NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Where There’s Smoke…
One of the few unchecked boxes on the Stewart-Haas Racing to-do list is to win a Sprint Cup race...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted April 30, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Old Spice Chevrolet, at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images)
By all objective measures, the fledgling Stewart-Haas Racing organization has exceeded expectations by a fair measure in its first season, with co-owner/driver Tony Stewart fourth in NASCAR Sprint Cup points and teammate Ryan Newman 13th.

One of the few unchecked boxes on the SHR to-do list is to win a Sprint Cup race, and absolutely no one would be surprised if it happens this week at Richmond International Raceway.

Stewart already has three top-five finishes to his credit in the first nine races of 2009, and on Saturday night will be one of the favorites in the Crown Royal 400 presented Russ Friedman. The two-time Cup champion is tied with Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for most wins among active drivers at RIR with three, and he definitely enjoys racing at the 0.75-mile, D-shaped oval.

And with good reason. RIR is the site of his first career Sprint Cup win along with four other victories – the two aforementioned Cup wins and two in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. In Cup races at RIR, Stewart has six top-three, eight top-five and 14 top-10 finishes with 815 laps led in his 20 starts. Stout numbers, to be sure.

Given that it’s been 371 races since an owner/driver last visited victory lane – Ricky Rudd on Sept. 27, 1998 at Martinsville Speedway — Stewart almost certainly will be the next owner/driver to win. And he’d love to do it Saturday night.

“It is my favorite track,” Stewart said of RIR. “It’s not one of them, it’s the favorite track of mine on the circuit. I’ve won two Truck races and three Cup races there. It’s where I got my first win. It’s definitely a place I enjoy coming to, and considering how it factors into the Chase, it’s an important stop for us.”

Darian Grubb, crew chief of Stewart’s No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing, said he’s especially encouraged about this week’s race because of the similarities between RIR and Phoenix International Raceway, where Stewart had a season’s-best runner-up finish earlier this season. Grubb will be able to use a lot of what the team learned at Phoenix in Saturday night’s race.

“I think a lot of it carries over, especially what we used in Turn 1 and 2 at Phoenix,” said Grubb, a Virginia native. “It’s got a little bit of banking. It’s got a hard-braking entry. It kind of matches what you do at Richmond for Turn 3. The banking and everything’s a little bit different, but the speeds, the profiles and driver inputs and everything are very similar, so I think we can take a lot from there.”

Grubb joined SHR after an extended stint at Hendrick Motorsports, which is providing chassis and engines to SHR. “Obviously, our resources at Hendrick Motorsports and not having to worry about our own engine package or developing our own chassis package are things that have really shortened our learning curve,” said Stewart. “We’ve got the equipment. We need to do our jobs and the results have shown. Both Ryan and I have had good runs this year in the first nine races. I think success has come much quicker than any of us anticipated it would’ve happened.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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