4LT GS Roadster
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Tony Stewart was denied a third consecutive victory in the Pepsi 400 and the culprit appeared to be none other than himself.
As then-leader Denny Hamlin exited Turn 4 on Lap 14 of 160, Stewart – running second at the time – got into the back of Hamlin, turning him into the wall.
Besides Hamlin and Stewart, the ensuing the wreck collected the cars of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Reed Sorenson and Bobby Labonte. Hamlin and Stewart’s cars both required extensive repairs in the garage and sent both drivers out of contention early.
Hamlin finished 43rd and Stewart 38th.
“My car had a little bit of a wiggle, but Tony was closer to me than what he expected. He was closer than he was the lap before,” said Hamlin, who won last weekend’s race at New Hampshire.
“Maybe he was trying to get underneath me and got hung on my bumper and got into us. I was still OK, had it saved, but somebody was right there on him probably and he got into us again. Oh, well.”
Stewart, however, had a much different view of the incident.
“All of a sudden he just stops on the exit of Turn 4 in front of 42 cars and he can’t expect all of us to drive around him. He just wrecked two really good race cars,” Stewart said of Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate.
“He tried to wreck us in practice on Friday and didn’t get it done. At least he finished it off today. He’s a young guy and he wants to be successful, but I don’t know if he knows what the definition of team is right now.”
Told of Stewart’s comments, Hamlin said he would “be the bigger man” and take the blame if Stewart insisted.
“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,” he said.
Team owner Joe Gibbs was quick to the garage area to assess the situation with his teams and called the incident between teammates “unfortunate.”
“What the deal is we’ve got two guys who are very competitive, running up front, we’ve got real good cars and this is something that can happen,” Gibbs said. “Both guys are going as hard as they can and I think both these guys are real competitive.
“I am sure Denny feels bad it got away from him there, and I am not sure what happened. It’s a competitive sport and you’ve got good stuff and you are running up front, it can happen.”
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