Tony Stewart (Right) and Gene Haas (Left) celebrate in Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos
Tony Stewart prevailed in a late-race shootout to win Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Kyle Busch took the lead with 2 laps to go, but on the last lap, Stewart got a push from Jimmie Johnson. Busch dove low on the straightaway trying to block Stewart, then came back up and was hit by Stewart, triggering a massive end of race crash.
Johnson finished second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch.
NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Stewart started from the pole, flanked by Jeff Gordon. The first caution came on Lap 14, when Mark Martin and Matt Kenseth made contact on the exit of Turn 2, Martin’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet suffering heavy nose damage after hitting the inside wall on the backstretch.
Under caution,
the field pitted for the first time. Stewart came out leading ahead of Hamlin, Johnson, Marcos Ambrose and Kasey Kahne.
The race restarted on Lap 17, Stewart making an excellent two-wide restart and holding onto the point over Johnson and Hamlin.
Casey Mears brought out caution No. 2 on Lap 29 when David Stremme came down on him and hit him at virtually the same spot on the track as where the Martin-Kenseth crash occurred. Mears backed his car into the inside wall, tearing up his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet badly.
That triggered the second round of pit stops. Stewart again came out first, trailed by Hamlin, Kenseth, Elliott Sadler and Johnson.
The track went green at Lap 32, but this time Hamlin made a better restart and took the lead, with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch taking second. But by Lap 46, Stewart was back out front, his Chevy looking strong.