The Cool Down Lap: Tony Stewart: Anatomy of a title

The Cool Down Lap: Tony Stewart: Anatomy of a title

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(November 21, 2011)

HOMESTEAD, Fla.—For Tony Stewart, the defining moments of his remarkable Sprint Cup title run are easy to pinpoint.

The turning point came at Martinsville. The statement came at Texas.

To his own surprise, Stewart won the first two Chase races, at Chicagoland and New Hampshire, but lackluster performances at Dover and Kansas put him jeopardy of losing touch with points leader Carl Edwards. Stewart ran eighth at Charlotte and seventh at Talladega, but entering the seventh Chase race, at Martinsville, he was fourth in the standings, 19 points behind Edwards.

That’s when Stewart began one of the most remarkable closing runs in NASCAR history. He won at the .526-mile short track, getting the better of Martinsville maven Jimmie Johnson with an outside pass on a late restart, a feat with a degree of difficulty equivalent to threading a needle with your toes.

Stewart followed that performance by beating Edwards head-to-head at Texas, a track where the Roush Fenway driver thought—erroneously—he had an edge.

“Martinsville was a big turning point, obviously, being able to battle the adversity and come out on top and still be a contender,” Stewart told Sporting News in an exclusive conversation Sunday night, some four hours after he clinched the title with a win at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“Texas, the following week, to back it up with that win and lead the most laps and beat Carl was kind of a statement, I feel like, in the Chase for us, of saying, ‘Yeah, not only are we a contender, but we’re going to make this tough and make it hard to just cruise on to victory.’

“You look at Carl and I at the end. You couldn’t have asked for a more classic battle. Nobody fell into anything. The last three races of the Chase we ran first and second, second and third in reverse order and back to first and second again. I don’t know how it could be a stronger race for the championship.”

The success in the Chase was a far cry from Stewart’s attitude heading into the final 10 races. Though he closed out the 26-race regular season with strong runs at Atlanta and Richmond, the driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet doubted he’d be a factor in the Chase. No, Stewart says, he wasn’t just playing possum.

“I honestly didn’t think we were a contender,” Stewart said. “I honestly felt that way. Everything that we had done at that point backed up what I had said. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand what changed. I don’t understand what made it all of a sudden start clicking.

“Obviously, Chicago went well; Loudon (New Hampshire), we felt like that was an opportunity to be strong, but I was just hoping we’d win a race in the Chase, much less win five of ’em and be in this position to win at the end.”

Stewart won the Chase despite making a radical personnel move after the disappointing races at Dover and Kansas. He told crew chief Darian Grubb that his services wouldn’t be needed after season’s end, even though giving Grubb notice might have had a negative effect on team morale.

“Yeah, but it’s the hardest part about our industry and our job,” Stewart said. “You have personal relationships with people, and it’s hard to sit there and make an educated evaluation of what you need to do, what changes you need to make.

“And you sit there, and now you wonder if you’ve made the right choices, but it’s part of the equation still, and it’s part of the reality of how intense this sport is and all professional sports are.”

Grubb handled the impending dismissal with consummate professionalism, guiding Stewart to three wins and a third-place finish in the final four races. Together they encouraged their crew, even when early damage to the grille and a hung lug nut on a key pit stop threatened to derail their efforts Sunday.

“It’s one thing for me to cheerlead, but it still takes Darian to be there,” Stewart said. “He’s the guy that those (crew) guys are facing and looking up to during the race. I just think the support from both of us was a big factor in keeping those guys pumped up and never giving up.”

Stewart’s demeanor in the car was vastly different from the Stewart of 2002, when Greg Zipadelli had to manage his driver on the way to the first of his three Cup titles.

“I didn’t have the composure,” Stewart said. “I felt like I was a good racecar driver nine years ago, but I don’t think I was strong enough to lead like that—and I’m not sure that I led (on Sunday). I feel like I was a part of a group that led. It took somebody like Zippy to do it back then.”