Stewart wins at Dover

Dick Brinster

Sunday, June 4, 2000 | 3:03 a.m.

DOVER, Del. - Tony Stewart's disappointing second season, marked by the kind of failures he rarely experienced as the top Winston Cup rookie, took an upward turn Sunday with a victory in the MBNA Platinum 400.

Stewart came into the race at Dover Downs International Speedway 10th in the series standings, but had failed to finish three times after just one DNF all last year. He set rookie records with three wins and a fourth-place finish in points in 1999.

On Sunday, Stewart's performance was reminiscent of that. He dominated both The Monster Mile and the competition, leading 242 of 400 laps.

"We had an unbelievable car," Stewart said. "We never had to change anything but air pressure."

The only real problem for Stewart was the possibility he would be beaten on fuel mileage, as he was a year ago by current points leader and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Bobby Labonte. But Sterling Marlin ended the suspense when he was tapped by Kyle Petty, bringing out a caution flag with nine laps remaining.

After another caution, rookie Matt Kenseth made a run at Stewart, but was unable to pass him with 13 laps to go.

"On the restart, I held it wide open in one and two, and down the backstretch, trying to get a run on him," said Kenseth, who got his breakthrough victory a week earlier in Concord, N.C. "I just didn't have enough to beat him."

Stewart, who had crashed in two races and blown an engine in another, had few problems this time. He started 16th in his Pontiac, passed Jeremy Mayfield for the lead on lap 107 and toyed with the field most of the time thereafter.

By the halfway point there was no question that Stewart was the car to beat.

"We had a car that could drive away from everybody," he said.

The 29-year-old driver from Rushville, Ind., out of the lead only because of pit stops in the second half of the event, went to the front for the final time on the 337th lap, and beat Kenseth's Ford by 1.215 seconds.

Labonte finished third Sunday, followed by the Fords of Dale Jarrett and teammate Ricky Rudd.

"We were happy to come home in the top five," said Labonte, who leads Ward Burton by 82 points in the standings.

Stewart, who led four times, averaged 109.514 mph in a race slowed by caution 10 times for 58 laps - both records for 400 miles at Dover. There were 14 lead changes among 10 drivers.

Stewart earned $152,830 in the $3.2 million race.

The victory moved him up a spot in the points race to ninth.