Tangle with Hamlin costs Stewart shot at three-peat (cont'd)

"The No. 11 just stopped for no reason, right in the middle of Turn 4," Stewart said. "I'm sure he was getting tight because for three laps in a row we were catching him through the center and the exit of the corner.

"All of a sudden he just stops on the exit of [Turn] 4 in front of 42 cars and I guess expects all of us to drive around him. I don't know. It's tore up two really good racecars."

Stewart's assessment bemused Hamlin.

Lap-by-Lap

Jamie McMurray overcame a penalty to battle through the field for his last-lap victory at Daytona. Read how he did it.

• Complete story, click here
• Video highlights, click here

"It's tough to say [what happened]," Hamlin said. "I definitely had my foot in the throttle. My car had a little bit of a wiggle there, but I think Tony was a little bit closer to me than what he expected or he was closer than he was the lap before and I think maybe if he was trying to get underneath me it just got hung right there in my bumper and got into us.

"It happened so quick that I didn't see what happened. I thought I had it saved and then got hit again. That kind of put it overboard."

After the contact, Hamlin's car wobbled toward the inside apron as Stewart moved to the outside, but then Hamlin's car swerved abruptly to the right, where it pinned Stewart's car to the outside wall.

Behind them two-thirds of the field sped down pit road to avoid the melee, which gathered up Reed Sorenson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who collided at the pit entrance.

Hamlin's car, heavily damaged in the right-front corner and down the right side, came to rest in the tri-oval grass several hundred yards short of the start/finish line. A wrecker brought it to the team's garage stall while Hamlin went to the infield care center by ambulance.

Within minutes, he was released, left by a back door and was driven by golf cart around a mob of media waiting outside the care center's main entrance, to the side gate of the garage, from where he ran to his car's stall on the opposite side of the area.

Stewart was able to make two more laps on the racetrack, where he made at least one pit stop. But his car was too badly damaged to continue and, while losing reverse gear, was returned to his garage stall -- three spots away from Hamlin's.

Stewart's frustration was doubly evident, as, when his crew told him over the radio that Hamlin's No. 11 crew was going to help push Stewart's car toward the garage, he said "don't let them touch this [expletive] thing."

Both men did media interviews at their respective garage stalls, with Stewart saying "If your car is driving that bad, pull over and let someone else lead the race.""

Stewart's car returned to the race on Lap 51, 34 laps down and in 41st position. His first lap of the track was a second slower than leader Clint Bowyer, but Stewart was able to ultimately run laps within seven-tenths of a second of the leaders.

He finished 38th and was running 35 laps behind race-winner Jamie McMurray at the finish. Stewart unofficially dropped a spot in the standings, from sixth to seventh, and now trails Carl Edwards by 74 points for sixth.

Hamlin rejoined the race 61 laps down in 43rd position, and was able to turn laps roughly equivalent with Stewart's.

In the end, Hamlin was never able to extricate himself from last, where he finished running 61 laps down. Hamlin remained second in the standings, but dropped from 156 to 277 points behind leader Jeff Gordon, who finished fifth.

Gibbs, who is used to dealing with athletes' frustration in the violent world of pro football, said he saw little need to take further action.

"They talk to each other," Gibbs said, denying a need for calling a meeting of the two drivers. "I think they're good teammates, they run extremely well together and I think that's just part of being teammates.

"I think what happens is it's very competitive and hard-fought, and both our guys are very aggressive and they love to race. They're good teammates and they want to win every race, so sometimes guys get upset, which is understandable. I hate it for everybody else, and both our drivers do, too."

Stewart's initial comments, while he waited for his team to repair his car, were more pointed, saying he didn't have trouble getting along with Hamlin.

"No. He's a young guy and he wants to be successful," Stewart said. "But I don't know if he knows the definition of 'team' right now."

Hamlin deferred to his two-time champion teammate, but begged to differ.

"I do [know the meaning of teammates]," Hamlin said. "I figured I did -- but I'm going to be the bigger man and I'll take the blame on this.

"If he wants to blame it on me I'll be the bigger man -- I'll take responsibility for it. He's been around this sport longer than I have and he probably knows more than I do, so I'll just take it for what it's worth."

After finishing second, however, Kyle Busch said everyone should take Tony with a few grains of salt.

"Normally the leader is wide-open," Busch said. "I was wide-open when Stewart ran over me in the Bud Shootout earlier this year, too.

"For that situation to happen that early in the race, yeah, it was too early. Like I said last week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart is Tony Stewart. He's a great racecar driver and he can drive the wheels off of anything. And when he says something, we're just going to believe it."

Hamlin, who was presented with Stewart's comments midway through his interview, wasn't sure how to take the whole thing.

"Who knows?" he said. "Me and Tony have always had a good relationship on the racetrack. We get frustrated with each other at times for sure, but I don't know. This early [in the race] it's really frustrating -- but it's me and Tony."

Hamlin wouldn't confirm that Stewart should accept the blame.

"It's tough to put blame on anyone, especially since I haven't seen the replay or what happened," Hamlin said. "I know from inside the racecar I definitely got hit coming off the corner -- but the circumstances that led up to that I'm not sure of.

"I'll tell you -- I've been in a pretty good mood here in the last month, so I'm going to take it for what it's worth and move on. Luckily we're in the position that we are in the Chase right now and we're going to move on."