Daytona Beach, Fla. – Defending Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart was deemed a changed man at the 2005 awards banquet in New York.
In Sunday’s 2006 opener, however, NASCAR’s former “bad boy” appeared anything but reformed, ruining the chances at victory for Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth with outrageous driving at Daytona International Speedway.
“Tony took me out intentionally,” Kenseth said after the paint-swapping 48th Daytona 500. “There’s no two ways about it that. He was mad because earlier in the race when I passed him he got loose, which I didn’t think I did anything wrong.”
Stewart, who upset the balance of Gordon’s car with a tap from behind early in the race, sideswiped Kenseth on lap 106, sending the No. 17 Ford through the backstretch grass and into the turn three wall. Stewart was penalized for aggressive driving and sent to the rear of the field.
Stewart first denied intentionally wrecking Kenseth, but then said he “finished” the feud that began earlier.
“I guess Matt didn’t think of anything when he got me sideways over in (turn) two,” Stewart said. “He got back what he started in the first place. I got penalized for it. They didn’t penalize him when he turned me sideways. … He has no room to complain. He started the whole thing and I finished it.”
Actually, Kenseth did. After his wreck, he and Stewart pitted. Coming out of pits, Kenseth turned down into Stewart, forcing Stewart out of his groove, albeit under caution. Kenseth was assessed a pass-through penalty, so he had to drive through pit lane at the 55 mph limit.
Stewart, who rallied to finish fifth, was banished to the rear twice. The latter time it was for running over his team’s jack while leaving the pits.
Kenseth accused Stewart of being a hypocrite, because the defending champion complained about the dangers of bump-drafting after last weekend’s Budweiser Shootout here.
“He’s worried about people’s lives and everything, and then he’s going to wreck you on purpose at 190 (mph),” Kenseth said.
Junior leads most laps
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished eighth, pocketed an extra $10,000 for leading at the midway point (lap 100) and an additional $5,200 for leading the most laps (32).
Earnhardt, the 2004 race winner, faded down the stretch and became the 14th consecutive driver to lead at lap 100 and not win the race.
“The motor is like an old man,” Earnhardt told his crew over the radio during the final caution. “It will wake up and run for a while and then fall back asleep.”
Johnson moves up
Johnson’s 19th series win, and first at Daytona, moved him to 31st on NASCAR’s all-time winners list, tying Davey Allison, Buddy Baker and Fonty Flock.
Johnson has won at least one race in his five full years in the series, and produced the 10th Daytona victory for owner Rick Hendrick, who has captured six Daytona 500 victories with four drivers.
Footnotes
Clint Bowyer, who finished sixth, was the race’s top rookie. … Bobby Labonte qualified eighth but started from the rear of the 43-car field because of an engine change. Labonte, who made his debut in the No. 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge, blew a motor during happy hour Saturday. Sterling Marlin (engine change) and Joe Nemechek (switched to backup car) also had to start from the back. … NASCAR promotes sponsorship like no other sport, even when it comes to the advertisement by its fans at Daytona. Spectators had unlimited frontstretch access before the race and were allowed to write messages on the track’s outside walls and on the checkered start-finish line. … If 2004 champion Kurt Busch looks different, it’s probably his ears. Busch had surgery in the offseason to tuck his ears closer to his head. “I’ve got it working in the draft now,” Busch told The Associated Press recently.
