, things happen or are said in the heat of the moment. It's the way it always has been. That's family, ya know?"

With both DEI teams failing to achieve the level of success seen in 2004, NASCAR's most popular driver has also had to defer continuing questions about DEI's current slump and remains defiant that the organization is moving in the right direction.

"We've been through much worse situations together, and we've always been able to rebound together and come back strong," added Dale Jr. "I don't expect anything different this time. All of the DEI drivers and crew chiefs met after every practice session this week and we're going to keep doing that so we can have two teams in the Chase at the end of the year."