Tony Stewart's crew performed well all day at Dover -- they helped their driver lead 234 of the 400 laps. Credit: Autostock
By Ryan Smithson, Turner Sports Interactive
June 7, 2004
10:57 AM EDT (1457 GMT)
Finding pit road at Dover under green flag conditions is one of the toughest jobs in NASCAR.
Fortunately, it does not happen often – but it did on Sunday. And it proved disastrous for Tony Stewart.
With just 82 laps to go, Stewart came in for what would have been his final stop – but he came into the pits too hard, locked the brakes up and missed the entrance.
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Stewart stayed on the lead lap, but just barely – and it took him the remainder of the race to make it up.
Stewart's car was clearly the best at Dover – a fact that was lost in the chaos that erupted when 19 cars were involved in an accident on Lap 347.
"I just missed pit road," said Stewart. "I locked up the front wheels and followed the path of where I locked it up. We've got the commitment line with those cones and I couldn't go around those cones and come on in.
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"I just missed it getting in and that was it. It was just a mistake on my part trying not to give anything up getting into pit lane."
Stewart rallied to finish second for his third straight top-10.
Ryan Newman made the same mistake as Stewart did when he missed pit road on Lap 319. Unlike Stewart, Newman slid into pit road, and NASCAR penalized him a lap.
Newman was later caught up in the Lap 347 crash.
"I screwed up coming into pit lane. It got loose on the right front there," Newman said.
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