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Stewart Puts Toyota In Victory Lane

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By CARTER GADDIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 17, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH - Tony Stewart won the Camping World 300 on Saturday, his third victory in four years in the Nationwide Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

But the bigger winners were Joe Gibbs Racing, which placed three drivers in the top eight, and Toyota, which seems to have struck gold coming into its second season in NASCAR by forging a formidable partnership with JGR.

"You know, everybody has talked about how much JGR has brought the level of Toyota up," said Stewart, whose victory came two days after JGR teammate Denny Hamlin's win in one of the two Gatorade Duel qualifiers. "It's not been us. It's been what they did before we came along."

What Toyota did last year was win exactly one Nationwide (formerly Busch) race: Jason Leffler in the Kroger 200 at Indianapolis in July. What Toyota did in last year's Nationwide opener was place one driver, second-place finisher Dave Blaney, in the top 20.

Saturday, Toyota drivers led 96 of 120 laps (93 combined by Stewart and second-place finisher Kyle Busch).

Three Toyotas finished in the top four, including Brian Vickers in fourth. Six finished in the top 19, including Zephyrhills' David Reutimann of Michael Waltrip Racing in 14th.

Only Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver Martin Truex Jr., driving the No. 8 Chevrolet, managed to mount a challenge to the front-running duo of Stewart and Busch. Truex led 20 laps and was a factor until the final lap, when Busch held him off with a pair of nifty blocks - one low, one high.

Stewart credited Busch's skill with helping preserve the victory for JGR.

"Dude, I was trying to keep myself where I needed to be," said Busch, who led the most laps in this race for the second year in a row and was coming off a second-place finish in Friday's Craftsman Truck Series opener. "Truex 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."

When informed that Truex took exception to his blocking tactics, Busch got off this blast:

"What else you going to do, man?" Busch said. "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. What do you want me to do, pull over?"

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third, the first time in three Speedweeks starts that the first-year Hendrick Motorsports driver did not end up at Victory Lane. Driving the No. 5 Chevrolet - which was impounded Thursday and had its spoiler confiscated Friday after an illegal adjustment was discovered in inspection - Earnhardt's already high opinion of the Toyota-JGR partnership went up another notch.

"I knew it was real when we first come down here to test," Earnhardt said. "The Toyota has been fast. Those JGR guys, you know, got the knowledge to get cars around the track, know how to get to Victory Lane. They're going to be tough, I think, all year."

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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