Race: Stewart chuffed with Bristol win
Tony Stewart won a bruising Sharpie 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night, taking the lead on lap 432 from championship leader Jeff Gordon and holding off a charging Kevin Harvick to score his third win of the season
It was also Stewart's first win on the short half-mile oval and the 30-year-old was pretty chuffed to bag his 12th career win in Tennessee .
"This is my favourite place," said Stewart, who drives a Pontiac for Joe Gibbs Racing . "I have always wanted to win here. It's just awesome to win at Bristol. There are so many things that have to go right and so many things that can go wrong."
And things did go wrong for many of the drivers. There were 16 caution periods for 92 laps in this yellow-flag interrupted race, but with Gordon's third place behind Harvick, the championship leader was just relieved to finish and has extended his lead in the Winston Cup standings with 12 races to go.
"I won't complain one bit with third," said Gordon. "Especially here at Bristol with all that stuff going on."
Behind Gordon in the standings lies Ricky Rudd and the he finished the highest Ford runner in fourth. Rusty Wallace finished fifth, and Rudd's team mate at Robert Yates Racing Dale Jarrett rounded out the top six.
Pole sitter Jeff Green was one of the casualties of the race, retiring with a damaged radiator after 83 laps.
Tony Stewart Pontiac 500 laps
Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 500 laps
Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 500 laps
Ricky Rudd Ford 500 laps
Rusty Wallace Ford 500 laps
Dale Jarrett Ford 500 laps
Steve Park Chevrolet 500 laps
Bobby Labonte Pontiac 500 laps
Sterling Marlin Dodge 500 laps
Terry Labonte Chevrolet 500 laps
Elliott Sadler Ford 500 laps
Ward Burton Dodge 500 laps
Kevin Lepage Chevrolet 500 laps
Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 500 laps
Jeff Burton Ford 500 laps
Jeremy Mayfield Ford 499 laps
Casey Atwood Dodge 499 laps
Dave Blaney Dodge 498 laps
Bill Elliot Dodge 496 laps
Jerry Nadaeu Chevrolet 496 laps
John Andretti Dodge 496 laps
Ken Schrader Pontiac 495 laps
Bobby Hamilton Chevrolet 495 laps
Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 493 laps
Kurt Busch Ford 490 laps
Brett Bodine Ford 488 laps
Geoffrey Bodine Ford 486 laps
Robert Pressley Ford 442 laps
Ron Hornaday Pontiac 441 laps
Jason Leffer Dodge 436 laps
Mike Wallace Ford 412 laps
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