Stewart was able to pass Earnhardt with one lap to go and stayed in front of the all-time victory leader at Daytona International Speedway to win Sunday's Budweiser Shootout.

	Tony Stewart celebrates after winning the Budweiser Shootout.

Stewart defeated Earnhardt by 0.145 seconds to capture the NASCAR non-points event and its $200,000 first-place prize. The average speed was 181.034 mph in a race that lasted 58 minutes.

"It is intimidating when you see him back there, but at the same time I can't quit doing my job, whether it is him or my teammate or anybody else out there," Stewart said. "It means that Dale Earnhardt has more tricks in his book than anybody else does here and you have to pay more attention to what he is doing behind you."

Rusty Wallace was third, followed by defending Daytona 500 winner Dale Jarrett and Jeff Burton.

Stewart, who led all Winston Cup drivers with six victories in 2000, is the first Winston Cup driver to drive into Victory Lane this season, although this is not an official points event.

Stewart led four times for 33 laps in a race that featured 19 lead changes among seven drivers.

By comparison, the four Winston Cup races at SpeedWeek in 2000 -- the Budweiser Shootout, the Gatorade Twin 125s and the Daytona 500 -- featured a combined 14 lead changes.

"I thought it was a much better, improved race," said Stewart's team owner, Joe Gibbs. "I think having the pit stop in there adds some excitement to it and adds another equation to it, and it's a little longer. I think it was a more quality race this year and it was more fun, mostly because we won it."

Stewart was in the lead on lap 57 when he drafted with Jarrett to get to the front. Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved up on Stewart's bumper and the two drivers were able to work together to keep Stewart in the lead.

But on the 67th lap of the 70-lap race, Earnhardt passed Stewart in the third turn. One lap later, Stewart used the same move to pass Earnhardt and regain the lead in the third turn without the advantage of a drafting partner.

"I didn't know I didn't have a drafting partner, to be honest," Stewart said. "We just had a really good run. When Dale got by us, I noticed that my car pulled up to his pretty good. When I asked the guys on the radio how many laps were left and they told me two -- knowing that he will do whatever he can on the last lap -- I kind of felt like after I made the move and got by that I may have made my move too soon.

"But at the same time, I feel like I may have caught him off-guard and that he may not have been looking for it to happen with two to go. He may have thought it would happen with one to go. I just got a really good run and I knew if I checked up that the guys behind me would have probably gone by."

The field charged out of the fourth turn to the white flag with Stewart in front of Earnhardt. Most of the large crowd at Daytona International Speedway expected Earnhardt to pull off a last-lap pass for the win.

But Stewart would not let him.

"I kept watching what he was doing behind me and watching how he was trying to get his runs and then get that momentum built up," Stewart said. "I was trying to do everything I could in different parts of the track to try to break his momentum or make sure he didn't catch me in the wrong spot ... I made sure that he didn't catch me on a spot of the track that was going to give him an opportunity to go by and make sure that it kind of choked him up at the end."

That's a fancy way of describing "blocking" -- a technique used by the leader to intentionally get in the way of a second-place car.

"I think I blocked him twice at the end of the race," Stewart said. "Everybody got their turn at getting blocked by me. That's still what I hate about restrictor plate racing. I think this blocking stuff is dangerous."

Earnhardt was trying to win his seventh Budweiser Shootout and came pretty close to adding another trophy at Daytona, where he is the all-time victory leader.

"It was pretty exciting," Earnhardt said. "I got by him, but he had too strong of a car. If I could have got side-by-side, we could have raced him, but we just couldn't do it. Our tires were worn a bit and Stewart had fresher tires. We were pretty loose out there and we have to work on that for the (Daytona 500).

"I had to take the chance and make the move and I wasn't comfortable making the move that early in the game. We took our shot and he was able to stay in front."

Stewart was one of the few drivers who took four tires when he made his only pit stop on lap 46 along with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Ricky Rudd and Jeff Burton. On lap 26, Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Terry Labonte, Earnhardt, Mike Skinner and Joe Nemechek pitted.

Stewart decided to stick with his original strategy of pitting later, and it paid off as the entire 70-lap event was run without a caution period.

"We pretty much had planned on four tires," Stewart said. "Nobody had really made really long runs to see how their car's balance was going to change. When we made it that far on tires, I thought if we ever get a caution at the end and they don't come in, then the four tires were going to be better than two in my opinion with the way the cars were moving around."

It was Stewart's first win at Daytona International Speedway and he did it by beating the driver who has won the most races at the 2.5-mile showcase track.

"It didn't matter who it was in all honesty while I was on the track," Stewart said. "It was a guy trying to beat me for the win.