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Stewart Makes It Two in a Row

Posted on: Sunday, 3 July 2005, 03:00 CDT

Daytona Beach, FL (Sports Network) - Tony Stewart, winner of last week's Nextel Cup race at the Infineon Raceway, captured Saturday night's Pepsi 400 at the famed Daytona International Speedway. The No.20 Home Depot Chevrolet crossed the finish line 0.171 seconds ahead of Jamie McMurray.

The victory was Stewart's second of the season and 21st of his Nextel Cup career. He set a record by leading 151 of 160 laps.

Following a two and a half hour rain delay, the race began slowly, about 60 m.p.h. The event began under a yellow flag for the first 11 laps before NASCAR officials felt the track conditions were ready for racing.

Finally on lap 12, officials waved the green flag and the drivers put the pedal to the metal.

Stewart, who won his first Daytona pole, refused to yield to anyone, leading the first 41 laps.

Meanwhile a couple of cars were charging towards the front. Matt Kenseth, McMurray and Jeff Burton were three who moved from 30th or worse into the top-15 in the first 30 laps.

Lap 36 saw the first "Big One." Jeff Gordon was coming into the pits and signaled to McMurray behind him that he was slowing, But Scott Riggs, two cars behind Gordon, didn't see the wave and had to swerve to avoid McMurray. Unfortunately, he moved up the track into Mark Martin's line and forced Martin into the outside wall.

The incident began a chain reaction that collected a total of eight drivers including 2004 Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Other drivers with early problems included points leader Greg Biffle (tire) and Jeremy Mayfield (tire).

But at least they avoided the multi-car accident.

Meanwhile at the front of the pack, it was all Stewart. He led 49 of the first 50 laps, yielding the lead only during his pit stop. Glued to his rear bumper was Jimmie Johnson.

A debris caution on lap 65 helped Elliott Sadler back onto the lead lap after he had run out of fuel and gone down a lap.

On the restart, Michael Waltrip had a problem with a right-rear tire down and he took out Biffle in his spin towards the outside wall.

"We are wrecked," Biffle called to his crew chief.

As the drivers reached the mid-point of the 160-lap race, it was still Stewart and Johnson one-two.

After 100 laps, Stewart had led 99 of them. Meanwhile the other 41 driver were seemingly changing positions on every lap.

Two laps later, Bobby Hamilton Jr. blew a right-front tire bringing out a caution. Elliott Sadler and Dale Jarrett were just entering pit road at the time and after everyone pitted during the ensuing caution, the Robert Yates teammates emerged as the leaders of the race.

But Stewart was by far the fastest on the track and proved it by powering to the lead in just four laps without any help.

On the next caution, half the lead laps cars pitted while Stewart stayed on the track. They figured since they weren't as strong as Stewart, they needed to try a different pit strategy.

Johnson picked up teammate Brian Vickers and the two went hunting for the lead. On the outside line was Earnhardt Jr. and McMurray also moving up.

On lap 131, "Junior" pulled into second place. A couple of laps later Johnson made his way past Earnhardt Jr. for the runner-up spot behind Stewart.

Another spin by Boris Said, his second of the race, brought out the final round of pit stops.

Kasey Kahne stayed out to take the lead, but the first car off pit road was Johnson with Stewart back in fifth place.

The race would restart with 17 laps to go.

The No.20 Home Depot Chevrolet took all of one lap to drive to the front, going four-wide at one time to get there.

Two laps later, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Elliott Sadler and Kyle Busch went for a spin.

But Stewart was already out front and no one was going to beat him on this night. The race restarted with nine laps to go and McMurray and "Junior" in second and third, respectively.

Stewart jumped out to a four length lead and that was the race. McMurray never made a passing attempt and that left Earnhardt Jr. with no where to go.

Rusty Wallace and Dale Jarrett completed the top-five.

Johnson's sixth-place finish coupled with Biffle's problems gives the championship lead back to the No.48 Lowe's Chevrolet driver. Johnson holds a 73-point margin over Biffle (2,378-2,305). Stewart's win propelled the Joe Gibbs Racing driver (2,242) to third place just 136 points behind the leader.

The next race in the series is scheduled for Sunday, July 10th at the Chicagoland Speedway.

07/03 02:05:10 ET

powered by The Sports Network.

Source: The Sports Network

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