Gibbs drivers put crash behind them

Hamlin was being followed by Stewart on lap 14 at Daytona last weekend, when the latter made contact with the rear bumper of Hamlin exiting turn four, putting both cars in the wall and out of the lead of the race.

"All of a sudden he just stops on the exit of turn four in front of 42 cars and he can't expect all of us to drive around him," Stewart said at Daytona following the crash. "He just wrecked two really good race cars. He tried to wreck us in practice on Friday and didn't get it done. At least he finished it off today.

"He's a young guy and he wants to be successful, but I don't know if he knows what the definition of 'team' is right now."

A few days after the race and having cooled off from the frustration of crashing for the second time in the year at Daytona while being up front, Stewart said both he and everybody in the Gibbs team have put the matter to rest.

"Denny and I can handle anything that happens on the race track with each other," Stewart said. "We're both professional drivers and can handle it. Everybody is good and we're all focused on doing what we all do every week. We're over that hurdle."

The two-time Nextel Cup champion also said he had let his emotions speak for him at Daytona when he hit out publicly at his teammate over their crash.

"Most of it was just the disappointment of getting knocked out of the race knowing that we had two good cars. Here we are as a team running first and second and all of a sudden the first and second-place cars are knocked out of the race," Stewart added.

"Something happens, you get right out of the car, and a camera is right in your face. You get that pure emotion. I'm the first one to open my mouth before I think about what I'm saying. I'm the king of doing that, as far as saying stuff that I wish I wouldn't have said."

Hamlin, who still runs second in the points behind Jeff Gordon despite finishing last at Daytona last weekend, said he has put the incident behind him and is not interested in arguing over who is to blame for it.

"It was a frustrating night for this team but looking at the big picture it didn't hurt us too bad," said Hamlin. "We had a good car and led some laps, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. Tough to go out at all, but with a teammate it's worse because it affects everyone at JGR and I hate it for the teams and guys at the shop.

"Doesn't really matter how or why it happened and there is no use pointing fingers. It's behind us now, we'll get back to do what this team does best, run consistently each weekend."

Stewart, who runs seventh in the points, has yet to win his first Nextel Cup race this year while Hamlin arrived at Daytona with his first win of the year in the bag, taking victory at New Hampshire two weeks ago.