Stewart led one lap and rallied from a late-race accident to move from 20th to 11th in the final two laps around the 2.5-mile oval.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Bass Pro Shops/NRA Chevrolet Impala for SHR, led four times for a race-high 25 laps, but finished 23rd after being involved in a multi-car accident on the last lap while coming to the checkered flag.

David Ragan won the Coke Zero 400 to score his first career Sprint Cup victory.

His Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Matt Kenseth, finished in the runner-up spot as the race ended under caution. Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five. Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, Juan Pablo Montoya and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were six caution periods for 21 laps, with eight drivers failing to finish the 170-lap race, which was extended 10 laps due to a green-white-checkered finish.

With round 17 of 36 complete, Newman leads the SHR duo in the championship point standings. He remains 10th with 498 points, 88 markers back of new series leader Harvick and three points ahead of 11th-place Denny Hamlin. Stewart maintained his 12th-place standing and now has 494 points, which puts him 92 markers back of the top spot with a 21-point cushion over 13th-place Greg Biffle.

The next event on the 2011 schedule is the inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta on July 9. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 6:30 p.m.

Once again, Newman had a strong racecar, evidenced by him leading four times for a race-high 25 laps in his No. 39 Bass Pro Shops/NRA Chevrolet Impala. But in the end, he was relegated to a 23rd-place finish thanks to being shuffled out of the lead on the race’s final restart and being collected in a last-lap accident.

“Just another typical Daytona for us,” said Newman, who led nine times for a race-high 37 laps in the Daytona 500. “It’s just disappointing to know how strong the Bass Pro Shops/NRA Chevy was tonight and how close we’ve been both times at Daytona this year to win. It’s just a product of this racing, but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. Sooner or later, luck is going to go our way at this place.”

Just as he did in this year’s Daytona 500, Newman paired with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin for the new style of tandem-racing that has dominated the restrictor-plate races this season. And once again, the pair proved to be a force on the racetrack. And just like the outcome of February’s race, Newman was a mere minutes away from capturing victory at the famed Daytona track.

Newman was leading at lap 158 – just two laps from the end of the race’s regularly scheduled distance – when the caution flag waved for a multi-car accident in turn four. The caution set up the race’s first attempt at a green-white-checkered finish. Newman restarted in the lead on lap 162, but shortly after the green flag waved, David Ragan wrestled the point away from him – just as the caution flag flew once more as several cars crashed in turn one.

Newman restarted in second for the race’s second attempt at a green-white-checkered finish with drafting partner Hamlin lined up directly behind him in fourth. Initially, the pair looked to have a good restart, but as another drafting tandem took to the high side of the track in an attempt to take the lead, Newman’s back bumper and Hamlin’s front bumper became disengaged.

With the pair no longer bumper-to-bumper, they were shuffled deep in the pack of cars by the time they made a complete lap, which put Newman in a precarious position for the final run to the checkered flag. Inevitably, Newman got caught up in the last-lap melee as he exited turn four, but he was able to limp across the start/finish line in his heavily damaged racecar to post a 23rd-place finish.

Newman’s SHR teammate, Tony Stewart, finished 11th in his the No. 14 Burger King Chevrolet.

David Ragan won the Coke Zero 400 to score his first career Sprint Cup victory.

His Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Matt Kenseth, finished in the runner-up spot as the race ended under caution. Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five. Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Paul Menard, Juan Pablo Montoya and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were six caution periods for 21 laps, with eight drivers failing to finish the 170-lap race, which was extended 10 laps due to a green-white-checkered finish.

With round 17 of 36 complete, Newman leads the SHR duo in the championship point standings. He remains 10th with 498 points, 88 markers back of new series leader Harvick and three points ahead of 11th-place Denny Hamlin. Stewart maintained his 12th-place standing and now has 494 points, which puts him 92 markers back of the top spot with a 21-point cushion over 13th-place Greg Biffle.

The next event on the 2011 schedule is the inaugural NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta on July 9. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 6:30 p.m.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS WEEKEND’S RACE? “It’s nice.  With the rain kind of abbreviating the schedule yesterday, we didn’t get a ton of track time, but we really, honestly hadn’t planned on running a whole lot.  We just wanted to run and make sure that we got our heights set and didn’t have any vibrations in the transmission or rear end gear or anything.  Basically, just wanted to park the car and get ready to race.  You can practice all you want, but you’re just not going to get the conditions that you’re going to have tomorrow night.  We just wanted to be safe and not do too much damage to the bumpers considering that’s our lifeline for the day tomorrow night with both the front and rear bumpers.  So we just took care of it.  We’re excited about it.  It’s a race that we’ve had a lot of success at and it’s going to be fun running here again like we had in February under the lights with the Shootout and we know how much fun that was.  It should be the same tomorrow.”

IS IT POSSIBLE TO RACE OFFENSIVELY AND DEFENSIVELY THE NEXT 10 RACES? “With the points – I’m not sure that tomorrow night you’ll even be thinking about it.  It’s strictly getting paired up with a partner that you want to run with the whole night.  The hard thing is that there’s going to be times that you’re going to get separated from that person and you may pick up a different person.  I don’t think that anybody is really going to be worried about the points tomorrow night as much as just trying to put himself in a position to be in the right spot at the end of the race.  It’s always been a chess match at the restrictor plate races, but I’m not sure that’s going to factor – the points side I don’t think will factor.  I think there’s going to be situations in these last 10 weeks where guys are going to start thinking about it.  I honestly don’t think that tomorrow night will be the place where they will worry about it because there’s just too many other variables involved.”

ARE YOU A FAN OF THE TANDEM RACING STYLE? “It doesn’t matter.  There’s pros and cons to it, but there were pros and cons to three-wide and 11 rows deep too.  The good thing is paired up we actually have a chance to race other cars and you’re not boxed in and stuck in a line trying to figure out if you’re in the right line or not.  It kind of is what it is.  It’s just different.  It’s not better or worse, it’s just different than what we’ve been doing in the past here.”

DO YOU THINK THE DRAFTING WILL BE SIMILAR TO THE 500 AND HAVE YOU WORKED ON IMPROVING THE COOLING IN THE CARS?: “The racing will be identical I believe.  Like you said, typically when we used to come here in July, the surface was worn out and handling was a much bigger issue than it was in February.  Now with fresh pavement it’s got a lot of grip in it and it’s not gone away since we came here in February.  The race will be the same.  The cooling – everybody has worked on it.  The hard part when we were here in February is NASCAR hadn’t even decided how much opening we were allowed to have.  Now the teams have had some time since we went to Talladega even and everybody has worked on being able to cool it to where you can stay behind each other longer.  There are some guys that I’m still convinced can start behind a guy and push a guy a whole race if that’s what they choose to do.  I’m not sure I want to be that guy that wants to stare at a bumper all day.  We can do it I think and that’s a lot of the race teams have done a really good job.  We saw it yesterday in practice, we were seeing how long guys could stay out.  Knowing it was warmer than it was when we were here in February.  I think a lot of teams – I know we made improvements in our organization in the cooling side and I’m sure everybody else has too.”

WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES FROM THE JULY DAYTONA RACE 10 YEARS AGO WHEN DALE EARNHARDT JR WON? “It was pretty emotional.  That was the biggest thing you remember was just how emotional it was for everybody.  I think we all looked at it and it was hard that weekend for Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. to be here that weekend even.  It was the first time that we all were back and for him to go out and win that race, it wasn’t a way to put a period on the chapter, but it was a way for him – it was a way for him to look at it and say that life’s going to go on now and that’s it’s okay.  You never can replace losing a parent and a mentor like that.  When he won that race, it was just a way – I think to a certain degree, a way of saying that it was going to be okay.”

WHERE DO YOU FEEL THE MOST COMFORTABLE WITH RACE FANS? “I think our autograph sessions are the most comfortable because that’s probably where we get to spend time with them when we’re not at the race track.  It’s not that you don’t appreciate the time at the track with them, but you’re always – there’s something always in the back of your mind that you’re worried about trying to get the car a tenth of a second faster or the fact that your car is loose or tight and you’re trying to figure it out in your head what you have to do to make that better.  When we’re doing autograph sessions or meet and greets where we get to do Q&As with them and answer their questions – that’s kind of the fun part.  You’re not worrying about the race car, you’re not worrying about anything at the track and just worrying about what they have on their mind.  You get some fun interaction with them at that point and they know you’re not worrying about the race car, you know you’re not and it’s fun because you can coax them into asking questions that a lot of times they are real reserved.  I like getting people to ask questions that they’ve always wanted to know, but just never had the courage to ask it and I can normally draw one of the two of those out at a Q&A or an autograph session.  It’s fun to hear what they’ve got to say.”

HAVE YOU SPOKE WITH BRIAN VICKERS AND HAVE ANY OTHER DRIVERS SPOKE WITH YOU ABOUT YOUR POSITION ON BLOCKING? “Of course Bob (Pockrass, SceneDaily.com) – I knew you would be the one asking this question today.  Honestly, I did talk to (Brian) Vickers yesterday.  We had our drivers meeting that NASCAR asked us all to participate in yesterday and he was one of the first people I saw and we were laughing about it and talking about it.  He told me that he wasn’t blocking.  I just explained to him that of all people I didn’t want it to be you either.  I told him that I had drawn a line in the sand with the guys that were doing it.  It’s kind of like – we didn’t even agree to disagree situation because he explained his side and I understood his side and he understood my side.  I’ve talked to other drivers too and I didn’t anticipate to get the kind of support that I’m getting with some of these guys.  It’s not the whole field saying that by any means – I haven’t talked to everybody.  I did talk to two or three different guys yesterday and the two or three guys that I spoke to mentioned and agreed that it’s a problem that’s getting worse, not better.  Honestly, whether they agree or disagree – I don’t care.  I’ve drawn my line in the sand and the next guy that blocks me, he is going to also suffer the same fate.  It doesn’t matter who it is.  That’s what it’s going to be.”

ARE YOU CONCERNED BECAUSE YOU FINISHING 30^th LAST WEEK? “No, I’ll make sure when I do it next time that the guy doesn’t have the opportunity to come back and wreck me.”

DO YOU FEEL THIS COULD IMPACT YOUR ABILITY TO MAKE THE CHASE? “It might.  It very well might.  I’m going to stay the course on it.  I’m just to the point where I’m fed up with some of the ways some of these guys are racing each other.  If we miss the Chase because of it then so be it and that’s not what the team is going to want to hear.  That’s not what our sponsors are going to want to hear, but so be it.  It is what it is and there’s 42 guys out there and they know how I race and they know what I expect and I don’t race them that way and I don’t block guys and I’m not going to block guys.  If they block me then they will suffer the consequences of it.”

WILL YOU DRAFT WITH DAVID GILLILAND IN TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE? “We did yesterday.  That was the only guy I ran with yesterday in practice and that’s our plan for tomorrow night too.  It’s kind of odd.  The Hendrick cars and the Childress cars are all working together and Ryan (Newman) and I have found two guys that we like working with.  We spoke about it last night because Ryan and I sat down for about an hour last night in his motor home and it’s almost uncomfortable because you’re scared to make a mistake with your teammate being in front of you or behind you and getting each other in a bad spot where if something happens, it’s happened to both of you, not just one of you.  I think it’s my approach to how to run the race is different than his and he’s found a guy with Denny (Hamlin) like I’ve found with David (Gilliland) and like I found in the past with Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. when I had Bobby Labonte as a teammate.  It’s not anybody’s way of doing it is right or wrong, it’s just if you find that person that you’re comfortable with and that matches what you’re thought process is of how you want to run the race then it seems to work that much better.”

IS BLOCKING MORE LIKELY AT DAYTONA?: “It’s a different animal here.  We’re not going to wipe out half the field because they’re blocking here and actually you don’t really see a lot of blocking with the two-car deal than you did with the single car stuff in the past.  I’m mindful that this is a different animal this week than what we had last week and what we’re going to have next week at Kentucky for sure.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED OTHER DRIVERS AGREED WITH YOU? “I wasn’t.  I wasn’t the least bit surprised.  Everybody knows the problem is that if you have one person that is taking advantage of a situation then it forces everybody else to do the same thing or else you’ve put yourself behind and you’re going to get taken advantage of more.  You don’t have that mutual give and take and that’s what more guys are taking more than they’re giving these days.  It always used to be self-policed that was handled in the past – the drivers have always controlled it.  The guys are having a harder time doing that when NASCAR’s getting involved in the conversations.  The problem is and what I see and this may be different than NASCAR’s view on it, but what happens is the drivers used to be able to handle it amongst each other and then NASCAR said you can’t do this and you can’t do that.  You can’t go talk about it in a parking lot somewhere, you’re still going to get fined.  When you do that, there’s no way for the driver to actually settle it and get it out whether they agree to disagree – they can’t even get that opportunity.  What it does it festers so much between one side or the other that it just continues the cycle until NASCAR had to get involved.  Then it still doesn’t get resolved really.  I just think guys have to – you have to have somebody that’s going to draw the line in the sand somewhere and say this is what we expect.  I don’t care if they want to race each other that way, that’s fine.  They can race everybody else in the field that way.  I don’t race guys that way and I’m not going to race the way they want to just because they think it should be different now.  When I came in here I thought I was going to change how things worked too and Dale (Earnhardt) Sr. taught me how to do it, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, my teammate Bobby Labonte taught me and had to grab me and shake me beside a trailer one day and say, ‘Listen, you have to understand.’  Nothing like that happens in this day and age.  It’s all so glamorized when two people do something on the race track and it’s made to be such a soap opera that the whole point of why it happened in the first place isn’t getting resolved because of it.”

ARE YOU TAKING MORE OF A ROLE AS A LEADER IN THE GARAGE? “It’s not so much that as much as it’s just when you’ve just finally had enough of something and you learn to choose your battles.  You choose to fight the fights that are worth fighting and finally you just get to a point where you’ve had enough of something. On this particular topic with blocking and guys blocking each other on the race track – I’m to that point.  Maybe I’m the only one that’s gotten to that point, but I’m not the only one that’s talking about it.”

DO YOU EXPECT MORE AGGRESSIVENESS ON THE TRACK AND MORE CREATIVITY IN THE RACE CARS AS THE CHASE APPROACHES RICHMOND?“How long have we been doing the Chase here?  Three, four, five or six years.  It’s always been that way.  It’s not going to be different this year than it has any other year.  Guys that are trying to get in are going to be working hard to get in.  Those that are on the edge of possibly getting bumped out are still going to be working hard to stay in.  You still aren’t going to win the race and you still aren’t going to make the Chase if your cars wadded up in a ball sitting against the fence because you did something stupid.  You’re going to race the race the same way.  As far as the crew guys go, if you’re willing to take a chance and lose points because you did something you were not supposed to do, that’s always been the debate with crew chiefs and organizations in the past.  Again, that won’t change either.  I don’t think you’re going to see guys – obviously Clint Bowyer had the situation last year that cost him a chance at the championship right off the bat.  I think NASCAR does the same thing.  NASCAR draws the line in the sand and says, ‘Listen, this is what’s acceptable and this is what’s not.’  When guys see what the penalties are like that it makes them think twice about what their next move is.”

YOU’VE WON HERE BEFORE. TALK ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AT THE WORLD CENTER OF RACING

“I’m excited to get back after the Daytona 500 itself, after leading the most laps with our U.S. Army Chevrolet; and I’m excited just the same this week to have Bass Pro Shops and the NRA on our No. 39 Stewart-Haas car. And the tandem drafting is something I look forward to, much more so than the way it used to be, racing-wise. So we’ll see if we can have some fun and put on a good show. It’ll be interesting to see what the weather lets us do here in the next couple of days. I don’t know how much track time we’re going to get. But either way, I’m sure we can put on a good show for the fans on Saturday night.”

“I’m not a fan at all of blocking and if you don’t block on an oval, you shouldn’t block on a road course; and there are a lot of guys who get in the bad habit of blocking on a road course, especially in Turn 7 and Turn 11 there at Infineon. It’s difficult to be able to work through some of those things when somebody does block in front of you. However his whole retaliation thing worked out, that’s not for me to talk about or say.  But it is frustrating. I had guys that blocked me and (I) let them know about it and I got turned around myself twice in Turn 11. So, the blocking part is not cool at all. And it’s something that we as drivers have to address and gain a little more respect out of each other so that we’re not doing that. We can have great racing and great passing there without the blocking.”

DENNY HAMLIN SAID A WHILE AGO THAT SOME OF HIS CREW GUYS OR YOUR CREW GUYS WALKED BY AND SAID HOW YA’ DOING, TEAMMATE.  DOES THIS TANDEM RACING ACTUALLY MEAN THAT YOU’VE GOT 42 POTENTIAL TEAMMATES OUT THERE? DO YOU BECOME MORE FRIENDLY JUST FOR THESE FOUR SUPERSPEEDWAY RACES THAN YOU WOULD ANY OTHER TIME?

“It’s kind of ironic how some of the things work out because we always talk about how much we work with our teammates and here a teammate means a lot in the essence that it may not be your true teammate, your shop mate, but it may be a teammate of another team that helps push you or work with you in Daytona as well as Talladega and both times got involved in somebody else’s crash. I texted Denny as I was getting in my airplane leaving Talladega I said let’s try it again in Talladega. And he said all right. And in saying that, you can try all you want to try to make a plan to do that and it might not work out. Our cars do work good together. Communication-wise, we’re on top of things it seems like in the car. So it’s a difficult situation and something we’ve had to work through as teams and as drivers and crew chiefs to work with me being on somebody else’s radio frequency or vice-versa. But it’s something that makes it a lot more interesting for me here, coming to the race.”

HOW MANY PEOPLE WILL YOU HAVE?

“I don’t know the exact number. I’m going to say 11. It’s not the whole garage. And at the same time, you don’t have to have somebody else’s radio frequency, it just helps. If you get somebody that you’re working with, it’s like a dance partner. You don’t need to communicate. Even just like body language in dancing, you have body language in the way you’re driving the race car so you have an idea. But it does help to be able to see the next group of cars or the next two-wide group of cars or if the track is blocked in front of you when you’re getting pushed. I think it was here in the 500 that (Jeff) Gordon was pushing me and I thought he was going to drive me right into the biggest crash in my life and we ended up missing it (laughs). But he couldn’t see. Every situation is different and the extra communication can be a benefit and it can be a hindrance.”

AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON WE’RE AT THE SIX-MONTH POINT WITH 16 RACES IN THE BOOK; YOU’VE BEEN OUT TO THE WEST COAST SEVERAL TIMES, WHAT’S THE FATIGUE FACTOR FOR YOU AND YOUR RACE TEAM?

“The fatigue-factor shouldn’t be there. If we’re manned correctly and the guys are doing their jobs and we’ve torn up a couple of race cars but it hasn’t been outrageously difficult for us this year. And you know it going in what to expect of the schedule and of the season and when the breaks are and when they’re not. Other guys have had to fluctuate their schedules a little bit on Mondays and sometimes on Sundays to do different things so they can have a little bit of time to themselves sometime on Thursday morning before they fly out on Thursday afternoon. So it’s kind of up to the crew chief to make sure that they’re flexible enough to get the job done and do the things that they need to do to be 100 percent when they get to the race track.”

WE’RE TRYING TO NAIL DOWN EXAMPLES OF TANDEM RACING IN RECENT YEARS AND THE 2008 DAYTONA 500 COMES TO MIND WHEN KURT (BUSCH) PUSHED YOU AROUND THAT LAST COUPLE OF LAPS

“Actually it was just the back straightaway on the last lap. He pushed me the length o the straightaway from (Turn) 2 to 3. But in saying that, Kurt and I actually did work on some to tat tandem-style drafting and pushing in practice when we tested here with the brand new race cars. Actually I should say when we tested at Talladega. So we had a little bit of experience. So we had a little bit of experience before we got to the 500 in February and it all just worked out to be there at the last lap the last second; and having that experience gave us a little bit more confidence to do what we did. We had done that with other drivers, but we had never done it as teammates before that point.”

CAN YOU COMMENT ON THE FACT THAT 30 YEARS AGO, MILITARY GUYS WITH DISABILITIES WERE NO LONGER ABLE TO SERVE; BUT TODAY, THEY ARE STILL SERVING.

“I know that the Army in particular has a screening process when they’re working with new soldiers. But when they have soldiers that have experience and understand the team commitment and what it is to serve, even having a prosthetic limb, they still allow them to come back and I think there is a lot of merit in that. I’ve seen it, and you’ve probably seen it yourself, going to a place like Walter Reed, those soldiers are literally excited to get back; and after they get back moving again, after they get a bionic arm or a prosthetic limb attached to them, they’re excited to get back with their team and their command and be a part of the U.S. Army and protecting our freedom. You’re right in that the mindset has changed a little bit with technology. Back in the day I’m sure there were people that got pushed to the side even though they were willing because of their physical situation, so it’s nice to see technology help and tie that mental, physical and emotional strength together for soldiers that want to go back to battle.”

YOU SPOKE EARLIER ABOUT THE BLOCKING ISSUE. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR STANDING UP FOR THAT? YOU COULD HAVE A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE AND NOT EVERYBODY IS GOING TO AGREE. IF THERE IS AN ISSUE, HOW DO YOU CONVINCE PEOPLE?
“The best example I can give you is what we dealt with here for our first experience here in Daytona when we were working with the tandem drafting and the speed difference between the cars. There was the most respect I’ve ever seen out of all drivers in a Cup race when it came to not blocking somebody with a run because you have the opportunity to get that run back. The racing was good because of that. That same respect doesn’t carry over to road courses. So that’s what I guess as a group, us drivers have to work on; and I’m sure there were plenty of phone calls and plenty of texts and plenty of confrontations whether good or bad after that race that helps us work in that direction. But every time we go to the race track it’s a new set of circumstances; different cars, different tires and different brake packages that we work with to try to make the cars better and faster and we have to develop, I guess our respect develops last of all of those things.”

COMPARING ROAD COURSES TO OVAL TRACKS HOW DO GET THROUGH THAT MINDSET TO HAVE RESPECT?

“There is a fine balance. Of all the things that we work on, it’s probably the last thing and the most underdeveloped thing that we have as a group in our garage is respect when it comes to certain drivers at certain times. Yeah, there are times when I’m blocked at Dover or Charlotte or places like and it’s much less often than it is the road course. The road course is the most you’ll ever get blocked or blocking is a part of what we do as a whole. Go back to ’79 when Donnie (Allison) ran Cale (Yarborough) down. He was blocking of sorts. You saw what happened because of it.”

THAT WAS THE LAST LAP AS OPPOSED TO LAP 50

“But it’s every lap is like a last lap. You look at the way our competition is. We race every lap like it’s the last lap. There are times when it does slow down a little bit. California and Michigan; big places, Pocono, where you can only do so much, there comes a point where you have to save your race car and save your tires and save your brakes. But on restarts, especially with the double-file restart, it’s definitely added to the excitement and definitely added to us drivers having to have a little bit more demand for respect because of the hard racing that we do. We’re literally going for everything we possibly can; and if that means somebody else’s throat, that’s part of it sometimes. Going for their throat and ripping their throat out are two different things.”

ON THE VISION ISSUES THAT COME WITH THE TANDEM DRAFTING, IS THERE A WAY THEY COULD ALLEVIATE THAT?

“It’s not even so much the spoiler as it is when you’re in the car and you’ve got a car in front of your and you’re in the banking and it’s almost like their roof actually blocks it because you’re looking up and out to the left. And the way our cars work and the way you draft, typically you draft off the right side of the bumper, not the left side; so that puts you right in the center line of the guy’s car in front of you, which blocks say 20 degrees left or right. And that’s just the way the physics work out with the way the cars draft. I’m not saying that there is nothing that could be done. But what would be done would probably be more work than it’s worth.”

PENSKE RACING SEEMS TO BE IN AN UPSWING. AS A FORMER PENSKE DRIVER, WHAT HAS MADE THEM SO QUICK RECENTLY?

“The OC swings in the every part of the history of our sport. Hendrick, I would say, has the least swing or at least maybe the longest swing, depending on how you look at it. But Roush, Childress, Penske; they’re all typically up and down teams that I’ve seen at least in the 10 years I’ve been a part of this sport; whereas Hendrick has been the benchmark, at least obviously the last five years, but even before that, with the competitiveness and the lack of peaks and valleys in their performance. So, no; no secrets. Sometimes it’s a part of racing. It’s a part of teamwork. It’s a part of sometimes being complacent and therefore not.”

YOU TOOK A TOUR OF THE NASCAR ARCHIVES, CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT?

“It was really neat to see some of the old trophies. I like old things in general. But to see old historical parts of racing is cool but to see it here at Daytona with all the different spectrums of racing was pretty neat as well. I think the oldest trophy in there was 1905, which I didn’t even know they were building trophies then. And some of the cool old helmets that they had; one was Wynn’s Friction Proofing, which was a sponsor of mine back in my open-wheel days. So it was pretty cool to see an old open-faced helmet. I shouldn’t even say open-faced; it was an open-eared helmet (laughs) from back in the day that carried the same sponsor. It was something I did probably 50 years later. Just things like that. And the fact that it is open for the fans to see, is good. A lot of it is France-family-owned but either way, fans can go in and see it and gain a little bit more appreciation for the history of Daytona, be it the beach or the big oval.”

DAYTONA SUCCESS: When you put KHI and Daytona together it only means one thing, success. Team owners Kevin and DeLana Harvick earned their first Nationwide Series victory at Daytona in 2005 with the help of Stewart. In his six starts behind the wheel of a KHI Chevrolet, Stewart has earned all four of the organization’s Daytona wins. In addition to their four wins KHI has 21 starts at the superspeedway, two poles, eight top-five and 11 top-10 finishes.

TAPOUT RETURNS: The Authentic Brands Group Company will venture back into the garage with KHI this weekend after earning a 12th-place finish during their Nationwide Series debut at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back in March. TapouT will carry on their relationship with KHI later this summer at their first appearance in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at Michigan International Speedway on August 20 with KHI co-owner Kevin Harvick behind the wheel.

CHASSIS HISTORY: The No. 9 KHI team will utilize chassis No. 065 this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.  This is the same chassis Stewart drove to victory lane at Daytona in February. Most recently this chassis competed at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway with Harvick behind the wheel. After charging to the front of the field and leading four laps, Harvick experienced engine issues which caused the team to retire early from the race and walk away with a 39th-place finish.

THOUGHTS FROM THE CREW CHIEF: Bruce Cook

How do you feel heading into Daytona being the defending race winner, and returning with Stewart?

“It’s hard to head into Daytona and not feel anxious. There is always the inevitable ‘big one,’ and you never know if you are going to fall victim to that. I have a lot of confidence in our team here at KHI, and I believe the equipment that we are bringing for Tony will allow him to run out front. I don’t know if there is a better combination for success than heading back with the winning chassis and driver. We’ll have three great teammates with us there to draft with, and I hope that will allow us to be up front at the end.”

THOUGHTS FROM THE DRIVER: Tony Stewart

Four of your 16 career wins at Daytona have come with KHI. Can you talk about their preparation leading into that race?

“It’s a small team size-wise, but as far as equipment and everything, Kevin and DeLana [Harvick] prepare cars that are some of the best cars in the Nationwide Series.”

A lot of your success at Daytona in the Nationwide Series has been with KHI. Any reason for that in particular, or is it a combination of a lot of things?

“I think it’s because of the attention to detail that Kevin and DeLana put into their racecars. You see it in their Truck Series program. You see it in their Nationwide Series program. They just do everything first class. I always have the confidence when I get in one of their cars that I’m in just as competitive a car as I could be with any other organization out there. They’re first class, and that’s the kind of group that you want to be with when you do a one-off race like this. You have that confidence. You don’t worry about anything. You know that they’re giving you the best equipment that you can get in that series. It’s always fun. It’s fun to drive for one of your good friends like Kevin and DeLana, but at the same time knowing that they’ve got really good racecars just tops it all off.”

Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet for Stewart Haas Racing and 2008 Daytona 500 champion, kicked off his Coke Zero 400 Media Day activities by visiting the ISC Archives – a treasure chest of racing artifacts and memorabilia.

“It’s neat to see the history,” Newman said. “Seeing some of the special things . . . the different trophies, the different flags, the significance of Daytona in the world of racing, it’s really special.”

Newman has his own dedicated place in that history at the ISC Archives, a unique display of memorabilia from the historic 50th running of the Daytona 500, which he won in 2008 for Penske Racing.

“I’ve always had an appreciation for the history of motorsports in general,” Newman said. “I’ve always been a fan of stock cars. Getting that opportunity to win the Daytona 500 was really special. It being the 50th running was even more special and having my dad spot for me.”

Following his visit to the Archives, Newman stopped by the ISC Contact Center and visited with employees. He even took some ticket orders over the phone to the surprise of a few lucky race fans.

In the afternoon, students from five different Volusia County elementary schools – Indian River, Pine Trail, Port Orange, Spruce Creek and Sugar Mill – were in attendance for the trivia game show “Is Ryan Newman Smarter than a Grade School Student?”

Newman, who graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. degree in Vehicle Structural Engineering, answered 10 first-round questions on a variety of topics such as Science, Math, Social Studies, English and Geography. For every question Newman answered correctly, DIS donated $100 to Volusia County Schools.

Newman also correctly answered the “bonus round” question and earned a special prize for every student in attendance – a ticket to the Coke Zero 400 on Saturday, July 2.

“The Coke Zero 400 is a family-friendly environment,” Newman said. “We want the kids to come out and enjoy the time with their parents. I think a lot of these kids will get that opportunity. It’s fun to have interaction with them even when it’s their off-season in the summer. It was a lot of fun.”

Youth pricing ticket information:
Special youth pricing made available for the first time for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at the “World Center of Racing,” include:

. $10 reserved seats for kids ages 12 and under

. Half-off reserved seats for ages 13-17

In addition, special youth pricing is also available for the Subway Jalapeno 250 Powered By Coca-Cola NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Friday, July 1.

. Kids 12 and under are free in the general admission sections

. Sprint/Petty/Earnhardt/Roberts and Weatherly Towers tickets are only $10 for 12 and under.

. Half-off junior prices for ages 13-17

Throughout the Coke Zero 400 Weekend Powered By Coca-Cola, kids 12 and under are free in the Sprint FANZONE.

Youth pricing options are available through June 30

To purchase tickets for the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola, call 1-800-PITSHOP or visit http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com

His 13th Daytona 500 start gave Stewart hope that perhaps this was the year, as he was a contender throughout the 208-lap contest, which was extended eight laps past its originally distance via a green-white-checkered finish. But just as past Daytona 500s have left Stewart more jaded than jovial, Sunday’s 53rd Daytona 500 felt like more of the same, for Stewart went from being second with two laps remaining to finishing 13th.

As strong as Stewart’s Office Depot/Mobil1 Chevy was, he needed help. Racing in the draft is a necessity at Daytona, and this year, two-car tandems were the fast way around the spacious, 2.5-mile oval. Stewart had many dancing partners during the day, and while he never led a lap, he was a top-10 mainstay.

In the final, two-lap dash to the finish, Stewart was in second-place on the outside of leader Trevor Bayne. It was the race’s final restart, and Stewart appeared in prime position to finally win his first Daytona 500 and the 40th point-paying race of his Sprint Cup career. Behind Stewart was Mark Martin, and it made sense to believe that the two Chevrolets could draft their way past Bayne and onto Daytona 500 fame.

That notion soon fizzled, however, when the inside line led by Bayne got going quicker than the one led by Stewart. Knowing time was running out, Stewart darted left in an attempt to catch the faster train of cars. More jockeying took place, and before the field came back around to take the final lap, Stewart had been jettisoned outside the top-five, and when the checkered flag dropped, he was outside the top-10 — an area he hadn’t been all day.

Stewart climbed from his car in the garage area shaking his head at the incredulous nature of his race. No words were needed. Adding insult to injury was the final result of his SHR teammate, Ryan Newman.

With his No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet, Newman had paced the Daytona 500 nine times for a race-high 37 laps — his best Daytona 500 showing since winning the event in 2008. Yet, two late-race accidents conspired to leave Newman 22nd.

Enjoying a much better day was Bayne. The 20-year-old driver pulled off a major upset by winning NASCAR’s most prestigious race. With little Sprint Cup experience and driving for a team that’s only running a part-time schedule, Bayne held off some of NASCAR’s best to win his first career Sprint Cup race. In only his second Sprint Cup start, Bayne became the youngest Daytona 500 winner, and he did it driving for one of the most storied organizations in NASCAR.

Wood Brothers Racing was the franchise that gave Richard Petty a run for his money in the 1970s and early ’80s. But after 97 victories — the last of which came on March, 25 2001 when Elliott Sadler drove their car to victory at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway — the team had gone winless. And in 2008, the proud, family-owned team was forced to run a part-time schedule. Bayne’s Daytona 500 win injected a shot of adrenaline to the team and the sport of NASCAR, for it was an honest win by an honest kid for a team that helped shape the NASCAR we know today. This was the Wood Brothers’ fifth Daytona 500 victory, but first since 1976 when David Pearson was their driver.

Bayne crossed the finish line .118 of a second over second-place Carl Edwards. Finishing third was David Gilliland, while Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five. Juan Pablo Montoya, Regan Smith, Kyle Busch, Paul Menard and Martin comprised the remainder of the top-10.

The 53rd Daytona 500 was a record-breaking race on three fronts: lead changes (74), leaders (22) and cautions (16), with 60 laps run under the yellow flag. Thirteen drivers failed to finish.

Points following the Daytona 500 also had an unusual angle, for despite winning the Daytona 500, Bayne earned no points for his triumph. Bayne declared the stepping-stone Nationwide Series as the division in which he will compete for a driver’s championship in 2011, so he was awarded no points for his Daytona 500 effort. Drivers in all three of NASCAR’s national series — Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck — must select the series in which they’ll compete for a driver’s championship. Drivers may race in all three series, but they will only earn championship points in their “declared” series. It is a new rule for 2011, which coincides with a revamped point structure.

Basically, points have been simplified, and they apply to all NASCAR national series. Now, points are awarded in one-point increments. In Sprint Cup, that means the race winner gets 43 points, plus three bonus point for the victory. The winner can also earn an extra point for leading a lap and another point for leading the most laps, bringing their total to a possible maximum of 48 points. All other drivers in subsequent finishing order will be separated by one-point increments. A second-place finisher will earn 42 points, a third-place finisher will earn 41 points, and so on. Last-place (43rd) gets one point.

Stewart is tied for 12th in the Sprint Cup championship standings with David Ragan. Stewart has 31 points and is 11 markers behind series leader Edwards. Newman is tied with Denny Hamlin for 19th. Each has 24 points, 18 arrears Edwards.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Feb. 27 Subway Fresh Fit 500k at Phoenix International Raceway.

But running in second place as the pack of cars were battling for position on the backstretch of Daytona International Speedway, Newman’s U.S. Army Chevrolet got collected in a multicar accident on Lap 197, ending any chance of visiting Victory Lane in the Great American Race.

Newman led the most laps (37), including Laps 182-192 and Lap 196. The 200-lap scheduled race went into double overtime with two green-white-checkered restarts.

When the dust settled at the 2.5-mile oval, Newman was credited with a 22nd-place finish.

“We had a plan and we had the horsepower to win this race,” said Newman. “But we were on the wrong end of a typical restrictor-plate finish. It’s disappointing, but we’ll Soldier on and fight even harder next week.”

After the five-car accident, which also involved Denny Hamlin, Regan Smith, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer, Newman came down pit road for repairs and a fresh set of tires. He fought his way back to 10th in the first green-white-checkered restart, but was once again involved in a multicar wreck on the backstretch.

“We still had hope for a decent finish, but the last accident ruined a great day of racing for our U.S. Army team,” said crew chief Tony Gibson. “We definitely had the car to win the race. I wasn’t counting the laps at the end because I’ve been there before. You never count until you cross the (finish) line.”

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, finished 13th.

The race winner was rookie Trevor Bayne. Rounding out the top-five in order were: Carl Edwards, David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch.

The next Sprint Cup race is Sunday (Feb. 27) at Phoenix International Raceway.

Tony Stewart Celebrates His Sixth Daytona Nationwide Victory. Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images for NASCAR

The .007 of a second margin of victory was the third closest finish in Nationwide Series history and the closest in series history at Daytona since the introduction of electronic scoring in 1993. It was also Stewart’s sixth win in the February Nationwide Series race at Daytona in the last seven years.

“Wow is the first thing,” said Stewart, who now has 16 total victories at Daytona, which ties him for second on the track’s all-time win list with Bobby Allison, 18 wins behind the legendary Dale Earnhardt (34). “It’s going to take a while to get to 34. It’s a pretty cool feeling to know we’ve closed in on something he’s done here. This was his playground. You just watched him play with guys here. He was the best at this place. To even be remotely close to him in the record books, in anything here, is very humbling.”

Beyond the statistics, Stewart’s win was equally impressive in the fashion for which it was done. The driver of the No. 4 Oreo/Ritz Chevy overcame a flat right-rear tire late in the race, and he restarted in 11th on lap 114 of the 120-lap contest.

“I knew we had a good car in practice,” Stewart said. “We didn’t qualify as good as we were hoping for (14th), but we were pretty sure we knew that we were going to race a lot better than we practiced.”

Stewart and Bowyer spent most of the race as drafting partners. With new asphalt at Daytona for the first time since 1979, the fastest way around the 2.5-mile oval meant being a part of a two-car tandem.

The duo drafted together for the majority of the race, which each driver swapping spots every so often so that neither of their car’s engines would overheat. Stewart wound up leading five times for 13 laps, and Bowyer eight times for a race-high 40 laps.

Their plan was to stay together and battle it out at the end – which they did, but not without a hiccup.

With the race under caution on lap 106, Stewart’s spotter, Bob Jeffrey, noticed from high atop the frontstretch grandstands that the right-rear tire on Stewart’s Oreo/Ritz machine was flat. But with the caution out, Stewart was able to nurse his way back to pit road without the flat tire coming apart and harming the wind-tunnel sculpted fenders of his Chevy Impala.

With four fresh Goodyears, Stewart returned to action in 11th-place with only six laps remaining. He wasn’t worried, for just before the green flag dropped for the final sprint to the finish, Stewart told his team that as long as he had help from a “good pusher,” he had “a lot of time to get done what I need to get done.”

And “get it done” is just what Stewart did.

With the Chevrolet of Landon Cassill pushing him, Stewart shot through the field, narrowly missing a spinning Joey Logano off turn one on the final lap. Cassill stayed on Stewart’s bumper off turn two and onto the backstretch, whereupon they set their sights on the leaders, which consisted of Bowyer in first and Dale Earnhardt Jr., in second.

Knowing that Stewart was coming quickly, Bowyer attempted to move up and block Stewart as he came out of turn four, but it wasn’t enough. Stewart’s momentum was too strong, and he edged Bowyer in a dramatic finish.

“What a long weekend. I’ve been sick for three days, but this is making me feel better,” said Stewart from victory lane. “I’ve got to thank Oreo and Ritz, and I cannot thank Kevin and DeLana Harvick and everyone at KHI and ECR Engines enough.

“Landon pushed and pushed and pushed and did a really good job. We got that momentum built. We never had to check up. We never were in a scenario at the end where we had to break that momentum. We just ran ‘em down, and got there in just enough time.”

It was a 1-2 finish for KHI, but the third team driver, Elliott Sadler, was unable to make it a podium finish as he was taken out in a multi-car crash on lap 25. He finished 38th.

Cassill came home third to notch his career-best Nationwide Series result, while Earnhardt and Reed Sorenson rounded out the top-five. Jason Leffler, Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Michael Waltrip and Trevor Bayne comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 23 laps, with 11 drivers failing to finish.