AGGRESSIVE DRIVING PENALTY DOOMS LEFFLER IN DAYTONA

For the first 71 laps of Saturday afternoon’s 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series season-opening Camping World 300 race at the Daytona International Speedway, things were going fairly well for driver Jason Leffler.

Leffler’s #38 Great Clips/Dollar General/Northeastern Supply Toyota Camry was running with the lead pack of cars and showing in the 17th position. An eye on a top 10 finish, after starting the race in the fourth position, was the goal. Unfortunately, Leffler lost his cool for an instant and with it any chance at fulfilling that objective.

Jason, who had run as high as second and as far back as 23rd during the first half of the race, watched Steven Wallace pinch his Chevrolet in front of his Camry for position coming off of the second turn. Leffler moved his machine to the rear of Wallace’s car, tapping the left rear quarter panel of the latter’s mount and sending Wallace’s car spinning. Wallace’s car shot back up the track and collected the cars of Scott Lagasse, Jr. and rookie Justin Allgaier while Leffler just moved on and into the 16th position as the race’s third caution flag flew.

After examining replays of the incident, NASCAR officials believed that Leffler’s move on Wallace was intentional and penalized Leffler and the 38 car five laps for aggressive driving. It resulted in a tough-to-take, 33rd place finish for was one of the field’s fastest race cars.

“NASCAR obviously thought I hit Steven’s car intentionally, but I assure you that I didn’t“, said Leffler after the race. “But it’s too late to do anything about it now. We just have to forget it and get ready for next weekend’s race in California,” he added, alluding to the Stater Brothers Supermarkets 300 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA on Saturday.

“It’s a tough way for us to start the season. We had a car capable of contending today but all of that is moot at this point because the damage has been done. We wanted to start this new season out on a high note so we’re going to have to work harder next week to get back the points we lost this week,” Leffler added.

The race marked the start of Northeastern Supply’s 17th consecutive season of NASCAR Nationwide Series race car sponsorship and the second straight with Leffler and his #38 Great Clips team – the only team that Northeastern Supply will sponsor in 2009. Hopefully, race number two of the new campaign’s 35 scheduled events will result in a better finish.

Veteran Tony Stewart led much of Saturday’s race and won in a Chevrolet from Hendrick Motorsports, holding off the Ford of 2007 Series champion Carl Edwards. Last year’s titlist Clint Bowyer, the ’08 season’s top Nationwide Series winner Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle rounded out the top five finishers in the Daytona event.

Next Saturday’s California test is scheduled to take the green flag at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time with ESPN2 again to televise the race live.