Fri May 9 22:22:21 2008

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Stewart wins for first time at Darlington

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Darlington, SC (Sports Network) - Tony Stewart dominated for most of the night winning Friday night's Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at the famed Darlington Raceway. He led 90 of 149 laps.

The No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crossed the finish line 0.814 seconds ahead of Clint Bowyer. It was the fourth straight win for the No.20 car (with three different drivers) and the sixth in a row for JGR in the series. The victory was Stewart's fourth of the season and sixth of his Nationwide Series career.

Stewart led most of the night, but found himself in second place behind Matt Kenseth with 27 laps to go when Kenseth suddenly pulled down pit lane with a problem. From there Stewart withstood a couple of restarts for the easy victory.

It was not a good day for pole winner Carl Edwards. After being fastest in qualifying, he chose to start from the outside lane and the strategy didn't work. In the first three laps. he hit the wall twice, the second time hard enough to end his day.

After Edwards' accident, it was Sprint Cup star Stewart who took control. He led 61 of the first 85 laps. But he was second behind Kenseth on lap 87 when an accident brought out the yellow flag to set up final pit stops.

Kenseth got off pit road with the lead, but Stewart's crew had problems and he found himself in ninth place. They restarted with 52 laps to go and Stewart struggled a little without the clean air of a leader.

Meanwhile, Kenseth and Todd Bodine were having fun up front and built a lead of almost two seconds before Kyle Busch slapped the outside wall on lap 101.

The accident meant two of the top-three drivers in the series were going to have a bad result. The third driver, Bowyer, was running in fifth and looking like he would leave the "Lady in Black" with a sizable points lead.

They restarted with 40 laps remaining and Stewart was up to seventh. By lap 114 Stewart was up to third, but three seconds behind Kenseth. He was second with 27 laps to go when Kenseth unexpectedly pulled down pit road with a bad vibration. He got four new tires, but he was no longer a challenger for the win.

Stewart inherited the lead and held more than one second on Mark Martin and two seconds on Jason Leffler. He was still holding a big lead when Kenseth slammed the wall on lap 128.

After a red flag, the race restarted on lap 134. Stewart, who had never won a Cup or Nationwide Series race at Darlington leading Martin, who owned a series-record eight Nationwide wins on the 1.366-mile oval.

Stewart and Martin took off together, but the No.5 Chevrolet couldn't keep pace. Then David Ragan slammed the wall on lap 137 giving Martin one last shot at win No.9.

Only three laps remained when the green flag dropped to restart the race. But Martin's car didn't go on the start, he was out of fuel and he was slammed from behind to start a multi-car accident. NASCAR brought out the red flag for a second time with al least six cars involved in the incident.

After cars pitted to repair damage, the race got back underway with Stewart and Bowyer one-two. Like Martin, Bowyer hung with Stewart for the first lap, but it was all Stewart to the checkered flag.

Bowyer will take a 112-point lead over Busch to next race - May 24th at the Lowe's Motor Speedway.