True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release

ATLANTA (April 18, 2007) – The sand that blows around Phoenix International Raceway and the surrounding desert is a familiar sight to Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.

Stewart considers Phoenix to be his West Coast home away from home. He has raced at the 1-mile oval in six different types of race cars – USAC Midgets, USAC Silver Crown cars, Indy cars, Supermodifieds, a NASCAR Busch Series car and a Nextel Cup car. But it was his performance in a USAC Silver Crown car in February 1993 at Phoenix – his first race ever at the desert mile – that turned heads and had team owners in the IRL IndyCar Series and in NASCAR asking, “Who is this kid?”

It was the famed Copper World Classic and the season-opener for USAC’s Silver Crown division. Stewart qualified second to Davey Hamilton – a former IRL veteran – and led 31 of the 50 laps before finishing second to Mike Bliss – the 2003 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion. The $3,500 payday for his second-place effort made eight-hour days at $5 an hour at the Columbus, Ind., machine shop where Stewart worked seem unnecessary. Packing the rest of the 1993 season with Silver Crown, Sprint and Midget races across the nation, Stewart’s quick ascent up the racing ladder began.

Almost three years later, Phoenix again served as another rung on that ladder.

With his USAC “Triple Crown” championship firmly in hand, Stewart tested A.J. Foyt’s Indy car at Phoenix in October 1995. For five days Stewart lapped the Phoenix oval under the dutiful watch of the four-time Indianapolis 500 champion.

A month later, Foyt’s crew needed someone to drive their car at Texas World Speedway for a TV commercial. While it was a long way from an actual race, the 24 year-old Stewart took the invite as a positive measure of Foyt’s belief in him. Stewart’s instincts were right on, because just after having dinner at Foyt’s Texas ranch, Foyt offered Stewart a ride in the IRL IndyCar Series for 1996.

The IRL was still in its infancy, so the 1996 season Foyt offered Stewart amounted to Disney World in January, Phoenix in March and Indianapolis in May. But Foyt wasn’t the only car owner who was interested in Stewart.

Harry Ranier, a NASCAR team owner who had fielded race cars since 1967 and recorded 24 wins, was looking to get back into ownership after selling his team to Robert Yates at the conclusion of the 1988 season. Ranier’s second attempt at NASCAR team ownership came in November 1995 at Homestead with the NASCAR Busch Series season finale. Stewart was his driver.

The start-up team didn’t make the race, but Stewart had a handshake agreement with Ranier to run a handful of Busch Series races in 1996. Foyt didn’t like the idea of sharing his driver with another owner, and told Stewart as much. But Stewart wasn’t comfortable in backing out of his deal with Ranier, so he turned down Foyt’s offer.

“What aspiring driver turns down an offer from A.J. Foyt?” asked many in the motorsports community. But for Stewart, it was a matter of principle. Today, few can knock Stewart’s thought process.

The nine Busch Series races he ran for Ranier turned heads in the stock car world, one of which belonged to Joe Gibbs. The three-time Super Bowl-winning coach of the NFL’s Washington Redskins hired Stewart to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in 1997. Twenty-seven Busch Series races and two years later, Stewart was in Cup. And at Phoenix – the track that gave him his start in professional motorsports –Stewart earned his second Cup Series victory by beating Mark Martin to the finish line by more than two seconds in the 1999 Checker/Dura Lube 500k.

A Cup Series history that now includes two championships and 29 victories continues at Phoenix with this Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500k.

Because of all the racing you did at Phoenix before you became a Nextel Cup driver, do you consider Phoenix your West Coast home away from home?

“When Buddy Jobe (former owner and president of Phoenix International Raceway) had this facility he was the one who told me that Phoenix was my West Coast home away from home. And I didn’t realize it until I came to Phoenix when I was with the IRL and saw how many test sessions we had at Phoenix and how many laps I had put in there before a race even started. Whether it was tire testing or chassis testing the IRL car or a USAC Midget or a Sprint car, I spent a lot of time at Phoenix International Raceway. I really do feel like it’s my West Coast home away from home.
“When we come out to Phoenix two times a year, it’s like a homecoming each time. It’s a place where I feel comfortable. I know every inch of that race track. I’ve driven six different types of cars there, and between all those cars I’ve run at least five different lines. I feel like I know it better than most of the other folks who’ve just run stock cars there.”

How long have you been racing at Phoenix?

“I started racing there in ’93 when I ran a Silver Crown car. And since then, I’ve run USAC Midgets, Indy cars, Supermodifieds, Busch cars, and of course, Nextel Cup in The Home Depot car. So, I’ve logged a bunch of laps there. I even made my 100th Nextel Cup start there three years ago. To think that it all kind of started at Phoenix, I guess you could say it’s the place where my career came full-circle.”

Did all those laps you made over the years at Phoenix help prepare you for when you first went there in a Nextel Cup car?

“I think so. With every different division of car that I’ve run there, I’ve ended up running a different line. With that, I’ve learned a lot about that race track and where the sweet spots are on that race track. I was used to the place when it came time to run there in Nextel Cup. I knew a lot about that race track and the different places that can make you go fast or slow. It gave me an opportunity to adapt a lot more to the car than to the race track.”

When you talk about “sweet spots,” what do you mean?

“You learn about all the bumps and where all the bumps are on the race track. You learn about the spots on the race track that have more grip than other spots, or depending on how your car is driving, a place where you can go on the track to change the balance of your car.”

Phoenix is a flat track, but is it like the other flat tracks on the circuit, or is it an entity all its own?

“Everybody calls it a flat track, but to me one end is flat and one end has banking to it. It’s a unique place because the radius of the corners are different on each end, the banking of the corners are different on each end, and then you have the dogleg on the backstretch.”

Is racing in the Southwest like a family reunion of sorts, because there are so many people in that area who you’ve met during your racing career?

“With the racing I’ve done with USAC out West, I’ve developed a lot of friendships and relationships with people. Running Nextel Cup, we don’t have the opportunity to go out to that area but a couple of times a year. The small amount of time that we get to spend out in Phoenix for the Cup race is very valuable to me and all my friends out there. And with all of those friends and fans in that area, there’s a fair amount of pride that I take in racing at Phoenix. So for me, it’s a place that’s very important for The Home Depot Chevrolet to run well.”

Because you’re so familiar with Phoenix, do you enter this weekend’s race with an added sense of confidence?

“Sure. Any time you go back to a facility that you’ve had success at, you’re always excited to go back there. It’s not only the performance that we’ve had there, it’s the total draw for me enjoying Phoenix so much. We have a chance to go to Manzanita, and in the fall, my Sprint cars are out there. I get a chance in the evenings to go watch my own cars race as well as go what I do at the Cup track.

“It’s just kind of the total package when I go out there. It’s a great facility. Obviously, there aren’t not too many tracks you go to that you look over the backstretch and you see mountains and cactus everywhere. You hear people talking about cowboys going up there in the morning with a bag and grabbing rattlesnakes the day of the race to clear them out so people can sit down. It’s just a pretty special race track.”


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Home Depot Driver Leads Three Times for a Race-High 132 Laps
True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release

Date: April 21, 2007
Event: Subway Fresh Fit 500k (Round 8 of 36)
Series: NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Location: Phoenix International Raceway (1-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 9th/2nd (Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
Winner: Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

For many drivers, a second-place finish in a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race is an incredibly good day. For Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing, it can prove to be bitterly disappointing, at least when a second-place finish comes after leading three times for a race-high 132 laps.

Such was the case in Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500k at Phoenix International Raceway.

Stewart appeared ready to secure career win No. 30 and his first of the season when he was handily leading laps 155-212 and laps 214-286 of the 312-lap race. But a caution on lap 285 for a three-car accident in turn four jumbled the running order, for just before the caution came out, Jeff Gordon – Stewart’s nearest pursuer – pitted for four tires and fuel.

Stewart pitted under caution, but came out in second as Gordon was awarded the No. 1 spot following the series of pit stops.

When the race restarted on lap 293, Stewart pursued Gordon, and made up considerable ground when the four-time Nextel Cup champion became stuck behind the lapped car of Martin Truex Jr. Stewart brought the estimated crowd of 105,000 to its feet with a daring three-wide pass of Gordon entering turn three. Stewart split the middle, with Gordon down low and Truex on the outside. Stewart emerged off turn four with the lead, but Gordon came back, and in the same corner where the two traded the lead a lap earlier, Gordon got underneath Stewart and made the pass stick for good coming off turn four.

Gordon led the final 13 laps, taking his first win at Phoenix and the 76th of his career, putting him in a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt for sixth on NASCAR’s all-time win list.

While Gordon celebrated, Stewart sulked. The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet has seen at least three potential wins this year go to someone else when the checkered flag dropped (Daytona: led 35 laps, finished 43rd; Atlanta: led 121 laps, finished second; and Bristol: led 257 laps, finished 35th).

“We’ve had decent runs, and that’s the disappointing part,” said Stewart’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli. “We probably should have more wins this year and somehow we keep letting them slip away. That part of it is frustrating. I don’t know if it’s anyone’s fault. A lot of it was circumstances.

“I think everybody did a good job overnight and the changes we made this morning and during the race. Overall the team did a great job this weekend and I am proud of them. We didn’t have that great of a car yesterday and we made a lot of changes. Everybody put their heads together and we came home second. We brought a car that had a shot at winning and that’s all you can do.

“It’s a good night anytime you can run in the top-five. We felt like the second half of the race we had a good car. The yellow flag bit us, and the No. 24 (Gordon) got going the last 20 laps or so. It took our car a little bit to get going. If we could start out front in clean air, it was pretty good.

“It’s a little frustrating because we won at this place before and I know Tony really wanted to win here, but we came up short again. Overall I think it was a great night for Joe Gibbs Racing. Second, third (with Denny Hamlin), and J.J. (Yeley) was having a great night and was going to be 12th or 14th but got caught up in that last accident. I think, overall, the performance was there. But we still need to keep working obviously, because we didn’t win and that wasn’t good enough.”


Despite suffering the disappointment of what could’ve been, the No. 20 team’s second runner-up result of the season bumped Stewart up two spots in the championship point standings. The two-time Nextel Cup champion is now seventh in points, 332 markers arrears series leader Gordon.

Stewart’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates – Hamlin and Yeley – finished third and 21st, respectively, in the Subway Fresh Fit 500k. Hamlin held steady at fifth in points, and Yeley maintained his 22nd-place standing.

Finishing fourth behind Stewart and Hamlin was Jimmie Johnson, while Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five. Jeff Green, Kyle Busch, Bobby Labonte, Johnny Sauter and Kevin Harvick comprised the remainder of the top-10.

The next event on the Nextel Cup schedule is the April 29 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX.


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Home Depot Driver Leads Three Times for a Race-High 132 Laps
True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release

Date: April 21, 2007
Event: Subway Fresh Fit 500k (Round 8 of 36)
Series: NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Location: Phoenix International Raceway (1-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 9th/2nd (Running, completed 312 of 312 laps)
Winner: Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

For many drivers, a second-place finish in a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race is an incredibly good day. For Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing, it can prove to be bitterly disappointing, at least when a second-place finish comes after leading three times for a race-high 132 laps.

Such was the case in Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500k at Phoenix International Raceway.

Stewart appeared ready to secure career win No. 30 and his first of the season when he was handily leading laps 155-212 and laps 214-286 of the 312-lap race. But a caution on lap 285 for a three-car accident in turn four jumbled the running order, for just before the caution came out, Jeff Gordon – Stewart’s nearest pursuer – pitted for four tires and fuel.

Stewart pitted under caution, but came out in second as Gordon was awarded the No. 1 spot following the series of pit stops.

When the race restarted on lap 293, Stewart pursued Gordon, and made up considerable ground when the four-time Nextel Cup champion became stuck behind the lapped car of Martin Truex Jr. Stewart brought the estimated crowd of 105,000 to its feet with a daring three-wide pass of Gordon entering turn three. Stewart split the middle, with Gordon down low and Truex on the outside. Stewart emerged off turn four with the lead, but Gordon came back, and in the same corner where the two traded the lead a lap earlier, Gordon got underneath Stewart and made the pass stick for good coming off turn four.

Gordon led the final 13 laps, taking his first win at Phoenix and the 76th of his career, putting him in a tie with the late Dale Earnhardt for sixth on NASCAR’s all-time win list.

While Gordon celebrated, Stewart sulked. The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet has seen at least three potential wins this year go to someone else when the checkered flag dropped (Daytona: led 35 laps, finished 43rd; Atlanta: led 121 laps, finished second; and Bristol: led 257 laps, finished 35th).

“We’ve had decent runs, and that’s the disappointing part,” said Stewart’s crew chief, Greg Zipadelli. “We probably should have more wins this year and somehow we keep letting them slip away. That part of it is frustrating. I don’t know if it’s anyone’s fault. A lot of it was circumstances.

“I think everybody did a good job overnight and the changes we made this morning and during the race. Overall the team did a great job this weekend and I am proud of them. We didn’t have that great of a car yesterday and we made a lot of changes. Everybody put their heads together and we came home second. We brought a car that had a shot at winning and that’s all you can do.

“It’s a good night anytime you can run in the top-five. We felt like the second half of the race we had a good car. The yellow flag bit us, and the No. 24 (Gordon) got going the last 20 laps or so. It took our car a little bit to get going. If we could start out front in clean air, it was pretty good.

“It’s a little frustrating because we won at this place before and I know Tony really wanted to win here, but we came up short again. Overall I think it was a great night for Joe Gibbs Racing. Second, third (with Denny Hamlin), and J.J. (Yeley) was having a great night and was going to be 12th or 14th but got caught up in that last accident. I think, overall, the performance was there. But we still need to keep working obviously, because we didn’t win and that wasn’t good enough.”


Despite suffering the disappointment of what could’ve been, the No. 20 team’s second runner-up result of the season bumped Stewart up two spots in the championship point standings. The two-time Nextel Cup champion is now seventh in points, 332 markers arrears series leader Gordon.

Stewart’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates – Hamlin and Yeley – finished third and 21st, respectively, in the Subway Fresh Fit 500k. Hamlin held steady at fifth in points, and Yeley maintained his 22nd-place standing.

Finishing fourth behind Stewart and Hamlin was Jimmie Johnson, while Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five. Jeff Green, Kyle Busch, Bobby Labonte, Johnny Sauter and Kevin Harvick comprised the remainder of the top-10.

The next event on the Nextel Cup schedule is the April 29 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX.


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True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release

ATLANTA (April 25, 2007) – Six times Tony Stewart has finished second at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series has watched as Bobby Hamilton Sr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Jimmie Johnson have taken Talladega’s checkered flag just ahead of him.
And while Stewart is always determined to win and typically treats anything less than first with a bit of disdain, his run of runner-ups – which includes three of the past four Talladega races – leaves Stewart with a sense of satisfaction.

So much about racing at Talladega and at its restrictor plate cousin in Daytona (Fla.) is out of a driver’s control. To go fast and advance toward the front, drivers must use their 3,400-pound race cars and the air they collectively split to draft off one another. By using the vacuum created by the car cutting through the air in front of them, a driver can tuck up behind a fellow driver, and then, when the moment is right, slingshot by him with the momentum gained from riding in his wake.

It’s an art, one unknown to Renoir and Degas but practiced fervently by guys better known as Ricky and Dale.

Stewart is a reluctant restrictor plate artist. While unnerved by the fact he needs another driver’s push or draft to help him move toward the front, Stewart is more often than not at the front of a restrictor plate race. Of the 1,688 laps available in the past nine restrictor plate races (2005-2007), Stewart has led 478 of those laps (28.3 percent).

Elevating that number are Stewart’s back-to-back wins in the Fourth of July race at Daytona, where for the past two seasons, Stewart has dominated by leading 237 of the 320 laps available (74 percent).

And while Stewart has yet to record a win at Talladega’s vast, 2.66-mile oval, it seems only a matter of time before Stewart’s orange and black Chevrolet Monte Carlo is the one a different driver sees beating him to the checkered flag.

You’ve finished second six times at Talladega and logged eight top-fives and 10 top-10s in 16 career Nextel Cup starts. Despite those strong finishes, does not having won bother you?

“No, not at all. I mean, Talladega is a track where you can’t do anything on your own. You have to strictly rely on what everybody else around you is doing. It’s still not real racing when somebody else has to go with you and somebody else can dictate how you run. If you don’t ever have anybody go with you all day you never have a shot at winning. But if you have guys go with you, you have a shot. We haven’t won there, but look at how many second-place finishes we’ve had. Anytime you can finish in the top-two is like a win at Talladega, especially when you’ve done it as consistently as we have. As volatile as Talladega can be with getting caught in a wreck and this or that, for us to have finished second there six times, and three times in the past four races, that’s something to be pretty proud of because Talladega is not a race track where you can do it all on your own. You’ve got to have help. Our finishing average is pretty high – higher than most for the amount of races we’ve run there. So I’m pretty satisfied with the way we’ve run there.”

Since it seems as though you’ve mastered restrictor plate racing, do you still dislike it?

“I dislike anything where you have to rely on somebody else. To me, what you and your team do should be what it’s all about. I don’t like having to have a guy behind you or in front of you dictate what you do and where you go. That’s really the one reason why I dislike it. It’s very nerve-wracking when you can’t plan your moves unless you know what the guy behind you or in front of you is going to do.”
Is there any strategy involved in running a restrictor plate race, or is it just a matter of taking advantage of the opportunities that are presented?

“The strategy is making sure you’ve got somebody you can draft with. You have to take the opportunities as they come, but with those opportunities you have to make a very quick decision. You’ve got to think, ‘What happens if I try this and it doesn’t work? What are the ramifications going to be?’ You don’t have the luxury of sitting down and taking the time to analyze the situation. You’ve got to make a split-second decision. A lot of times it’ll work, but there are times when the decision that you made doesn’t work. But once you’ve committed yourself to doing something, there’s not much you can do about it.”

Patience is an obvious virtue on the short tracks, but how important is it at a restrictor plate track?

“It’s the gospel, basically. There are a lot of times when you think you can pull out and pass, but if you do, once you get there you realize that you can’t pass. It makes it real critical that you take your time and that you don’t get caught up in trying to make a move too fast. Just stay in line, and sometimes you’ll have more patience than 20 other guys.
“It’s such a chess match. You can be leading the race one second and you can be fifth the next second. I think it’s just a matter of timing and getting yourself in the right place at the right time.”

Is a fast car all you need to be successful in restrictor plate races?

“You have to have a fast car. But with that fast car, you’ve got to have a good team that gets you in and out of the pits fast, and you’ve got to have a driver who knows what he’s doing. Get all that together, along with a little bit of luck, and you can have a good day.”

Do you enjoy racing at Talladega?

“You can say the track hasn’t been kind to me with as many second place finishes as we’ve had, but there are 41 guys who didn’t have it as good as we had it those days. There have been a lot of days where we ran second and it was as good as a win for us. Last year’s spring race was a perfect example. We knew we didn’t have the best car, but we ended up with a second-place finish. That was the best we could do and we left the track with smiles on our faces.

“The Talladega weeks are always fun weeks for me because I go fishing and it’s a week where I don’t turn my cell phone on and I don’t worry about the race car. It’s just a week to kind of hit the reset button, and by the time I get to the track, I’m fresh and ready to go. I always have fun when I come to Talladega.”

What’s the difference between racing at Talladega and Daytona?

“You can run two- and three-wide all day at Daytona. At Talladega you can run three-wide all day easily, and sometimes four-wide. Essentially, Talladega just has an extra lane compared to Daytona, because its track is a little easier to get a hold of mechanically. Handling isn’t near as big of an issue as it is at Daytona. Talladega is just about speed, and finding more of it. It’s bigger, so its corners are a little bit bigger, which is why handling doesn’t seem to be quite as much of an issue.”

Despite having not won yet this season, you’ve run well, as you’ve led more laps (584) and more miles (604.61) than any other driver. From that standpoint, are you happy with where the No. 20 team stands among the competition?

“This business is strictly a week-to-week business. What you did last week may or may not work this week. The main reason for that is technology. Every week people are working to get their programs better than what they were the week before. If some organization hits on something, you could be a top-five car and all of a sudden struggle to be a top-10 car. That being said, I’m fairly happy with where we’re at. We just don’t have anything to show for it, and that’s what is so frustrating. Laps led, miles led – it’s finishing races that matters, and we’ve had some really good days go bad. Still, there’s a lot of racing left. We want to win everywhere we go, and our team is working hard to do just that.”

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May 2, 2007

BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) -- A week after being reprimanded for comments comparing NASCAR to professional wrestling, two-time Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart said Wednesday he'll continue to speak his mind.

Appearing at a media day promoting next month's Citizens Bank 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Stewart said his only regret last week wasn't going to NASCAR officials before airing the comments on his Sirius Satellite radio program.

Stewart characterized the past two weeks as long, but said he got the answers he was looking for in a meeting with NASCAR officials following his comments.

"One of my biggest faults is I can't say no and I don't know how to be politically correct,'' said Stewart, who referred to himself Wednesday as the "poster child for doing stupid things in NASCAR.''

"If you ask me an honest question, you deserve to have an honest answer -- whether it's politically correct or not, whether it's popular or not.''

No stranger to controversy, Stewart angered NASCAR officials when he accused NASCAR of using bogus debris cautions to orchestrate the outcome of races. Although not fined for his comments, Stewart was placed on probation for the remainder of the season.

"I can assure you, Tony Stewart knows where he stands with NASCAR right now,'' spokesman Jim Hunter said following the meeting.

On Wednesday, Stewart said his comments represented the views of many of his fellow drivers who don't want to voice their opinions in fear of being called in by NASCAR officials.

"It's hard to sit there in the heat of the moment,'' Stewart said. "We don't just drive around for 500 miles and get out and say, 'Hey, that was great.'

"It's a little more personal than that, it's a little more passionate than that and it's a lot more heated than that. It leads to not always looking at the consequences of how it's going to affect other people and the sanctioning body and the sponsors when you say something.''

Stewart, sixth in the Nextel Cup points standings, said NASCAR officials never instructed him to be more politically correct in his comments. He said he'll continue to voice his opinions despite jabs from fellow drivers who took exception with Stewart's tendency to find controversy.

"(The criticism) doesn't bother me -- I can be politically correct like everybody else and then we'll listen to everybody gripe like they did a couple of years ago,'' Stewart said. "Everybody complained about how vanilla I was and how they didn't like it.

"Obviously, either way, I can't win and I can't make everybody happy so I might as well do it my way.''

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True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release

ATLANTA (May 2, 2007) – Just as New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed a victory over the favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, the No. 20 Home Depot Racing Team is guaranteeing that a Stewart will be in victory lane following Saturday night’s NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.
They just hope it’s their Stewart.

Their Stewart is Tony Stewart, two-time Nextel Cup champion and driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. And they want to see him lift the race-winning trophy after 400 laps around Richmond’s three-quarter mile oval alongside Jim Stewart, for whom the race is named after. That’s right, Saturday night’s race is the Jim Stewart 400.

Jim Stewart earned his name in lights, literally, by writing the winning essay in a contest sponsored by Crown Royal. And while Jim Stewart earned his way to victory lane by way of his deft touch on a keyboard, Tony Stewart aims to get there by his deft touch of the throttle behind the wheel of his 3,400-pound, 850-horsepower Chevrolet Impala SS.

Stewart the race car driver has a checkered history at Richmond, having won three Nextel Cup races and two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events. He’s also raced a NASCAR Busch Series car at Richmond, along with a USAC Midget and a Silver Crown entry.

In Cup alone, Stewart has five top-fives and 10 top-10s in 16 career starts. He has led a total of 764 laps – 11.2 percent of the 6,793 laps available to him. The majority of those laps came in Stewart’s first career Nextel Cup win, when in September 1999 Stewart led 333 of the 400 laps available (83.2 percent).

But this year’s trip to Richmond brings a new wrinkle to Stewart and his Joe Gibbs Racing Team. Gone is their familiar Chevrolet Monte Carlo, replaced with the Car of Tomorrow (CoT) Chevrolet Impala SS.

Saturday night’s race at Richmond will mark just the fourth race for the CoT, as it’s slowly being incorporated into the fleets of Nextel Cup teams via a 16-race schedule this year and a 26-race schedule in 2008 before going full-time with all 36 races in 2009.

Despite Hendrick Motorsports’ sweep of the three previous COT races – Kyle Busch at Bristol (Tenn.), Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville (Va.) and Jeff Gordon at Phoenix – it’s Joe Gibbs Racing that’s been the dominant team when it comes to the CoT.

With one less team than Hendrick, the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing outfit has led 781 of the 1,316 laps available in the three CoT races held this year (59.3 percent). Stewart has been responsible for 400 of those laps (51.2 percent). Unfortunately, neither he nor his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates – Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley – have anything to show for their efforts, as bad breaks and bad luck have so far kept them out of victory lane.

But considering Stewart’s history at Richmond and his strong performances in previous CoT races, Saturday night’s Jim Stewart 400 may well see Tony Stewart back in victory lane for the first time this season and for the 30th time in Nextel Cup.

You’ve run well at the CoT races, but you don’t have the results to show for your efforts. Does that get you and the team down, or does it make you and team more determined to get that next win?

“We don’t settle for anything less than winning races. When we know that we let one slip away, that’s something that we do let ourselves get down about, but that’s also what got us 29 wins and two championships. We have such a high standard of what we feel our performance should be on the race track. I think that shows the caliber team that we have.”
Despite no wins, you’re still having a good year as you’re sixth in points. Do you feel the team is where it needs to be?

“I think our team is fine. If you look at the CoT races, I think we’ve faired very well. Obviously, Martinsville for the 20 car wasn’t that great, but the 11 car (Hamlin) has run good everywhere we’ve been. He’s been the fastest car at two of the three tracks a lot of times so far. I feel like everywhere we’ve been we’ve had opportunities to win. I’ve either made mistakes or just circumstances have kept us from being there to close it out. If you think about it, if we would have hit half of the ones that we should have won, that would have been a start to the season we’ve never ever seen in eight years. It seems like once we get that first one, then we get hot and get a pretty good string of runs right there in a row. It’s a matter of time. It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of what weekend it’s going to be.”
Does coming so close and not winning put additional stress on the team, or does it give the team more incentive to win because they know they’re right on the cusp of getting that first win?

“That’s just how competitive we are. Zippy (crew chief Greg Zipadelli) and I have been through the thick and the thin together, but that’s why we’re a perfect driver/crew chief combination. We understand each other well. We have the same passion, the same desire, the same frustrations. We’re on the same playing field, side by side, on the way we think and feel about things. Not winning might add a little bit of stress, but if you look at Zippy’s past before he came to NASCAR, he was pretty successful. I had good fortune before I came here. I think we’ve both had good fortune since we’ve been here. It’s personalities. We’re not two guys that are going to sit back and be happy with second or third. If that’s detrimental, then that’s what it has to be. That’s just who we are. We can’t change that.”
You and your crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, continue to have the longest-tenured driver/crew chief relationship in Nextel Cup. In fact, your first win together came at Richmond during your rookie year in the fall of 1999. What makes your pairing so good?

“The thing that makes him such a great crew chief is that he’s so dedicated to the program. He lives, eats, breathes and sleeps this race team. He’s a great person. I hit the lottery getting him as a crew chief. He’s the reason we’ve been so successful together as a team. We both have the same passion and desire to win. His work ethic is unbelievable. He cares about people. He learned a lot from Joe Gibbs in that you’re only as good as your weakest person. We’re always striving to make ourselves better than what we are, but at the same time, he treats everybody as an individual. I could sit here for hours and talk about him. He’s just a great person. He’s one of those people that when times get tough, he’s in the shop 14, 16 hours a day until we get out of the rut that we’re in. That’s how dedicated he is to our program. And when you put two guys together like Greg and myself that have the same desire to win and the same passion to win, it’s hard to beat a combination like that.”

You’ve had a lot of success at Richmond. Is it one of your favorite tracks?

“It is my favorite track. 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. A good friend of mine, Kasey Kahne, got his first win there. Being able to see Kasey win his first race there was cool, too. It’s definitely a place I enjoy coming to, and considering how it factors into the Chase, it’s definitely an important stop for us.”

Richmond is one of many races that begins in the late afternoon daylight and finishes under the lights. How do you handle those types of conditions, specifically, when the sun disappears and the race track’s surface cools?

“I like night racing anyway. I always have. The good thing about night races is that I get to sleep in through the morning. But the challenge is the same for everybody as far as how the surface temperature of the race track will cool off. That’s the good thing about it. It gives us a challenge that we don’t normally have on a day when the sun is out and the track normally won’t change a lot. So it just adds another variable that makes it more exciting for the fans.”

What’s the key to being successful at Richmond?

“You want to make sure that your car is adjustable. We start the race at the end of the day where it’s usually pretty hot, but as night comes the track cools down and it changes quite a bit. Old pavement, new pavement, the same theory applies, and that’s not something you see at most of the races we go to. It’s pretty much isolated to just the night races. When we tested there a couple of years ago, we actually tried to make the car drive badly so that we could figure out ways to make it drive well again. You’ve got to have adjustability, because you know for a fact that the track isn’t going to stay the same all night long.”

Is Richmond similar to any other tracks that you’ve raced on in your career?

“It just reminds me of some of the shorter tracks that I’ve run. It has kind of the same feel that three-quarter-mile tracks did with some of the other cars that I’ve run with. It was like Phoenix the first time I went there. I hadn’t been to a 1-mile oval but once in my life, but when I got onto Phoenix, I adjusted and adapted to it really quickly. It was a place where I became very comfortable right away. I had that same feeling when I went to Richmond for the first time with The Home Depot car. I think every driver has a track that they go to where they get that same feeling. There are just some places that you go to where you adjust, and it really suits your driving style.”

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True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release

ATLANTA (May 8, 2007) – The school year is coming to a close throughout the Southeast, but not at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. The 57-year-old venue is all about old school.
The 1.366-mile oval has been hosting NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races since 1950 when Johnny Mantz drove a black Plymouth to victory in a 74-car field. The quirky, egg-shaped layout Mantz spent over six-and-a-half hours lapping has lived on, giving today’s drivers the ultimate throwback track.

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing, is a throwback himself, drawing comparisons to the ultimate old school racer – A.J. Foyt.

When not racing in Nextel Cup, Stewart will steal away time to drive USAC Sprint, Midget and Silver Crown cars, along with dirt late models, winged sprint cars and pavement modifieds, or to keep things simple, anything with four tires that goes fast.

Extra-curricular racing is nothing new to Stewart. The Columbus, Ind., native was jumping from car to car and race to race even back in his Indy car years when a full-time ride in Nextel Cup was a dot on the horizon. Proving this point was an Indianapolis T-shirt vendor who printed up a shirt with

Stewart’s name and an Indy car and a Midget that read, “New Blood From an Old School.”

The list of accomplishments made by the likes of Foyt and the competition of his day was never lost on Stewart. The venues where Foyt and others made history resonate with the two-time Nextel Cup champion, and venerable Darlington is proof-positive of that.

“When I’m watching TV and I see an old race from Darlington, I’m able to see the history of Darlington and the Southern 500, along with all of the greats who have run there and won there and crashed out of the joint,” said Stewart.

Despite only moderate success at Darlington – seven top-10s in 14 career starts with a best finish of fourth (twice – spring 2000 and fall 2001) – Stewart likes Darlington. Its history, its roster of champions and its difficult nature makes a Darlington victory a cherished victory.

With 29 wins under his belt but none at Darlington, Stewart is primed to log that long-desired win at the track “Too Tough To Tame.” He’ll get that chance come Saturday night with the Dodge Avenger 500.

Why is a win at Darlington a feather in any driver’s cap?

“A lot of it has to do with the history of the track. If you can say you won a race at Darlington – that’s a feather in your cap. That’s something to be proud of, knowing that you’re in a group of drivers with names like Pearson and Petty – the pioneers of our sport who you hear stories about the races they ran there and the races they won there.

“Darlington is such a tough track to get a handle on and to be good at all day. You don’t see a lot of guys who have a lot of success there. You see only a handful of guys who religiously run well there. That just shows you how difficult Darlington is to get a handle on. If you can have a good day and win there, it’s a track that’s like winning at Bristol (Tenn.). It’s the same type of feeling – knowing that you conquered something that’s very hard to obtain.”

Is Darlington a frustrating track for you, in that you run well – top-10 – but not as well as you’d like?

“I could probably run backward and run about the same as I do going forward. That’s how close I feel like I am to figuring out Darlington. We’ve run decent at Darlington. I mean, I’ve run in the top-five there before, but every time I think I have something figured out, I normally whack the wall and go, ‘Oh boy, I really did figure it out, didn’t I?’ I don’t know that I’ll ever feel like I’ve got Darlington totally figured out.

“It’s a driver’s track. As a race team we’ve kind of struggled there. I don’t really believe we’ve had a race there where I felt like we had the car to beat or that we were a top-three car. Typically, we’re a 10th-place car there. It’s a place where we need to be better. It’s one of those tracks where if you’re not having a good day, it makes you miserable. But that’s what makes Darlington fun if you do get around there well. It’s hard to be good there, and the guys who are good – it’s a fun day for them. Hopefully we can get ourselves in a position where we can get our balance a little better there and keep working toward being a top-five car instead of just a top-10 car.

“But at the same time, there are a lot of teams that aren’t at the level that we are at Darlington. It’s just one of those deals where the only way you’re going to find a way to make yourself better is to go there and just do your homework. It takes a lot to get around that place consistently and fast all day. It’s just a tough place to get around well, and there’s a group of guys that get around there well every time we go there. It’s like we’re right on the verge of being one of those guys. We just need to find a little something that can help us get into that elite group.”

Does not having Rockingham (N.C.) on the schedule – a track with a similar surface to Darlington – make Darlington a tougher track to get a hold of, because instead of having two tracks with which to gauge yourself, you now only have one?

“The tracks were so different from one another that I think Darlington has always stood out on its own. That’s what makes tracks like Darlington more special to go to and win at. It’s not the typical cookie-cutter shaped track. It’s nice to go somewhere and have a challenge once a year that’s totally different from anything else that you do.”

Why is Darlington considered a driver’s track?

“It’s a driver’s track because you have to take care of your tires and you have to move around on the race track. You have to do things on the race track to help your car out because very rarely do you get a car that’s absolutely perfect at Darlington.”

What makes Darlington such a tough race track?

“The surface is just worn out, and it’s been worn out for years. Plus, it’s like racing down an alley. It’s not a very wide race track. And the speeds that we run there makes racing very difficult. There’s little room for error because of how close you run to the wall.”

How do you feel about running 500 miles at Darlington under the lights?

“I can promise you, racing at night here in the spring feels a lot better than racing during the day in the summer. When I was inside the car I normally felt like I was a Thanksgiving turkey and I was looking on my body for that little red pill to stick out and tell me that it was time to take me out of the oven. Racing at night when it’s cooler definitely feels better for the drivers. And you don’t see as many people in the stands looking like cooked lobsters when they leave. I think we all benefit from racing under the lights.”

Does aerodynamics play a role at Darlington?

“Aerodynamics plays a role everywhere we go nowadays. Martinsville might be the only track where aerodynamics doesn’t really play a role anymore. So even at a place like Darlington, you’ve got to make sure you keep the fenders straight because you need every bit of downforce you can get.”

How does the current generation of Goodyear tire hold up at Darlington?

“Let me put it this way, if you’re pitted in turn four, by the time you get to turn one your tires are about as good as they’d be with five laps on them at any other race track. Goodyear can bring any tire they want there, but the surface will still tear it up. It’s not because of a lack of effort on Goodyear’s part, it’s just that Darlington has a very abrasive surface that’s worn out. And anytime you have a track that’s worn out like Darlington is, it’s virtually impossible to bring a tire that’s going to live. But it’s the same for everybody, and that’s what makes Darlington fun. You have to race the race track. It’s very challenging.”

Is Darlington the one track on the Nextel Cup circuit where you feel you have to work the hardest?

“It’s one of the tracks where we seem to work the hardest. The way the tires fall off and as narrow as the track is – it’s hard to pass. So, you’ve got to get your car driving well to be able to pass. You don’t want to use up your tires too early in a run. It’s definitely one of the harder tracks on the circuit, but there are a lot of hard tracks on our schedule.”

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Stewart, Home Depot Team Tame Darlington
They Battle Back for Sixth-Place Finish After Going Two Laps Down
True Speed Communication For Joe Gibbs Racing, Press Release


Date: May 13, 2007
Event: Dodge Avenger 500 (Round 11 of 36)
Series: NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series
Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway (1.366-mile oval)
Start/Finish: 26th/6th (Running, completed 367 of 367 laps)
Winner: Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
It’s not often Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), leaves the 1.366-mile Darlington (S.C.) Raceway egg-shaped oval with a bounce in his step. Almost never in his career, in fact.

Sunday’s running of Saturday night’s rained-out NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Dodge Avenger 500, however, was one of those rare efforts on the track affectionately called “Too Tough to Tame” that left a smile on the face of Stewart and his Home Depot team. Granted, it was a sixth-place finish, but considering Stewart’s starting position of 26th, and the fact he went two laps down after being forced into the pits for a green-flag pit stop after cutting a tire on Lap 215 of today’s 367-lap race, it was a moral victory in the truest sense.

“Talk about a hard day,” said Stewart who recorded his seventh top-10 finish in 11 races this season and moved up a spot to sixth in the championship point standings. “We had to pass a lot of cars to get back up to where we ended up. I’m just proud of our guys. They didn’t get down, I didn’t get down, the spotter didn’t get down. We all just kept our heads up and kept digging today. It was probably our best effort all year – definitely the best race I’ve ever had at Darlington.”

Admittedly not one of his best tracks on the NASCAR schedule over his illustrious career, Stewart found his Home Depot Chevrolet had all the fight in it he needed to tame the grueling Darlington oval once and for all. From his 26th starting position, he was able to steadily move toward the front of the pack. He cracked the top-20 by Lap 10, the top-10 by Lap 46, and was in the top-five by Lap 79 and continued his charge from there. Stewart was third by Lap 100, and had only the race leader, JGR teammate Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 FedEx Express Chevrolet, ahead of him on Lap 161. Stewart maintained his position in the top-three until an out-of-sequence pit stop on Lap 184 for handling adjustments, which dropped him back to 12th. But as he was charging back toward the top-10, a cut tire on Lap 215 forced a costly pit stop that sent him all the way back to 31st place, two laps down.

With fresh tires, Stewart easily gained one of those laps back by Lap 227 as he got around then-race-leader Ryan Newman. Stewart worked his way back up to 23rd place, one lap down, when the caution flag came out on Lap 254. On the Lap-259 restart, Stewart occupied the front of the inside lane of lapped cars and got the jump on race-leader Matt Kenseth in the outside lane to put himself back on the lead lap for good. Stewart easily maintained a 10- to 15-car cushion ahead of the leaders over the next 44 laps until the caution flag came out again on Lap 303. He restarted in 20th when the race went back to green on Lap 309, and gradually picked off car after car from there until the checkered flag flew on Lap 367 for his sixth-place finish.


“Considering everything that happened, when we got back on the lead lap and ran up front there, the biggest thing is you want to get away from those guys but you know you’ve got to manage your tires at the same time,” Stewart said. “So you just run hard enough to stay ahead of them and luckily we didn’t have to rely on a ‘lucky dog’ to get our lap back. We drove and got our lap back and were able to run up there with everybody else at the end.”

Stewart’s JGR teammates – Hamlin and J.J. Yeley – finished second and 18th, respectively, in the Dodge Avenger 500. Hamlin maintained his fourth position in the points, while Yeley gained two spots to rise to 20th.

Jeff Gordon won the Dodge Avenger 500 to score his 78th career Nextel Cup victory and his seventh at Darlington. Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards rounded out the top-five. Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., polesitter Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton comprised the remainder of the top-10.

The next event on the Nextel Cup schedule is the May 19 NASCAR NEXTEL All-Star Challenge at Charlotte (N.C.). The non-points race begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by Speed.


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