DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Tony Stewart led lap after lap around Daytona International Speedway, using a flawless pit-road performance to inch closer to his second win as owner of his race team.
Then Kyle Busch slid outside in a last-lap bid to snatch the victory away from his former teammate.
The frantic 2 1/2-mile chase Saturday night led to a violent wreck that sent Busch sailing into the wall while Stewart skirted by for a somber victory.
Stewart celebrated his 35th career Sprint Cup victory with a bit of heartache. Busch left the speedway with a definite headache.
Just another wild restrictor-plate finish for NASCAR, which is still smarting from April’s frightening crash at Talladega Superspeedway, where Carl Edwards went airborne into the fence in a similar last-lap crash.
“That’s not the way I wanted to do it,” said Stewart, who won the summer Daytona race for the third time in five years.
Stewart usually takes every win any way he can. But after wrecking Busch, he wasn’t in the mood to gloat.
“It’s just a bad situation,” he said. “I don’t feel as much gratification for winning the race as I should.”
Busch passed Stewart right before the final lap to take the lead, but Stewart chased him down and calculated his next move. Stewart closed in on Busch’s bumper, and slight contact sent Busch drifting up the track.
Busch slid back down to maintain his lead, then tried to slide in front of Stewart to block Stewart’s next move. The cars were too close together and Stewart hooked Busch’s right corner to send Busch sailing into the wall.
It triggered a multiple-car crash behind them, but Stewart sailed through for his second points win of the season. The two-time series champion is leading the points in his first season as co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, which he overhauled from a backmarker team into a title contender after 10 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I went where I had to go, and he went where he had to go,” Stewart said. “You hate seeing a guy that’s been up front all day, especially a guy that’s helped me the whole race, wreck like that.”
