Tony Stewart looked to be the class of the field in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Stewart led for 267 of the 500 laps, until contact with Kevin Harvick with two laps to go sent his No. 20 Home Depot Camry into the outside wall.

Stewart took the lead from Michael Waltrip on lap 102 and was able to work his way through lapped traffic, while holding off hard charges from behind. Stewart’s teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch and the Richard Childress Racing stable of Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton were the only real contenders the 2001 Sharpie 500 winner had to deal with all day.

In the final stages of the race, Stewart led the field to the restart with just five laps to go. The next lap, Hamlin powered around the No. 20 to take the lead. This sent Stewart into the sights of Kevin Harvick. Harvick was able to get a nose under the two-time Cup champion going into Turn 3, but was not able to hang on to it going into Turn 1. The two made contact, with Stewart getting the worst end of the deal.

"I thought I left him plenty of room," a dejected Tony Stewart said. "I was far enough ahead of him that I didn't see where he hit me or when he hit me. But I'm sure, somehow, it's my fault."

Harvick was quick to accept responsibility for the contact, coming over his radio saying, “I just freaking lost it.” Driving hard for the win, the incident was simply one of those racing deals and a throw back to the Bristol of old. Stewart brought his car home in 14th place on the day, the last car on the lead lap.

This marks the third time Stewart has led the most laps in the spring race at Bristol, but has failed to win the race. Despite the setback, Stewart was able to jump one spot in the point standings, to seventh, 126 points behind leader Kyle Busch.