Summer surge has Stewart in contention
Tony Stewart is known for his late-season surge. He always has been. But in recent years, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has added new impact to being NASCAR's version of Mr. August.
Actually, he's also Mr. September, October and sometimes December.
This season is proving to be no different. While Tony Stewart and his team were nothing to be dismissed in the early races, they've certainly attained a new level of performance in recent weeks. Winning three of the last four races, Tony Stewart has vaulted into true championship form.
In a season where Jeff Gordon holds a 344-point lead in the standings and where Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson each have four wins, it is Tony Stewart who has become the driver to watch as the Chase For The Nextel Cup approaches.
Rea White
Clearly, Tony Stewart knows how to handle this portion of the season. He's won at all but two of the tracks remaining on the schedule and has twice been toasted as Cup champion.
How strong could this team be in the closing races of the season? Looking over his performance in recent years, Tony Stewart may just be getting warmed up.
In 2004, when he finished sixth in the standings, Tony Stewart closed the season with six top-10 finishes in the final 10 races.
In 2005, after winning at Indianapolis and Watkins Glen back-to-back, he scored three second-place finishes and 10 top-10 finishes in the remaining races. He won the championship that season.
In 2006, Tony Stewart failed to make the Chase. That didn't hamper his annual surge, though. After finishing second at Watkins Glen and third at Michigan, Tony Stewart excelled in the final 10 races. He won three times, was second once and fourth once despite being shut out of the championship hunt.
And now he's won three of the last four races, including at his coveted Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
He's moved to fourth in the standings, but perhaps more importantly, he's closing in on bonus points. Once the 12-driver Chase field is set, NASCAR seeds the drivers based on wins. Ten points are awarded for each victory. Tony Stewart is in position to start the Chase just 10 points behind Jeff Gordon and Johnson.
But there are four more races remaining before the Chase begins. If Tony Stewart continues at his current pace, he could erase what is now a 445-point deficit to leader Jeff Gordon and enter the final 10 races ahead of the pack.
Tony Stewart downplays the recent surge, though he does see the enhanced results that seem to roll around this time every year. But his team has had dominant races slide away from them throughout this season, especially when the car of tomorrow was on the track.
Now, they are just finishing out races as well as they are running them.
"We had bad luck," he says. "That's all you can attribute it to. The performance on the track has been good, it's just that now we're getting the finishes to go with it. We had bad luck to where either I would mess up and cause a pit-lane speeding violation that was my fault or fuel-pump cables breaking or things that just kept us out of victory lane - just bad luck.
"Finally, hopefully we're through that bad-luck string."
No kidding. Everyone wishes they could go on a tear such as Tony Stewart's. With a worst finish of sixth in the past four races, with three shiny trophies and 30 bonus points, things are certainly turning around for Tony Stewart. Can he keep up the pace? He certainly hopes so.
"I hope what we've seen in the last four races is what we're going to see in the Chase," he says. "I hope for every four races we run, we win three of them and the other ones, I hope we run second. I hope so. It's hard to say."
Others are warily eyeing that recent streak and comparing it to their own, including Jeff Gordon.
"He's been strong here for a long time and he's going to be tough in the Chase," Jeff Gordon says. "It's going to be interesting."
Obviously Tony Stewart isn't counting on anything just yet - not even making the Chase. Despite being fourth in the standings after his latest win, he still talks in terms of getting locked into that field. Only Jeff Gordon is officially locked into the Chase.
Still, Tony Stewart admits that he's in the catbird's seat right now. Especially if he and his team keep running as well as they are right now.
"There's a lot of racing to go on, and you see how easy and how quick a string can end and go just the opposite for you," Tony Stewart said. "We hope that we're getting hot at the right time now, and that we take the next two or three weeks and lock ourselves into the Chase to where we can, those last couple of races, just strictly go for the win and get those extra bonus points and hopefully once the Chase starts, we can be on a run like we are right now.
"I feel like we are in the best position of anybody right now with what's happened three out of the last four weeks. It's just a matter of keeping your fingers crossed and hoping that carries on the rest of the year."
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