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Earnhardt Wins Debut For New Team

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By TONY FABRIZIO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 10, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH - The winner of the first race of 2008 ...

NASCAR.

Not only did its most popular driver get back to Victory Lane in his first race with his new team, but its much-maligned next-generation race car put on a great show in its Daytona debut.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., making his first start in Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevy, won Saturday night's non-points Bud Shootout after skillfully moving back and forth on the last lap to block Tony Stewart in the low lane and teammate Jimmie Johnson in the high lane.

Stewart finished second in Joe Gibbs Racing's Toyota debut, Johnson was third, Jeff Gordon fourth and Reed Sorensen took fifth. Casey Mears finished sixth, meaning all four Hendrick cars finished in the top six, even though Johnson started in the rear of the field in a backup car.

"That was fun," an elated Earnhardt said after scoring his first Cup-level win of any kind since May 2006 at Richmond. "I had a blast those last few laps. Got some great help from my teammates. I didn't win the race without Jimmie pushing me. ... I'm so happy: My new team, Victory Lane! Man, it don't get no better."

Car owner Rick Hendrick was equally pleased, joking, "I don't know what took him so long to win his first race for us."

Earnhardt led 47 of the 70 laps, but he never had much breathing room. He used the track's high line, usually getting drafting help from his teammates, but Stewart and Dave Blaney gave him fits from the inside lane.

Stewart seemed headed for winning the Shootout for the second straight year when Kurt Busch spun out to bring out a caution flag with three laps to go. Shootout rules call for a double-file restart, which put Earnhardt outside of Stewart coming to the green flag.

With a big drafting push from Johnson, Earnhardt was able to take the lead.

"I'm pretty happy. I mean, it's hard to beat Dale Jr.," Stewart said. "I mean, 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, in all honesty."

Johnson, the two-time defending Sprint Cup champion, really didn't have a fighting chance. After a crash in Friday's practice destroyed his primary car, he was given one of his short-track cars because his team didn't want to use his Daytona 500 car.

"I felt like Fred Flintstone in this thing, trying to get this short track car to go," he said, laughing.

The track was still buzzing Saturday about a run-in between Busch and Stewart during Friday night's practice and the possibility Stewart punched Busch during their meeting in the NASCAR officials' hauler afterward.

Stewart and Busch wrecked while running nose to tail, and Busch, who thought Stewart took him out, drove into the side of Stewart's car as they came down pit road.

Both ESPN.com and the Charlotte Observer's racing Web site, citing unnamed sources, reported Saturday that Stewart struck Busch while the two were meeting with Sprint Cup series director and NASCAR vice president Jim Hunter.

None of the parties involved would confirm or deny that a punch was thrown, and the drivers downplayed the incident in television interviews. But the drivers were called into the NASCAR hauler for a second meeting Saturday morning and were warned to steer clear of each other.

After the Shootout, Stewart again was asked directly whether he punched Busch and he wouldn't say. "What happens behind the NASCAR hauler doors stays behind the NASCAR hauler doors. That's all I'm going to say about it."

"Tony and I are competitors, we always have been and we're going to be just fine," Busch said in one of his TV interviews.

NASCAR's new car - formerly known as the Car of Tomorrow - proved racy and competitive in its first Daytona race. Fox commentator Darrell Waltrip couldn't stop gushing about it after Earnhardt took the checkered flag, and drivers generally had positive things to say.

That was a change form last year, when drivers generally lauded the car's safety enhancements but complained that it was difficult to make turns compared to the old car.

But Stewart and Johnson cautioned that the Daytona 500 is a much different race than the Bud Shootout.

"I think at night, the grip level is better, and it kind of masks some of the problems," Johnson said. "When we start practicing for the Daytona 500 during the day, it the car is going to be a handful again."

Said Stewart, "I think it will be a handful in the daylight hours. Even though these cars get a bigger run, they do not drive as good as the older cars."

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