Tony Stewart gets his first Dega win

Tony Stewart held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. and David Stremme to win from the pole and his first victory at Dega.

The race was marred by two big wrecks, one early in the race and one late.  The early one injured Dario Frachitti, who was t-boned on the drivers side by Gunselman after Franchitti blew a tire, hit the outside wall and then came back down the track.  Franchitti was taken to the hospital and it was announced that he broke his left ankle and suffered minor contusions.  David Stremme, who ironically Franchitti replaced, will sub for Franchitti in the #40 for the Cup race at Dega on Sunday.  No word yet on how long Franchitti could be sidelined by his injury.

The other wreck could have been avoided, even though Lepage (the driver that caused it) doesn't think so.  Lepage was coming off pit road, not up to speed, when the field came upon him.  Instead of staying down below the yellow line, which would have been the logical thing to do, Lepage decided to blend back up on the track in turn one, which he said NASCAR told them that's what they are suppose to do.  Well, yeah, but not if the entire field is right there!  The first few cars got by him before he got all the way onto the track, but not all, Carl Edwards' Ford drove up on the back of Lepage and then all hell broke loose on the track, cars were going everywhere.  That wreck collected 14 cars, including six of the top 10 in points.

I just don't understand what Lepage and his spotter were thinking with the whole field going by the way it was, I mean it may have been different if he was up to speed, but he wasn't anywhere near up to speed yet and it just would have made more sense for him to "blend in" as they call it, after the field went by, he was already a lap down anyways.

Oh and also want to say congratulations to Joe Nemechek for getting the pole for Sundays race, never saw that coming.

Your thoughts?