Wreck Mars Stewart Win at Tropicana 400

JOLIET, Ill. July 12, 2004; Nancy Armour writing for the AP reported that Tony Stewart's first victory of the year didn't have much drama. His crew took care of that in the pits.

Stewart ran away with the Tropicana 400 on Sunday, but the win was marred by a wreck with rookie Kasey Kahne that touched off a fight in the pits between the two teams' crews and led owner Ray Evernham to call for the 2002 series champion to be suspended.

Stewart dominated the race, leading 160 of 267 laps on the 1 1/2-mile D-shaped oval. He took the lead for good on lap 241 and beat Nextel Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson by 2.925 seconds.

It was Stewart's first victory since last October. But in typical Stewart fashion, it was marked by controversy. He even was booed as he got out of his car in victory lane.

Kahne was leading the race with Sterling Marlin second and Stewart third as the field bunched up for the green flag on lap 127. There were several cars not on the lead lap in front of Kahne.

After the restart, Stewart passed Marlin on the outside, but his Chevrolet got too close to Kahne's Dodge and tapped the back end. Kahne started spinning, sliding headfirst into the wall while Stewart darted out of harm's way and into the lead.

"Obviously the 20 (car) was in the back of me and put us up in the wall," Kahne said. "I don't know why he would do that. He had the car to beat all day. All he had to do was go through a couple more turns and he probably would have passed us."

But Stewart, who is on probation until Aug. 18 for a previous postrace fight with Brian Vickers, said he didn't intend any harm. NASCAR spokesman Herb Branham said after the race that officials determined the collision was simply a racing accident and there will be no penalties.

"I was right on his butt, but all of the sudden he checked up and I don't know what happened," Stewart said. "That was a bad deal. We could have gotten taken out just as easily. (Kasey's) the last guy I'd want to hurt."

"I hate to have something like that happen. We had such a good car, it wasn't going to matter anyway. We didn't need to turn him around to get to victory lane. We were going to win this race no matter what."

A few seconds after the wreck, Kahne's crew chief Tommy Baldwin charged into Stewart's pit. Baldwin and Greg Zipadelli, Stewart's crew chief, shouted at each other, and then members of the crews began fighting.

"I was just talking to Zippy and telling him his driver is a moron," Baldwin said. "They started pushing me and then the official grabbed me. I don't know what happened after that."

The pit crews mixed it up for a few minutes before order was restored. The shirt of one crew member was ripped open. Kahne's crew went back to their garage to try to repair the car, which was severely damaged in the front. After a few minutes, Baldwin walked to NASCAR's trailer and spent several minutes inside talking with officials.

Evernham also talked to officials -- and he was livid.

"He definitely needs to get suspended, and he should have his (backside) beat," said Evernham, owner of Kahne's team, Evernham Motorsports. "That's the problem with him. Nobody has ever really grabbed him and given him a good beating.

"If he doesn't get suspended, maybe I'll do that."

Branham said NASCAR has already begun investigating the fight on pit road. A decision on penalties won't come until later in the week, at the earliest.

Stewart was forced to use his backup car after a hard crash during Friday morning's practice session at the Chicagoland Speedway. But the backup car ran even better than his first choice.

Starting 10th, Stewart wasted no time working his way through the field. He climbed to third before the first caution came out on lap 19 and took over the lead for the first time on lap 22, when the leaders pitted.

The race was pretty much Stewart's from there. After the crash, he led for 53 of the next 54 laps before pitting on lap 180. Stewart was right back near the front once he caught up, and almost took the lead from Jeremy Mayfield when they came out of the pits at the end of lap 210.

Mayfield beat him out, and took the lead on the restart on 214. But Stewart regained controlled on lap 241, and no one challenged him again.

Evernham would like to, though. Stewart has a laundry list of offenses in his six seasons in NASCAR's top series. He was put on probation for the run-in with Vickers, and NASCAR also fined him $50,000 and docked him 25 championship points.

He's racked up more than $100,000 in fines over the years, and has been on probation four times.

He's also had a previous problem with Kahne. At Darlington in March, Stewart bumped Kahne from behind and sent him sliding through turns three and four.

"I asked (NASCAR) if they're going to do anything about it over and over again," said Evernham, clearly livid after meeting with NASCAR officials. "Does someone have to get hurt? Is that what it's going to take?"

Asked after the race if he was aware of the scuffle between the crews, Stewart said no.

"But," he said, "I'm sure I'll hear about it."

After the Chevys of Stewart and Johnson came the Ford of Dale Jarrett and the Chevy of polesitter Jeff Gordon. Mayfield was fifth in a Dodge.

Johnson increased his lead in the series to 105 points over Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished 22nd. Gordon is third, 242 points behind teammate Johnson. Stewart is 302 points back in fourth place.