By Mark Long

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ Brian Vickers' first outing of the season ended early.

Vickers blew an engine on the ninth lap of Friday's first practice for the season-opening Budweiser Shootout, forcing his team to scramble to get the car ready for Saturday's race.

``It wasn't much fun,'' Vickers said. ``We had no warning. ... It just let go. It's just one of those things. Sometimes motors just blow up. There are a lot of moving parts in there.''

Vickers was running in a tight pack _ just ahead of fan favourite Dale Earnhardt Jr. _ when the engine blew, but Earnhardt avoided getting caught up in the mess.

``I checked with him on that and said I was sorry about that because we were in a pretty tight pack,'' said Vickers, who finished 17th in Nextel Cup points last season driving the No. 25 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Vickers' team quickly switched motors and had the third-year Cup series driver back on Daytona International Speedway for the second Shootout practice Friday.

Earnhardt finished the first practice session with the second fastest time, turning a lap at 190.247 mph. Kyle Busch was the fastest, with Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin rounding out the top five spots.