NASCAR: Somber Stewart wins Daytona Nationwide race

 A somber Tony Stewart could not enjoy the fruits of his victory in season opening round of the Nationwide Series at Daytona International Speedway. The last lap crash which caused injuries to at least 28 spectators made his win almost irrelevant.

Stewart avoided the chaos, a 12-car crash, to take a record seventh series’ victory at the 2.5 mile Superspeedway

Race leader, at the time, Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski’s move to make a pass for a win as they exited Turn Four.  Smith’s Chevrolet was turned sideways, and Sam Hornish Mr.’s Mustang hit Keselowski’s from behind. Rookie phenom, Kyle Larson’s car was sent into the wall with Keselowski, and his car was launched in the air from the rear being hit from behind.

Larson’s car went spinning along the fence, peeling off his front tires, detaching the engine and sending debris into the grandstand. The engine ended up lodged in the crossover gate.

The “Big One” (restrictor plate track’s multi-car collision) was the second of the day coming after an almost 20-minute red flag caused by Michael Annett’s car sending Austin Dillon into the wall.

“We had a great push from Sam Hornish,” Stewart said. “He was the one that got us up to second to begin with. It was a great, great push on the restart. If you can't clear those guys, you don't want to be that lead pack; you kind of want to be the second group in this scenario. Sam did a great job of picking me up in turn three (on the last lap). We got a huge run off those guys off of four.

“I looked in the mirror, and that's the worst image I've ever seen in a race in my life. As much as I'm happy about the win and our accomplishment today, I'm more worried about the people in the stands, the drivers, everybody involved. I want to celebrate this, but I don't want to celebrate until we hear from everybody and the track officials that everybody is all right.”