Wreckers and checkers - and Stewart wins

[Schwartz Fan]

Wreckers and checkers - and Stewart wins
By Jim Utter -
Saturday, Jul. 04, 2009


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - For Tony Stewart, the night time has been the right time at Daytona.

Still without a victory in the Daytona 500, Stewart earned his third victory in the July night race at Daytona International Speedway, holding off Jimmie Johnson and wrecking Kyle Busch Saturday night to win the Coke Zero 400.

Immediately after the race, Busch got out of his wrecked car and stalked toward Victory Lane. Four NASCAR officials cut Busch off and escorted him into a safety vehicle and took him to the infield care center.

"I don't know if I was real proud of that," Stewart said. "I don't know what else I could have done. I don't like winning like that.

"You are kind of forced in that position. I got to his right-rear tire and he tried to block us.

"We had a good car all day. We weren't going to give it to him. If I did something wrong, I'm sorry, but I don't think I did."

Stewart also won the July races in 2005 and 2006.

The win is his second of the season for the Sprint Cup Series points leader and 35th of his career.

Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin took turns at the lead early in Saturday night’s race.

Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth made contact on Lap 13 to bring out the first caution of the race. After turning across the track, Martin nearly collected Juan Pablo Montoya as well. On the restart on Lap 17, Stewart led followed by Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson.

A single-car spin by Casey Mears on Lap 28 brought out the second caution and sent all the lead-lap cars to pit road for fuel and tires. Stewart continued to lead on the restart on Lap 32.

A caution for debris on Lap 57 allowed lead-lap cars another chance to pit. On the restart on Lap 62, Kenseth was the leader followed by Robby Gordon and Stewart.

Kasey Kahne hit David Stremme from behind on the backstretch and ignited a 13-car wreck on Lap 77 which also collected Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick and Michael Waltrip, among others.

“I just saw some guys getting together in front of me. 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,” said Earnhardt.

“I guess there were a couple of guys going for the same piece of real estate there and I tried to stay high (on the track) because I thought they would spin down off the wall and (David Reutimann) got crossed up trying to miss them and we hit him.”

The remaining lead-lap cars visited pit road for fuel and tires and on the restart on Lap 83, Stewart was back out front, followed by Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Johnson.

Reutimann, who was involved in the Lap 77 accident, wrecked again on Lap 102 to bring out the fifth caution of the race. After pit stops, Stewart remained in the lead followed by Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

While jockeying for position on the backstretch on Lap 122, David Ragan slid in front of Kurt Busch and was sent spinning into the infield grass to bring out the sixth caution. While under yellow, all of the lead-lap cars headed to pit road for fuel and tires.

On the restart on Lap 125, Stewart continued to remain in the lead followed by Edwards and Kyle Busch.

A caution for debris was displayed on Lap 146 which allowed the lead-lap cars a final stop for fuel and fresh tires with 15 laps remaining. On the restart on Lap 150, Stewart stayed out front followed by Kyle Busch and Hamlin.

AJ Allmendinger got into Scott Speed and knocked him into the wall to bring out a caution three laps later. Lead-lap cars stayed on the track with Stewart again in the lead on the restart with four laps remaining.

Wreckers and checkers - and Stewart wins | www.thatsracin.com

[revvinjim]

Nobody likes to win when it means wrecking somebody to win. That was very similar to what happened at 'Dega.

I don't care how upset Tony is about it, I'll take the victory.

[SmokeFan14]

He did nothing wrong...Busch tried to block, didn't have the room, Smoke held his line, period. Had he backed off he would have opened the door for Hamlin or Johnson.

And Tony didn't wreck Shrub-he wrecked himself on Tony's bumper.

[revvinjim]

Originally Posted by SmokeFan14 He did nothing wrong...Busch tried to block, didn't have the room, Smoke held his line, period. Had he backed off he would have opened the door for Hamlin or Johnson. And Tony didn't wreck Shrub-he wrecked himself on Tony's bumper.

I agree 100%, or 1000% if that was possible. I just think Tony's been hanging out with Mark Martin too much.

[Raven]

First just let me say, I don't blame Tony. He did what he had to do to win. I do wish that Kyle had of just stayed behind him and possibly came in second. I think Kyle made poor judgement in trying to block that last time. I wondered during the race why Kyle just rode behind Tony, their cars seemed to be almost equal. I found this article at scene daily.


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch wasn’t in a talking mood after crashing on the final lap of the Coke Zero 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

Busch had just gotten the lead from Tony Stewart coming to the white flag, but Stewart made another run off Turn 4 coming to the checkered. Busch blocked low, and then Stewart went high.

When Busch went up to block high, he and Stewart made contact, sending Busch hard into the outside wall. He was fine, but quickly sped away in a golf cart after being checked out in the infield care center.

Instead of a win, Busch left Daytona with a ruined race car and a 14th-place finish. And he left the track without speaking to the media.

“We went for it right there at the end,” crew chief Steve Addington said as the team tried to unload the wrecked No. 18 Toyota. “That’s part of this. This is a product of restrictor-plate racing with these race cars. What are you going to say? Everybody on this race team worked their tails off and we had a good race car.

“I can’t say anything. I’m not pointing any fingers at Tony. He was trying to win the race, Kyle was trying to block him for the win, and we got turned around.”

Stewart said in his winner’s interview that he didn’t like the way the race ended.

“It's nobody's fault, it's just racing,” Stewart said. “I mean, it's a product of the environment. It doesn't mean the environment is bad, it just means that's the way it is. Like I said, he did what he had to do, and he defended his spot and we held our [spot] – it wasn't even that we tried to hold our ground, we just got on his quarterpanel, and that's just how you suck up. As soon as he moved, I didn't anticipate him moving and went across the nose.

Addington said the finish was a “big disappointment.”

“[Busch] was patient all night long and sat there and rode,” Addington said. “[Spotter] Jeff [Dickerson] kept telling him to just click off laps and we didn’t have any power issues. We were just fine. We took care of tires all night long and wanted to be there at the end because we needed to have a good points day and we were in a position to go for the win and he did and we end up wrecked. What are you going to say?”



Now I'm wondering why the spotter wanted to keep Kyle behind Tony, it doesn't make any sense to me. It probably added to Kyle's anger though, it would have mine.

[EsEs]

Originally Posted by Raven Now I'm wondering why the spotter wanted to keep Kyle behind Tony, it doesn't make any sense to me. It probably added to Kyle's anger though, it would have mine.

My guess is that they wanted to keep Kyle behind Tony specifically to avoid exactly what happened. Of course that's just speculation on my part, but it makes the most sense to me.

[Blakr]

He wanted to keep Kyle behind Tony because it was safe in that position.
They were up front, likely out of harms way... aka the big one... and not really racing.
Just riding until it was time to race.
When it was time to race, the doo doo hit the fan.

What bothered me is when Hamlin pushed Kyle passed Tony, Denny allowed Tony to get between him and Kyle. It seemed that Denny was too nice at that point.
He should have pressed the issue and kept Tony hung out, even if it meant some contact with Tony.
Denny should have given Tony no quarter at that point, but he didn't.
He was way too giving for the last lap.

Way to go Denny.

[24n48fan]

While I'm glad Tony won instead of Kyle but I wouldn't call it a "clean" victory because it was anything but that.

[revvinjim]

There was no hanging Tony out during the entire race. Every time someone got pushed passed him, he managed to get in line behind either the leader or the car that did the pushing, thus staying mainly in the top three the entire race. That's restrictor plate racing in its best form.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by EsEs My guess is that they wanted to keep Kyle behind Tony specifically to avoid exactly what happened. Of course that's just speculation on my part, but it makes the most sense to me.

I understand but I just feel that Kyle should have had the right to choose when he wanted to pass, his car seemed to be just as fast as Tony's. I think him not getting the chance to pass sooner, may have made him more aggressive also. I know, like he needed any extra incentive. lol He's my favorite, I can't help but wish the time to pass, would have been left up to Kyle.