NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Stewart Says Team Exceeded Expectations
Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman are pleased with what they have accomplished in their first season as teammates...
SceneDaily.com  |  Posted November 15, 2009   Avondale, AZ
Tony Stewart (Left) hired fellow Hoosier Ryan Newman (Right) to complete the driver roster at Stewart-Haas Racing. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

With just two races left in the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman are pleased with what they have accomplished in their first season as teammates at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Both drivers made NASCAR’s Chase For The Sprint Cup and Stewart, also the team’s co-owner, has four wins. Neither still has a legitimate shot at the title, however, despite Stewart leading the standings before the top 12 drivers were reset after the regular-season finale at Richmond.

So are Newman and Stewart disappointed that they won’t win a championship in their first year with the organization, which was recast as Stewart-Haas Racing when Stewart became a co-owner in the offseason?

“I think it’s hard to be disappointed no matter where we end up,” said Stewart, who is fifth in the standings and 178 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson entering Sunday’s race at Phoenix International Raceway. “Just getting two cars in the Chase and winning the races we’ve won this year exceeded more than what any of you guys could have anticipated and we could have anticipated we were able to do. We knew on paper that it was possible but the reality of it is [we are] ... competing against great race teams every week, so to be able to accomplish this goal has been an awesome year for us.

“It’s still no different than it was when everybody talked to us after Richmond about losing a 200-point lead or whatever it was. We knew that when we took the point lead, we knew that that’s what the situation was. We’re not disappointed because of that. It just shows that we still have work to do.”

Stewart has a win but just one other top-five in eight Chase races. Newman, who is ninth in the standings, is still seeking his first win of the year.

Both drivers left their respective organizations at the end of 2008 to join Stewart-Haas, which had previously struggled to field competitive teams under the banner of Haas CNC Racing.

Stewart hired a number of new personnel, including crew chiefs Tony Gibson (Newman) and Darian Grubb (Stewart), that have made an impact. Gibson previously worked at Dale Earnhardt Inc.; Grubb at Hendrick Motorsports.

Stewart-Haas has continued a technical alliance with Hendrick in which it receives chassis and engines from the eight-time champion organization. It is Hendrick, however, that has been Stewart-Haas’ stiffest competition this year as three of its drivers - Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon - currently hold down the top three positions in the standings.

“We were able to exceed our expectations for the year but at the same time we won’t stop at that,” Stewart said. “We’ll keep pushing to be better and to try to be where the 48 team [of Johnson], the 24 team [of Gordon] and the 5 [of Martin] all these great race teams that are out there that we’re competing against and that we’re racing for points. Those are the guys that we want to try to figure out just like they do how to be better and how to win more races and try to put ourselves in position to win next year.”

Newman, who joined Stewart-Haas after seven years at Penske Racing, appears to have no regrets about his move.

“We’ve done a lot of great things as an organization, we’ve done a lot of great things as drivers to get to where we are,” he said. “And for me personally to make the big change and obviously Tony as well, we didn’t have any idea what to expect. Just knew that, as I told Tony, we wanted to go out there and have fun and if we had fun we were going to be successful in one way or another.”

SceneDaily.com•Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon remains aggressive as Cup season comes to a close
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