Tony Stewart Wins Nationwide Race At Daytona; Joey Logano Far Behind At Finish

Tony Stewart held off a late charge from Kyle Busch to win the Nationwide Series Camping World 300 Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

It was the first career victory for Stewart in a Hendrick Motorsports car and the second consecutive year he has won the Nationwide Series opener.

"I'm ecstatic about it," Stewart said. "Just an unbelievable run. I never really got to run with a huge pack [in practice on Friday]. I wasn't quite sure exactly what we were going to have. It was a great start to the race and we were able to stay up in the lead pack."

Eighteen year old Middletown native Joey Logano proved a non-factor in his final on track activity before his Daytona 500 debut Sunday, finishing 20th.

Busch got on Stewart's bumper coming off turn 2 on the final lap and stayed on Stewart down the backstretch and through the final two corners. Busch finally backed off coming out of turn 4 and ended up losing a podium finish as Carl Edwards passed him for second and Clint Bowyer got him for third coming to the checkered.

"Kyle got to our bumper right after we got off [turn] 2 and onto the backstretch [on the final lap]," Stewart said. "I thought we were going to be able to pull away from the field further than that. Normally you get two cars hooked up like that, we've seen it at Talladega where two of them get the bumpers locked and drive away from everybody. We didn't get as big a gap as I thought we would. I was hoping that he would turn loose of me before we got down in the corner. And I was surprised that we were able to chase it as far as we did. He never turned loose. We drove halfway up the racetrack with him still glued to my bumper instead of staying on the line and trying to go around me. I wasn't going to lift because I knew if I lifted I was going to get wrecked for sure. I definitely needed all the real estate I had."

Logano started eighth in the race and briefly made an appearance in the top-5. but he spent much of the race at the back end of the top-10.

Contact late in the race sent him back through the pack. He was 22nd on the final restart of the day on lap 114 of the 120 lap event and worked his way up to 15th in the closing laps but ending up crossing the line 20th.

"We were just sitting there on the high side with a few to go, 25 or 30 to go or so and [David Ragan] gets loose and he started coming up so I straightened up for a second and tried to get back the wheel and just never grabbed a hold in time and just got the fence and that knocked in the fender," Logano said. "It is what it is. I learned a lot if nothing else. It's just kind of a shame, we had a better car than that."

by Shawn Courchesne for the Hartford Courant