Ill-stricken Stewart gives way to Yeley mid-race

In an unprecedented move for one of the Sprint Cup Series' "tough guys," former two-time mid-summer event winner Tony Stewart stepped out of his potential Coke Zero 400-winning car Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway.

The gambit almost paid off, as substitute driver J.J. Yeley wheeled the car into the top 10 in the race's final stages before a multi-car crash on the backstretch with less than four laps to go in the original 160-lap distance knocked him back to 27th.


Tony Stewart watches the rest of the race from the pit box.“
I wasn't doing us any favors by not being 100 percent ... I knew I wasn't feeling good and I wasn't feeling any better and it was getting worse as we were going.
”
TONY STEWARTOn the subsequent green-white-checkered restart, a last lap wreck that ended the race under caution after 162 laps sealed his fate in a more respectable 20th spot.

But the bottom line was less than the team had hoped for as it raced to the front, both early in the race with Stewart and later, with Yeley.

Stewart, who received credit for the finish since he started the car, fell three spots in the points, to 12th -- unofficially two points ahead of 13th-place Kevin Harvick.

"For me it's a big disappointment," Yeley said. "This Home Depot team had a really, really good racecar -- the Toyota power was great, we ran in the top 10 two or three times pretty easy, passing cars. We were going to have a good finish.

"At the end, I chose to go to the bottom and the 55 [Michael Waltrip] got up right behind me and got me loose."

Stewart, who received IV treatments both before the race and after he left the car, praised Yeley for stepping up, as did crew chief Greg Zipadelli.

"Yeah, [we're] very appreciative of [Yeley]," Stewart said. "He wishes he could've been in his own car [Saturday night], but I'm just thankful I got a friend that's willing to do that for you and help out."

"J.J. did a good job there, we just got shuffled at the end," Zipadelli said. "It's kind of been like our year. We got in a wreck twice, there [near the end]. I don't know what to say -- I know we had a lot better racecar than what we finished [Saturday night but] we just don't seem to do anything right to turn [our momentum] around.

"J.J. did a good job; the guys on the crew did a great job getting Tony out and J.J. in; and making adjustments and pit stops. I'm proud of everybody's effort, I'm just not very happy with our finish."

Stewart last got out of his car in the middle of a race at Dover International Speedway in June 2006, giving way to Ricky Rudd after running 25 laps with a broken shoulder incurred in a crash the week before at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Stewart won the 2005 road race at Watkins Glen International suffering from gastrointestinal distress that delayed his appearance in Victory Lane.

Stewart started Saturday night's race in 17th position, but had undergone pre-race IV treatments at the track's infield care center. Since he was already feeling less than 100 percent, his Joe Gibbs Racing team had former JGR driver Yeley -- who was replaced in the team's No. 18 by Kyle Busch, who won Saturday night for his sixth victory of the season (read more) -- standing by in case Stewart needed relief.

Yeley, who drives for JGR ally Hall of Fame Racing, failed to qualify his No. 96 Toyota for the Coke Zero 400. In five previous Daytona starts, Yeley had a best finish of 12th in the 2007 Daytona 500 and 20th in the 2007 Pepsi 400 -- both of which came while he was driving JGR's No. 18 Chevrolet.

The two-time series champion Stewart, who won consecutive Pepsi 400s in 2005 and 2006, moved his No. 20 Toyota into the top 10 in only four laps. Stewart was seventh, leading the second draft, by 12 laps and was into the top five a short time later.

Stewart pitted twice under the race's first caution, at Lap 21, but was into third on Lap 39, a quarter of the way through the race. Just after Lap 50, Stewart moved into second behind leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., but got shuffled out of the draft and fell back to 15th.

Stewart raced back up to the middle of the top 10, but in the process had alerted his crew to get Yeley suited-up.

Stewart, while still running near the front gave up his seat under the race's third caution period, at Lap 72, when he came on his in-car radio and told Zipadelli to have Yeley ready to get into the car.

Stewart came to pit road, disconnected his belts and radio connection and was pulled out of the car while JGR's over-the-wall crew performed its normal service. Yeley, who was wearing a Home Depot uniform and one of Stewart's helmets to facilitate radio communication, got into the car.

Stewart, who finished 38th in this event last year after tangling with teammate Denny Hamlin, sat behind his team's pit box for a time, taking in liquids, before going to the track's infield medical center.


Former JGR driver J.J. Yeley takes over for Tony Stewart.“
J.J. did a good job; the guys on the crew did a great job getting Tony out and J.J. in; and making adjustments and pit stops. I'm proud of everybody's effort, I'm just not very happy with our finish.
”
GREG ZIPADELLIThere, TNT's live television broadcast reported Stewart was undergoing additional IV treatments that were expected to last until the end of the race for "flu-like symptoms."

"I thought we were going to be able to [make it] for the first two runs, but once the car got a little bit loose and we had to start really sawing on the wheel, it's like it zapped the energy out of me and I started making mistakes," Stewart said after the race. "It was a situation where I was trying to look out for everybody involved on the race team -- I wasn't doing us any favors by not being 100 percent [so] it was better to get out as early as we could versus sticking it out with 20 to go and expecting J.J. to get the thing back in the top five.

"It's one of those decisions you have to make early enough, and I knew I wasn't feeling good and I wasn't feeling any better and it was getting worse as we were going.

"Before the race, the nurse said she was going to buy us a couple of hours and we got three hours out of it. We still had to go out there and try [but] it wasn't worth putting those [other drivers] at risk and me making a mistake in front of them and creating a bad day for those guys.

"I was trying to be responsible and respectful to my race team and to the rest of the competitors out there."

When the race resumed on Lap 75, Yeley was in 33rd position, but by Lap 100, with 60 laps remaining he was up to 27th near the end of a lead draft.

After pitting under the race's fourth caution, at Lap 110, Yeley restarted on Lap 114 in 21st. He was still running there when the fifth caution flew at Lap 125, but he restarted in 16th at Lap 128.

By the time the next caution flew, at Lap 137, Yeley was up to 13th with 23 laps remaining. The race restarted at Lap 139 and Yeley evaded two more yellows as he made it into the top 10, before the next-to-last of 11 cautions did him in.

Still, it was better than what he expected to be doing, as race time approached.

"I was playing in the playground with my daughter and some of the guys from the Home Depot team were looking for me," Yeley said. "Tony just was feeling really, really poorly. I figured after I was sitting up on the pit box after the race started that I never would get in the racecar because he [Stewart] was so fast.

"He drove up in the top five and was just maintaining there. Then [Stewart] got on the radio and said it was way, way too hot and he wasn't going to make it. I only ran half the race and it was extremely hot in that racecar. There's a lot of problems with the heat in these racecars."

Stewart said after the race that Saturday was the culmination of a long downslide.

"[Saturday] I had a real severe headache and some other flu-like symptoms -- I haven't really felt great for about two weeks, but it really didn't bother me, it was just more of a nuisance," Stewart said. "It didn't bother me at Loudon [N.H., last week] because it wasn't as physical of a race, but it got to where somewhere between [Friday] night and when we started [Saturday], it got to where I started feeling worse and worse.

"I felt nauseated and I was dehydrated. They ended up putting five bags of IV fluids in me, just to get me comfortable. I'll go home and go to the doctor and see if we can figure out what the cause of this was."

"We'll go to Chicago [next week] -- a place we've won a couple of times -- and with Tony feeling better we'll be able to just turn something around there," Zipadelli said. "Seems like we gain some points and then we go back and give it back."

Team owner J.D. Gibbs said he was satisfied with the outcome.

"J.J.'s driven our stuff for a long time and we think a lot of J.J., and he was the guy we wanted in that car if something happened," Gibbs said. "Tony started the race and got IV and felt pretty good with fluids, and once the race started going he realized he wasn't going to be able to finish.

"Our guys did a great job of being prepared and getting Tony out and J.J. in, even with a speedway with as much time as you have. Tony really wasn't feeling good all day [Saturday] and I think he's feeling a little better [after the race], but I think it's just going to take a little time and he'll be fine."