DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Tony Stewart never had a chance. Dale Earnhardt Jr. tried, but had too much go wrong. Kevin Harvick was in the wrong place at the wrong time twice.

Early problems sabotaged three of the favorites Sunday in the season-opening Daytona 500.

	Dale Earnhardt Jr. climbs from his car after being involved in his third incident in the Daytona 500.

Stewart was knocked out of the biggest race of the year on the second lap when the engine blew on his Pontiac.

Earnhardt Jr., running second at the time, appeared to run over debris that flew out from beneath teammate Michael Waltrip's car on lap 22. It shredded his right front tire and damaged the fender.

Harvick also suffered front-end damage in a pit road collision with Mike Skinner when the cars went in for service after Earnhardt Jr. brought out the caution.

Harvick was coming out of his stall as Skinner was trying to pull into his, causing Harvick's Chevrolet to hit the back of Skinner and crumple the sheet metal.

Harvick and Earnhardt Jr. pitted four times each under the yellow flag to work on the damage, then quickly climbed back into the Top 10.

But things got worse for both Harvick and Earnhardt on the 149th of 200 laps. Harvick appeared to attempt a block on Jeff Gordon, who tapped him and sent him spinning up the banking to start an 18-car wreck.

"I thought there was enough room, but I must have come down and caught the nose of Gordon's car," Harvick said. "Then all hell broke loose."

He refused to blame Gordon, but took a good-natured jab at the four-time Winston Cup champion.

"Right now I want to pinch his neck off," Harvick said. "But I haven't seen the tape."

Earnhardt was one of the cars involved in the wreck, but it came long after his race had been ruined. He needed a long pit stop to repair the nose on his car, then blew a right rear tire that sent him shooting across the grass. He lost his brakes when the tire went and NASCAR ordered him into the garage to fix them -- which dropped him 11 laps off the pace.

He sprinted out of the care center after his accident when he was told his crew was working on getting the car back out, and went back into the race in a shell of his red Chevrolet, driving it to a 29th place finish.

Afterward, he said it was one of his more enjoyable days of racing and thought it would help him in his bid to win the championship this year.

"We didn't get the finish we wanted to, but we had a lot of cool (stuff) happen to us," Earnhardt said. "We tore some tires up, banged around, drove through the infield and raised some eyebrows there.

"It was a lot of fun and all you can do is not let it get you down and remember it raises the odds of winning the championship because the odds are about a million to one of the Daytona 500 winning the championship."

Only one driver since 1980, Gordon in 1997, has won the championship and the 500 in the same season.

Stewart might take solace in that after his second straight Daytona disappointments.

He was running in fourth place when the motor blew and he fell off the pace. He quickly radioed the bad news to his crew.

"We're done," he said. "It's junk."

Stewart had one of the strongest cars at Daytona all of Speedweeks, winning a non-points race and finishing second in a qualifying race in his Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac.

And he was on a streak, winning the International Race of Champions event in a different car.

He was confident he could win the Daytona 500, NASCAR's most prestigious race, and start the bid for his first championship on a high note.

"Whatever happened was a freak deal," he said. "It laid down on the start a little bit, then as the lap went on, it laid down even more."

Because of rain on Saturday, the final two Winston Cup practices were canceled and Stewart never got his car onto the track for a final dry-run. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli speculated any engine problems likely would have been discovered.

"Yeah, we probably would have found something, but everybody's in the same boat," he said. "We had a great race car, Tony's spirits have been up and the whole race team was looking forward to coming here and winning our first Daytona 500."

Stewart, runner-up to Gordon in the standings last season, had a good car here last year but finished 36th after an accident sent his Pontiac flipping at least twice down the backstretch.