Trouble found Hendrick Motorsports teammates at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.

While Jeff Gordon fought hard to hold on to fifth place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was equally desperate to take it away.

The pair made contact on the backstretch on Lap 359 with the tail pipe from the No. 88 Chevrolet of Earnhardt cutting the left rear tire of Gordon's Chevrolet. The result was immediate as Gordon spun into the Turn 3 wall.

"Junior got underneath me," Gordon said. "When he got into me, it looked like the tailpipe just caught the left rear and cut the left rear. I don't know what cut the left front (tire), but something cut the left front, too, and so around we went.

"I knew it immediately, and I let off trying to keep it out of the wall, but there was no chance. Ruined our day. Hate it for this team."

Earnhardt was immediately remorseful and acknowledged that the accident was "my fault."

"I hit him in the door. Oh (expletive) man," Earnhardt said over the radio. "We barely bumped ... I didn't try to rough him up or nothing we were just trying to race him hard, I wasn't trying to blow his tire up."

Not long after, Junior tried to make light of the situation, "Well, at least we won't have to hear about me and Mark Martin anymore."

Gordon returned to the track on Lap 463, 103 circuits off the pace. Eventually, he was scored 35th.

"Just hard racing here at Bristol," said Gordon, who fell six positions to 23rd in the points standings. "We weren't very good there on the restart; we were a little bit too tight still. We were making adjustments there to fix that. We were really strong earlier in the race. I was looking forward to getting to the end."