Richard Childress Racing

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February 26, 2012

Stewart, No. 33 Team Claim Top-10 Finish at Daytona Despite Last-Lap Melee

"Once we got going, we got a big, big, big run down the backstretch. We got on the outside - we had that lane - and then all of a sudden someone turned right, right in front of us. I don't know how they got there or why they got there, but it was a pretty abrupt right-hand turn in front of us. Just all of a sudden the door got slammed on us. I don't know why whoever it was turned right, but it wasn't a very good time to either try blocking or moving."

RCR/HHP RCR/HHP

Start – 7       
Finish – 8         
Laps Led – 22    
Owner Points - 8

Tony Stewart was poised to notch his fifth straight win in the season-opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway, but a last-lap crash while vying for the lead jettisoned those plans. Nonetheless, Stewart was able to nurse his No. 33 Oreo 100th Birthday/Ritz Crackers Chevrolet Impala across the finish line in eighth place while unheralded James Buescher scored a surprise win in the DRIVE4COPD 300. Stewart started seventh in the 120-lap race at the 2.5-mile oval and quickly asserted his familiar position at the front of the field. He took the lead on lap five and went on to lead four more times for a total of 22 laps. As the field took the white flag for the final lap, Stewart hooked up with his Richard Childress Racing teammate Elliott Sadler and rode the high line around turns three and four in a bid for the win. Eleven cars were collected in the last-lap melee, with Stewart and his No. 33 Chevrolet getting pinned against the outside wall. Smoke and debris filled the tri-oval, but Stewart kept his foot in the gas and willed his smoldering, smoking and sparking remnant of a racecar across the finish line in eighth.


TONY STEWART QUOTE:
“Elliott (Sadler) did a great job. Once we got going, we got a big, big, big run down the backstretch. We got on the outside – we had that lane – and then all of a sudden someone turned right, right in front of us. I don’t know how they got there or why they got there, but it was a pretty abrupt right-hand turn in front of us. Just all of a sudden the door got slammed on us. I don’t know why whoever it was turned right, but it wasn’t a very good time to either try blocking or moving. Richard Childress brought us an awesome Oreo 100th Birthday/Ritz Crackers Chevrolet today. Their whole crew just did a great job. It’s always so much fun to come here because I just sit in the car, I go run about a dozen laps and then they get it ready for qualifying. We ran around by ourselves most of the day when guys were in a two-car tandem and we could run with them. It showed how good a car we had.”


 

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