NATIONWIDE Diamond Hill Plywood 200

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Stewart wins Diamond Hill Plywood 200

May 10, 2008 - 4:55 AM DARLINGTON, South Carolina (Ticker) -- Tony Stewart finally conquered "the track that was too tough to tame."

Stewart won his sixth career NASCAR Nationwide Series race, taking the checkered flag at the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at Darlington Raceway on Friday.

A two-time Sprint Cup champion, Stewart never had won here in 19 previous races, including four Nationwide events.

"This is one of those tracks where history goes as deep as NASCAR, and it's a great honor," Stewart said.

In a Toyota Camry, Stewart won for the fourth time this season after completing the fifth green-white checkered-flag finish of 2008.

"It's this team behind us and this team at Joe Gibbs Racing," Stewart said. "We just took it easy in the beginning and tried to bide our time and take care of the car and take care of the tires and have something for them when we came to the end."

The first win at Darlington comes two weeks after the 10-year veteran collected his first checkered flag at Talladega Superspeedway.

It also was the eighth win in 12 Nationwide events for Gibbs Racing.

Clint Bowyer, the current series points leader, finished second in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, while the Toyotas of David Reutimann and Todd Bodine were third and fourth, respectively.

Steve Wallace completed the top five in a Chevy in a race that saw 20 drivers knocked out by the "Lady in Black." Nine of the cars left the event due to wrecks, including six with three laps to go in the eighth caution of the night.

On a green flag with four laps remaining, veteran Mark Martin - running second at the time - ran out of gas just after the start-finish line, causing Jason Leffler to plow into him.

"We didn't have enough gas there," said Martin, the series' career leader with 48 victories. "I apologize to everybody who got in that wreck. It's a really bad deal when a car up front doesn't take off."

A multi-car accident ensued, wiping out a half-dozen drivers and causing several other drivers to incur damage to their vehicles.

The race was reg-flagged before Stewart won going away on the restart.

While it was another win in the books for Gibbs Racing, it was not a good night for Roush Fenway Racing, as the Fords of pole-sitter Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and David Ragan all departed the track with severe damage after crashes.






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