Me too, especially after the race today.

Stewart wins crash-filled Daytona Busch race
Rookie Lamar finishes second in third Busch Series start
By Mike Harris, The Associated Press
February 18, 2006
06:39 PM EST (23:39 GMT)


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- As long as Tony Stewart has been racing, he has no recollection of running three-wide at the front of the pack -- until Saturday.

"I don't ever remember being part of something like that,'' Stewart said after eventually pulling away in the final laps to win the crash-filled Hershey's Kissables 300 Busch Series race.

After wresting the lead from Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 13 laps to go, Stewart had to fight off several challenges, including simultaneous runs by pals Earnhardt and Michael Waltrip, who raced side-by-side with him for nearly two laps as the crowd of about 100,000 at Daytona International Speedway stood and cheered.

"I think that's the first time I've gotten lucky enough to be in the front, three-wide like that,'' said Stewart, one of the favorites to win Sunday's Daytona 500. "I'm not real excited having to be in that situation [Sunday]. But, if that's what it comes down to, trust me, I'm not backing out of it.

"I was extremely loose down there at times on the bottom, and I'm sure Junior was loose and I'm sure Michael was loose and tight up on top. The good thing is you have the confidence in those two guys.

"It didn't concern me that we were three-wide racing for the lead like that,'' he added. "It actually made that part even more fun, knowing you could trust those guys.''

It was the second year in a row Stewart, the two-time and reigning Nextel Cup champion, has won the 300-mile race at Daytona in a car fielded by fellow Cup star Kevin Harvick's Busch team. They are his only Busch wins in 54 tries.

Last year, it was Harvick who pushed Stewart to the victory. This time, the help came from a much more unlikely source -- new teammate Burney Lamar, a rookie making only his third Busch start.

"He did an awesome job,'' Stewart said of Lamar, who battled with Clint Bowyer, a Cup rookie this year and last year's Busch series runner-up, to the finish line and was awarded second place after a review of the video by NASCAR.

"For a kid like him to put himself even into that position was pretty remarkable,'' Stewart said.

"I was just happy to finish a Busch race,'' Lamar said. "That was actually the first one I ever finished. It's just a top-notch team. If I can get to the level they're at, we'll have some success.''

Jon Wood was credited with fourth and Harvick fifth in a Richard Childress Racing car.

Stewart, who battled an ill-handling car in the early going Saturday, said he intended to stay behind Earnhardt for a while, but got so much momentum going that he had to make the pass for the lead when he did.

"I was going to stay with Junior there, but I had such a big run, there was no way to stop,'' Stewart said. "We would have both gotten blown by. So I just had to take it.''

After Stewart took the lead, two of the race-record 11 caution flags waved in a four-lap stretch, slowing the action. But, when the green flag waved with five of the 120 laps remaining, the race really got wild.

That's when Earnhardt and Waltrip moved alongside the leader's Chevrolet for their breathtaking challenge. But Stewart was able to nose ahead at the finish line each time.

There was plenty of two- and three-wide action behind the leaders, too.

On lap 118, Lamar's Chevrolet seemed to materialize out of nowhere, moving behind Stewart and giving him a winning shove as Earnhardt and Waltrip slipped back into the pack.

That's when Bowyer moved into the second spot and tried to catch Stewart. Within moments, though, he had his hands full battling Lamar for second.

"It was fun,'' Bowyer said. "At that point, you're just going for it. You're not thinking about wrecking. It turned out pretty good.''

The race was punctuated by a series of crashes, the biggest of which came on the final lap. As Stewart raced away to the victory, a melee involving at least 10 cars took place behind the leaders, with cars crashing into the wall and sliding and spinning through the infield grass.

There were no injuries reported, but it took NASCAR more than an hour of reviewing tape to figure out who finished in what position behind the front-runners.

Denny Hamlin, another Cup rookie this year, was the first driver to be penalized by NASCAR under it's new policy of policing several zones on the track for rough driving. Hamlin appeared to rear-end Brian Vickers, who in turn hit Kasey Kahne.

NASCAR sent Hamlin to the rear of the pack for the next restart for rough driving.



Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.







Find this article at:
http://www.nascar.com/2006/news/headlines/bg/02/18/daytona.quick.recap.ap/index.html

Go Mikey!!!

How about a driver that stops just before the finish line. Oh well at least he did not get hurt bad.

It's here ... it's here!!! The Daytona 500 is almost here. LOL

I've got my Dale Jr tshirt on and my Budweiser bracelet. My Dale Jr cutout standing by the couch so he can see the tv. And I'll be wearing my Dale Jr bracelet (the one that Colleen gave me last year). I'm all ready for this race (and I've got some Bud Light in the fridge ... not sure if I'll tap into that or not). I just wish I had some more Martin Truex Jr gear (I wore my fan club tshirt to work on Friday so it's dirty ). I need to search the web for a Truex bracelet.

Is everyone here and ready for the race? I know Becky will not be here, we don't want to mess with the routine. I'm going to have some coffee and pretzels and sit in my lazyboy-type couch and enjoy the Boogity-Boogity-Boogity from DW.

I wish everyone's favorite driver much luck and safety today and that they go home to their families tonight.

So far so good.

Tony Stewart isn't making any friends this day.

No he is not, his crew is probably even mad at him by now.

Quote:

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MardiGrasChicken said:
Tony Stewart isn't making any friends this day.

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Damn you Tony Stewart! That was uncalled for, and unneeded. And from his post-race interview I quote, "He started it, and I finished it." "He" being Matt Kenseth. What a jerk.

Sorry about what happened to some of the other drivers but I am very happy tonight, 4th place is not to bad.

Rank +/- Driver Points Behind Starts Poles Wins Top 5 Top 10
1 -- Jimmie Johnson 185 Leader 1 0 1 1 1
2 -- Casey Mears 170 -15 1 0 0 1 1
3 -- Ryan Newman 170 -15 1 0 0 1 1
4 -- Elliott Sadler 165 -20 1 0 0 1 1
5 -- Tony Stewart 160 -25 1 0 0 1 1
6 -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. 152 -33 1 0 0 0 1
7 -- Brian Vickers 151 -34 1 0 0 0 1
8 -- Clint Bowyer* 150 -35 1 0 0 0 1
9 -- Ken Schrader 138 -47 1 0 0 0 1
10 -- Dale Jarrett 134 -51 1 0 0 0 1
11 -- Mark Martin 132 -53 1 0 0 0 0
12 -- Kasey Kahne 130 -55 1 0 0 0 0
13 -- Kevin Harvick 126 -59 1 0 0 0 0
14 -- Robby Gordon 124 -61 1 0 0 0 0
15 -- Matt Kenseth 123 -62 1 0 0 0 0
16 -- Martin Truex Jr.* 115 -70 1 0 0 0 0
17 -- Terry Labonte 112 -73 1 0 0 0 0
18 -- Bill Elliott 111 -74 1 0 0 0 0
19 -- Michael Waltrip 109 -76 1 0 0 0 0
20 -- Greg Biffle 105 -80 1 0 0 0 0
21 -- Kirk Shelmerdine 103 -82 1 0 0 0 0
22 -- Brent Sherman* 97 -88 1 0 0 0 0
23 -- Reed Sorenson* 94 -91 1 0 0 0 0
24 -- Kevin Lepage 93 -92 1 0 0 0 0
25 -- Dave Blaney 91 -94 1 0 0 0 0
26 -- Kyle Busch 90 -95 1 0 0 0 0
27 -- Jeff Gordon 84 -101 1 0 0 0 0
28 -- Mike Wallace 82 -103 1 0 0 0 0
29 -- Travis Kvapil 81 -104 1 0 0 0 0
30 -- David Stremme* 73 -112 1 0 0 0 0
31 -- Jeff Burton 72 -113 1 1 0 0 0
32 -- Denny Hamlin* 70 -115 1 0 0 0 0
33 -- Joe Nemechek 64 -121 1 0 0 0 0
34 -- Sterling Marlin 61 -124 1 0 0 0 0
35 -- Jamie McMurray 60 -125 1 0 0 0 0
36 -- Bobby Labonte 58 -127 1 0 0 0 0
37 -- Kurt Busch 54 -131 1 0 0 0 0
38 -- Jeremy Mayfield 52 -133 1 0 0 0 0
39 -- Kyle Petty 46 -139 1 0 0 0 0
40 -- Hermie Sadler 43 -142 1 0 0 0 0
41 -- J.J. Yeley* 40 -145 1 0 0 0 0
42 -- Jeff Green 37 -148 1 0 0 0 0
43 -- Carl Edwards 34 -151 1 0 0 0 0


* Denotes Rookie

Kenseth: Stewart's hit 'an intentional cheap shot'
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
February 20, 2006
10:55 AM EST (15:55 GMT)


Matt Kenseth is known as a benign individual, but that persona went out the window during the Daytona 500.

Kenseth was enraged after contact with Tony Stewart sent him hard into the Turn 3 fence and ruined his best-ever chance to win the Daytona 500.

"I thought we had the car to win, honestly," said Kenseth, who finished 15th after rallying from two laps down.

On the 107th lap, Kenseth was on the low side of Stewart when Stewart's Chevrolet appeared to veer into Kenseth's lane, sending Kenseth careening into the infield.

Kenseth's Ford shot back up the track, where a train of cars miraculously managed to avoid hitting him. The hit came after Kenseth had led a race-high 28 laps.

After Kenseth brought his car to the pits, he exited pit road and immediately pulled along Stewart, who had continued unabated after the incident.

Kenseth slowed down and gestured at Stewart, and for that action, NASCAR gave him the black flag, citing a rule that states that cars must properly blend into traffic.

According to Kenseth, Stewart's hit was intentional.

"It wasn't an accident. If it was an accident I could live with it," said Kenseth. "I felt like it was an intentional cheap shot and I would bet anything on that. I would never do that to him, intentionally put someone in harm's way at a racetrack like this."

The accident came one week after Stewart criticized heavy bump drafting during the Budweiser Shootout, saying, "We're going to kill somebody."

"He worried about everybody's safety and taking about people dying and going way overboard with it," said Kenseth. "If you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk. It's one thing to criticize everybody if you're perfect, but not one of us is perfect."

Stewart's publicist said his driver would have no comment about the Kenseth incident, opting instead to release this explanation through the team's car manufacturer:

"Matt always thinks that. I guess Matt didn't think anything when he got me sideways over in (Turn) 2 either," said Stewart. "He should have thought about that first.

"But I got penalized but they didn't penalize him for getting me sideways. He has no room complain. He started the whole thing, and I finished it."

Kenseth theorized that Stewart may have been angry that Kenseth raced him hard in the opening laps, but Stewart said it was Kenseth who was the one to blame.

"Earlier in the race he was shaking his fist to me," Kenseth said.

Stewart replied: "He should have been smart enough to know not to be tucking down our doors in the first 20 laps of a 200-lap race at Daytona."








Find this article at:
http://www.nascar.com/2006/news/headlines/cup/02/19/mkenseth.tstewart.intentional/index.html

Ridiculous.

I'll bet if you ask the 48 team they will tell you that "Cheaters do prosper"

No bad thing goes unrewarded?

NASCAR's decision about the #48 car

I'm not gonna say too much about this because what I'd have to say would make Harold kick me out of here ... and I don't want that to happen. I will say this much ... is NASCAR trying to drive fans away from the sport?

Quote:

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snippet from the article:
Knaus was relieved that Johnson was not penalized championship points as Terry Labonte, driving for Hall of Fame Racing, was for having an unapproved carburetor during qualifying.

Labonte was docked 25 points and team owner William Saunders was penalized 25 owner points. Crew chief Philippe Lopez was fined $25,000.

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That's messed up. Dale Jr was penalized 25 points for saying a 4 letter word in Victory Lane, but Chad Knaus can cheat and Jimmie isn't docked points?!?

I need to censor myself here. But I'm curious as to what everyone else thinks about the situation.

Politics , and they think controversy puts butts in the stands .

I agree with you Becky, it's un'freaken'believable. Why points aren't taken away is a huge mystery. Karma is a spiteful mistress, so what goes around, comes around.

If one losses points so should the other.