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Stewart wins at Daytona
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Tony Stewart (14) leads the field to the green. (Photo from NASCAR Media)
July 4th celebrations usually involve fireworks and Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway was no exception.
Kyle Busch took the lead for the first time in the race on the final lap, and once he got to the front, he did everything he knew to do to stay there. He blocked second-place Tony Stewart multiple times until Stewart decided he had had enough and turned Busch to get around him and take his third July Daytona win.
“I don’t know if I’m real proud of that, but I don’t know what else I could have done,” Stewart said. “I don’t like winning like that.”
After slamming into the wall, Busch was credited with a 14th-place finish, ending Joe Gibbs Racing streak of visiting victory lane following three-consecutive July trips to Daytona. Instead, a former Gibbs driver celebrated July 4 in victory lane.
The big pile-up that was a result of the Stewart-Busch altercation was actually the second “big one” of the night.
Perhaps one of the biggest victims of on-track incidents was Hendrick Motorsports. Of the team’s four cars, three of them ended up getting caught up in some sort of accident. Because of contact on the track, Jeff Gordon wound up 28th and Mark Martin was credit with a 38th – place finish.
"Matt (Kenseth) ran the top side there and got a run up off the corner, and I was trying to keep it down and leave us room and I just pinched him,” Martin said. “Front wheels were cut and it just didn't turn quite enough. It's really slick out there. It's my fault."
Things were even worse for fellow-Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., who got caught up in a 13-car wreck that started when Kasey Kahne got into David Stremme, causing a domino-effect accident.
"I just saw some guys getting together in front of me,” Earnhardt said. “The track's real slick. It's not wide enough for three-wide or two-wide racing sometimes; these cars are just sliding around and everybody had to be careful. I guess there were a couple of guys going for the same piece of real estate there and I tried to stay high because I thought they would spin down off the wall and the No. 00 got crossed up trying to miss them and we hit him.”
Jimmie Johnson was the only Hendrick driver who was able to avoid trouble, and it paid off in the form of a second-place finish.
Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate posted a finish of third after leading much of the event.
Carl Edwards finished fourth, and Kyle Busch’s brother, Kurt finished fifth.
*** At the time this article was written, NASCAR was still reviewing race video to verify the finishing order. The positions mentioned in this article are as they were reported by NASCAR at the time, and they are unofficial. ***
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