The Budweiser Shootout, which kicked off the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Season at Daytona International Speedway, left the Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) team with plenty of work to do before Sunday's Daytona 500.
“We have a lot of work to do this week,” Stewart-Haas owner/driver Tony Stewart said after the Shootout. “We’re going to take advantage of every minute we get.”
Stewart took full advantage of his time in Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. The driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for SHR came from his 13th-place starting spot in the non-points race to lead twice for six laps, and he made other drivers who tried their hand at the lead work hard to hold onto it. Stewart ended up ninth, but the result was not indicative of the overall performance.
“I wouldn’t say we had a very strong car, but we did get good track position,” said Stewart after logging his 10th top-10 finish in 11 career Budweiser Shootout starts. “We had to be in clean air. We got really tight even if we were second in line.”
Stewart’s SHR teammate, Ryan Newman was caught up in the accident that ultimately ended the race. The driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala finished 19th, but was credited with a DNF (Did Not Finish) as he had to pull his car into the garage area two laps short of the finish.
Newman ran very well in the time trials for the 52nd annual Daytona 500, however, and qualifyied a strong third when he turned a lap of 47.225 seconds at 190.577 mph on the 2.5-mile oval. Although he ran a fast lap, he missed making the front row for the 500 and his starting position in the 500 will still be determined by Thursday's Gatorade Duels.
“I just focused on trying to be smooth, hitting my marks,” said Newman, who won the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in 2008. “I felt like I did 90 percent of that. I got a little high down in (turns) three and four on my second lap. I thought it was more important to be smooth than it was to pull the car back down. It was a good lap for the U.S. Army Chevrolet. Tony Gibson (crew chief) and everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing did a great job this off-season to get us ready for Daytona.”
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