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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Stewart Plays 8-Ball
The upshot of Stewart’s obsession with eights is that he’s now sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings after four races...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 09, 2009   Harrisburg, NC
Tony Stewart finished eighth in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the third time in four NASCAR Sprint Cup races this season that he’s finished eighth. (Photo: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Maybe Tony Stewart’s favorite game is 8-Ball. Or maybe his favorite card game is Crazy 8s or his favorite TV show was “Eight Is Enough.” For whatever reason, Stewart, the co-owner/driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet Impala SS seems inexorably linked to the number eight.

Stewart finished eighth in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the third time in four NASCAR Sprint Cup races this season that he’s finished eighth. He was eighth at Daytona, eighth at Auto Club Speedway and eighth again in Atlanta. Not seventh, not ninth. Eighth. In fact, the only race he hasn’t finished eighth in this season was last week at Las Vegas, where a loose left-rear wheel dropped him to 26th in the final standings.

The upshot of Stewart’s obsession with eights is that he’s now sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings after four races, much better than most folks expected for what is essentially a brand-new team, or at the very least one that has undergone an extreme makeover.

And Stewart’s latest eighth was by far his toughest challenge, as he came from two laps down to score another top-10 finish.

“There are a lot of guys that had problems today and never recovered from it,” said Stewart, who stands 113 points behind series leader Jeff Gordon. “We got two laps down and fought our way back. At this place, that is hard to do. There are not very many guys that can come back from two laps down like that, so I am really proud of the team.”

Stewart made up the first of his two laps when he passed race winner Kurt Busch following a Lap 192 restart. And when a debris caution flew on Lap 261, Stewart was able to secure the “Lucky Dog” free pass to get back on the lead lap for good.

On lap 306, Stewart passed three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson to crack the top-10 for the first time all day. Following the record 11th caution, on Lap 329, the race restarted with Stewart ninth. He passed Martin Truex Jr., for eighth with one lap to go and finished close behind seventh-place Kasey Kahne.



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