Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona wasn't the first Jeff Gordon has lost a big race at Daytona thanks to a spin on a late race restart.
And it wasn't the first time that Gordon caused the wreck himself. First, we'll start with Gordon's most current mistake at Daytona:
As Kyle Busch restarted the race, he kept the field at a slow pace, messing up 2nd-place Gordon's timing as they came to the green flag. That allowed Carl Edwards to get a run on the inside of the No. 24 as they exited the tri-oval, and when Gordon threw the block, his left-rear clipped Edwards' right-front fender, spinning the No. 24 out of the race.
Gordon had led 46 laps in the 160-lap event and appeared to have a car that could overtake Busch for the win, but the late race mistake during the green-white-checkered finish left Gordon with a 30th-place finish, just as the same move cost Gordon a shot at winning the 2002 Daytona 500:
The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had started the race -- actually more like the race weekend -- feeling under the weather. And as the field took the green flag for Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, Stewart was hoping he could muster up enough strength to complete all 160 laps.
For a while, as the sun was setting, it looked like he would do it. After starting 17th, Stewart had moved all the way into the Top-5 with a car that likely could have led had he been wanting to push the issue early. Then, the handling started to go away, making the car extremely loose.
"I thought we were going to be able to (make it) for the first two runs, but once the car got a little bit loose and we had to start really sawing on the wheel, it's like it zapped the energy out of me and I started making mistakes," Stewart said.
In other words, Tony knew that he simply wasn't the best driver to be in the No. 20, and at lap 72, Stewart headed to pit road under caution, telling crew chief Greg Zippidelli that he had already unbuckled and was getting out in favor of relief driver J.J. Yeley. Yeley would finish 20th after getting caught in a last-lap crash.
"It wasn't worth putting those guys out on the track at risk and me making a mistake in front of them and creating a bad day for those guys," said Stewart.
"I was trying to be responsible and respectful to my race team and to the rest of the competitors out there."
Miss the race? Wanna re-live the green-white-checkered finish? Here's your chance, thanks to Youtube.
Watch below for the Jeff Gordon-spinning, David Ragan-near-wrecking, Michael Waltrip-wall-banging, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch side-by-side finishing awesomeness that was the end of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona in all of its glory from the live TNT broadcast.
The fun starts below as the field takes the final green flag of the race:
Gordon gets the on-track fireworks show started by getting turned around by Carl Edwards while riding in second place after the leaders exited the tri-oval under the green flag. Gordon took blame for the incident, though it left him with a disappointing 30th-place finish.
The Busch that everyone expects to win took the checkered flag in the Sprint Cup Series for the sixth time Saturday night at Daytona.
Kyle Busch, instead of his brother Kurt who won last week thanks to rain at New Hampshire, won a crazy finish in the Coke Zero 400 by holding off Carl Edwards in turn one on the white flag lap of a green-white-checkered finish. The race ended in turn one thanks to a big wreck behind the leaders involving Michael Waltrip and a host of others, with Busch edging Edwards by a nose on video replays.
Put away the roman candles, y'all, Saturday night is right for racing in Daytona. Tune in on TNT for Wide Open coverage and join in the conversation as we follow the Sprint Cup stars under lights for 400 miles on NASCAR's most famed track.
Click the link below to find your way to the live blog!
After blowing up colorful projectiles in the name of freedom on the 4th, hang out with FanHouse for the Coke Zero 400 Live Blog Saturday night at 7:45pm/ET.
For a NASCAR beat writer, Friday afternoon would have been an easy day to pump out the stories at Daytona International Speedway. Here's why: Denny Hamlin Wins No. 9 for No. 20: Hamlin scored the ninth win of the 2008 season for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Nationwide Series Friday night in Daytona, further solidifying my point about Joey Logano. Simply, the No. 20 is unstoppable, whether or not Hamlin, Logano, Tony Stewart, or Kyle Busch is in the driver's seat.
Hamlin held off Sprint Cup teammate Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a green-white-checkered finish sprint to the finish line. Brad Keselowski led the most laps but wound up 10th according to NASCAR.com in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.
Here's a sobering thought for you. Morgan Shepherd is 66 years old. James Hylton is 73 years old. Kerry Earnhardt hasn't driven a race car in a year. All three of those drivers were cleared by NASCAR to compete in Friday night's Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Joey Logano just turned 18 and has already won a Nationwide Series race. [...] Logano was not approved to race Friday at Daytona.
Interesting.
Paul Menard Overshadows Teammate's Trouble: I promise, FanHousers, I didn't mean to jinx Martin Truex Jr. with my prediction in Thursday's "Chase Bubbler" feature.
It's been, well, half of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season since we've done this, so it sounds like Saturday night is right for some live bloggin'!
That's right, NASCAR FanHouse is dusting off the ol' CoverItLive system for some live coverage of Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
Everyone is invited to stop by and talk about the racing action on track at DIS, and in between launching exploding projectiles into the air to celebrate freedom, we here at the FanHouse hope you'll be there, too!
The green flag drops at just past 8:00pm/ET Saturday night on TNT, so we'll get things started for the 400-mile dash under the stars at 7:45pm/ET, or for all you West Coasters, 4:45pm/PT.
This is just the start of the ramped-up coverage you'll get to enjoy from the FanHouse as we make our way to towards the Chase for the Championship this fall.
With Dale Jarrett racing in his final points-paying NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway, plenty of memories come flooding back about his storied NASCAR career.
The top of that list? The "Dale and Dale Show" from the 1993 Daytona 500. Watch below as his father, Ned Jarrett, calls his son (Green No. 18 car) to victory past Dale Earnhardt and others -- and try not to smile as he crosses the finish line.
That moment, with Ken Squier stepping out of his role in CBS booth in play-by-play to allow Ned to seemingly instruct his son to victory in the sport's biggest event, is definitely one of the tops in Daytona 500.
Let me take you back to last fall when Joe Gibbs Racing announced a complete switch to Toyota starting in 2008 season.
That meant a lot things had to happen for the JGR bunch -- Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, & Kyle Busch -- to have any sort of chance of finishing well in Daytona 500.
New engines and new cars had to built for no less than three of last year's top-tier Sprint Cup teams. It's not an easy process in the offseason anyways for NASCAR teams, but throw in a manufacturer change and all hell has to break loose in a coherent way for teams to even get back even with their performance in the previous year.
But Joe Gibbs Racing did that, and by all accounts, their engine program out-classed everyone in Sunday's Daytona 500. For the first time a Toyota team not only had a chance to win, but it was a favorite.
Times the three teams JGR.
Kyle Busch led over 70 laps and Tony Stewart led with the white flag flying. But when he didn't come around the track for the checkered flag in first, you had to know he was disappointed.
I'll admit, I was truly impressed with the way he handled himself after the race (we finally got to see Tony Stewart with mature emotions, expressing them in way that almost made us feel sorry for him) and admitted that he was about as dejected as he could be.
"I don't know if I could have stopped them anyway and if I would have changed lanes I think I would have ended up like a bunch of other guys -- wrecked. [...]," said Stewart after the race. "It's hard to explain -- it's probably one of the most disappointing moments of my racing career tonight."
And you can't blame him. He should have been the victor of the 50th Daytona 500, and here's why. (video after jump)
Instead, the top finisher from Hendrick in Sunday's 500 was team newcomer Dale Earnhardt Jr. who finished a solid, but still disappointing ninth. Earnhardt Jr. looked primed to be a very strong contender in Sunday's race after winning last Saturday's Budweiser Shootout and his Gatorade Duel qualifying race.
A pit decision late in the race by failing to pit likely sealed any chances for Dale Jr. to win after he didn't pit when nearly every other leader did.
Jeff Gordon likely had the strongest car of the Hendrick bunch Sunday and showed that by hanging with the dominant Toyotas of Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart throughout the early parts of the race. After the second green-flag pit stop, Gordon dropped back mysteriously before charging back through the field.
Suddenly, though, Gordon fell off the pace and under caution, his No. 24 came into the garage to fix a bent front control arm.
Casey Mears was looking like he could play a big part in the final parts of the race until an ill-advised late move with 6 laps to go put him in the wall. His No. 5 was in the middle lane through the tri-oval with Tony Stewart and Dale Jr. lining up on the outside and gaining fast.
Tony Stewart
For a NASCAR beat writer, Friday afternoon would have been an easy day to pump out the stories at Daytona International Speedway. Here's why:
Let me take you back to last fall when Joe Gibbs Racing announced a complete switch to Toyota starting in 2008 season.
The 50th-running of the 
