DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A black No. 1 Chevrolet belonging to Dale Earnhardt Inc. sat forlornly under a car cover in the auxiliary garage area Thursday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway, and with it, perhaps the Chase for the Sprint Cup chances for Martin Truex Jr.

NASCAR officials impounded Truex's Sprint Cup car after it repeatedly failed pre-practice technical inspection. According to NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp, the car's roof did not fit the mandatory templates.

“

We're supposed to have a harder tire for here and it is harder because we're sliding around a lot. But ... they can't build a tire hard enough to last.

”

KURT BUSCH

While the car was being prepared to be transported to NASCAR's Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C., the team was unloading the backup car from the No. 1 hauler.

Truex was unable to get on the track for the first hour of practice, the only car of the 45 entered to not record at least one lap.

"It's tough when you miss practice," Truex said. "Two hours of practice isn't that much to begin with. You miss one hour, it's tough to catch up if you're not right when you start."

And things went from bad to worse when a light rain began to fall late in the session. It continued for the rest of the afternoon, eventually forcing NASCAR officials to cancel the final Nationwide and Cup practices.

It's unknown at this time what fines and penalties may be assessed against owner Teresa Earnhardt, crew chief Kevin Manion and Truex. After finishing fourth last week at New Hampshire, Truex is currently 14th in the standings with 1,945 points, 71 points behind Kevin Harvick, who is 12th with nine races remaining before the 12-car Chase field is set.

Earlier this season, NASCAR impounded the cars of Scott Riggs and Johnny Sauter before Saturday's practice at Lowe's Motor Speedway for having wing-mount violations. Each driver was penalized 150 points.

A similar penalty would drop Truex to 17th.

In 2003, NASCAR impounded Tony Stewart's car at Texas Motor Speedway for failing to fit the templates. However, the No. 20 team was not saddled with further penalties.

Because the cars will be impounded following Friday's qualifying, Truex will have no more than two laps under his belt when the green flag falls on Saturday night's Coke Zero 400. But in that respect, he'll be joined by Kurt Busch.

Busch had the fastest lap (speeds) in Thursday's practice -- 189.633 mph -- but while doing a fuel run, he blew a right-front tire on his No. 2 Dodge coming out of Turn 2 and crashed hard into the outside wall, causing heavy damage to the right side of his car.

"[There was] no warning," Busch said. "We're supposed to have a harder tire for here and it is harder because we're sliding around a lot. But we have to have so much weight in the right side and the camber we run with these new cars, they can't build a tire hard enough to last."

The Penske Racing crew was forced to unload the backup car for last week's winner, meaning Busch will have no practice laps with the car that he'll attempt to qualify Friday.