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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ALL-STAR: Looking To Repeat - Tony Stewart
Tony Stewart won the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race in 2009...
Jared Turner  |  Posted May 12, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Tony Stewart celebrates his winning the one million dollar prize after winning the 2009 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing
First All-Star start: 5/22/1999
Best finish: 1st, 2009
How he made the race: Cup series champion (2002, 2005) in last 10 years

Editor’s note: Eighteen drivers are guaranteed to start in the May 22 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, which will be televised live on SPEED, starting at 7 pm Eastern. Following is the tenth of 18 profiles of those drivers locked into the field.

As picture-perfect outcomes go, the 2009 Sprint All-Star Race was that and then some for Tony Stewart.

When Stewart arrived at Charlotte Motor Speedway barely a quarter of the way through his first season as a co-owner and driver for the retooled Stewart-Haas Racing outfit, questions lingered about whether the once afterthought organization could compete with NASCAR’s elite.

With two championships and 33 wins over 10 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart had proven to be one of the best drivers of his generation, but could he enjoy similar success with an operation that was rarely competitive before his arrival?

With a win in the All-Star Race, Stewart began putting such questions to bed. And perhaps more importantly, the victory proved to be a catalyst for more success.

The Indiana native went on to win four points races, in addition to his triumph in the popular exhibition event at CMS, and lead the points standings for 13 weeks. He ultimately faded to sixth in the standings but still showed the NASCAR world that SHR, despite its struggles as Haas-CNC Racing in the pre-Stewart days, could be a formidable opponent.

For Stewart, the best part was how much the win meant to his team members, many of whom he handpicked for hire upon his arrival at the conclusion of the 2008 season.
Tony Stewart celebrates his win in Victory Lane by holding the trophy aloft after winning the 2009 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“I was so happy for those guys,” he said. “And I know it probably sounds pretty lame to say, but my first reaction was I wish I could have seen the looks on their faces when we came off of (Turn) 4 and we had the lead with two to go. I didn't dare say anything on the radio. I didn't say a word. But, man, I wanted to see what the pit box looked like those last two laps.”

On top of that pit box was Darian Grubb, the crew chief Stewart lured away from a lead engineering role at Hendrick Motorsports to come call the shots for his No. 14 Chevrolet team. Joining Grubb as newcomers to SHR in 2009 was a number of other key personnel, including driver Ryan Newman, Newman crew chief Tony Gibson and director of competition Bobby Hutchens.

“People really wanted to be a part of this because we were starting from ground up,” Grubb said. “And obviously the excitement was there because Tony was coming in, Ryan was coming in. They knew we had the caliber of drivers it took to win.

“And they knew with the equipment that we had coming in, too, they knew we had definite chance to win. They all wanted to be a part of it.”

Stewart had been a surprising 0-for-10 in All-Star appearances prior to last year, making the win at the 1.5-mile Charlotte quad-oval all the more special. And nothing about it came easily.

He started the race 15th out of 21 cars and didn’t appear to be in contention for the victory until the final 10-lap segment. Stewart avoided calamity as several frontrunners tangled in the waning moments and he took the lead for the first time with a pass on Matt Kenseth two laps from the end.

He never looked back.

“There's a lot of races I still haven't won yet, but it's a hard race to win,” Stewart said. “There's nobody holding anything back. … This is a special race. You know it's different. You know it's going to be more difficult because of that.”

Can Stewart recapture the magic of a year ago when the series returns for the 26th running of the All-Star Race on May 22?

He knows he’ll have his work cut out for him as usual in the always-wacky non-points-affair, which pays in excess $1 million to win.

“You just know that it’s going to be a wrestling match, and that’s something you normally see reserved for Richmond or Martinsville or Bristol,” Stewart said. “This is a wrestling match on a mile-and-a-half track, and that’s something that you just don’t normally see. It’s a Saturday night short track race at Charlotte. It makes it very, very interesting.”

2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Week • The Stars Come Out. The Gloves Come Off. • Saturday, May 22nd at 7 pm ET
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