Stewart, Toyota dominate Daytona Nationwide race
By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor
Sunday, February 17, 2008
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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Tony Stewart passed Brian Vickers with four laps to go, and then had Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch push him to victory Saturday in the Camping World 300 Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
The victory was Stewart’s third in the season-opening race at Daytona, matching Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s total for second-most wins behind Dale Earnhardt’s seven.
"I'm just proud of all the Toyota people and all the work they've done in such a short amount of time to get us in victory lane," said Stewart, referring to JGR's switch to Toyota for 2008. "That's twice this week that we've gotten Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas in victory lane. I'm really proud of that - I'm proud of the effort they're putting into it."
Stewart and Busch were the class of the field, leading 93 of the race’s 120 laps between them. After a caution with nine laps to go, Busch led Stewart on the restart with six laps remaining.
Vickers made a move for the lead on the inside of Stewart with four laps to go but didn’t clear Stewart’s No. 20 Toyota. With three laps left, Stewart made a run to the outside of Vickers and grabbed the top spot as Earnhardt Jr. tried a three-wide move for second behind.
With two laps left, Busch tried to pass Stewart on the inside but failed. Earnhardt Jr. then battled Busch for second, and after the two got single file, Stewart inched away.
"I felt like no matter what the order was, whether [Busch] was leading and I was behind or vice versa, as long as we could stay together, then those guys were going to have a hard time with us," Stewart said.
Busch finished second in a JGR sweep, with Earnhardt Jr. (JR Motorsports) third, Vickers (Braun Racing) fourth and Matt Kenseth (Roush Fenway Racing) fifth.
Rookie Bryan Clauson made an impressive run to sixth for Chip Ganassi Racing, with Greg Biffle (Roush Fenway) seventh, Denny Hamlin (Braun) eighth, David Ragan (Roush Fenway) ninth and Carl Edwards (Roush Fenway) 10th.
Martin Truex Jr. led 20 laps in Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s Chevrolet but got shuffled out of the draft in the closing laps and finished 11th.
All results are unofficial pending postrace inspection.
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Tony Stewart
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