FONTANA, Calif. --- Dale Earnhardt Jr. found himself in the rare position this week of being the object of a chorus of criticism from fellow drivers, the media and even fans who normally support him unconditionally.

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"I did get ripped up quite a bit," NASCAR's most popular driver said Friday at Auto Club Speedway. "I didn't even want to go on the Web.

"It's interesting to be on this side of the fence. I'm not on this side too much."

The complaints arose after Earnhardt ignited a 10-car wreck on a restart late in Sunday's Daytona 500, the low point in a race filled with mistakes by the Hendrick Motorsports star.

Junior was trying to pass Brian Vickers with both of them a lap down but near the front of the lead pack. Vickers blocked the move by pushing Earnhardt down below the yellow out-of-bounds line. He hit Earnhardt in the process, and when Earnhardt came back onto the racing surface, he clipped the left-rear corner of Vickers' car. That sent Vickers shooting across the track and the melee was on.

That's when the finger pointing began.

Earnhardt called Vickers "a damn idiot" and Vickers returned the compliment, saying that Earnhardt should have been penalized by NASCAR for aggressive driving and had crashed him intentionally.

Other drivers criticized Earnhardt and Vickers for making such aggressive moves while a lap down.

The Internet and sports talk shows were swarmed all week by fans who wanted NASCAR to suspend, fine or take points from Earnhardt for the incident.

"I definitely could have used better judgment coming back up on the racetrack, but it's hard to tell," Earnhardt said after the opening practice for Sunday's Auto Club 500. "I mean, there was rain coming, I was a lap down (and) I had to get my lap back to even have a shot at winning the race."

Jeff Burton, who was involved in a later crash, confronted Junior after the race, accusing Earnhardt of forcing him into a three-wide situation that pushed him back in the pack and, three laps later, put him in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

"We sat there and debated my ethics and my values and all of those things and ended up agreeing that I'm not a jerk and don't race like a jerk," Earnhardt said. "He was just kind of hot under the collar a little bit."

Burton was long over it by Friday.

"I thought (the Earnhardt-Vickers wreck) was a typical Daytona, Talladega wreck where one guy tries to protect his spot and the other guy needs the spot and you misjudge by six inches and there's a wreck," Burton said.

Earnhardt said he called Vickers early this week to make sure there were no hard feelings. Vickers, who won the pole for Sunday's race but had to give it up after his team had to change the engine in his No. 83 Toyota, said he still has mixed feelings about what happened at Daytona.

"Junior did call me this week, which was much appreciated," he said. "Without giving too much detail of the conversation, he called to say that he apologized and didn't mean to do it. I told him then, 'I don't know what to say.' We ended up finishing almost last because of what happened.

"Of course, I'm upset about it. I mean I'm not happy unless I won the race, much less wreck. But I told him I do appreciate the call."