Stewart/Johnson truce

Having led for most of the race, Stewart, who finished seventh, lost out to Hendrick star Johnson (fifth) in a close-quarter battle in the last corner of the last lap. As they slowed down in to Turn 1 after the chequered flag, Stewart's Joe Gibb's Chevrolet squeezed Johnson's similar Monte Carlo into the wall. The Hendrick driver then appeared to come off the wall and run into Stewart.

NASCAR officials called in both drivers and crew chiefs to discuss the incident on Sunday evening, after Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus had confronted Stewart as he walked back to his trailer.

"NASCAR was kind of joking about it inside the trailer, saying they wanted to make sure there wasn't anything to start off the season," said Johnson. "If there was, we want to squash it now. There's nothing. Just hard racing. We both were coming to the finish line doing all we can. There's been a lot more media attention than this thing ever needed."

Stewart backed up Johnson's view: "It was fine. You're racing on the last lap of the Daytona 500. I was mad he pinched me in there at the end. We went down there, we both bumped into each other, we both did the same thing to each other.

"It's fine. We both had good weeks here, we both finished in the top 10. He finished fifth, I finished seventh. We're both leaving here in a good situation in the points.

"More than anything, NASCAR wanted to just make sure it wasn't something that was going to linger overnight," he added. "It's like I told Jimmie: We both are really, really good friends. This isn't even something that's going to linger tonight. It's over with."