DOVER, Del. - Robby Gordon said he met with NASCAR president Mike Helton on Friday morning to discuss last week's incident where Gordon intentionally spun Greg Biffle as pay back for an earlier accident.

NASCAR penalized Gordon two laps for the incident, which also damaged the cars of title contenders Tony Stewart and Jeremy Mayfield. NASCAR also prohibited Gordon from getting his laps back by the rule that allows one car per caution to get a lap back. Richard Childress Racing announced it put Gordon on probation earlier this week. NASCAR did not penalize Gordon further.

"He [Helton] said my punishment I received last weekend for being held two laps should have been embarrassing enough to be what it is," Gordon said.

Gordon admits his team probation will "hamper my ability" to race.

"I will try to do the best of my ability to race people as clean as possible," Gordon said. "At the same time, I don't have a deal for next year and I have to perform."

Strong recovery

Rookie Brian Vickers rebounded from a crash in practice to qualify third in a backup car.

Vickers bounced off the turn-4 wall during the prequalifying practice session. Hendrick Motorsports teammate Terry Labonte later crashed in qualifying and also had to go to a backup car. He'll start 38th.

"It's not the hardest hit I've had, but it's one of the hardest hits I've had in awhile," Vickers said of his accident. "What hurt was the fact that, for one, there was no SAFER barrier and two, the fact that it was such a solid hit."

Dover has the energy-absorbing SAFER barriers along the inside backstretch wall but not on the walls in the corners. The problem is that the track's concrete and steel boilerplate walls in the corners are not strong enough to support the SAFER barriers, so steel pilings need to be built to support the walls.

A little help

Dave Blaney is scheduled to drive Carl Edwards' car in both practice sessions today as Edwards flies to Las Vegas to compete in tonight's Craftsman Truck race.

Edwards is scheduled to return to Dover for Sunday's Cup race. He's making the cross-country trip because he is third in the truck series standings, 39 points behind series leader Bobby Hamilton.

"I love this stuff," Edwards said of traveling through time zones to race.

Fined

NASCAR fined crew chiefs Jimmy Fennig and Robbie Reiser $1,000 each for recent violations.

Fennig, crew chief for Kurt Busch, was fined for an unapproved fuel cell spacer, discovered last weekend at New Hampshire. Reiser, crew chief for defending series champion Matt Kenseth, was fined for the same infraction from Richmond two weeks ago.

Fast serve

Tennis player Andy Roddick hit a serve a record 155 mph in a match Friday in Charleston, S.C. That speed would have qualified for Sunday's Cup race. Jeremy Mayfield won the pole with a lap of 159.405 mph. Roddick's serve was faster than Jimmy Spencer's qualifying lap of 154.613 mph, which was 36th best among 50 cars that made attempts.

Pit stops

Kansas Speedway has announced that it will add 1,600 seats, increasing capacity to nearly 82,000. ... Kasey Kahne won the pole for today's Busch race at Dover. Series points leader Martin Truex Jr. starts second.