A Fast Start for Stewart

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —  There was something eerie about the finish of Sunday’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. Tony Stewart won, just like he did last year. And an Earnhardt was second, just like last year.

Only it was Dale Jr., not Dale, but don’t tell that to Stewart.

“I would have sworn that car behind me was black and had a ‘3’ on it because Dale Junior may have a ‘Jr.’ behind his name, but drives like Dale Sr.,” said Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac.

“He’s got all the talent in the world. It was an honor to run with him. We were both good in practice and we knew if we could ever get hooked up in the race, we could both get to the front. We proved it twice. I was good behind him or in front of him, and he was good behind me or in front of me, too.”

Stewart had a .172 second margin after 70 green-flag laps, with Jeff Gordon inches back of Earnhardt, followed by Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin in a pack that had broken away from the rest of the 22-car field of 2001 pole winners.

Last year, Stewart held off Earnhardt by a minuscule .145 seconds.

“I figured the race was over five laps from the finish,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The entire time I was behind Tony, I never once had the opportunity to pass him. Never. I was trying to help him because we worked together for most of last year’s Shootout.

“I was kind of sticking with him, but there’s a point in time when you make a decision to try to win the race for yourself. I never had that opportunity so I’m kind of disappointed that the guy up front had such an easy ride.

“From second on back it was one hell of a race. But you just can’t get the leader for some reason.”

Stewart led 31 of the 70 laps to win $200,955.

A Ford led the first three laps, but that was because Kurt Busch drew the No. 1 starting position. He was quickly shuffled back and finished 14th. The fastest Ford was sixth, driven by Dale Jarrett.

That was better than Saturday’s qualifying when only two Fords--Jarrett 13th and Ricky Rudd 15th--finished in the Top 20.

Needless to say, there was great anguish in the Ford ranks.

“We’re four or five-tenths off in qualifying trim,” said Jack Roush, owner of a team of Tauruses. “In racing setup, there’s a tendency for the cars to get stuck together somewhat for the draft so that makes it look like they’re closer than they might really be.

“A Ford has no chance to be competitive to win [next Sunday’s Daytona 500] race.”

NASCAR officials reacted to the disparity among manufacturers by making a rules change after the Shootout that is designed to help the Fords by lowering the height of their rear spoiler by one-quarter inch.

Effective Tuesday, rear spoiler heights will be 6 inches for Ford, 61/4 inches for Chevrolets and 61/2 inches for Dodges and Pontiacs.

Roush’s complaints amused Gordon.

“They forget two years ago here when I was driving around all day feeling like all I was accomplishing was filling up a seat,” Gordon said. “In 2000, I was ninth of 10th in the July race here and I was the first Chevrolet and I ran wide open the whole time and couldn’t make a single pass to get up through there.”

In the 2000 Daytona 500, the first five finishers were in Fords.

Mike Helton, NASCAR president, said the change was made late Sunday so that they can observe the results in Thursday’s Twin 125 qualifying race.

“Our rules change judgment was made from wind tunnel tests and the first opportunity we had to observe it in action was Saturday in qualifying and today in the race,” Helton said. “We said all along that we would make adjustments if we felt they were needed to maintain a balance in competition.

“This is not to say that more changes could be made after Thursday’s races.”

Sunday’s race had a mandatory pit stop under green-flag racing conditions. Stewart, Schrader and six others stopped on Lap 39, with the other front-runners stopping a lap later. Stewart did not have a particularly quick stop, but was able to charge to the front.

“[Schrader] got hooked up out of the pits,” explained Stewart. “A lot of the guys that pitted later were by themselves, which is not advantageous--to be out there alone. We just had a big run. We had already passed two or three cars getting to Junior. By the time we caught him in [turn] four we had a lot of momentum.

“I told the guys in the pits, ‘He may have ‘Jr.’ behind his name, but he’s got just as much skill and talent as his father had.’ He tried the same tricks his father tried to pull last year to get by me.

“I was mirror-watching. I was kind of conscious of what he was doing and making sure--I probably looked two-thirds of the time behind me and a third of the time ahead of me where I was going.”