By Mark Long
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) _ Tony Stewart may have climbed his last fence.
It's not because he's tired of winning. The two-time Nextel Cup champion is concerned about injuries and suspects such antics wear him out.
``This is going to kill me,'' Stewart said shortly after climbing the fence at Daytona International Speedway to celebrate his second consecutive victory in the Pepsi 400 on Saturday night.
The victory capped another stellar weekend at Daytona for Stewart. He also won the International Race of Champions road course event Thursday and finished 12th in the Busch Series race Friday.
He raced more than 1,125 kilometres in three days and drove about 200 more with numerous practice and qualifying sessions in sweltering heat and humidity.
``I'm just happy I survived,'' Stewart said. ``Maybe I'm not in as bad of shape as I thought I was.''
Stewart felt ill Thursday after completing an IROC practice, two Busch Series practices, two Cup practices and then the IROC race. He didn't feel a whole lot better Friday during the Busch race and Cup qualifying.
He seemed just fine Saturday.
Stewart led more than half the 160-lap event, surged back in front with two laps remaining and held off a late charge from Kyle and Kurt Busch. The Busch brothers finished second and third. Road racing specialist and pole-sitter Boris Said was fourth, followed by Matt Kenseth.
When it was over, Stewart celebrated with his trademark fence climb, but made the mistake of jumping into the crowd _ where he found himself overwhelmed by rowdy fans. He had to be rescued by his crew and several NASCAR officials, who cleared a path for the NASCAR champion.
``I don't know why I do half the stupid stuff I do,'' said Stewart, who started climbing fences following his Pepsi 400 victory last July. ``I felt good after the end of the race until I got stupid and went up the flag stand again.
``(But) there was no way I was going to let those race fans down. I was either going to get all the way up or I was going to fall off and fall on my butt. But I wasn't going to stop. It was every bit as big, if not bigger, than it was last year.''
This race was nothing like the one last year, when he led all but nine laps.
Stewart was out front when Jimmie Johnson crashed into Bobby Labonte with 14 laps to go to bring out just the fourth caution in what had been an unusually calm race. It set up one final round of pit stops, and Stewart dropped to 10th on the restart.
He used a sweeping move on the low side of the track to jump into second, and was preparing to pass Said when a wreck brought out another caution. On the restart, Stewart dropped way back and then steamed by Said for the victory.
It was his second win of the season and ended a slump that began six races ago when he broke his shoulder blade in an accident in Charlotte, N.C.
Stewart had finishes of 42nd, 25th, third, 41st and 28th since the accident, and dropped from fourth to seventh in the standings. The victory pushed him back up to fifth, 299 points behind series leader Jimmie Johnson.
Now, Stewart hopes the Daytona win propels him as it did last season, when he captured three of the next five races and vaulted to the top of the points standings.
``I hope it's that way and I hope it's the same momentum,'' Stewart said. ``But more than anything, even if we didn't win _ if we just stayed in the top five or top 10 and didn't crash or blow up _ it was going to be a good night for us. This is the kind of night that leads you to hope that maybe history can repeat itself.''
But maybe without any more fence climbs.
``As long as he keeps his helmet on, we're good,'' team president J.D. Gibbs said. ``Keep the grey matter.''
