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Stewart Wins Glen Thriller

Watkins Glen, N. Y. ? Tony Stewart spun out but roared back to win the hotly contested Centurion Boats at the Glen at Watkins Glen International. The colorful event marked the 22nd Nextel Cup race of the season. Falling back to 18th place, Stewart soared through the field and regained the lead with two laps to go to win for the fourth time at the legendary road course.

For Stewart, he won for the 32nd time in 306 Nextel Cup races, tying him with Dale Jarrett for 19th on the all-time win list. He drove the Home Depot Chevrolet fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing.

Running second as the race was winding down, Stewart vigorously pressed Jeff Gordon until the latter spun out, just like Stewart did while in the lead on the 43rd lap. ?It was pretty bad to give it away like that, so I to shake it off, be patient and not wear out my brakes,? the victor said. ?The driver (Stewart) screwed up when my car wheel-hopped and I spun out. I kept the pressure on Gordon, but we couldn?t do anything with him until he spun out.?

Said Gordon about his miscue, ?The team deserved to win, but the driver didn?t get it done.?

In the final laps, Stewart had a titanic battle with Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin. ?Track position was so important, and I didn?t want to get passed by Edwards. But I made sure I gave (teammate) Denny Hamlin enough room.?

Edwards made a valiant effort to pass Stewart on the 10th of 11 turns but he slid into a gravel trap. ?I drove in there as deep as I could and I gave it all it was worth,? Edwards said. ?I didn?t want to run second.?

Hamlin persevered to finish second in the second Gibbs entry, the FedEx Chevrolet. ?I gave it all I could, and I have lots of time to learn about to improve on the road courses,? he said.

Reigning Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson improved his point position with a solid third place finish. ?We finished as well as we could, and that?s all you can ask for,? he said. ?Now we want to go for a win.?

Ron Fellows overcame a mid-race pit-lane speeding penalty to garner fourth place in the DLP HDTV Chevrolet. ?This is not a win but this is cool,? Fellows said. Regarding the penalty, he continued, ?We continue to step on our tail, but we came back. I would love to have had this race run another four or five laps.?

Sixth through tenth places went to Martin Truex, Jr., Kyle Busch, Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Greg Biffle.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ran strong throughout until his engine gave out, dropping him from third to a 42nd place finish. ?I think the motor issue was due to some of the downshifts I did during practice.? As a result, the popular driver has dropped to 14th in points, 100 markers behind 12th place driver Kurt Busch.

Regarding making the top 12, Earnhardt said, ?It won?t be easy, but we?ve done a whole lot harder stuff than that.?

With three races remaining before The Chase, Jeff Gordon is in command with a 344 point advantage of Hamlin. Matt Kenseth is third with Stewart fourth and Edwards fifth. Jeff Burton dropped two positions to sixth with Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Truex and Kurt Busch rounding out the top 12 drivers. Ryan Newman resides in 13th place, 96 points behind Busch.

Throughout the 90-laps, drivers were banging on each other and numerous spins and crashes punctuated the race. Eight caution flags slowed the race for 20 laps and the race had to be stopped on the 75th lap to clean the track. Tempers also boiled over, and after an accident involving Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya, the two drivers got into a shoving match in turn one.

?I got spun by the No. 1 car (Martin Truex) and he spun me,? Montoya said. ?When I spun, I got into Harvick. He came out of the car being disrespectful, saying all kinds of things, grabbed me and I don?t appreciate that.?

Said Harvick, ?We got run over. I thought I had a car that could win the race and it went up in smoke because someone got impatient. It seems like the No. 42 runs over somebody every week.?

Harvick and Montoya did return to the track but they ended up in 36th and 39th, respectively. Burton was eliminated in the accident.

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