Tough Day for Stewart in 17th Daytona 500

Tony Stewart

Tony Stewart was sidelined in the Daytona 500 with suspension problems due to multi-car accident on lap 41, ended up completing 72 laps, finishing 42nd. Some comments by Stewart:

MISSED QUESTION?
Stewart: "As long as we were two wide, then when it got three wide that particular lap it got away from me, and I got out of the gas and couldn't even get the front end caught up when I got out of the gas. I'm not sure if Ryan (Blaney) wasn't there, I still was going to hit the fence."

GOOD EFFORT BY YOUR CREW TO REPLACE THE WHOLE FRONT END.
Stewart: "It was fast enough to stay with the pack there. I actually just stayed with Mike Wallace to help my buddy out there. We ran as many laps as we could that would get us….we couldn't run any more laps and gain anything. It's the biggest race of the year and the last thing you want to do is stay out there and have something else happen to get in the middle of something. Let's just let those guys have their day."

HOW FRUSTRATING:
Stewart: "Well, it is just part of it. Yes, it's not what we had planned, but we stuck with the plan from the start of the race and that was to stay up front as much as we could. We knew the first two runs of the race we were probably going to have to adjust on the car; I just didn't make it far enough into the second run there to get a chance to adjust on it."