Nose job

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- From the start, Speedweeks was cloaked in controversy when NASCAR officials took to task rules violators by levying record fines, point deductions, suspensions, and even a pair of ejections. But any embarrassment NASCAR experienced in mopping up cheating was replaced by utter euphoria at the end of yesterday's 49th Daytona 500.

And we mean the very end.

In a fitting conclusion -- a fast and furious one -- Kevin Harvick won a dazzling drag race for the ages when the hard-charging 31-year-old driver of the No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet outsprinted Mark Martin, the sage 48-year-old driver of the No. 01 US Army Chevrolet, to the checkered flag by two-100ths of a second, marking the closest finish since the race went to electronic scoring in 1993.

"A bunch of demons came out when it got dark, I know that much," Harvick said about the race's finish under the lights. "All hell broke loose after that. The complexion of the race changed when it got dark because everyone's car started handling so much better.

"I think it was 50 laps to go, and everybody was three-wide, two-wide, beatin' and bangin' and it was just kind of survival of the fittest at that point."

Harvick went from seventh to first with two laps to go -- he was sixth with one to go -- to cap one of the wildest green-white-checkered finishes ever at Daytona International Speedway, one marred by a seven-car melee on the homestretch of the final lap in which Clint Bowyer's No. 07 Chevrolet skidded on its roof, flames shooting out from beneath the hood, across the finish line in 18th place.

"It was unbelievable to see the moves Kevin made," said car owner Richard Childress, whose second visit to Victory Lane at Daytona came on the six-year anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

"I've seen a lot of these Daytona 500s, and this had to be the wildest I've ever watched."

Even if Childress did it at the end with his eyes wide shut. "I kept my eyes shut there a little bit, it was so wild," Childress said.

Harvick, who won Saturday's Orbitz 300 Busch Series opener, prevented Martin from capturing his first Daytona 500 victory in 23 career starts by winning his first in his sixth career start in the 500 with a thrilling finish set up by a red flag stoppage of 11 minutes 39 seconds that forced the race to go 5 miles beyond its scheduled distance.

"I didn't ask for a win in the Daytona 500," Martin said. "I asked for a chance, and those guys gave me exactly what I asked for and I let it slip away, slip through my fingers. I'm fine with that. When I looked up there at the end, I was minus any pushers. I didn't have any help."

Martin radioed to his crew "They waited! They waited! I can't believe they waited!" seemingly questioning NASCAR's decision to throw the caution flag well after it had unfurled the checkered flag, even as the cars of Bowyer, Jeff Gordon (10th), Sterling Marlin (17th), Kyle Busch (24th), Greg Biffle (25th), and Matt Kenseth (27th) careened across the finish.

"The caution came out when the 07 [Bowyer] went sideways on the track, and at the time the 29 was ahead of the 01 and declared the winner at the checkered flag," said NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston. "The vehicles involved in the earlier part of the wreck were on the apron and off the track.

"The race finished green and the caution came out after the checkered flag."

Said Harvick, "I saw the yellow come out right after we crossed the start/finish line, I believe. I don't really know when it came out. I was concentrating on . . . Mark got back in front of me for just a split second there. I had him not cleared but I was in front of him coming off Turn 4 and he side-drafted me."

Added Martin: "No, I didn't think it was over. It's never over until it's over. I didn't see a yellow flag and so I just kept racing."

Tony Stewart, winner of the Budweiser Shootout Feb. 10 and the first qualifying heat of Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150s, looked to be a strong contender to win his first Daytona. He led once for 32 laps (49 through 80) before Kyle Petty's Turn 2 accident caused the race's second of seven cautions, on Lap 80.

When he pitted under caution for fuel and tires, he barely avoided a pit road collision between pole sitter David Gilliland, who was exiting his pit stall, and Robby Gordon, who was trying to enter his. NASCAR officials hit Stewart with a penalty for speeding on pit road, which forced him to drop to the end of the lead lap, in 40th place.

It took Stewart 63 laps to fight his way back to the front, surging past leader Kurt Busch on Lap 150, but Stewart wound up crashing out of the lead on Lap 153 when Kurt Busch came steaming from behind in Turn 4 and hit Stewart's left rear bumper, causing Stewart's car to go sideways. Busch tried to slip past Stewart but made secondary contact with his left front quarter panel, causing Stewart to hurtle toward the wall, with which he made a heavy impact.

It was an incident that knocked out two of the strongest cars and completely changed the race.

"You could see that coming from about Lap 10," Harvick said. "The 2 [Busch] was running down on the apron a couple of times, and the two weren't completely thrilled with each other. They were racing pretty hard. And when they got tangled up, the 20 [Stewart] had a really good car.

"But the end of the race was so much different than the first part of the race because it was just two- and three-wide and everybody all over the place. But it was a very enthusiastic race after it got dark."

That's when the speed demons came out and when the focus of Speedweeks shifted from the garage area shenanigans to the racing at the thrilling end of the Daytona 500.

"There's been a lot of things go on this week," Harvick said. "You know, I think some of them were probably a little bit further than the rest of us ever thought it would go. But I think any time there's a good race on the racetrack, it helps mend things."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.