NASCAR: Stewart Gets Fourth Nationwide Win Of The Year
May 10, 2008
CIA Stock Photo, Inc.
Tony Stewart beat Nationwide Series points leader Clint Bowyer to the finish line by .815 seconds to win the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington Raceway.
In a two-lap, green-white-checkered-flag dash to the finish, Stewart pulled away from Bowyer, who had inherited second position after a six-car wreck wiped out half the top 10 with three laps left in the regulation distance of 147 laps.
David Reutimann edged Todd Bodine for fourth, and Steve Wallace beat teammate David Stremme for fifth.
“We had an awesome race car today,” Stewart said. “I’m telling you, this thing was head-and-shoulders better than it was” in practices.
“It’s this team behind us and this team at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Stewart said. “We just took it easy in the beginning and tried to bide our time and take care of the car and take care of the tires and have something for them when we came to the end.”
Stewart made it through eight cautions, one off the Nationwide’s Darlington record, and a green-white-checkered finish for his fourth series victory this year, and Joe Gibbs Racing’s sixth straight victory.
After David Ragan’s hard crash on the backstretch, Stewart easily moved forward on the restart three laps from the end. Right behind, though, was chaos as Martin’s second-place machine failed to get up to speed.
The stall collected five other cars and brought out the race’s second stoppage, as it took more than 15 minutes to clean up.
“We didn’t have enough gas there,” said Martin, the series’ career leader with 48 victories. “I apologize to everybody who got in that wreck. It’s a really bad deal when a car up front doesn’t take off.”
