Tony Stewart celebrates his first victory in 42 Busch starts. Credit: Autostock

Stewart's late-race move seals first Busch victory

Kevin Harvick helps his car's driver make a run past Chance 2 duo

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick ganged up on the Chance 2 duo of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. to sweep past with less than three laps remaining to win the Busch Series' season-opening Hershey's Take 5 300 on Saturday.

Ironically, Stewart was driving the No. 33 Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick Inc., while Harvick was running the No. 21 Chevy for Richard Childress Racing. Both cars were running RCR engines.

Stewart's victory ended Earnhardt's streak of three consecutive Busch openers, and it was the 2002 Cup champion's first Busch win and fifth overall at Daytona's famed 2.5-mile superspeedway.

"I had the drama, had the recovery, had the comeback," said Stewart, who charged to the lead with three laps remaining and won under a yellow flag after a last-lap crash. "I could not have scripted it any more exciting if I was making a movie."

Inside the Numbers Tony Stewart's career Busch stats Year Races W T5 T10 1996 9 0 0 0 1997 5 0 1 2 1998 22 0 5 5 2003 1 0 0 0 2004 4 0 2 2 2005 1 1 1 1 Totals 42 1 9 10 BUSCH SERIES •   Results •   Standings Tony Stewart celebrates his Hershey's 300 win. A handful of cars wreck with seven laps to go Tony Stewart takes a ride through the infield at Daytona Kyle Busch gets penalized for passing under the yellow line Defending Busch champ Truex Jr. gets spun on Lap 48 Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

But Stewart's hopes nearly ended with 25 laps to go when a bump from Carl Edwards sent Stewart skidding through the infield grass at 190 mph.

Somehow, he kept the car going in the right direction, steering it back onto the high-banked oval.

"I couldn't pay the fines for what I was thinking," Stewart said. "There were a lot of things going through my mind. The first was, 'What am I going to tell my mom from the emergency room?'

"It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I thought I was going to hit the wall. It was just a matter of how hard." Stewart fell to eighth, then all the way to 17th after his crew needed extra time on the next pit stop to repair the damage.

Meanwhile, the focus turned to Earnhardt. Junior played a waiting game early in the race, content to stay near the back of the pack along with Truex, the defending Busch Series champion.

After the halfway point, Earnhardt and Truex began drafting their way toward the front, quickly moving into the top 10. When the other leaders made their final pit stops during a caution period with 20 laps remaining, Junior stayed on the track and moved into the lead. Truex took only two new tires and came out second.

That's when Stewart began his charge, slicing through the field and moving all the way to fifth on another restart with four to go.

With drafting help from Harvick, Stewart went roaring past the leaders on the outside of Turn 3. They held on for a 1-2 finish as a three-car accident behind them brought out a caution for the final lap.

"He deserved to win a lot more than he has, and we're glad he broke that wall down," said Harvick, who will use Stewart in five more races this season.

Earnhardt, who will go into Sunday's Daytona 500 as the favorite to repeat last year's victory, shrugged off the third-place finish. "That's Tony Stewart," he said. "He can do anything."

Stewart, Harvick, Earnhardt, Truex and Robby Gordon -- all in Chevrolets -- were the top five, followed by Kasey Kahne, Michael Waltrip, Greg Biffle, Reed Sorenson and Edwards.

For Sorenson, a 19-year-old rookie, it was his fourth top-10 finish in six Busch starts.

"I had a good time out there," Sorenson said. "That's my first time pretty much being in a pack like that. I ran the ARCA race at Talladega, but it wasn't anything like that.

"I was kind of upset there that I ended ninth, but I kind of looked up at the score board and realized that all those guys around me are [Nextel] Cup guys. I'm pretty happy where we finished. It's my first run for me here, first run for our team. I think when we come back here in July, we'll have a pretty good shot to do the same thing. "

	ROOKIE EARNS RESPECT Reed Sorenson came into the Hershey's 300 overflowing with confidence and left the Busch Series opener with something much more important.  Along with a ninth-place finish, he earned no less than a double helping of respect.  •   Click here for story

Using a newer set of tires down the stretch, Stewart ultimately led a race-high 46 laps. Paul Menard led 37 laps.

"I don't think many if any people will argue the Menards/Pittsburgh Paints Chevrolet was the fastest car on the track [Saturday]," Menard said. "That's a tribute to the guys at DEI to get us ready for this weekend. Unfortunately, the high side of the track was where we had the best chance of moving up through the field when we fell behind, and every time I tried to make a run up there, no one would go with me, so we got hung out to dry a few too many times.

"We could have run around on the bottom like everybody else all day long," Menard said, "but we would have burned up our brakes and never would have passed anybody. It was definitely frustrating how the day turned out, especially after we were running so well out front on our own during the first 50 laps or so.

"Maybe I have a little bit to learn in these [restrictor] plate races. But it would sure help if we had some more friends out there. It was a great effort all the way around by the guys. That's the encouraging part as we move on from here."

Stewart, who won the second Gatorade Duel qualifying race on Thursday, will start fourth in the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

In two previous Busch starts at Daytona, Stewart had failed to finish on the lead lap. He was 21st -- two laps down -- in 1996 and in '98 he was 31st, 11 laps behind.