July 5, 2009
By Ron Felix
Photo Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR
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Tony Stewart Wins Coke Zero 400 At Daytona
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Tony Stewart picked up his second victory of the season by winning the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night.
Stewart, who led the most laps, 86 of 160, was running second to Kyle Busch on the final lap and Jimmie Johnson was third.
On the final turn Stewart dove to the inside to go low and Busch blocked him. Stewart then made an attempt to go high and Busch tried to block that move. That one didn't work for Busch because he wasn't clear of Stewart.
They made contact and the result was Busch slamming hard into the outside wall coming through the frontstretch tri-oval and Stewart drove on to the victory.
"I went where I had to go, and he went where he had to go," Stewart said. "You hate seeing a guy that's been up front all day, especially a guy that's helped me the whole race, wreck like that. You're kind of forced in that position. But I made my move to the outside and he went to block us and we were already there. It still doesn't mean you like it.
That's not the way to win these things. If I did something wrong, I'm sorry."
Then Kasey Kahne rear-ended the No. 18 of Busch and if that weren't enough, rookie Joey Logano broadsided Busch in the drivers door. All three hits to Busch's car were jaw-dropping but Busch climbed from the destroyed racecar under his own power. After some coaxing by safety officials, Busch was taken to the infield care center for evaluation and released.
"I don't like to win them that way," Stewart sighed. "I don't know what else I could have done there."
It was Stewart's 35th win in 374 career races.
Busch didn't stick around to talk to the media after a 14th place finish.
Jimmie Johnson wasn't sure what had happened -- he still thought that there was one more lap left in the race. Johnson held on for second place.
"I felt like something would happen up front and I could improve my position and sure enough, it did," Johnson said. "It looked like when Tony (Stewart) was trying to make a move that Kyle (Busch) was trying to keep him behind him and they hooked by a couple of inches and turn the NO. 18 (Kyle Busch) into the outside wall. But I think the top four cars really were there all day long, the No. 18, the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin), the No. 14 (Tony Stewart) and us."
Denny Hamlin led 63 laps but it went for naught and he finished third.
"I wanted one of our cars to win so I decided to go with the 18 (Kyle Busch) right there to get around the 14 (Tony Stewart)," Hamlin said. "It was a move to help a teammate. Instead of us going for the win, I felt like our best shot was for us to push the 18 (Kyle Busch). We got him the lead -- it took us out of position and let the 48 (Jimmie Johnson) get around us.
Carl Edwards recorded a fourth place finish and Kurt Busch drove his Dodge to a fifth spot finish.
“A top-five finish is surprising due to the fact we had a little trouble midway through the race," said Busch. "We definitely had a strong car. We bounced back from those mid-race troubles. We were not in contention for the lead. We were about a fifth- or sixth-place car. We had some damage, so we were just looking for a top 10. We definitely needed a solid run tonight just to give us that confidence we’re going to be OK, but we still have some work to do heading down this stretch run."
A great run for Marcos Ambrose put him up and into the sixth position followed by Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya and Elliott Sadler to round out the top ten. Stewart increased his points lead to 180 over second place Jeff Gordon and 194 over Jimmie Johnson.
"It was a great night for us. We fought hard all day," said Ambrose. "I was sick this weekend and had to have an IV, but this sixth-place finish makes me feel 100 percent better. This is one way to clear up a severe cold. There was a lot of action on the track and it was intense. We were able to keep out of trouble. I just keep growing as a driver and I just want to thank Tad and Jodi (Geschickter) and my Little Debbie Toyota team for believing in me. This was just an amazing night and another strong finish for us. I can’t wait to see the points.”
Joey Logano was named Rookie of the race, he finished 19 with a destroyed race car.
Were it not for trouble to most of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup “bubble” drivers, Mark Martin’s postseason aspirations might have suffered a significant setback, thanks to a wreck on lap 13 that relegated him to a 38th-place finish.
As Martin exited Turn 2, Matt Kenseth gained momentum to the outside, and Martin’s Chevy wasn’t clear of Kenseth’s Ford when Martin moved up the track. Martin’s car spun into the infield and sustained serious damage.
“Matt ran the top side there and got a run up off the corner, and I was just 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. My fault.”
Martin’s wreck was nothing, however, compared with the 13-car pileup on Lap 77 that eliminated Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Contact between the Dodges of Kasey Kahne and David Stremme triggered the wreck, but the cars of Earnhardt and David Reutimann perhaps were the most severely damaged, as Reutimann slid up the track into Earnhardt’s path.
Reutimann entered the race 14th in points, 12 points out of 12th, the final position eligible for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He finished 33rd and lost ground.
“A couple of guys got together, and I just tried to stay high, and the No. 00 (Reutimann) was crossed up, and we got together with him pretty hard and tore the upper A-frame off the chassis,” said Earnhardt, who finished 39th.
Jeff Gordon was another victim of the Lap 77 wreck but was able to continue. Though his car was damaged too severely to contend for the win, Gordon stayed on the lead lap and finished 28th.
There were eight caution periods for 30 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 400-mile race.
The next race on the Sprint Cup schedule – the 19th event of 36-races for the 2009 Sprint Cup Championship. The LifeLock.com 400 will be on Saturday July 11th, at Chicagoland Speedway in Chicago, Illinois. The race begins at approximately 6:30 PM. eastern time -- with live, high-definition coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 6:00 p.m. eastern time.
The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128 and MRN radio.
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