Starting Line Up by Row Daytona 500

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An interview with:
 

KYLE BUSCH
DALE EARNHARDT, JR.
BRYAN CLAUSON
 

 HERB BRANHAM:  We’re ready to start our post race interviews for today’s Camping World 300 presented by Chevrolet.  Sixth place finisher, top Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate, Bryan Clauson, driver of the No. 41 Texaco/Havoline Dodge.
 Tell us about that run out there and we’ll go to questions.
 BRYAN CLAUSON:  You know, we started off the race a little loose, kind of fell back there.  Kind of having a hard time hanging on.
 We decided to kind of go back into the    fall to the back drafting, kind of wait it out for a couple pit stops till we got it right.
 The next to the last pit stop we kind of hit on something, found the right adjustment.  We were able to kind of start positioning ourselves for the end there.
 Fortunately enough on that restart we picked the right guy to go with in Matt Kenseth.  We just kind of tried to wedge ourselves between a couple good cars, push ‘em as far as we could.
 HERB BRANHAM:  We’ll take questions for Bryan Clauson, our highest finishing rookie.

 Q.  As far as momentum goes, not all drivers believe heavily in momentum, yet you’ve done well on this track, done well at Talladega.  How do you think that’s going to help your confidence going forward?
 BRYAN CLAUSON:  You know, it’s a big confidence boost.  Any time you can run well with as many Cup guys as there was in the field today, you know, it’s a big boost going into California next week.
 It was a great run for us.  We really needed a good run.  We had Texaco/Havoline on board this year.  We’re still searching for sponsorship the rest of the year.  This race was a big, big race for us, and trying to get some momentum, you know, going into California and beyond.

 Q.  What were you thinking in those closing laps?  Were you really trying to improve position or stay out of trouble?
 BRYAN CLAUSON:  I was thinking, Whoever is behind me, push!  (Laughter).
 No, our car was really good at the top all day.  We kind of hoped that we’d get enough guys out there that we could kind of go there.  That was sort of our plan pretty much all day, was to ride around the top and hopefully we’d get enough guys there at the end and we’d be in a position to push a couple guys there on the top lane.
 We were able to get behind Kenseth.  We really worked good behind Kenseth.  We were a little tight behind a lot of guys, but we got behind Matt there.  For some reason, it just seemed to work right.  So we were able to, you know, kind of get up behind him and push and get that top lane rolling.
 Luckily we were able to kind of clear everybody there and make a run at the finish.

 Q.  What was kind of your approach to this race overall?  Were you going to come in and take it conservative or just go all out?
 BRYAN CLAUSON:  You know, obviously the No. 1 goal was to finish and get laps and kind of gain respect.  But we knew we had a good car, so it was a little bit of both.  The first half of the race we just wanted to stay out of trouble and try and gain some friends as much as we can with that yellow stripe down the back of the car.
 We just kind of wanted to sit in a good position, keep ourselves out of trouble.  Come 10, 15 to go, we were going to save our stuff until then.  Once that time came around, you know, get ready and go.

 Q.  What happened on that restart that made you drop back so bad?
 BRYAN CLAUSON:  You know, I think we just kind of picked the wrong line.  Early on in the race we were really loose.  We were just    you know, it was a learning day all day.  There were several times I kind of hung myself out to dry, going to the bottom, trying to make moves that really weren’t there.
 So it was a big day for us in gaining patience, just kind of sitting back and watching, you know, Dale, Jr., Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, matt Kenseth, how they approach the race, trying to learn from that, come up with the best finish we could.

 Q.  Talk about the race from a personal satisfaction standpoint, the fact that this is your biggest race of the year and you finished top 10 amongst all these Cup guys.
 BRYAN CLAUSON:  It’s awesome.  I told the guys, you know, as much as I loved running sixth, I would have liked to have won.  I was ready to do a burnout if they would have let me (laughter).
 It was a big day for us.  Just like we talked about earlier, just getting momentum going into California, have as good a weekend as we did here, kind of gain the respect that we did this week was really big for us.

 Q.  In the last few laps it looked as if Stewart’s car was shot out of a cannon on the backstretch, sometimes without that much help.  Had you noticed that at all during the race or were you surprised at how fast his car was on the backstretch?
 BRYAN CLAUSON:  You know, to be honest, I was so far back for most of the race, I really couldn’t see Tony.  I knew both Tony and Kyle were going to be good.  They qualified good.  Usually that’s a good sign of how they’re going to be out front.  We were just doing our best to try and get to Tony and push our lane by him, but it didn’t work out for us.
 HERB BRANHAM:  Great run, Bryan.
 We’re joined by the race runner up, Kyle Busch.  Tell us about the run, then we’ll go to questions for you.
 KYLE BUSCH:  It was a good run for us, the Interstate Batteries Toyota.  Had a good time out there.  Had a great race car in the long run.  It was the best thing here.  We could run all day long with it, wide open, all the way around the bottom of the racetrack, top of the racetrack, anywhere it wanted to go.
 So that was pretty cool.  It was definitely a lot of fun to have a car driving that well.  Reminded me of our car last year.
 We just didn’t have the single car speed built into it.  Stewart’s car was awesome and we knew that down here testing.  That’s why we went back to the shop, cut our car up in order to try to match his a little bit.
 His was too slick to run on the bottom in the long haul to have, you know, a good handling race car.  His car was not handling very well.  He got a lucky break there with the amount of laps of tires we had on it and how many laps to go.  We were able to pit there.  That kind of paid dividends for him.
 Luckily we had a good enough car where we could stay up there all day, keep some good pushers behind us.
 HERB BRANHAM:  We have our third place finisher, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., driver of the No. 5 National Guard Chevrolet.  Tell us about the run.
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  We kind of struggled all day running about fifth at the best.  It was real slick.  You know, Tony and them had fast cars.  Kyle had a great car.  Worked together really good at the end.  We were just kind of lucky to be there behind those guys because we hadn’t been there all day.
 I’m just kind of really thankful for that.  Get a good finish, get a good start to the season.
 HERB BRANHAM:  Questions for Kyle and Dale.

 Q.  Kyle, this is two Toyota victories in 17 hours, two runner up finishes for you.  Do you see this setting the stage for tomorrow?
 KYLE BUSCH:  If I win tomorrow, I’m going to be the happiest man alive, that’s for sure.  That’s what I’ve been saving my win for this week, is tomorrow.  So there you have it (smiling).
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Good luck (laughter).  Haven’t helped my odds this past week, but I wouldn’t trade it.

 Q.  Dale, you were talking about how slick it was today.  Even though it’s a completely different car than you’re gonna drive tomorrow, running on slick conditions, will that help you at all tomorrow to know what to expect in tomorrow’s race?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I don’t think so.  These cars drive quite a bit different than the COT.  This place is getting old, I reckon, starting to get worse every year.  It’s fun, though.  The slip and sliding around and carrying on, that’s challenging.  But it’s kind of fun really, to be honest with you.
 But I don’t know what I learned today that I didn’t already know.
 KYLE BUSCH:  I think we’d just wreck more if it was paved.
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  We’d all be running over each other probably.

 Q.  Kyle, I guess Martin Truex didn’t have kind things to say about you, complaining you were blocking him there toward the end.  Can you respond to that?
 KYLE BUSCH:  What else you going to do, man?  Shoot, he’s pushing me through the tri oval, wanting to spin me out.  I’m sorry I saved it and kept it in front of him.  Grow up, Bud (laughter).  What do you want me to do, pull over?
 Next question.

 Q.  Dale, with Denny winning the other day, Tony, Kyle running up front today, is it starting to feel like the threat from Toyota and Gibbs Racing is real?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I knew it was real when we first come down here to test.  The Toyota has been fast.  Those guys, you know, got the knowledge to get cars around the track, know how to get to Victory Lane.  They’re gonna be tough I think all year.
 They build great race cars.  They’re a good company.  I had the privilege of being able to get a good look at it one time.  It’s a pretty impressive place.  I think they’ll always be a challenge.
 I didn’t think the    they wouldn’t have made the change if it wasn’t for the better.  It’s obviously going to help them a lot over the years.

 Q.  Kyle, if that was what you were doing, at what point do you stop trying to win and start trying to keep Tony up front?
 KYLE BUSCH:  Dude, I was trying to keep myself where I needed to be.  I was getting passed left and right all day long when I got out of line.  I was just trying to stay in line.  He got a run on me, tried to pull low; I blocked him low.  And then he tried to pull high; I blocked him high.
 That’s what you have to do if you want to finish up front in these restrictor plate races instead of laying over and letting those guys go by you.  Then you get hung out to dry and you fall back.
 Junior made a move there to pass Tony for the lead I think on that restart with about nine to go, or pass me or something like that, and Stewart came and helped me.  You know, he got hung out and went all the way back to 12th place.  What are you going to do?  You’re going to sit up there and try to do what you can in order to not only get get yourself propelled to the best possible finish you possibly can.
 I didn’t have a car that was going to win the race.  Stewart was far enough ahead where he was going to win already.  Hell, I blocked him through three and four.  He about spun out through three and four too and you don’t hear him complaining.
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Me?
 KYLE BUSCH:  Yeah, you.
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I was wrecking.
 KYLE BUSCH:  We were both wrecking (laughter).

 Q.  Kyle, can you talk about that last block against Dale, Jr.?  That was pivotal for Stewart to win.
 KYLE BUSCH:  Well, I think Junior would have got    if he would have got up to my quarter panel and up to my side, we would have bogged each other down enough where it would have brought the rest of the guys behind us up closer to us.
 We would have had a heck of a shootout for second.  That would have given Tony an even bigger win.  It wasn’t that I blocked for Stewart to win any more than I did just to keep myself propelled in second.

 Q.  Dale, where was Tony and Kyle beating you?  Was it out motoring you, out handling you, or both?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I don’t know.  I didn’t run with them enough.  Their cars were really fast.  They’ve been up front all day.  I had been in the middle of, you know, the battle from second    the battle from about 4th to 15th.  I’d been in that one all day long.
 There at the end we got to race with them a little bit.  You know, they just got good power and they build good cars.  They’ve been getting the pole down here the last couple years.  I tried    you know, I was in line there that last lap.  We went down into three.
 Kyle started backing up to get a run.  Just as soon as he started backing up, I went to the top to just see if I had any kind of momentum.  And then when he started backing up, I jerked the wheel to get back down.  About spun me out.  He about spun out.
 You know, it seemed like to me the leader could lead after about 10 laps and everybody got some heat and time in their tires.  It seemed like it was difficult to pass, and the top was really the best way to do it from where I was at.

 Q.  Other than the fact you guys like to race and this is a big weekend, if you’re not learning a whole lot that will help you tomorrow, why would you race today?
 KYLE BUSCH:  I’ve gotten one hell of a feel for the tires so far.  They’re junk.  Last night was terrible.  Today was terrible.  So expect tomorrow to be a lot of fun and exciting.
 You know, it’s just been fun for me.  I like racing.  That’s what I’m here to do.  That’s what I want to do.  That’s what I’ve grown up doing.  Why not just, instead of laying back on the couch watching it, why not be out there participating in it?  That’s my philosophy.
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  I was pretty happy when the race was over with, but I asked myself that question about six or seven times today (smiling).
 But it is fun when you’re out there competing.  You know, I got to hand it to them guys that do it every week, though, like Carl and them.  I don’t know if I could put up with that.  Makes for a long weekend just doing it once every once in a while.
 KYLE BUSCH:  Wuss.

 Q.  How has the tire wear been for you this week?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  The Nationwide tire is a harder tire.  We see the center lines still in the tire after about 10 laps.  It gets hot and slick.  It just won’t get into the racetrack.  The Cup tires are blistering a little bit.
 I blistered right rear today.  You know, I don’t know, it is what it is.  You know, the tire’s not too bad if you got a good, good handling race car.  If you ain’t handling good…
 KYLE BUSCH:   If your car is the handlingest car down here and you’re blistering tires, what are you going to do?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Today it wasn’t handling good.
 KYLE BUSCH:  Must have made a change.
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  That was the wrong thing to do (laughter).

 Q.  Looking to tomorrow, is there any reason to think it won’t come down to Hendrick/Gibbs, other than anything unforeseen?
 KYLE BUSCH:  I saw the 41 that was pretty strong in Dale’s duel, and the 12 looked pretty good, too.  In ours, I forget who it was.  The 9 was pretty decent up there, the 99 was pretty decent.
 So I think it’s anybody’s race.  It don’t matter.  Last year who would have thought Kevin Harvick would have come from 12th the last lap or eighth and win.  It all depends on what happens throughout the whole event, how many cars get tore up through the race, who keeps their head on their shoulders and whatnot.

 Q.  Dale, I think yesterday you were saying that with all the slipping and sliding the cars are doing, it really was quite fun for you when you’re out front, but you would hate to be doing that running kind of 15th or 20th.  Did you find today it wasn’t quite as much fun?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  It’s all right.  The Nationwide Series and the Nationwide field is a little bit different in competition.  After a few laps, you kind of out handle some guys, you can move away your way to the front, little bit of a draft.  We were in a second pack there about middle way through the race.  We were fine riding right there ’cause we weren’t going to catch the leaders.
 But in the Cup Series, there’s tight competition, tolerance between first and last.  If you’re stuck in 20th, it’s going to be a challenge.

 Q.  Numbers showed Gibbs cars had 15 more horsepower than Hendrick cars.  Is that going to make a difference with this track tomorrow?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  They looked great in practice and they looked great in their duel.  They looked strong.
 But I think the field’s    I think we got a great shot.  I feel it’s pretty even right now.

 Q.  What does making a pass to the media center for wins and running well, what does that do for you and your team, for your confidence?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Yeah, I don’t know.  Today, you know, it was a different car, different field, different everything.  Today was just going out there and just having some fun.
 But, yeah, I mean, we’re getting more confident as we go.

 Q.  Junior, could you elaborate on the technical issue you mentioned about inspection with your Nationwide car.
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  Yeah, we just got caught doing something everybody else is doing (laughter).  I don’t know, something on the spoiler.  They took the whole thing, the spoiler, deck lid, everything.  We just put one from the backup car on there.  We went out there.  We didn’t get the springs and stuff set in there right, so we had to cut the chain on the first caution pit stop today.
 The car was about three eighths of an inch high all day.  That’s kind of why we were happy to kind of be third.  We were kind of behind once we got caught cheating there.

 Q.  Kyle, you get to watch Junior race, your teammate Tony Stewart.  A lot of people are saying that’s going to set up the big one for tomorrow, the two of them going after each other.  As one of the younger guys coming in, what have you learned watching them race?  What are you expecting we’re going to see between them tomorrow?
 KYLE BUSCH:  I mean, they’re both really, really good at the restrictor plate stuff, Tony and Dale both.  I don’t know how Tony does it.  He doesn’t have anybody talk to him on the radio all day long.  He’s just sitting there driving.  Looking up in his mirror.  I guess Senior was that way, too, Dale’s father.
 They’re both great talents on the restrictor plate stuff.  Got a great feel for what they need, how to use the draft, how to utilize the draft.  I’ve learned from them over the past in watching them and also racing with them, and that’s what the Nationwide Series is about, is being able to learn that kind of stuff, for the younger guys.
 I picked that up when I was here in the Nationwide Series and stuff like that, got to the Cup Series, learned even more.  If I didn’t know what I knew in the Nationwide Series going to the Cup Series when I did in 2005, I would have been out to lunch.
 I mean, having those guys race here is fun.  It’s cool just to see what all they do inside the race car and whatnot.  Been trying to use that.

 Q.  Dale, have you encountered or have you had any other problems with the Hendrick motors since when they had the original problems?  Any other problems occurred?
 DALE EARNHARDT, JR.:  No. They had it figured out in about an hour or two, what the problem was.  Tore them up in qualifying and they fixed them.  Weren’t getting oil up on the first two or three loads on the cam and  tore the loads up on the cam, which tore the lifters up.
 We put a deal in there, sort of like a sprinkler system, to help it out.  Takes a little horsepower out, but we’ll be all right.
 HERB BRANHAM:  Thanks, guys.

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An interview with:
 
TONY STEWART
DAVE ROGERS
 

HERB BRANHAM:  We’re ready to start our post race press conference with the race winner, driver of the No. 20 Armor All Toyota, Tony Stewart and crew chief, Dave Rogers.
 Congratulations, guys.  Great race.  Tony, Dave, to start off, give us a quick idea about the race today, how it went.
 TONY STEWART:  It was terrible, especially the outcome.  We just hate this when we have to win races and stuff.  Then you got to take pictures, all that.  I hate taking a trophy home.  It’s miserable.
 It’s just a lot easier if you get wrecked in the first 20 laps, beat the traffic back, get a shower, kickback and watch the end of the race on TV.  It’s much more comfortable, not near as hot.  You don’t get sticky with all that stuff they pour on you in Victory Lane.
 Other than that, it’s pretty cool (smiling).
 HERB BRANHAM:  Dave, I know you can do better.
 DAVE ROGERS:  Yeah, we don’t see eye to eye on that.
 TONY STEWART:  I will say this.  This will tell you the true equivalent of the percentage of the importance at this table here, because when the crew chief’s    the size of his font is exactly how important he was verus the size of mine and how important I was today.
 DAVE ROGERS:  We don’t see eye to eye on that either.
 This is very exciting.  Everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing worked so hard over the winter making the change to Toyota.  This just rewards all the guys back at the shop.  The fab shop built us a great body to come down here and work with.
 Mike Cronquist built some serious horsepower.  All the guys just executed our game plan.  We had a great test.  Mike McLaughlin worked on our front end a lot to make it turn.  According to Smoke, I had some more work to do, but it wasn’t that bad.  It’s exciting to be here in Victory Lane at Daytona.
 HERB BRANHAM:  Questions for Tony Stewart and Dave Rogers.

 Q.  How nice has it been to have Gibbs back around this week?  How much of a difference has it made for you?  Is he calling any audibles out there?
 TONY STEWART:  Obviously you don’t know the race team very well, ’cause ever since I can remember being here, for 10 years in the Cup Series and two in the Nationwide Series, since I’ve been here, they’ve never, ever given him a radio that he can push the button and actually talk to anybody on it.  That’s the God’s honest truth.
 He is not allowed to talk to anybody, especially when the race is going on.  It’s great, obviously, having Joe back.  He’s a great leader.  He’s a great motivator.  This week’s proof of that.  Everybody’s excited to have him back.
 We all were hoping that the end of his football career would have ended a little different for him and his family.  But, you know, we’re all excited to have him back here.  There’s just something about Joe.  When he’s in the shop, everybody’s demeanor is different, everybody’s more excited when he’s around, it seems like.
 It’s definitely great having him back.  His biggest strength is knowing who to hire and the right people for the right positions, and obviously Kyle Busch was his latest stroke of genius obviously.  I mean, he knows what Kyle’s capable of, and today was perfect proof of it.  Kyle ran a great race today.  I think he had probably the best handling car out there.
 I think we were real close on speed.  I think we were a little faster speed wise, but I think we sacrificed a little handling to get that speed.
 You know, great teammate.  He was awesome to work with today.  There were a lot of times in the race late there when we could stay together.  We would probably have a run that was big enough to go on by the guy in front of us.  We would just stay with each other and push each other an help try to clear ourselves from the rest of the pack to make sure we could get away.
 So, you know, having a teammate like him was awesome today.  And Denny has been great to work with all week, too.  He’s been a great teammate ever since he started.
 You know, that’s due to Joe and his leadership and knowing who’s going to be the right people for the right positions.  You know, we had a great car today.  I mean, Dave and the guys did an awesome job building a very, very fast race car.
 Like Dave mentioned, having Mark Cronquist and the staff working 24 hours, not only on Cup motors right now but Nationwide motor to get ready for this weekend, has been a huge undertaking for our organization.
 But the power has been unbelievable with our Toyotas.  Really, really proud of what the guys were able to accomplish last year.  You know, everybody has talked about how much JGR has brought the level of Toyota up.  It’s not been us.  It’s been what they did before we came along.
 You know, we’re able to help with little things here and there, but they laid a very nice foundation and base for us to all work from.
 You know, I think Toyota doesn’t get the credit it deserves for what they did last year.  Getting both the Nationwide program and the Sprint Series programs where they are right now.

 Q.  Tony, do you come here now with the success you’ve had and Denny and Kyle have had, having the same kind of    equal kind of confidence in what you can do this year in Toyotas that you always had in Chevrolets?
 TONY STEWART:  I still think it’s a little early to tell that.  If every week was a restrictor plate week, I think, yes, we would.
 But, you know, we haven’t ran the open motors enough to know.  There’s no reason to believe we’re not going to be.  They don’t concentrate on just the restrictor plate side, totally neglect the side you’re going to run 32 times a year.
 For us, I think it’s a lot of confidence in knowing how hard and how dedicated they are to being successful in the series.  You know, the limited amount of time they’ve been in NASCAR, as this year is starting to prove, they’re having a lot of success in a short amount of time already.
 So I think they got a lot to be proud of there.

 Q.  Tony, why not climb the fence in celebration?
 TONY STEWART:  Just so somebody in the media center would say, Why didn’t you climb the fence (laughter)?  Thank you for that, I appreciate it.  Took a little longer than I thought (smiling).

 Q.  After you got the lead from Bryan, was it really at that point Kyle the only guy you were seriously worried about since he was so strong?
 TONY STEWART:  I wasn’t worried about him from my standpoint.  I was worried for him.  You know, he had a lot of pressure from behind.  He did such a great job of defending his position.  I was hoping, the way we were running   and obviously Dave doesn’t want to hear this   as long as it was a 1 2 finish for Gibbs, no matter what the order was, I think we were all going to be happy.
 Obviously each team and each driver wants to win the race.  You have to rely so much on teammates here.  He was handling good.  When we were behind him, I got so tight that that’s how we lost second place.  When we went into turn one, I couldn’t stay on the bottom.  Just slid up enough off the bottom enough that the 10 car and the 8 could get underneath us there.  That kind of just got us separated from each other, so it made it a handful for him.
 Vickers got to the outside on a run.  That actually helped us get our momentum back.  Seemed like, you know, in all reality, once we got to the top, I freed up, the car freed up when I got up a little bit.  I think we had a short enough amount of laps on our tires that it actually worked out to our favor.  If we had to run 20 or 30 laps, I’m not sure the outcome would have been the same.
 When we got up there late, we were able to get our momentum back, we could stay flat in the throttle, we could roll through the center of the corner real nice and not have to break our momentum.  We got such a big run down the backstretch that when we got in front, it was back to, What do we got to do to help our teammate out again?
 It wasn’t a situation where we could get behind him and push him back into the lead.  We just had to, you know, stay in our line till we got a chance to get free.  Once we got in front, you know, just tried to get back down to where we could help Kyle draft with us again.  You know, he did a great job, I thought.
 He could go change lanes in the middle of a corner, which was something that was really hard to do today.  I mean, this track is    every year we talk about how important handling is here.  It seems like every event that we run here, this track is starting to get like Darlington to where after 10 laps your tires are falling off and you’re sliding all over the place and trying to hang on to your car.
 It makes it fun to a certain degree, and it makes you do a lot of exercises on holding your breath a lot, too.  ‘Cause, you know, you’re running so fast here that when you do get loose, it makes you hold your breath.  You gasp for air, wait till you get to the straightaway.  These are long corners to have to hold your breath before you get back to the straightaway and breathe again.

 Q.  Tony, did you and Kyle talk today much on the radio?  Toward the end you’ve been in the same situation.  At what point do you start worrying about keeping your teammate in front and not worrying about your own position?
 TONY STEWART:  Well, I mean, as long as you’re in second you worry about keeping your teammate up there with you.  You know, obviously when we got the lead back and saw the pressure that he was under, I mean, at the point he loses second you got to start worrying about yourself again.
 But, you know, he got shuffled back there at one point.  He showed how good his car was today handling wise.  He was able to get right back up there to the front.  They had a great stop.  We had great stops all day.  I’m really proud of our team.  They did a great job getting us in and out of the pits.
 But, you know, you have to pay attention to what lines are running.  I talked to him in Victory Lane.  I kept thinking there were about three or four times where the rules were reversed, he was leading, the line on the outside got a run like you got to bail out and get to the top, take care of yourself in that situation.
 We really worked hard at staying with each other today.  I think no matter how long this race was going to be, if we had to run another hundred laps, another pit stop, as long as we could stay together we were going to be a pretty strong team and strong combination.

 Q.  Did you talk?
 TONY STEWART:  We didn’t.  I don’t know the Nationwide radios, whether we’ve got each other’s frequency.  We do have it in the Cup Series.  I didn’t know if we had it or not, so I never messed with it.
 I did at one point call my spotter and have him go over to Kyle’s spotter and relay some information over to him.

 Q.  As much as we talk about the handling, when tomorrow comes along, will you take horsepower over handling, take what you can with the handling, deal with that, as long as you have that horsepower?  Toyota has shown it has horsepower here.
 TONY STEWART:  How much do I have to sacrifice in horsepower for the handling?

 Q.  Your choice.
 TONY STEWART:  I only got to give up one or two horsepower for handling, I’ll take handling any day.  I feel we can sacrifice a couple.
 Handling is going to be huge here.  You have to be able to stay in the gas.  Even in the Nationwide race today, I mean, I told Dave, I said, If I told you the amount of laps I actually ran flat it would scare you.  We didn’t run near the laps flat on the throttle that I thought we would.
 All the laps in practice that we ran, we never had to get on the gas at all.  It wasn’t till about 20 straight laps tonight that we had to start cracking the throttle and keeping the nose underneath it.
 I think handling is going to be everything tomorrow.  I mean, I think as long as    I think you can have a car that’s down a little bit on power.  As long as you can keep that momentum up through the corner, you’re going to carry it through the straightaway.
 If you have to start checking it up in the corner, losing that momentum, you have to rely on the horsepower to get you going back.  But I don’t think it’s an even trade.  I think just being able to carry that momentum all day and handling is going to be the most critical issue for tomorrow.

 Q.  Tony, you talked earlier about how bad it is here on the tires, how quickly they go away.  Is there a lot of difference between this car that you drove today and the car that you’re going to drive tomorrow since you don’t have that much experience with that car on a track like this?
 TONY STEWART:  I think it’s gonna be a huge difference.  It has been all week.  I mean, obviously when I got in the car two days ago with Dave and the guys, it was like putting on an old pair of shoes and it really drove really well when the track was a little cooler.  It doesn’t matter how cool the track is, I mean, we’re sliding around with the other car, the Cup cars.
 It’s like we talked about all week:  that’s what these cars were designed to do.  They were designed for tomorrow’s race not to drive as well as the cars we were driving today.  They got that wish, for sure.  It’s definitely going to be a driver’s race tomorrow, who can hang on to their car when it’s not right.
 That’s probably going to be the biggest key.  Not who gets their car driving good, it’s who can hang on to it when it’s not driving good tomorrow, and can you make it to the next pit stop to make an adjustment or are you going to have a problem?
 Just being able to hang on to your car tomorrow is going to be a huge factor.  But, you know, we used to talk about Saturday to Sunday, and the changes were very similar, what you learned today you could transfer to the car for tomorrow.  It’s not necessarily that way anymore.  I mean, track bar is still track bar.  Air pressure is still air pressure.  Wedge in and out is wedge in and out.
 We didn’t deal with bump rubbers today.  We didn’t deal with splitters.  It’s just a totally different ballgame tomorrow now with this package than what Dave and I worked with today.

 Q.  Dave, drivers have to adapt to a lot of changes for tracks.  Do you do anything special to help your team to adjust to all the changes, especially the last couple years?
 DAVE ROGERS:  Not really.  With the driver lineup I have this year, there’s not much driver coaching going on.
 All we did is put together a game plan.  We talked about the what ifs.  We knew that the car was going to tighten up as the track got hot.  Tony and I talked about that before the race.
 We just had a game plan of, Okay, when it does this, we’re going to do this.  We’re going to try to stay ahead of it.
 But it’s all driver comment dictated.  Tony tells us what’s wrong and we do our best to fix it.  It changes throughout the race.
 HERB BRANHAM:  Dave, thank you very much.
 DAVE ROGERS:  Thank you very much.
 HERB BRANHAM:  We’ll continue with questions for Tony.

 Q.  Tony, the car owner, exopen wheeler, I’m wondering if you thought it would be that hard for Jacques Villeneuve to secure sponsorship?
 TONY STEWART:  I don’t know.  I mean, I’m selling sponsorship in the World Outlaw, Sprint car level and USAC level.  I’m not a team owner at this level.  I would say at this level it’s increasingly harder and harder to get sponsorships.
 The value of what this series has to offer from sponsorships, no mayer whose car you’re on I think is very valuable.  I mean, obviously the coverage that you get here, I mean, you just look at the amount of people here in the media center’s proof of that.
 If it’s not a popular sport, all you representatives from all the different papers and online sites wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t worth covering.  As long as you guys are here, obviously it brings that value because you guys are the ones that help us.
 As much as we promote the sponsors, you guys do the same things for us.  I think as long as this sport is as popular as it is, I think corporate America realizes the value of the marketing side and what these series have to offer them, no matter who the drivers are.

 Q.  They’re talking about making some drastic changes when they come in with the new Nationwide car.  Do you think that will be the end of Cup drivers driving in this series?
 TONY STEWART:  No.  I mean, Clint Bowyer went and ran dirt this week.  Just because it didn’t have anything to do with his Cup car didn’t stop him from going and racing a dirt track.  The Cup drivers race on Saturday because they love racing.  You know, there’s a lot of value to that from their standpoint.
 I mean, if you’re going to be here for three days, you might    if you want to race three days in a row like Kyle does a lot, running the Truck Series and Nationwide and Cup, you should be able to do that, I mean, if you’re going to be here that long.  And the fans want to see you run as much as possible.
 I don’t think it matters with the difference of cars because still, you know, we’re still running vastly different cars now from the two series versus what we did in the past anyway.  It hasn’t stopped anybody from saying, Okay, well, I still want to go down and run a Nationwide car.
 Even if they change, and I don’t know what the proposed changes are, I know they’ve talked about it, and I’ve heard it through you guys this week, the possibilities of it being a different car in the future.
 Racers race.  I mean, you look at the amount of guys, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Kenny Schrader, how many guys are going out and running more and more of just the Cup cars, I don’t see that changing, especially where we’re at at the weekends.
 I don’t think you’re going to see a decrease in the amount of guys that are going to run just because the cars are different.  I think if you want to race, you’re still just going to race.

 Q.  Getting back to Joe one more time.  How has his demeanor been this week?  Have you made him forget about the Washington Redskins with all the success you had this week?
 TONY STEWART:  Washington who (smiling)?
 I would say we kept him busy enough.  With the driver lineup he’s got, I don’t think he wants to relax too much anyway, to begin with.  We just kind of like keeping him only edge anyway.  It’s kind of fun to watch him walk around on edge a little bit.
 He hasn’t even mentioned it.  I’ll be honest.  Obviously it’s been a busy week with two of us running the Shootout last Saturday, Kyle running the truck race last night.  Joe was interested in keeping tabs of what Kyle was doing, even though we didn’t have a truck entered in the race.  All three of us running today.
 So, you know, I think    I don’t know that Joe’s forgot it.  It’s probably a question you’d have to ask him how much he’s thought about the Redskins or not.  I know the topic of football hasn’t even came up since we’ve been down here at Daytona.
 I just want to know, did they pass out any more cool bobbleheads?  Anything I want to grab from you guys that I can take back to the motor coach that’s cool?  You guys get all the cool stuff.

 Q.  Great Clips stuff.
 TONY STEWART:  Now, I’m okay with the Great Clips stuff right now.  I’ll tell you what, I’ll let you guys each take a shot at the scissors tomorrow if we can win this thing.  Each of you can cut a lock for yourself.  That’s my gift.
 And Poole is not going first (laughter).  Hunter is damn sure not going first.  He can’t see.  He may try to clip my beard instead (laughter).

 Q.  Who would your favorite bobblehead be?
 TONY STEWART:  I don’t know.  That’s a really good question.  I just think I want to be the first driver to come out with a bobble belly, because I think it just fits me.  If we use that mold we can probably make a David Poole, Monte Dutton.  What are you laughing about (laughter)?  We’re still teammates, so…
 I think it would be kind of cool.  I don’t know who in the series.  I know we put a lot of work into trying to get Kevin’s mounted today, and Zippy was the one that put the squash on it.  The guys were all ready.  Had all the hardware to bolt it in.
 Zippy is so knotted up about tomorrow right now, it was hard to convince him that putting a toy in the car was actually going to make us more productive today.  Didn’t have much luck there.

 Q.  You said you’re a racer and you’ll race anything.  How much do you want to go back to the Indy 500?
 TONY STEWART:  Check with me tomorrow night.  If I can say that I won a Daytona 500 first, I think it will make that interest in doing that again that much greater.  Got a lot of work here in NASCAR that I want to do before I would even consider going back and doing that.
 There’s a lot of things that have to happen first before I would even think about going back and doing that again.

 Q.  It’s been you and Dale, Jr. all week long.  You’ve run really well all week long.  So has Dale, Jr.  What is keeping it from being the showdown between you two tomorrow?
 TONY STEWART:  I think the fact that we both got teammates that are really good also right now.  I think my teammates’ cars are handling better than mine is right now.
 You know, you look at the teammates from both sides here, you can’t count any of those guys out, I don’t believe.  I think Denny is running as good as he’s ever run here at Daytona.  I think Kyle, everything he’s drove this week, he’s been fast.  He just hasn’t had the luck to go with it.
 You look at the Hendrick side, aside from Junior, you look at Jeff and Jimmie, and you never ever can count those guys out at a race.  I think that side of it speaks for itself.
 This series is so competitive, I don’t think you really can narrow it down to two guys.  Even with what happens during the week, you look at the last lap of the Daytona 500 last year, nobody would have predicted it was going to be down between Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick.  That’s the way it worked out.  That’s the way it shook out.
 500 laps here is a long, long, long race, especially with the cars being different this year and everybody having the tire problems.  You know me, I’m normally the first one to jump on Goodyear’s back about tires.  I really don’t believe it’s a problem with what they’ve been doing.
 I think it’s, you know, the conditions were so much better when we came and tested here that I don’t think they could even predict what was going to happen.
 But these cars and this racetrack has given up so much grip, I think especially in the last two years, it just feels like it’s finally got that wore out feel to where it just doesn’t have a lot of grip.  When that happens, it’s hard for any tire manufacturer to stay caught up to it and know what to expect.
 But, you know, I wouldn’t want to be a bookie trying to lay the odds on the Daytona 500, because I don’t know how you predict who’s going to win it.  I don’t know how you can be that accurate and know how to accurately give odds for this race, so much can happen the last three or four laps.
 If you look at the qualifying races, you look at the Shootout the other night, so much can happen at the end of the race when guys get their cars driving halfway decent, that it even makes it hard to predict with two laps to go who is going to win.  It’s hard to narrow it down to two guys.
 I think in all reality, we got to give credit to more of the field than that.

 Q.  78 career Nationwide starts.  All three of your victories have come here.  Do you get to a certain place, a certain car, a certain series where you have a certain confidence to where you feel like you can’t be beat or you’re the guy to beat?
 TONY STEWART:  It’s actually the opposite.  It means I suck everywhere else basically.  Haven’t been able to win anywhere else yet (laughter).
 We’ve had good luck here.  Obviously, you know, with all three wins being here it’s a race I look forward to.  Winning that first one with Kevin and DeLana Harvick and winning their first race for them as a race team was really a special moment for me in my career because of how good of friends they are to me.
 Armor All this weekend, this is the only race we’re running for Armor All all year.  It was just a one off race.  They’re in my World of Outlaws Sprint car team with Donny Schatz.  To go out and get the pole yesterday and to see them the day before the race, see how excited they were, it was really cool to finish it off this way today.
 I hope to break this jinx I guess of just being able to win at Daytona in this series.  Trust me, I wouldn’t want to give those three wins up for anything.  But, you know, you still hope that you can go out and do it on another day also.
 You know, obviously we like the restrictor plate races as far as how we perform.  I’m not sure I like the style of it.  When you look up, look in the stats 10 years from now, it says three wins, most people would have forgot they were all just here.  They’ll think I was actually pretty good somewhere else, too.

 Q.  How much do you think a lock of your hair would go for on eBay?
 TONY STEWART:  I don’t know.  We actually sent some in earlier this year.  I shouldn’t say this year.  It was late last year, right before Thanksgiving.  Actually had it shaped, whatever that means.  It means she took scissors to it and it looked the same when I left as when I went in there, so I didn’t really think much happened.
 I don’t know.  Especially if it comes from you guys cutting it.  It should raise a lot of extra money if the media cuts it.  I think the situation behind it would make it more valuable, obviously.
 HERB BRANHAM:  We’re going to wrap up with Tony.
 TONY STEWART:  Scared?
 HERB BRANHAM:  Absolutely.
 TONY STEWART:  So am I (laughter).
 HERB BRANHAM:  Thank you, Tony.

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An interview with:
 
TODD BODINE
MIKE HILLMAN, JR.
KYLE BUSCH
JOHNNY BENSON
JUSTIN MARKS
 
 KERRY THARP:  We’re going to go ahead and roll into our post race press conferences here for the Chevy Silverado 250.  We’re pleased to be joined by our Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Justin Marks.  He’s the driver of the No. 9 Construct Corps.  Toyota.  Nice finish for you.
 Our third place finisher is Johnny Benson, driver of the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota.
 First of all, Justin, your first race here I guess at Daytona in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.  Your thoughts about how you did? 

JUSTIN MARKS:  I had a really, really good truck.  Construct Corps.  Tundra handled really well all night.  It wasn’t great.  Sort of in the middle run of the race, that long green run we had, we made a change to try to free it up a little bit.  We got too free in and it made us real tight up off the corner.
 It was a good all around effort.  Just a little bummed out there about what happened with the 99.  I mean, we were trying to get a little bit of separation there and we all came out of the pits together, was trying to get away there.  I was just hooked up underneath him.  If he was waving, I didn’t see him.  I tried the best I could to stay off of him.  So sorry about that.
 But the guys did a good job to bounce back from it.  We restarted.  With two or three to go we were 15th.  We were able to get a solid top 10 finish and carry some momentum into California.

KERRY THARP:  We’ll take questions for these three competitors.

Q.  Justin, can you talk about the incident with Darnell with 12 laps to go.

JUSTIN MARKS:  Yeah, I didn’t get a call or anything on the radio.  We came out of the pits, all three of us together   me, him and the 30.  I guess they let some lug nuts loose, had a loose wheel or something, I don’t know.
 But we went down in through three and four.  I was just tucked up right underneath him, man.  I was just pushing right there through the corner.  If he was waving, I didn’t see him.  His spoiler was just too high.  I couldn’t see nothing.  He started slowing down there a little bit.  He didn’t slow down super abruptly.
 I jumped off the gas and he hit the brakes and I knew there was a problem.  I just jumped to the outside as fast as I could.  Just got a piece of his right rear.
 I hate it for those guys.  Never want something like that to happen.  Tore us up a little bit.  Feel bad about it.  It’s one of those things that I guess we’ll just learn from.

Q.  Kyle or Johnny, two victories for Toyota.  One in Cup, one in Trucks.  What does it say about the progress the manufacturer is making?

JOHNNY BENSON:  Well, I think you’d have to ask Kyle that on the Cup side for sure.
 In Trucks, I mean, it’s obvious the last couple years have been running extremely well.  I did have an opportunity to go down and test one of the Gibbs cars at Las Vegas.  It ran extremely well.  I was really happy how the test went there.  Their engines feel pretty strong there, but they were strong last year there, too.
 The only real comparison that you can probably see from the Toyota side would be the difference between last year’s Cup engine and this year’s Cup engine.  We felt our engines last year were great.  The new engine we got now we feel is just as good, if not a tad bit better.  We’re extremely pleased on our end.

Q.  Johnny, what do you think it means for Todd to win here finally after 17 years and 34 tries?

JOHNNY BENSON:  Well, I think that’s great.  I mean, I’d like to have been a part of that, been able to win it.  But we been close the last couple years.  Todd has been close the last couple years to winning it.  It’s super.
 Todd has been racing for many, many years.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t realize that was his first win here, but that’s cool.  Any time that you can win a race here, no matter what it is, it’s a great accomplishment.  Coming to Daytona for, you know, Speedweeks, everybody’s excited, everybody’s excited to get racing.
 To win the first race, no matter where it’s at, is a pretty cool deal.  But to definitely win it here at Daytona is extra special.

Q.  Johnny, you about got that three wide finish down on the frontstretch there.  Done that for a couple years.  If you’d had the opportunity to hit Kyle and bump him forward, would it have helped you or were you trying to lay off?

KERRY THARP:  Guys, thanks for putting on a good race for us tonight.
 We are pleased to be joined by tonight’s race winner of the Chevy Silverado 250.  That’s Todd Bodine, driver of the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota and his crew chief, Mike Hillman.
 Your first victory in 34 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series or Nationwide Series or Craftsman Truck Series here at Daytona International Speedway.  How does it feel to win here at this big track? 

TODD BODINE:  Oh, boy, finally to get it done, it’s pretty incredible.  You know, we’ve been coming here for 17 years as a driver, three years as a crew member, 20 years total.  Finally to get to Victory Lane, it was incredible.
 I mean, I seen my brother here.  You know, this racetrack has been pretty cruel to us.  Now it’s been pretty good to us in a couple ways.  To finally get it done, it’s just an incredible feeling. 

KERRY THARP:  Mike, your thoughts?  What did you see from up top the box tonight?

KERRY THARP:  Let’s take questions for Todd or Mike.

Q.  Todd, last night after you qualified, you sounded very confident.  I never heard you that way before a race.  What did you know that it would work out the way you thought it would?

TODD BODINE:  Well, Daytona is a handling track.  This truck won at Talladega, sat on the pole and won the race at Talladega, which is a pure speed track it’s so smooth now.
 Daytona is a handling track.  It always has been, always will be.  Our truck was driving so good in practice, I knew when those guys got slipping and sliding we would have something for them.  Sure enough, we did.
 Unfortunately, you know, when I was in front of Erik Darnell I got a little loose.  When I was behind Erik, I was a little tight.  You know, that’s part of racing at speedways, and that’s part of racing at Daytona.  When all that was going on, my truck was still driving good.  And when you’re truck’s driving good, it just makes it a lot easier to pick and choose and do what you need to do to get to the front.

Q.  Todd, I assume you were in Victory Lane when Jeff won in ‘86.

TODD BODINE:  No.

Q.  You weren’t?

TODD BODINE:  No.  I was back in North Carolina building my late model stock car.

Q.  How much better is this than that? 

TODD BODINE:  Well, it’s different.  I’m not going to say it’s better because it’s just different.  You know, when you watch your brother, or in some cases your father, go to Victory Lane in the Daytona 500, there’s a lot of pride in that.  There’s a lot of pride in knowing that your brother accomplished something that not a lot of people can accomplish or even get the opportunity to accomplish.
 So, you know, there’s self pride of having a brother accomplish that and understanding what that means.  And now to get here as a driver, to accomplish that, it’s a whole different feeling.  You know, it’s pride and almost a little bit of redemption for myself.  17 years, what did you say, 34 races?

TODD BODINE:  34 races here at Daytona and the first time in Victory Lane.  And I’ve been so close before, second and third.  I’ve had bad crashes here before.  To finally redeem myself and then do it, that’s a whole different feeling.  It’s a whole different outlook on Victory Lane.
 You know, the one thing that makes me a little sad is Brett never got here.  You know, as deserving as he is as a driver and owner, he deserved to be here also.  But they were both in Victory Lane with me.

Q.  Todd, could you talk about what this means to the team, especially with the Hillmans, both Senior and Junior.  Then, Mike, talk about winning this with your dad.

TODD BODINE:  Well, I mean, it’s not uncommon knowledge.  I mean, everybody knows the relationship that the Bodines, not only myself, but Brett and myself, have with Mike, Sr. and Mike, Jr. and how many years we go back.
 When I first started racing in ‘91, Mike, Sr.’s garage was right next to mine.  We’d be working till midnight every night.  We’d stop and have a beer, we’d go home.  We just got to be friends back then.
 He’s probably going to shoot me for telling y’all this.  But after the race was over, Senior came on the radio crying.  That’s how much it meant to him to get to Victory Lane, and it meant that much to me to get him here.
 You can accomplish a lot in racing.  You can go places.  You travel the country.  You see the country.  You do things.  There’s nothing like being in Victory Lane at Daytona.  It doesn’t matter if it’s in a Cup car or a Nationwide car or a Truck Series or a go kart.  You’re standing in Victory Lane at Daytona.  That’s the Super Bowl, man.  It doesn’t get any better than this.
 For me to be able to do that for Senior means a lot.  You know, it’s funny, the kind of relationship that Junior and myself are forming as friends.  I mean, hell, we’re brothers.  I mean, we just don’t have the same last name.  That’s pretty neat to be able to do it.
 You know, to see how far he’s come in a short period of time as a crew chief, it’s pretty incredible.  Makes me proud as a brother.

Q.  Todd, could you tell us what was going through your mind that last lap.

TODD BODINE:  Oh, hell, just hold ‘em off, man (laughter).  I was scared to death.  You know, the last lap going into one, you know, I knew that Kyle was holding back every lap trying to get his run timed.  We come off of two and he’d be two car lengths back.  We’d come off of two the next lap and he’d be three.  He was trying to time it and get his run perfect.
 I kind of screwed him up because I went into one and let right off the gas and made him stay on my bumper.  That messed his run up down the back straightaway.
 And then when him and Johnny got racing through three and four there, and he was blocking Johnny and they got way back there I was like, Oh, this is not happening.  They had enough time   I thought   to draft me down the front and get by me by the start/finish line.
 That’s why I went all the way to the apron.  I figured, If they’re going to follow me down here, they’re going to have to pass me in the grass.
 I knew it was going to be tough.  Fortunately they ran out of racetrack.

Q.  Talk about winning with your dad.

TODD BODINE:  Let’s go par tay!

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 Nationwide Series Unofficial Results

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (February 16, 2008) — Polesitter Tony Stewart repelled a strong challenge from teammate Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Camping World 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

Stewart surged to the lead on Lap 117 of 120 and stayed there as the rest of the field diced for position behind him. On the final lap, Busch blocked Earnhardt’s last-ditch attempt to improve his position and all
but assured the victory for Stewart, who crossed the finish line .259 seconds ahead of Busch, with Earnhardt .412 seconds back.

Brian Vickers ran fourth, followed by Matt Kenseth, rookie Bryan Clauson, Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin, David Ragan and defending series champion Carl Edwards.

The Joe Gibbs Racing teammates dominated the action, with Busch leading 47 laps at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, and Stewart 46.

“We were battling the balance of the car, but this thing was so fast down the straightaway,” Stewart said of his No. 20 Toyota. “Once we got up front, it actually helped my car turn.”

Busch had the lead on Lap 111 when a multicar crash in Turn 4 behind the lead pack brought out the fourth caution of the race. Steve Wallace spun after contact with the No. 88 Chevy of Brad Keselowski triggered a wreck that damaged seven cars. The race restarted with six laps remaining with Busch in the lead.

Vickers, Martin Truex Jr. and Busch battled for the top spot until Stewart went to the point.

“It’s a shame that we came in second with such a great racecar,” said Busch, who also came in second in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. “But the 20 was fast, too, and Tony Stewart’s the man.”

Earnhardt agreed.

“The situation was that you’ve got two great racecars with two great drivers in front of me,” said Earnhardt, whose crew had to replace the rear decklid and spoiler after the No. 5 Chevy failed pre-qualifying
inspection. “Tony says I’m one of the best restrictor-plate drivers, but he’s right there with me.”    

The race was caution-free until Lap 55, when David Gilliland’s Ford broke loose in Turn 2 after contact from Greg Biffle, slammed the wall, slid down the track and collected the Chevrolet of Mark Green. Biffle’s
No. 16 Ford also sustained minor front-end damage during the accident.

The caution bunched the field, depriving the trio of Truex, Vickers and Busch of a lead of more than eight seconds they had opened over Clint Bowyer and Stewart. It also trapped the Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick one
lap down, as Harvick had made an unscheduled pit stop after his crew failed to fill his fuel cell fully on an earlier green-flag stop.

After a restart on Lap 59, Busch and Truex battled for the lead until Busch took control seven laps into the run. Busch stayed out front, with Stewart locked to his rear bumper, until Marcos Ambrose shredded his
right rear tire on the backstretch, bringing out the second caution of the race on Lap 78.

Stewart won the race off pit road for a restart on Lap 82 and kept his car out front until sheet metal falling from Ambrose’s car in Turn 2 caused the third caution on Lap 97. With quick work on pit road, Busch
led the field to a restart on Lap 101, followed by Earnhardt, Stewart, Vickers and David Reutimann.

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