Tony Stewart Dominates Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington

by Ed Coombs  |  About The Author   |  Discuss

EVENT: Diamond Hill Plywood 200, Darlington Raceway May 9, 2008 Race 12 of 35   Unofficial Results Unofficial Standings   Race Related Info: Harvick Salvages 13th-Place Finish at Darlington Kennington-MacDonald Motorsports capture season best finish at Darlington FLIPPING THE SWITCH: STEVE WALLACE SPEEDS TO SECOND CONSECUTIVE TOP-FIVE FINISH IN DARLINGTON TOYOTA Nationwide Series Race Notes & Quotes Darlington Raceway AMBROSE SCORES TOP 10 IN TOUGH DARLINGTON RACE Ford Darlington Nationwide Post-Race Quotes Clint Bowyer, No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet Diamond Hill Plywood 200 Preview

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Tony Stewart dominated the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington leading over 85 laps. No one knew how the new track surface was going to be at race time and the track, too tough to tame, did not disappoint. Stewart survived a wild race that saw the pole sitter wreck on the first lap and seven of the top ten drivers in points experience some sort of problem during the race.

The final run down saw Bowyer finish second followed by Reutimann, Bodine and Steven Wallace with his second top 5 of his career after finishing 5^th last week at Richmond.

Pole sitter Carl Edwards took an unusual starting spot after winning the pole at Darlington for the Diamond Hill Plywood 200. Edwards started on the outside line next to outside pole winner, Clint Bowyer. On the first lap got loose and spun, by the second lap he was in the wall with a destroyed race car destined to finish in last place. Bowyer also slid back from the front. Tony Stewart took over the lead.

With the new track surface and tire combination many wondered how much time would be lost on the tires for an entire green flag run. After 30 laps it was about one second per lap. By lap 50 Stewart was lapping cars regularly and 3 laps later the green flag stops started. By lap 59 the green flags stops were complete and there were only 17 cars on the lead lap.

On lap 75 Stanton Barrett spun and hit the wall just as Marcos Ambrose was missing the entrance to pit road allowing him to stay on the lead lap. By the lap 80 restart it was Stewart leading, followed by Kyle Busch, Mike Bliss, David Ragan, and David Reutimann rounding out the top 5. On lap 83 Jeff Burton got loose and hit the back end of the car into the wall damaging the car badly.

With 62 laps to go Kertus Davis got into Derrike Cope sending him into the wall. The no. 52 car of Brad Teaque slid pst but did not hit anything.  This set up the final scheduled pit stops but others had pitted earlier. Stewart dropped to 9^th. The new leader was Matt Kenseth, followed by Todd Bodine, Mike Wallace, Mark Martin and Steve Wallace. A few laps later Kyle Busch got inside the lapped car of Brad Keselowski, went on the apron and came up onto the track into the no. 88. The 88 drove away, Busch’s car was destroyed. The leaders were unchanged and there were 16 cars on the lead lap

By lap 112 Martin and Stewart were second and third respectively but almost 3 seconds back but shortly thereafter Kenseth pitted with a vibration. By lap 129 Kenseth got loose, hit the outside wall and ended up spinning into the inside wall destroying his car. This brought out the first rd flag of the night.

With 14 laps remaining Stewart led Martin, Leffler, Bodine, And Bowyer to the green flag. Stewart and Martin broke free of the lapped traffic and Stewart logged the fastest lap of the race at over 176 mph.  David Ragan tried to get inside Steve Wallace and got loose sending him into the inside wall, wrecking his car. With 3 laps to go Leffler thought he might have been out of gas. However when the green flew it was Martin who had fuel issues and Lefler slammed into the second place car sending Martin into traffic collecting Kelly Bires and Mike Bliss who were having great runs at Darlington. There were others involved.  Stewart was the leader followed by Leffler, Bodine, Bowyer and Steve Wallace. However, Lefler pitted due to the fuel issue they were concerned about.

The final restart saw Stewart leading Bowyer, Bodine, Reutimann and Steve Wallace to the green.

You can contact Ed at coombse@speedwaymedia.com

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