Stewart and Busch in early confrontation

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The season hasn’t even started, and already there have been multi-car crashes, drivers banging their cars into each other in anger and officials threatening to levy penalties.

NASCAR is back.

In practice Friday for tonight’s Budweiser Shootout, a 70-lap exhibition race around the Daytona International Speedway, nearly half of the 23 drivers were collected in two big crashes within minutes of each other.

The Shootout, comprising last year’s pole-position winners and past Shootout winners, kicks off a week of racing that culminates with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 17.

The Shootout also marks the first time that drivers will race NASCAR’s new Car of Tomorrow at the 2.5-mile, high-banked Daytona oval. The Car of Tomorrow was phased in at 16 of the series’ 36 points races last year but not at Daytona.

In the second wreck, Tony Stewart’s No. 20 Toyota hit the back of the No. 2 Dodge of Kurt Busch, sending Busch into the wall and Stewart into Denny Hamlin, his teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Then, as Stewart and Busch slowly drove side-by-side to the garage for repairs, Busch veered left and banged into Stewart one more time in apparent retaliation.

Both were summoned to a meeting with NASCAR officials, and NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said “there could be” fines or other penalties.

“What upset NASCAR more than anything was the cars banging together . . . after the caution was out,” Hunter said. “Drivers have to control their emotions in the cars.”

NASCAR Chairman Brian France and other series officials said last month that they might give drivers more leeway in expressing their emotions.

But Busch and Stewart have a history. They crashed into each other at last year’s Daytona 500. And at a race last year in Dover, Del., Busch was so angry at Stewart’s driving that he nearly sideswiped Stewart’s car while it sat on pit road, forcing a Stewart crewman to leap for his safety. Busch was docked 100 points and fined $100,000 for that incident.

Minutes before their wreck Friday night, there was another multi-car crash that was triggered when Clint Bowyer hit Ryan Newman, turning Newman sideways into oncoming Jimmie Johnson, the reigning Cup champion, and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon.

Before practice, Stewart said this year’s Shootout would be a critical shakedown for the 500 because of the Car of Tomorrow. Despite making test runs last month, the drivers don’t fully know how the car will behave during race conditions.

Daytona is one of the two speedways -- the other is in Talladega, Ala. -- where NASCAR mandates the use of carburetor restrictor plates to cap speeds at about 200 mph. The side effect of that rule is that the cars stay bunched together, “drafting” nose-to-tail in thunderous packs.

“It’s that much more important to run in the Bud Shootout this year because of that, getting time in the new car,” said Stewart, a two-time Cup champion.

The Shootout has two parts: The first segment is 20 laps, followed by a 10-minute intermission for a pit stop and the second segment of 50 laps.

Busch won a drawing to start on the pole tonight. The race is scheduled to start at 5:30 PST.

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james.peltz@latimes.com