Stewart Second in Shootout
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Daytona - Tony Stewart finished second in Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, as Dale Earnhardt Jr., edged the driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota by .136 of a second.“I’m pretty happy with that because it’s hard to beat Dale Jr.,” said Stewart, who is a three-time winner of the Budweiser Shootout. “He’s one of the best restrictor plate drivers there’s ever been. He learned a lot from his dad, and I’m not sure he’s not better than his dad now, in all honesty.”
Stewart led twice for nine laps in the 70-lap, non-point-paying race, but Earnhardt and his Hendrick Motorsports teammates – namely Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson – proved too formidable for Stewart to overcome on his own.
“We can’t be too disappointed,” said Stewart, who had his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin push him late in the race with a car that was beat up from a lap-25 run-in with the No. 26 Ford of Jamie McMurray. “We were climbing an uphill battle. But when you get around guys you trust like that, it makes for some fun racing.”
“There at the end I thought I had an opportunity to push Tony on the last lap,” Hamlin said, “but by choosing to push him, it caused me to lose a bunch of spots. His victory would’ve been worth way more than my third-place finish. We were trying to do what we could to get him the win and just came up short.”
Despite coming up short, the runner-up result gave Stewart an average Shootout finish of 4.2 – the best among active drivers with more than one Shootout appearance.
Hamlin, who won the Shootout in 2006, finished this year’s event in ninth.
The Budweiser Shootout is an exhibition race featuring pole winners from the previous Sprint Cup season and past Budweiser Shootout winners. This year’s field included an event record 23 drivers.
Rounding out the top-five behind Earnhardt and Stewart were Johnson, Gordon and Reed Sorenson. Casey Mears, Dave Blaney, Mark Martin, Hamlin and Kasey Kahne comprised the rest of the top-10.
-Joe Gibbs Racing -
I was impressed with the way Tony could race for the lead with that car without much drafting help. I was even more impressed that Hamlin in the eleven car even got so close to the front after being so beat up. They were right about the car being racier than the older cars, and this should make for a great season.
RevJim - Hamlin’s ability to drive after getting beat up was impressive. I think the addition of the wicker bill(?} will turn a few wrecks into nice saves. There were a few incidents where guys should have wrecked, or at least spun out, and it seemed to save them. Should be interesting to watch.