Tony Stewart Snares 1st Darlington Victory, 4th Nationwide Win Of 2008 Season

[PressRoom-GFN]

By Deb Williams

DARLINGTON, S.C. (May 9, 2008) -- “I finally won a race Darlington!”

Those were the words Tony Stewart exclaimed after receiving the checkered flag in Friday night's Diamond Hill Plywood 200. A Nationwide Series race at Darlington Raceway that contained eight caution flags for 36 laps and was halted twice so the 1.366-mile track could be cleared of wreckage.

“Man, what an honor!” Stewart said in victory lane after claiming his fourth Nationwide Series victory in six races this season and his first-ever at Darlington. “This team does such an awesome job.”

Stewart and his crew chief debriefed with teammate Denny Hamlin and his crew last night, and Stewart admitted his car performed “much better” on Friday.

“He [Hamlin] may have won the race if he'd been in it, but we would have been right there with him,” Stewart said about Hamlin, who didn't qualify for the event. “All three Gibbs' cars were the ones to beat today, but you've got to be in the show to win it, and you've got to be there at the end to win it. That's what we did, and we finally won a race at Darlington.”

The Indiana native led three times for 90 laps, taking the lead for good on lap 121 when Matt Kenseth pitted his Ford, complaining of a vibration. Kenseth, who led twice for 36 laps, lost control of his car shortly after returning to the track and crashed on lap 129.

“I shouldn't have wrecked the car,” said Kenseth, whose accident put the field under the red flag for 7 minutes 12 seconds. “We had left the right-front wheel loose and that cost us the race. I was back there and they said the Lucky Dog was in turn on. I was in turn four. I was just driving way over my head to try to somehow get a miracle, get a late caution and get back in the race. Two weeks in a row we've just thrown it away on our last stop.”

Stewart regained the No. 1 position 35 laps after losing it during his final pit stop that occurred during the fourth caution flag. When the race restarted, Stewart was ninth. He quickly threaded his way through the field on the recently repaved track, putting himself in position to take the lead when Kenseth pitted.

With less than five laps remaining, it appeared Stewart's stiffest challenge would come from veteran Mark Martin. But on the restart following the seventh caution flag, Martin, who was second, suddenly slowed as the green flag waved. Jason Leffler couldn't stop and rammed Martin's Chevrolet, which was out of fuel. That triggered a six-car crash and placed the event under its second red flag. This one for 15 minutes 39 seconds.

“I want to apologize to everybody that got torn up in that wreck,” Martin said. “When I took off, it took off, and then it just laid over. When it laid over, I checked behind me and Jason [Leffler] looked to the inside. I was afraid he'd run over me if I cut left real quick, so I tried to hold my line and the wreck was on. It was just a bad deal when the car didn't take off at the front of the line. But I didn't have a clue it was going to happen.

“It never showed any sign of sputtering. I thought we were good. I really felt I had saved a lot of gas that whole run. I didn't have a clue that we would wind up short.”

The race's final accident forced the event into a green-white-checker finish. Clint Bowyer was second when the race restarted, but never challenged Stewart for the victory. Stewart finished 0.814 second ahead of Bowyer.

“It was a long night. We just didn't have anything on the long runs,” Bowyer said. “It was a good points night. We've got to get better, or they'll run us back down if we don't.”

With Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch both crashing out of the event, Bowyer extended his lead in the standings to 112 points over Busch and 150 over Edwards.

The Nationwide Series now has a weekend off before its May 24 event at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

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