It was a wild weekend at Daytona. First, on Saturday, Tony Stewart won the crash-filled Hershey’s Kissables 300 Busch Series race, after passing Dale Earnhardt Jr. with 13 laps to go. NASCAR officials spent over an hour reviewing tapes to determine the finishing order of the race after a crash involving at least ten drivers occurred on the final lap of the race. During the race Denny Hamlin was penalized for “rough driving” for hitting Brian Vickers, causing him to hit Kasey Kahne.
Not quite as exciting as the Busch series race, wreck-wise, the Nextel Cup 500 race also ended in a state of confusion, not quite having an official finishing line-up as the cars came across the finish line. Despite a crazy weekend at the track Jimmy Johnson won the Daytona 500.
Are rookies starting to show a lack of respect towards the “veterans” of NASCAR already? Many NASCAR drivers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon, have expressed concerns with Kyle Busch’s style of racing at the Daytona International Speedway, labeling it to be a little “out of control” for rookie racing style. Stewart spent time with Busch afterwards, discussing what had happened and what could’ve been done.
According to the interview between Jeff Gordon and Nascar.com’s David Newton, Gordon believes that, after the races at Daytona, Stewart doesn’t have much room to talk about overly aggressive driving.
“Tony was out of control, too, so I don’t think he can say a whole lot,” said Gordon, as he recalled the unfair “attack” on Busch, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate.