Full Throttle

Tony Stewart held off a last-lap battle from Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards to win the Camping World 300 Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

The win marks Stewart’s four Daytona win, his second consecutive Nationwide Series win at DIS, sixth top-10 finish in nine races and his first as driver of a Hendrick Motorsports entered car.

“We are one for one with Rick Hendrick, and it was an awesome day for me,” co-owner of Stewart Haas Racing said. “It is hard to do a one-off deal when you don’t know everyone.”

“I thought I made the call that lost us the race. Actually, I thought I killed us, but we had good track partners, a strong car and great pit stops. On the last lap, Kyle Busch about wrecked me. He drove me all the way down into the grass, but he also cut me a break to let us off the grass. I never lifted, and we made it to the finish,” related Stewart in recalling the late race pitstop and tussle over position with Busch.

Despite how close the checkered flag image makes it appear Stewart had to make-up a lot of ground in the closing laps to be victorious.

Stewart gave up the third spot to pit during a caution on lap 91, falling back in the pack on the restart with 26 laps to the finish. He then proceeded to pick-off 23 cars in 11 laps to get back into contention, then hung onto the lead as Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer bumped, banged and blocked for position.

Bowyer put the “jab” into Edwards during the post race news conference claiming he “had to push an ugly little Ford up there toward the end,” to which Edwards responded; “That was a fast little Ford.”

Indeed it was as were all the Fords as five of them finished in the top ten, four from Roush Racing, with the lone hold out Jason Keller who rode the Baker Curb Racing Ford home to a 9th place finish.

Questions that need answers: Who the hell gave Brad Keselowski to go-ahead leaving his pit stall that resulted in Dale Jr. and Kenseth taking trips through the grass to avoid seing their race end early?

And speaking of Jasons, was this really what Leffler wanted to start? I suspect not, but it is what it is.