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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - This is not the way NASCAR wanted to start the 2008 season.
But then again, maybe it is. Just ask Kurt Busch, who was nailed on the backstretch by Tony Stewart 20 laps into the second practice for the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway on Friday.
Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, paced the first practice session of the day for the exhibition race, ran into the back end of No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge of Kurt Busch, the polesitter for Saturday's Shootout, and collected his teammate Denny Hamlin on the backstretch in the process.
The blue deuce retaliated as the cars drove back onto pit road, and both Busch and Stewart were summoned to the NASCAR hauler, and Newman joined the party on his own.
As a result, both Stewart and Busch could face disciplinary actions that could include monetary fines and possibly point deductions as early as Saturday morning.
"This is a great way to start the 2008 season," Busch said after the incident.
There was speculation by some in the garage that Stewart retaliated for either the Daytona or Dover International Speedway incident that occurred between the drivers last season.
The first incident between the two former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions occurred with 50 laps remaining in last year's Daytona 500, as Busch and Stewart were battling for the lead and wrecked each other. At Dover in June, the drivers battled again and Busch was parked after buzzing Stewart's car and jackman Jason Lee on pit road.
"Anybody can play it anyway they want, but it was Tony's fault," said Busch's crew chief, Pat Tryson. "There's some frustration there from past history, but that is what it is and we'll work on our car and try to get a third one down here tomorrow morning."
Following NASCAR's discussion with the competitors, Vice President of Communications Jim Hunter reiterated Mike Helton's sentiment from Thursday, "This is the NASCAR everybody fell in love with."
"Emotions run high," Hunter said. "Our Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton and our director John Darby had a discussion. What is said in there stays in there. As far as penalties, we'll wait and see. They plan to meet with both drivers again tomorrow. I anticipate there will be another meeting between John Darby and Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart. John just thinks it would be a good idea to sit down with them again tomorrow.
"Professional race drivers need to control their emotions when they're in the race car, and I think we've shown in the past that we'll do whatever we need to do to make sure they do. And after tomorrow's meeting, we'll see where we are."
Now is the time to test NASCAR's earlier indication that the drivers' personalities will be allowed to shine once again. Certainly, that's what the fans would like. But NASCAR has never taken kindly to drivers using their cars as weapons, either.
Busch and Stewart's incident was not the first of the evening. Six minutes into the second practice for the Shootout — or five laps —l; Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman collided in Turn 3 and triggered an eight-car accident during the first day of on track activity at Daytona International Speedway on Friday.
"Just wrong place, wrong time," Newman said. "Clint stuck his nose underneath me and I didn't have anywhere to go. He said he tried to check up but he didn't check up enough."
While none of the drivers were injured, the cars of Newman, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Bill Elliott were damaged beyond repair in the incident. The Hendrick teammates of the Nos. 24 and 48 scrambled to unload their backup cars for the Daytona 500, while Newman said Penske Racing would be delivering a new car from the team's base in Mooresville, N.C.
Generally, drivers race their second best car in the Bud Shootout and retain the primary car for the Daytona 500.
"I think we're going to see a lot of things like this happening because the drafting is so severe that there is a lot of movement going on out there," Gordon said. "It's going to be exciting. I've said it's going to be exciting, and there's a whole lot of excitement yet to come."
Speeds are up nearly 2 miles faster per hour than what the teams tested with last month, leading to some dicey situations on the racetrack.
"It's wild," said Reed Sorenson, who had the fastest car of both practices with a lap of 191.873 mph. "It seems almost like we were going for the win tonight."
Mark Martin, who was able to salvage the No. 8 Chevrolet following the first altercation, appeared relieved given the precarious nature of drafting with the new car.
"Fortunately, we'll only have one wrecked car tomorrow and not two," Martin predicted.
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