Daytona Beach, FL (Sports Network) - After starting from the rear of the
field, Tony Stewart made a last-lap pass on Matt Kenseth for the lead and then
survived a huge crash on the frontstretch to win Saturday night's Coke Zero
400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Stewart, the defending Sprint Cup Series champion, posted the second fastest
lap in qualifying on Friday, but Stewart's lap was disallowed after his car
failed post-qualifying inspection for an illegal cooling hose. He started from
the 42nd position.
During the final lap, Stewart, with pushing help from Kasey Kahne, drove his
Chevrolet past the Roush Fenway Racing Fords of Kenseth and Greg Biffle on the
backstretch. Kenseth, who won the Daytona 500 in February, had dominated most
of this race by leading 89 of 160 laps.
Kenseth and Biffle made one last attempt to catch Stewart, but Biffle's car
wiggled coming out of turn four, which triggered a major wreck.
Stewart crossed the finish line in first to claim his third win of the season
and the 47th of his Cup career. Four of those victories have come in the 400-
miler at Daytona. He has yet to win the Daytona 500.
Jeff Burton finished second, while Kenseth's bid to become the first driver to
score a season-sweep at Daytona came up short with a third-place run. Joey
Logano and Ryan Newman rounded out the top-five.
Just hours before the start of the race, NASCAR announced that Sprint Cup
driver A.J. Allmendinger has been "temporarily suspended" from competition for
violating the sanctioning body's substance abuse policy. Sam Hornish Jr.
replaced Allmendinger in Penske Racing's No. 22 Dodge. Hornish Jr., a
Nationwide Series regular, arrived in Daytona from Charlotte just in time to
start the event. He crashed at the halfway point and ended up finishing 33rd.
The Sports Network