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Is Stewart to blame for late wreck?

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By TONY FABRIZIO

afabrizio@tampatrib.com

Published: July 6, 2009

DAYTONA BEACH - Tony Stewart already had a rivalry with one Busch. Does he have one with his younger brother now?

That's probably up to Kyle Busch.

Stewart and the younger Busch were racing for the win in Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona when Busch tried to block Stewart as he was trying to pass on the outside.

Stewart held his line and hit Busch's lime green Toyota, sending it careening into the outside wall and collecting several cars behind them. Stewart went to Victory Lane and Busch, amazingly not seriously injured, went to the infield care center.

The worst of the crash occurred after Busch hit the wall. He rebounded into traffic, where Kasey Kahne hit him from behind, lifting the rear of Busch's car onto Kahne's windshield. Busch then hit the wall again and was T-boned on the driver's side by teammate Joey Logano.

After the replays were watched and everybody had their say late Saturday night - everybody except Kyle Busch, that is - blame was placed on the combination of the new car and restrictor-plate racing that has caused so many hard crashes in recent years.

Stewart didn't apologize, because he didn't think he did anything wrong, but he was humble and contrite.

"Even if it was 100 percent Kyle Busch's fault, I still won't feel good about it," Stewart said. "There were a pack of cars that were the strongest, and we were one of those, and we definitely deserved to have a shot at the end. The outcome may go your way, but it doesn't mean you have to like how it happened."

Nobody had a better view than Jimmie Johnson, who wound up second. Johnson speculated that Busch didn't know Stewart had gotten up to his quarter-panel and that he thought he had time to block. He said both drivers were racing for a win, and, "Tony didn't mean to dump him."

Busch left for the infield care center without commenting - probably a good thing, given his penchant for speaking before thinking in the heat of the moment - but his crew chief didn't fault Stewart.

"I'm not pointing any fingers at Tony," Steve Addington said. "He was trying to win the race. Kyle was trying to block him for the win, and we got turned around. ... It's part of this restrictor-plate racing."

Stewart and Kyle Busch are former teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing and have generally gotten along OK, but that hasn't always been the case for Stewart and Kyle's older brother, Kurt.

Their differences came to a head after an on-track incident during Bud Shootout practice at Daytona in February 2008. The drivers were called to the NASCAR officials' trailer afterward, and during a meeting there, Stewart reportedly punched Kurt Busch.

Saturday night, Stewart said he was having trouble getting much gratification from his third Coke Zero 400 win in five years. He said he would talk to Kyle Busch about what happened.

"You don't want to see a race decided like that," he said. "It's hard work that gets these cars to the racetrack. It's just a bad situation."

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at (813) 259-7994.

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