Times wires
Saturday, February 19, 2011
DAYTONA BEACH — Immediately after crossing the finish line of the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway, Tony Stewart went on his radio and congratulated his team on the Nationwide series victory.
Stewart was sure of it — even if no one else was.
"If not, I was going to look really stupid saying, 'I won, I won,' " Stewart said.
Stewart surged ahead of Clint Bowyer off the final turn Saturday to win by 0.007 seconds, the closest margin of victory in series history at Daytona.
It was Stewart's fourth consecutive victory in the series' season-opening race and his sixth in seven years.
With six laps to go, Stewart had to pit because of a flat tire and fell from second to 11th. But he hooked up with 21-year-old Landon Cassill shortly after the restart, and the duo slowly picked through the field.
They got to the front in the waning seconds.
Bowyer got a boost from Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final turn, but when Earnhardt made his move, Bowyer shifted back in front of Earnhardt.
That provided Stewart just enough time to lurch ahead.
Cassill finished third and Earnhardt fourth.
"I was worried about that because I'd never done this — actually, I've never done any drafting before in the Nationwide series," Cassill said. "It was kind of a learn-on-the-fly thing."
Bowyer was second for the second time in three days; he barely lost to teammate Jeff Burton in Thursday's 150-mile Sprint Cup qualifier.
"You work the whole race to put yourself in a situation to be there at the end," Bowyer said. "I've been able to do it twice. I've just got to get it all together for (today) and win the big one."
PATRICK MAKES HISTORY: Danica Patrick led Lap 30, becoming the first woman to lead a lap in a NASCAR race at Daytona. Her jump to the top came from a push by Bowyer.
Patrick finished 14th, her career best in the series.
"I pushed a little bit at the end, a little too late," the full-time IndyCar driver said. "But it was really cool when Clint was pushing me and they told me that I did lead a lap, at least."
Still, she often found drafting help hard to come by.
"I'm probably not to the point where if I pull out, people are going to go, 'All right, she's going, I'm going,' " Patrick said. "So that takes a while to earn the trust and respect from all the other drivers. I'm not mad at that. That's just going to take time."
Patrick's run was part of a historic weekend for women at the 2.5-mile oval. In Friday's trucks race, Jennifer Jo Cobb was sixth, the best for a woman in series history. Cobb is the first woman to finish in the top 10 in any of NASCAR's top three divisions at Daytona.
MORE HELP: The feel-good story of Speedweeks took another turn Saturday when Brian Keselowski picked up a sponsor for today's Daytona 500. The journeyman received funding from Discount Tire. "It's awesome," Keselowski said. " … They've made it happen."
EAST BAY RACEWAY: Mark Smith won the King of the 360's main event late Friday at the dirt track in Gibsonton.