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Tony Stewart gestures as he celebrates in victory lane after winning the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. (Jason Smith/Getty Images Photo) ยป More Photos
Every NASCAR Sprint Cup victory is special, but some carry a whole lot more weight than others. Such was the case at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon, where Tony Stewart snapped a 43-race winless streak to claim victory in the AMP Energy 500 in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
But this one wasn’t simply the 33rd career victory for the two-time Cup champion. No, this one was something wholly more important, oxygen for Stewart, his crew chief Greg Zipadelli and the entire JGR crew.
Stewart, of course, will be leaving JGR at year’s end to become co-owner of Stewart Haas Racing, a move that’s been the biggest Silly Season story in NASCAR this year.
By placing his Toyota in victory lane Sunday at Talladega, Stewart ensured that his streak of winning at least one Cup race a year will be extended to 10 years, all with JGR. And it quieted the talk that the No. 20 team had become dysfunctional to the point where winning was out of the question. It also erased the frustration of six runner-up finishes, but no Cup victories, at NASCAR’s longest oval.
“That we got a win here, know that we're not going to go winless for a whole season, you know, all those little things that wear on you,” said Zipadelli, who earlier this year compared Stewart’s decision to leave to a divorce. “The
Stewart concurred. “Man, to finally get that first one of the year, but to do it here at Talladega, people don't understand what that means to win here,” said Stewart, who also won the spring NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Talladega. “ … It's just an awesome feeling to finally win here.”
This season had worn on the team, in part because of Stewart’s decision to leave at the end of the year, but in part because of a year-long string of rotten luck. While teammates Kyle Busch found victory lane eight times and Denny Hamlin once, Stewart seemed snakebitten all season. He lost the Coca-Cola 600 to a flat tire on the 398th of 400 laps, and he lost the spring Bristol race after leading 267 laps.
“Obviously, the last 12 months, you know, we've struggled trying to figure out what we've been missing and what we need to get in victory lane,” Stewart said. “It's just been one of those years that we've just had bad luck all season. We should have won Charlotte. We should have been in a position to win Bristol. There were four or five shots we had at winning races this year and something happens at some point in the race that is just bad luck and stuff that's never happened.”
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