Tony Stewart goes from last to first at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - JULY 07: Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway on July 7, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)
DAYTONA BEACH, FL – JULY 07: Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola at Daytona International Speedway on July 7, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Tony Stewart, once the master of the mid-summer race at Daytona, returned to victory lane Saturday night beating a dominate Matt Kenseth on the final lap to win the Coke Zero 400.

Kenseth along with Roush-Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle had been the class of the field with Kenseth leading 82 of the 160 laps, but it was Stewart who charged to the outside of the duo to win his third summer race at Daytona and his first since 2009.

In what has become almost typical for the summer Daytona race, as Stewart crossed the line a pack of 15 cars were crashing behind them. Jeff Burton was able slip into second with Kenseth coming home third.

Kenseth, who won the season opening Daytona 500 and started from the pole Saturday night, quickly took control of the race. Once he and Biffle hooked up the two seemed nearly invincible and for the first half of the event the field could do nothing as the Roush duo held the bottom line and swapped positions in the front. The only time the two weren’t leading were during green flag pit stops. It didn’t take long however for the two to return to the front of the field and by the halfway point it looked as though it would be Kenseth’s race to lose. MORE>>>

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.