(Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
The 51st running of the Coke Zero 400 (formerly known as the Firecracker 250, Firecracker 400, Pepsi Firecracker 400, and Pepsi 400. I prefer Pepsi, but Coke Zero is my new crack) was a great spectacle of auto racing.
It had all the familiar elements we have come to expect from restrictor plate racing: bump drafting, the Big One, all the cars running together, and wide open throttles.
It was a shame to see so many empty seats there as well. Daytona decided to close that one back stretch in order to make the other stands appear full on TV. That idea failed. You could not help but notice that there were about 60,000 seats empty. Instead they should have sold tickets for $4 a seat.
Anyway, I digress. As we all know, the end of this race was pretty spectacular. We could all see it coming. It didn't matter who the drivers were, we just knew it was going to happen.
Kyle Busch took the lead from Tony Stewart and on the final lap coming off turn four, heading down the front stretch, Tony made his move to the inside of Kyle. Kyle came down to block so Tony moved to the outside.
This move put the front of Tony's car up along side of Kyle's car so much that when Kyle went to block for the second time he basically turned in front of Tony. When you are going 180-200 miles per hour this is not a good thing.
The move spun Kyle Busch out and into the wall right before the finish line. This in turn caused a few other cars to wreck. The most dramatic of which is when Kyle spun all the way around off the wall, came back down the track and was rear-ended by Kasey Kahne.
The force of this lifted the rear of Kyle's car off the ground and up onto the No. 9. When Kyle came back down he spun a bit and was T-boned by Joey Logano.
With all that happening behind him, Tony Stewart took the checkered flag to win his third July Daytona race.
After the race in Victory Lane, Tony remarked that he does not like to win races that way and that no one wants to wreck anyone to win. He kept going on and on about how bad he felt for Kyle Busch and how good of a day he was having and how he felt bad for it ending like that for him.
Tony, please!
You won that race fair and square.
Your pit crew won the race off pit road more than a few times fair and square. By far you had the best car and best crew at Daytona and you are taking a bit of that away from them and yourself by lamenting over Kyle's self-centered, all or nothing way of driving. You won!
Everyone wants to win a race. Not everyone does.
Some drivers may be a bit more conservative. Juan Pablo Montoya recently said he will points race to get into the Chase for the Cup while at almost the same time Kyle Busch said he will be going for the wins, no matter what.
Tony, this wreck was not your fault.
It was not necessarily Kyle's fault either.
Should he have not tried to block the second time and actually raced Tony to the finish?
Sure, he could have.
Would it have been just as exciting? Absolutely.
In fact I would be willing to say that the fans there would have rather had seen a close finish than 13 cars wrecking.Tony Stewart won this race. Kyle Busch lost it. Stop worrying about it Tony and enjoy your victory!
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