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LOUDON, N.H. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. appeared headed toward a top-10 finish Sunday until contact with David Reutimann late in the race sent Earnhardt's car into the wall.

Earnhardt, who finished 35th, criticized Reutimann.

"I know he can't hold his line," Earnhardt said of Reutimann. "I should have known that. David just ran out of talent down there."

Told Reutimann said the accident was his fault, Earnhardt replied: "That don't mean it's alright now. My car is tore up and he ain't got enough talent to run in the top five, I guess.

"He run down into the side of me and spun me out late in the race. I mean, we're all running real hard but you've got to know how much race car you've got and you've got to know how much talent you've got before you go down in the corner. He never knows."

Earnhardt wasn't the only driver critical of Reutimann. Don't count Ryan Newman as a fan.

"Everybody, I thought, with the exception of (Reutimann) drove pretty respectively," Newman said.

POSSIBLE PENALTY: NASCAR announced that the left front of Kyle Busch's car was too low in post-race inspection. Any penalties are expected to be announced later this week.

LATE CAUTION: NASCAR officials waited most of the last lap before calling a caution and ending the race because of AJ Allmendinger's spin on the frontstretch.

Even after calling the caution, it created confusion among the drivers, some of whom raced to the finish line.

"We were waiting to see if (Allmendinger) could get going and get out of the way," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition. "You wait as long as you can to try to not affect the outcome of a race. We don't like the race to end under caution."

STRONG FINISH: A week after winning at Richmond, Denny Hamlin finished second and is tied with Jimmie Johnson for second in the standings, 35 points behind Mark Martin.

"We've improved everywhere," he said. "We improved on our engines, the chassis and on pit road. That's what makes you win."

UP IN SMOKE: Kasey Kahne's title chances were hurt when he blew and engine and finished 38th. He's last among the Chase drivers, 161 points behind Martin. The most a driver can make up on another in a race is 161 points.

"You never know in the Chase if you can have a mulligan or not," he said. "Hopefully, we can make gains in those final nine (races)."

LIMITED SCHEDULE: Crew chief Pat Tryson is allowed at Penske Racing's shop only on Tuesdays for the organization's meetings since he's moving to Michael Waltrip Racing next year.

"Pat is going to be the crew chief for the next 10 races," said Walt Czarnecki, vice chairman of Penske Racing. "I don't think it's impacted the operation at all going forward for these next 10 races. Clearly at this time of the year, you're doing a lot of forward planning.

"He'll be with the team at the races. It's not like he's going to show up at 1 o'clock &ellipses; and go on the pit box. We haven't seen any impact so far this week doing it that way."

PIT STOPS: NASCAR told teams this weekend that the testing ban will remain for next year and not to expect any major changes with the car for next season. ... Brad Keselowski is expected to drive the No. 12 car for Penske at a Goodyear tire test this week at Daytona. ... Mark Martin's victory means a Chase driver has won the opening race of the Chase all six years. ... Chase drivers took seven of the top nine spots. ... Elliott Sadler's eighth-place finish was his best since placing fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com