Marlin

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- The apparent mistake that cost Sterling Marlin a shot at his third Daytona 500 victory wasn't really an error after all.

Tony Glover, team manager of Chip Ganassi Racing, said the driver would have had to pit and would not have had a chance to race for the victory Sunday due to fear of a flat tire.

Marlin was trailing Jeff Gordon, another two-time Daytona 500 winner, late in the race. Marlin tried to pass, Gordon moved down the banking to block and the two came together, with Gordon's Chevrolet spinning off into the grass and relegating him to a ninth-place finish.

Marlin took the lead as the yellow flag came out for a six-car accident that had taken place behind the leaders. NASCAR stopped the race for just over 19 minutes to ensure a race to finish after cleaning up the debris from the crash.

While the cars were stopped on the backstretch, Marlin surprised everyone by getting out of his Dodge to take a look at the damage to his right front fender. Before a NASCAR official could stop him, Marlin appeared to compound his error by reaching down and trying to pull the damaged sheet metal away from the tire -- a violation of the rule declaring that a car cannot be worked on during a red flag.

He was penalized for an illegal pit stop and told he had to restart at the rear of the field. Instead, Marlin pulled into the pits for a quick repair as the race restarted and wound up eighth.

"After Sterling and Jeff Gordon got together in Turn 1, the right front fender on Sterling's car was rubbing just bad enough that he was probably going to cut down the tire," Glover said. "We couldn't take that chance and put him and everyone else in danger.

"We were going to have to come in one way or the other, so we had Sterling jump out and check out the damage during the red flag."

After the restart, Ward Burton, who inherited the lead from Marlin, won a three-lap dash to the finish for his first Daytona 500 victory.