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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Stewart Untouchable Again
Tony Stewart has utterly dominated the action at Watkins Glen International in recent years...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted August 10, 2009   Watkins Glen, NY
Tony Stewart celebrates in victory lane after winning the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen. (Photo: Getty Images)

Rain may have postponed the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen until Monday, but the outcome was never much in doubt, especially over the race’s closing laps. Call it a case of déjà Stew all over again.

Once Tony Stewart put his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet Impala SS out front on Lap 67 of the 90-lap race around the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International road race, victory was a foregone conclusion.

After all, Stewart’s won four of the last six races here in the picturesque Finger Lakes region of New York state. And the last time he finished worse than second at the Glen, Dubya was in his first term as President, Saddam Hussien was in hiding, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a movie star and not Governor of California and the supersonic Concorde jet was flying back and forth between New York and London.

And so Monday’s race was proof that the more things change, the more they remain the same, especially as it pertains to Stewart at the Glen.

Although he qualified just 13th, his worst start here ever, Stewart was helped immensely by an old friend: Mother Nature. After a cool weekend, temperatures heated up considerably on Monday, which played right into Stewart’s hands, given that he loves hot, greasy tracks.

“I like it when it gets hot and slick here,” said Stewart. “It seems like it's that way anywhere. It kind of has played into our hand for the last 10 years, it seems like. This part of the year when the temperatures are at their highest, we tend to pick up, I believe. I think we can handle the slicker conditions sometimes a little better than some of the guys around us. … It's nice to be able to be in that position where you know when it gets hot like that, a lot of guys panic because it's going to get slick. I get excited when I know it's going to get slick.”

With his third points race victory of the season, plus a triumph in the Sprint All-Star Event in May, Stewart’s been red-hot all season long. He leads three-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson by 260 points, though that lead will evaporate when the points are reset when the Chase for the Sprint Cup begins next month in Richmond.


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