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Sprint Cup
CUP: Stewart Driver Of The Year
Tony Stewart won his third Sprint Cup championship with a splendid run through the Chase…
Tony Stewart had a Chase for the ages this past season. (Photo: Getty Images)
For much of the 2011 season, the idea that Tony Stewart might be anybody’s Driver of the Year was almost laughable.
Even Stewart would have been amused.
Said so himself. With only a few weeks remaining before the start of the Chase, Stewart famously said he’d have no business participating in it, that he’d be taking up a spot a more deserving candidate should fill.
By the midpoint of the Chase, however, Stewart had an entirely different profile.
That of a champion.
Remarkably, Stewart won five of the 10 Chase races – a feat never before accomplished, not even by five-time champion Jimmie Johnson – and outran challenger Carl Edwards in the closing race at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim the Sprint Cup title.
Stewart, a Sprint Cup champion for the third time, is SPEED.com’s Sprint Cup Driver of the Year. After a mediocre regular season, he owned the playoffs.
“You have to dig down deep and fight,” said crew chief Darian Grubb, who worked something of a miracle in the Chase by running to the title with Stewart despite knowing he’d be leaving Stewart’s team at the end of the season.
“If you are going to do this 38 weeks a year, you'd better be able to take the lows and highs and not get too upset, and just keep a nice even keel and just keep fighting against what you are fighting against.”
For Stewart, the target became Edwards, who led the standings most of the season and still led the points (by three) entering the final race. Stewart won at Homestead to officially tie Edwards in the final point standings, but Stewart got the title by winning the first tiebreaker – number of seasonal victories (five to one).
Stewart won the finale with some of the boldest driving in recent NASCAR seasons.
“I've been racing 31 years,” he said after the win. “I can't even remember some of the races I've won. But I would have to say that under the circumstances, I've got to believe that this is definitely one of the greatest races of my life.”
As dramatic as Homestead was, Stewart said the Chase turning point came at Martinsville Speedway four races earlier. He won there and the next week at Texas.
“To leave there doing something remarkable, I feel that was the turning point in the Chase for us,” he said. “And we backed it up a week later by winning Texas and not only winning Texas but by beating the guy that we are racing the points for, leading the most laps and really making a statement that, ‘Hey, do not make the mistake of counting us out of this.’
“I just think that was a huge turning point for us, and you get that confidence that everything is going right, and it's so much easier when things are going well. Everybody relaxes. Everybody is calm. You're not trying to mentally figure out what the missing piece of the puzzle is.”
By season’s end, Stewart had everything figured out. In the final six races, he had three wins, a third, a seventh and an eighth – numbers that are hard to beat in a run for a championship.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Even Stewart would have been amused.
Said so himself. With only a few weeks remaining before the start of the Chase, Stewart famously said he’d have no business participating in it, that he’d be taking up a spot a more deserving candidate should fill.
By the midpoint of the Chase, however, Stewart had an entirely different profile.
That of a champion.
Remarkably, Stewart won five of the 10 Chase races – a feat never before accomplished, not even by five-time champion Jimmie Johnson – and outran challenger Carl Edwards in the closing race at Homestead-Miami Speedway to claim the Sprint Cup title.
Stewart, a Sprint Cup champion for the third time, is SPEED.com’s Sprint Cup Driver of the Year. After a mediocre regular season, he owned the playoffs.
“You have to dig down deep and fight,” said crew chief Darian Grubb, who worked something of a miracle in the Chase by running to the title with Stewart despite knowing he’d be leaving Stewart’s team at the end of the season.
“If you are going to do this 38 weeks a year, you'd better be able to take the lows and highs and not get too upset, and just keep a nice even keel and just keep fighting against what you are fighting against.”
For Stewart, the target became Edwards, who led the standings most of the season and still led the points (by three) entering the final race. Stewart won at Homestead to officially tie Edwards in the final point standings, but Stewart got the title by winning the first tiebreaker – number of seasonal victories (five to one).
Stewart won the finale with some of the boldest driving in recent NASCAR seasons.
“I've been racing 31 years,” he said after the win. “I can't even remember some of the races I've won. But I would have to say that under the circumstances, I've got to believe that this is definitely one of the greatest races of my life.”
As dramatic as Homestead was, Stewart said the Chase turning point came at Martinsville Speedway four races earlier. He won there and the next week at Texas.
“To leave there doing something remarkable, I feel that was the turning point in the Chase for us,” he said. “And we backed it up a week later by winning Texas and not only winning Texas but by beating the guy that we are racing the points for, leading the most laps and really making a statement that, ‘Hey, do not make the mistake of counting us out of this.’
“I just think that was a huge turning point for us, and you get that confidence that everything is going right, and it's so much easier when things are going well. Everybody relaxes. Everybody is calm. You're not trying to mentally figure out what the missing piece of the puzzle is.”
By season’s end, Stewart had everything figured out. In the final six races, he had three wins, a third, a seventh and an eighth – numbers that are hard to beat in a run for a championship.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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