Stewart has handle on win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Danica Patrick might have claimed the spotlight in the NASCAR Nationwide Series opener, but Tony Stewart won the trophy.

Again.

Stewart held off Carl Edwards during a crazy finish to win Saturday's Drive4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway - his third consecutive win in the season-opener and fifth in the past six years.

While Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were making frantic moves on the track during the final laps in an effort to challenge Stewart up front, in the end Stewart just held his position.

"I never lifted off the gas in the last 20 laps," said Stewart, who took the lead for the final time on Lap96 of 120. "Man, this thing was awesome."

Stewart drove the No.4 Chevrolet prepared by Kevin Harvick Inc. in what is Stewart's only scheduled Nationwide race of the season.

"Saturdays are all about having fun. It's a challenge to push the guys in the shop to build good enough equipment to give him a chance to win," Harvick said of his organization.

"You know, they've built really good stuff. Since he's been in our cars, it's night and day difference as far as the competitiveness of the cars. He pretty much manhandled them to win a couple times down here.

"This particular time I think, you know, he manhandled it anyway."

With qualifying rained out Friday, the field was set primarily by 2009 owner points, which relegated Stewart to a 32nd-place start. He ended up leading three times for a race-high 38 laps, including the final 25.

The win was Stewart's 15th at Daytona, which moves him into a tie with Carl Yarborough for third all-time. The late Dale Earnhardt leads with 34.

"It's always special to win at Daytona, but after 15 of them now, I'm still missing one on Sunday," Stewart said, referring to the Daytona 500.

While Patrick's NASCAR debut gained much of the prerace attention, it turned out to be an unlucky day for both JR Motorsports entries - Patrick and team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Patrick struggled during the race but appeared to get her car more to her liking before being collected in a 12-car wreck on Lap69 and forced out the race.

Earnhardt's race ended on Lap91 when he was caught up in a multicar wreck started when Edwards made contact with Brad Keselowski's car. Earnhardt's car flipped over onto its roof before landing upright along the inside wall. He was not hurt.

"I had a lot of fun today but that was expensive," he said. "We'll have to go back and balance our books. It was an expensive day for JR Motorsports."