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CUP: No Worries Yet For Stewart
Written by: Tom Jensen   
09/29/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Tony Stewart (Right) is interviewed by SPEED's Wendy Venturini (Left) prior to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos

Tony Stewart isn’t panicking about points, despite not being where he’d like to be at the moment — out front, instead of back in fifth place.

Stewart, who led the points for the second half of NASCAR’s regular season, opened the Chase for the Sprint Cup with finishes of 14th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and ninth at Dover International Speedway.

That’s left him 106 points behind Mark Martin heading into Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway. How big a margin is 106 points? If Stewart wins and leads the most laps at Kansas on Sunday, Martin would still have the points lead as long as he finished at least 24th.

But as Stewart points out, only two of the 10 Chase races have been run so far and there’s a lot of racing still left to do.

Asked if there’s a time when a driver has to start playing catch-up in the points, Stewart launched into one of his favorite monologues.

“Yeah, the season finale at Homestead,” he said. “You can ask me that question after we run Sunday and the answer may be totally different. It’s strictly a week-to-week deal.
None of us can predict this. If we could, we’d be bookies in Las Vegas making millions of dollars betting on these races instead of driving in them. And it’s a heck of a lot safer sitting in a chair in that dark room letting cocktail waitresses bring you drinks. I don’t have the answers. Nobody has the answers. All we can do is speculate on what’s going to happen until each week actually happens. … If any of us can predict the top-10 positions in Sunday’s race, you’re a genius, let alone figuring out how the next eight weeks are going to be.”

While Stewart could be frustrated by the fact that his huge regular season points lead is a thing of the past, the fact that in its first season Stewart-Haas Racing has gotten both of its team cars into the Chase is a huge accomplishment. So Stewart will take whatever he and fellow team driver Ryan Newman can get from now until the rest of the season.

Already, with three points race victories and a triumph in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, plus two cars in the Chase, it’s been a great season for Stewart-Haas.


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