Waltrip wins crash-marred Pepsi 400

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Michael Waltrip beat Rusty Wallace to the caution flag with three laps remaining in the Pepsi 400 by .144 seconds and scored his second career victory Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway.

Dale Jarrett walks all the way back to pit road after a huge crash on lap 135.

The finish put an exclamation point on Waltrip's recent surge that has brought him from 27th in the point standings to 12th in the last 12 weeks while his Dale Earnhardt, Inc. management has said his future there might be in question.

The race displayed the best and the worst of restrictor plate racing, and the race's end was a microcosm of all 160 circuits of the 2.5-mile oval.

A 14-car accident with 26 laps remaining that seemed to consume two-thirds of the field in smoke and flames in Turns 1 and 2 set the stage for two more cautions in the final 10 laps.

"It's real tense on the restarts and we just led like the whole last half of the race and I didn't want it to get away from me," Waltrip said. "I know the key to this victory was the way the car handled I could drive it and look out the rear view mirror."

Brett Bodine was another victim of the lap 135 crash.

It was a good thing he had such a dream ride under him.

With nine laps to go, a caution flew for debris in Turn 2. At that point, Waltrip -- who paced 99 of 160 laps -- led DEI teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. and it appeared Junior would pay Waltrip back for securing his 2001 Pepsi 400 victory by guarding his rear from second place.

After a restart with six laps remaining, Earnhardt looked as if he could comfortably save the DEI one-two. But he decided to try for the win, and behind them two and three-wide racing led to more action.

Tony Stewart spun early in the event and finished 39th.

An absolutely wild 157th lap saw Earnhardt Jr. make a move to win the race by going high in Turn 1. Wallace said he saw Junior's car lose its momentum and he dove to the bottom behind Waltrip, who won his first career race in the 2001 Daytona 500.

"I didn't have anything for him (Waltrip) -- he was in his own league," Wallace said. "Junior was really good, but when Junior tried to pass him, he went up high and there was nothing up there and nobody to help him. I went down low and Sterling (Marlin) hooked up behind me and off we went."

"I kind of didn't get any help," Earnhardt Jr. said. "At the same time I knew Rusty don't never help me. I've raced for three years now and the man's never drafted with me once.

"I told Michael in the drivers' meeting I'd stay dedicated to him and that's what I wanted to do. But Tony Jr. (car chief Tony Eury Jr.) told me if I didn't try to win the race I wasn't a race car driver, so I tried to win the race."

Cars roar down the backstretch at Daytona as twight settles. Credit: Autostock

Behind them, the cars of brothers Todd and Geoffrey Bodine bounced off each other, which deflected Geoffrey up into Ryan Newman.

That cut Newman's car's left rear tire and it deflated in Turn 2, sending him into the wall and bringing out the ninth and final yellow.

Waltrip's Chevrolet led the final two laps under caution while fans on the backstretch threw seat cushions, beer cans and other trash over the fence -- apparently infuriated that NASCAR officials did not throw a red flag enabling the race to end under a green flag.

Waltrip led for the first time at lap 81 and took the lead from his teammate Earnhardt at lap 119.

"I'm just so proud of these guys and especially Slugger (Labbe, crew chief)," Waltrip said. "He just worked on this car and made sure it was faster than anybody else's. Man, we won the race and held off a challenge from our teammate so nobody can say we did it in formation."

Earlier, in the 14-car crash -- one of seven of the nine cautions that were caused by accidents, Joe Nemechek escaped with only a bruised foot after he was deflected into a vicious right front impact with the Turn 1 wall.

"Thank God for the HANS device," Nemechek said. "That thing took a heckuva hit. I got turned just right and that thing came back up and hit that wall awful hard -- one of the hardest hits I've taken."

Marlin unofficially maintained a 77-point lead over Martin. Rookie of the Year point leader Johnson, Wallace and Jeff Gordon, who never could overcome a lap lost in the first 25 laps of the race, round out the top-five in points.