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Stewart, Busch make amends for Daytona crash
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After Tony Stewart won his second race of 2009 last week at Daytona International Speedway his celebration was somewhat muted.
On the last lap of the Coke Zero 400 Stewart and then leader Kyle Busch came together as the cars came out of turn four and rocketed towards the finish line. The contact sent Busch careening into the outside wall and set off a multi-car melee that involved among others Kasey Kahne. 
Stewart went on to victory, while Busch’s mangled Toyota came to rest at the end of pit road. Busch climbed from the twisted metal and walked nearly the entire length of pit road before NASCAR officials forced him into a truck and took him to the infield care center.
The post race celebration for Stewart was somewhat subdued.
“I guess I just don't feel as much gratification from winning this race as I probably should,” Stewart said after the race. “I guess, just because I don't like the way the outcome happened. If we didn't win the race, we didn't earn it. But I don't want any part of earning a race because the guy that was leading the race got wrecked.”
However, Stewart said Wednesday while at a press event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that he and Busch have spoken about the incident on the phone and made amends.
“I checked first of all just to make sure he was all right,” Stewart said. “But when something like that happens, you want to make sure that both guys are on the same page with what happened, and we definitely were. I mean, there was no question on either one of our parts of what happened. I mean, we were instantly on the same page with it. It's just part of racing.
But it was something that happened before that phone call even happened, and I've mentioned it to Kyle and even kind of laughed about it was the fact that everybody has made such a big deal about this all of a sudden happening.
Kyle knew that my job was to get to his quarter panel, he was trying to move up to defend his spot, and nobody in his position would have just stayed there and let somebody drive back by him. You've got to do something, and he wasn't trying to wreck us, he was just trying to make me make a move to slow me down.
It was good to have that conversation with him yesterday. I was glad he wasn't hurt. And I got a chance to see Kasey last night and make sure he wasn't hurt, as well. It was good to touch base and make sure we were all on the same page, which we were.”
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