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Stewart Tangles With Kurt Busch

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By TONY FABRIZIO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH - If Friday night's practice was any indication, tonight's Bud Shootout could be pretty adventurous.

One multicar accident destroyed the No. 48 Chevy of two-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and another spilled over into some pit road histrionics between Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart that landed both in the NASCAR hauler for a scolding.

"Expect to see more of that," veteran Mark Martin said. "A lot of guys haven't driven cars NASCAR's new car like this at Daytona. It is going to take them awhile to get through their heads that they have to be more conservative."

Busch and Stewart wrecked while running bumper to bumper, and afterward, an apparently angry Busch caught up to Stewart and banged into the side of his car. Busch then briefly blocked Stewart from turning from pit road into the garage area.

Both drivers were called into a meeting with Sprint Cup Series director John Darby, and they will have to meet with him again today, NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter said. There was no immediate determination on any fines or penalties.

The incident provides an early test of NASCAR officials' claim in January that they're going to be a little more lax on allowing drivers to show emotion.

"John Darby wants to make sure that this incident is forgotten," Hunter said. "The wreck on the racetrack happened, but what upset NASCAR more than anything was the cars banging together and all the things that happened after the caution."

Busch and Stewart left without comment, but Busch's crew chief, Pat Tryson, blamed the incident on Stewart.

"He got to our right-rear and turned left and pretty much just wrecked us," Tryson said. "Anybody can play it any way they want, but it was Tony's fault. There's some past history."

Stewart and Busch were running 1-2 about three-quarters of the way through last year's Daytona 500 when Stewart bobbled in Turn 4 and Busch ran into the back of him, taking both cars out.

In the earlier wreck Friday, Clint Bowyer hit Ryan Newman from behind. Newman's Dodge lurched left and shot back up the track into the path of Johnson and other traffic.

"I got turned by the 07 car Bowyer," Newman said. "He crowded me, and I didn't give him a whole lot of room. ... He just didn't find the middle brake pedal when he needed to."

Bowyer took the blame but said he was getting a hard push from behind from Reed Sorenson.

"It's just unfortunate for everybody," he said.

Between the two crashes, 11 out of 23 cars sustained damage. Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Newman and Busch will have to go to backup cars. Since teams only bring two cars to the track and nobody wants to use their 500 car in the Shootout, Hendrick Motorsports and Penske Racing are having cars brought by trailer today from their shops in North Carolina.

"Certainly, this is not what we planned for," Johnson said. "We brought our best two cars down here. Our first one is for the 500, and our second-best was for the Shootout."

The Shootout, which traditionally ushers in the new season, is a 70-lap race (split into two segments) for the previous season's pole winners and former event winners. Qualifiers also get valuable practice for next week's Daytona 500.

The practice is more valuable than usual this year, because NASCAR is running its new car at Daytona for the first time.

"We're going to see a lot of things like this happening, because the drafting is so severe that there is a lot of movement going on out there," Gordon said. "I've been saying it's going to be exciting, and I think there's a whole lot more excitement to come."

Carl Edwards, who was also caught up in one of the crashes, agreed.

"The racing is going to be spectacular," he said. "The cars are really all over the place, as you could see there."

Kurt Busch starts on the pole in tonight's race. The ARCA 200 will precede the Shootout, and Justin Marks and open-wheel veteran Scott Speed will start on the front row in Toyotas.

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