Stewart Out-tangles Busch For Daytona Cup Win

July 5, 2009 7:24 a.m. EST

Daytona Beach, FL (AHN) - Tony Stewart did what he had to do and so did Kyle Busch and in this case Stewart was the winner and Busch was the loser, or at least 14th-place.

Teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing last season, Busch and Stewart ran up front and worked well together all day, but it was Stewart who emerged with the win in Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

Busch passed Stewart for the lead with one lap to go, but in the closing half-mile of the event Busch and Stewart made contact, sending Busch's No. 18 Toyota into the wall and Stewart to the win.

"I don't know that I was real proud of that, but I don't know what else I could've done. I went where I had to go and he went where he had to go,'' said Stewart. "I don't like winning them like that. You still don't like it. You're kind of forced into that position. I made my move to the outside and I got up to his right rear tire and he went to block us and we were already there. It still doesn't mean you like it.''

Stewart, who started on the pole after qualifying was rained out the day before, led a race-best 86 laps and scored his second points win of the season.

It was his third win of the season, counting the Sprint All-Star race, and his 14th Daytona win - appropriate considering Stewart wheels the No. 14 self-owned Chevrolet of Stewart Haas Racing.

"You feel bad because you want him to have a good day too, but we weren't going to give it to him,'' said Stewart. "If I did something wrong, I'm sorry, but I don't think I did. I was out there when he moved. You just feel bad about it.''

In the final mayhem, Busch's car slammed the outside wall in the tri-oval and then had its rear wheels lifted off the ground when the No. 9 of Kasey Kahne slammed into Busch's No. 18.

Busch exited the car and walked down pit road.

He did not want to go to the infield care center to be evaluated and it took three NASCAR officials to finally convince him into taking the ride.

Despite running in the top five all night, Busch's battered ride slid across the finish line in 14th. He refused to comment on the incident.

"It looked like when Tony was trying to make the move, Kyle was trying to keep him behind him and they hooked by a couple of inches and it turned the 18 into the outside wall,'' said Jimmie Johnson, the race's runner-up.

Following Stewart and Johnson across the finish line was Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya and Elliott Sadler.