Last-lap crash gives Stewart the Daytona win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

Kyle Busch crashed on the last lap after contact with Tony Stewart, allowing Stewart to win Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Daytona International Speedway, providing fireworks before the aerial kind.

“That’s not the way I wanted to do it,” Stewart radioed his crew after Busch slammed into the wall and Stewart crossed the finish line.

Busch took the lead on the last lap, passing Stewart on the high side. On the last lap, Busch blocked Stewart but Stewart got under him coming toward the line. Busch’s car slid into the wall on the frontstretch and then was rammed by Kasey Kahne in the rear as others crashed after the finish.

Jimmie Johnson placed second with Denny Hamlin third. Carl Edwards was fourth and Kurt Busch fifth. Marcos Ambrose finished sixth with Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya and Elliott Sadler completing the top 10.

The victory was Stewart’s third in the last five years in this race.

“I don’t know that I was real proud of that,” Stewart said in Victory Lane. “I don’t know what else I could have done . I don’t like winning like that. If I did something wrong, I’m sorry. I don’t think I did.”

It was an electric finish to an electric night.

Twenty-five years after Richard Petty’s 200th and final NASCAR win, the 72-year-old fired up a car he drove during the 1984 season and paced the field for a lap before the race.

Four hundred miles later, Stewart beat everyone to the checkered flag and scored his second win the last five races. Stewart, the points leader, is looking to become the first owner/driver to win the series title since Alan Kulwicki in 1992.

While Stewart scoffs at comparisons to Kulwicki – he noted Kulwicki faced more challenges as a car owner than he does – Stewart is showing signs he could become only the ninth driver in series history with three titles.

That’s down the road, though. Saturday he had to worry about Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Busch.

They were the only cars that could keep pace with Stewart. Hamlin led 63 laps. While Busch led only one lap, he was in the top three most of the night.

Others felt Busch’s pain.

Jeff Burton, trying to get back into the top 12 in the points, was running in the top five on lap 130 when he radioed his crew he had a tire going down. He made the call just after contact with Montoya as they raced side-by-side. Burton lost a lap pitting, later got it back and finished 17th.

Mark Martin, who’s tied for the most wins this season, fell out of the top 12 in points after crashing and finishing 38th. Martin was low in turn 2 and drifted high into Kenseth’s line. The cars made slight contact, sending Martin

spinning.

Martin entered the race 11th in the season standings, three points ahead of Montoya, who was forced into the grass and damaged his car after making an evasive move to avoid Martin .

“It’s really slick out there,” Martin said. “My fault.”

Others battling for a spot in the September Chase also had problems. Kahne and David Reutimann, who were in the first two spots outside the Chase cutoff entering the night, suffered damage in a 13-car crash.

“I was passing guys on the bottom, went up, cleared (Kahne) and I got hit,” said David Stremme, whose spinning car collected others. “He was getting hit and it pushed me into (Jamie McMurray) and it turned me into the fence. Just speedway racing.”

Other cars that suffered damage in that incident belonged to Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman and Brian Vickers.

“We ain’t got time to fix it,” Earnhardt said after driving his car back to the garage.

He finished 39th. Earnhardt has not finished in the 10 in the last nine races.