Stewart Hangs On For Nationwide Win

Tony Stewart will start at the rear of the field in Sunday's Daytona 500, but he was at the head of the pack in Saturday's Camping World 300.

Stewart captured NASCAR's first Nationwide Series event of the season, holding off Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards during a furious last lap, just hours after being involved in a practice-session crash with teammate Ryan Newman that damaged his primary Daytona 500 car.

Stewart Celebrates Winning The Camping World 300 at Daytona

Busch, with drafting help from Edwards, got to Stewart's rear bumper and nudged him but couldn't — or elected not to — get Stewart loose enough to get by. Edwards and Clint Bowyer slipped past Busch to finish second and third, respectively.

"Kyle pushed me all through the corner. If I'd spun or crashed I was going to have to have it out with him," said Stewart, driving his Nationwide car for Hendrick Motorsports, which supplies Chevrolet engines and technology for his Stewart-Haas Cup team.

"We lost both of our cars for the Daytona 500, so this was a good way to rebound from it."

Stewart and Newman, the defending Daytona 500 champ, will both run backup cars on Sunday.

It was the fourth victory in the last five years for Stewart in the season-opening Nationwide Series event — third in a Chevrolet. He drove a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to victory last year.

Clint Bowyer, the defending Nationwide Series champ, led 30 of the first 90 laps in the 120-lap race. Bowyer, Brian Vickers and Edwards all led in the final 25 laps.

Edwards was afraid the last-lap pushing and jockeying for position might lead to mass chaos.

"Clint was pushing me. I had a little run on Tony. I thought, man, this is going to be smoke and walls and all that," Edwards said. "But it ended up (Stewart) gave me enough room and I still ended up second."

Edwards took the lead from Vickers and was in command until Brad Keselowski's blown tire brought out a caution with nine laps to go. Edwards elected to stay on the track rather than pit for new tires and could not hold off Stewart after the restart.

"Here at the end it was so cool, man," Edwards said. "Man, at this place, you can be down one minute and up the next. It was really a fun race and a heck of a way to start the year."

No caution came out when Scott Wimmer blew a tire with less than five laps to go.

The race featured six caution flags for 23 laps. Jason Leffler, who started fourth, was penalized five laps for rough driving in an incident with Steven Wallace and finished 33rd.

Vickers, who rallied his Toyota from the 27th starting position, finished sixth behind Greg Biffle and just ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Pole-sitter Kevin Harvick finished 11th.

2009 Camping World 300 Results

Results Saturday from the Camping World 300 race for NASCAR's Nationwide Series at Daytona International Speedway, listing starting position in parentheses, driver, car, reason out if not running at the finish, laps completed, points and money won:

1. (5) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 120 laps, 190 points, $89,895.

2. (10) Carl Edwards, Ford, 120, 175, $84,700.

3. (3) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 120, 175, $76,500.

4. (13) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 120,  165, $64,625.

5. (6) Greg Biffle, Ford, 120, 160, $59,405.

6. (27) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 120, 155, $57,930.

7. (24) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 120, 146, $54,255.

8. (9) David Ragan, Ford, 120, 142, $51,180.

9. (12) Jason Keller, Ford, 120, 143, $53,230.

10. (2) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 120, 139, $49,730.

11. (1) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 120, 135, $47,880.

12. (21) David Reutimann, Toyota, 120, 127, $47,505.

13. (14) Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet, 120, 124, $47,430.

14. (41) Michael McDowell, Toyota, 120, 121, $46,730.

15. (35) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 120, 118, $47,780.

16. (34) Kenny Wallace, Chevrolet, 120, 120, $46,530.

17. (16) D.J. Kennington, Dodge, 120, 112, $45,880.

18. (31) Mark Green, Chevrolet, 120, 109, $46,055.

19. (28) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 120, 106, $45,630.

20. (8) Joey Logano, Toyota, 120, 103, $46,355.

21. (33) John Wes Townley, Ford, 120, 100, $45,380.

22. (15) Brad Keselowski, Chevrolet, 120, 102, $45,255.

23. (7) Danny O'Quinn Jr., Chevrolet, 120, 94, $45,480.

24. (11) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 120, 91, $44,955.

25. (22) Brian Keselowski, Dodge, 120, 88, $44,980.

26. (36) Eric McClure, Ford, 120, 85, $44,705.

27. (40) Jeff Green, Chevrolet, 120, 82, $44,605.

28. (25) Mike Bliss, Chevrolet, 120, 79, $44,530.

29. (30) Mike Harmon, Chevrolet, 120, , 76, $44,430.

30. (37) David Green, Toyota, 119, 73, $44,605.

31. (38) Tony Raines, Chevrolet, crash, 116, 70, $44,155.

32. (43) Scott Wimmer, Chevrolet, crash, 116, 67, $44,080.

33. (4) Jason Leffler, Toyota, 115, , 64, $44,030.

34. (29) Robert Richardson Jr., Chevrolet, 115, 61, $43,980.

35. (18) Michael Annett, Toyota, 113, 58, $43,830.

36. (42) Donnie Neuenberger, Chevrolet, 110, 55, $43,755.

37. (39) Brandon Whitt, Ford, 102, 52, $43,690.

38. (26) Kertus Davis, Chevrolet, 95, 49, $43,630.

39. (20) Morgan Shepherd, Chevrolet, 92, 46, $43,580.

40. (32) Justin Allgaier, Dodge, crash, 82, 43, $43,530.

41. (23) Kenny Hendrick, Dodge, crash, 80, 40, $43,480.

42. (17) Steve Wallace, Chevrolet, crash, 71, 37, $43,480.

43. (19) Scott Lagasse Jr., Toyota, crash, 71, 34, $43,358.

***

Race statistics

Time of Race: 2 hours, 9 minutes, 59 seconds.

Average Speed:  138.479 mph.

Margin of Victory: 0.68 seconds.

Caution Flags: 6 for 23 laps.

Lead Changes: 18 among 11 drivers.

Lap Leaders: K.Harvick 1; M.Kenseth 2-16; C.Bowyer 17-20; T.Stewart 21; C.Bowyer 22-28; K.Harvick 29-31; T.Stewart 32-34; G.Biffle 35-36; T.Stewart 37-48; K.Busch 49-52; C.Bowyer 53-57; K.Busch 58-67; Bra.Keselowski 68-73; K.Wallace 74-75; J.Keller 76-78; C.Bowyer 79-95; B.Vickers 96-105; C.Edwards 106-113; T.Stewart 114-120.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): C.Bowyer, 4 times for 33 laps; T.Stewart, 4 times for 23 laps; M.Kenseth, 1 time for 15 laps; K.Busch, 2 times for 14 laps; B.Vickers, 1 time for 10 laps; C.Edwards, 1 time for 8 laps; Bra.Keselowski, 1 time for 6 laps; K.Harvick, 2 times for 4 laps; J.Keller, 1 time for 3 laps; G.Biffle, 1 time for 2 laps; K.Wallace, 1 time for 2 laps.

Top 10 in Points: 1. T.Stewart, 190; 2. C.Edwards, 175; 3. C.Bowyer, 175; 4. K.Busch, 165; 5. G.Biffle, 160; 6. B.Vickers, 155; 7. D.Earnhardt Jr., 146; 8. J.Keller, 143; 9. D.Ragan, 142; 10. M.Kenseth, 139.