STEWART TAKES BUD SHOOTOUT.(Competition)

Tony Stewart deftly skimmed past Kyle Busch with seven laps remaining to win his third Budweiser Shootout at the Daytona International Speedway. In the opening NASCAR event of Speed Week, Stewart made a masterful-dare we say Earnhardt-like?-pass after Busch had dominated the night. The race included last year's 16 pole winners and five former Shootout winners.

"It looked really close, but I don't believe I touched him,'' Stewart said afterward. "With the way these tires are, he would have crashed for sure if I'd touched him and sent him up the track. When he came back down [after Stewart forced him high], it was probably one of the best saves I've seen here in a long time.''

Rookie David Gilliland finished second, ahead of top-10 finishers Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Mark Martin, Kyle Busch, Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton and Scott Riggs. The only incident was a last-lap, short-chute crash among Dale Earnhardt Jr., Elliott Sadler, Denny Hamlin and Riggs. Each was close enough to the start/finish line to spin or slide across and take the checkered flag.

Riggs, Vickers, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Stewart and Harvick (again) led during the opening 20-lap segment. After a "halftime'' break, the Busch brothers swapped the lead four times in the 50-lap segment before Stewart passed in Turn Two and drove away.

"It's finally good to win something,'' said team owner Joe Gibbs, whose Washington Redskins made his fall and winter pretty miserable. "It's good to see smiling faces again.''

Gronholm closes gap

Ford driver Marcus Gronholm won 11 of 20 stages on the snowy Swedish Rally to claim an emphatic win in the season's second event. His success brings him to within two points of Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb at the head of the World Rally Championship standings.