Tony Stewart is never out of a race car for very long. Three days after his victory at Daytona International Speedway, the Sprint Cup points leader was at it again, this time behind the wheel of a winged sprint car at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, to take part in a memorial event honoring the father of NASCAR driver Dave Blaney.

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I mean, there was no question on either one of our parts of what happened. I mean, we were instantly on the same page with it. It's just part of racing.

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TONY STEWART

But first, Stewart took care of a little business -- he called former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch, whose car was destroyed in an accident that occurred while the two drivers dueled for the lead on the final lap at Daytona. Stewart moved to pass Busch as they approached the checkered flag, Busch moved to block, and the No. 18 car went spinning into the wall.

According to Stewart, there were no hard feelings.

"When something like that happens, you want to make sure that both guys are on the same page with what happened, and we definitely were," Stewart said from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he took part in a media activity previewing the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard later this month. "I mean, there was no question on either one of our parts of what happened. I mean, we were instantly on the same page with it. It's just part of racing."

It was the second consecutive restrictor-plate race marred by a final-lap accident, following the crash in April at Talladega Superspeeday where the car of Carl Edwards went flying into the restraining fence after he tried to block eventual winner Brad Keselowski approaching the checkered flag. While those events have sparked plenty of debate about the racing at NASCAR's two biggest tracks, Stewart said such incidents are nothing new. He pointed to the infamous final-lap accident involving Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison in the 1979 Daytona 500, a crash that sparked a fight in the infield among the drivers involved, and drew a massive live television audience later credited with helping NASCAR make inroads nationwide.

"Something that happened before that phone call even happened, and I've mentioned it to Kyle and even kind of laughed about it, was the fact that everybody has made such a big deal about this all of a sudden happening. A good friend of mine reminded me of the very first TV race, the very first 500 that they showed on national TV, and it was Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough -- same type of incident on the backstretch for the win," Stewart said. (Continued)