Stewart-Haas Racing brought new cars to Kansas

Aric Almirola is 25/1 to win Saturday night. 

Almirola is excited to see where his team stands this weekend at Kansas Speedway.

“We’ve built new race cars going to Kansas,” Almirola said. “We built new race cars going to Texas, which I thought were in the game. We were competitive, we led some laps and challenged to lead the race at the end.

“We were in the right direction with our race cars and then we’ve taken another step in going to Kansas. Just continuing to evolve our mile-and-a-half program. Having a month off has really allowed us to kind of take as step back, go through lot of data, look at a lot of different things and build these race cars.”

- NBC Sports

Is Aric Almirola a live dog at 30/1 odds driving for SHR?

Aric Almirola's only Cup win came at Daytona in July, 2014. 

ARIC ALMIROLA, Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing:

How do you feel going into this season with a new team? 

“I’ve been through six full seasons in the Cup Series and they’ve been average, so I’ve got a new opportunity and a new chance in my career to go out and prove what I’m capable of. I’m so excited about this opportunity with Stewart-Haas Racing and having Smithfield as the sponsor, and continuing to drive Ford Fusions. I’m so fired up about my opportunity to go out this year and perform at a high level every week.” 

You have a little history working with your new No. 10 team crew chief, John Klausmeier. Can you provide background on that relationship?

“I had the opportunity to work a lot with Johnny at Dale Earnhardt Inc. He kind of headed up the engineering group for all of the tests. We would go and test what seemed to be like every week back when you could test all the time. I’ve had a relationship with him that dates all the way back to 2007. For us to come full circle is neat, and for him to get this opportunity to be a full-time crew chief, he certainly deserves it. He’s a very smart, talented engineer and has a passion for racing. I’m excited for him as much as I’m excited about my opportunity. We get along great, we’re young, we’re like-minded people and we both enjoy similar things and each other’s company.” 

You’ve worked with Tony Stewart before. How does it feel to work with a legend and under his leadership? 

“Tony has been great to me. From the time I moved to North Carolina in 2004 – he really took me under his wing. I started driving a Late Model for Joe Gibbs Racing and he was someone that I really looked up to, and he befriended me. At 19 years old, he took me under his wing and would let me go test his Cup car with Greg Zipadelli as his crew chief. He really got me started driving the stock cars and gave me the confidence that I could do it. He believed in me and that was big for me. Through the years our friendship has really grown and, finally, we now have the opportunity to work together again. I’ve been wanting to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing for a while now. They’ve won championships and a lot of races in their short existence as a team.” 

How has the transition been for you to Stewart-Haas Racing? 

“The transition to Stewart-Haas Racing has been really easy. They have so many talented people that they just make the transition easy. Everybody from the marketing and PR side to the personnel on the shop floor and the guys on the team. It has been great. That transition has been fun. It has been easy, fun, all of the above. I have just been really looking forward to getting to the racetrack to go race. Changing teams is a big undertaking. I would say that the most challenging thing has been learning 380 employees’ names and faces. That is one of the most challenging things. Besides that, just all the little things like getting your seat right, and going and trying to work with a new team and new pedals and new seat and seat insert – all those things to make sure I am comfortable when the season starts inside the racecar.”


Smithfield Racing Team Report – Daytona Speedweeks

 Daytona is the first race weekend that Almirola will hit the track in an official capacity with the No. 10 team. However, the Smithfield team had a successful Goodyear tire test Jan. 9 and 10 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

 During Daytona Speedweeks, Almirola will also compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He will pilot the No. 98 Smithfield Ford Fusion for the newly merged Stewart-Haas Racing with Biagi-DenBeste team. Richard Boswell will be crew chief for the part-time Xfinity Series effort this season. Almirola’s teammate for the 120-lap event will be the team’s full-time driver Cole Custer in the No. 00 Haas Automation Ford Fusion.

 Tuesday, Feb. 13, from 2 to 4 p.m. EST, Almirola will visit Pierce Middle School in Tampa. The father of two will interact with honor roll students at a pep rally. In addition, Almirola and attendees will participate in an obstacle course, and students will take home items donated by Smithfield. The event is open to the media.

 Friday, Feb. 16, Almirola and SHR co-owner, Tony Stewart, will join Smithfield, a brand of Smithfield Foods, at the Winn-Dixie supermarket located at 1541 Nova Road in Holly Hill, Florida. The event begins at 10 a.m. EST with Almirola and Stewart helping Smithfield present a protein donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida as part of the company’s 2018 Helping Hungry Homes® hunger-relief tour. The event is open to the media.

 Smithfield joined SHR this season and will be the primary partner for the majority of the season on the No. 10 Ford Fusion piloted by Almirola. Founded in 1936, Smithfield is a leading provider of high-quality pork products, with a vast product portfolio including smoked meats, hams, bacon, sausage, ribs, and a wide variety of fresh pork cuts.

- True Speed Communications

Tony Stewart to make final start on home track

Tony Stewart is 25/1 to win in his final Brickyard 400 start.

KANNAPOLIS, North Carolina (July 18, 2016) – Tony Stewart’s 2016 NASCAR swan song has already given motorsports fans the indelible memory of a last-corner pass at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway in June that preceded one of the more emotional victory lane celebrations of the season.

It was a victory that likely earned the 49-time winner a place in NASCAR’s 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs and, given recent success and his historic prowess in Chase races, the three-time champion will likely add to his career highlight reel this summer and fall.

Since announcing in September he would make 2016 his 18th and final season of Sprint Cup racing, it was obvious this Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway might be one of the landmark races of the season. After 17 Brickyard 400s, five Indianapolis 500s, three IROC races and a lifetime of reverence, Tony Stewart will say a final farewell to the track he’s admired since his boyhood growing up in nearby Columbus, Indiana.

Some of the greatest sports figures in the history of Indiana include names like John Wooden, Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, Peyton Manning, Bob Griese, Bobby Knight, Jeff Gordon and Stewart. Watching one of the state’s greats make a final shot, throw a touchdown pass or take a final lap around the revered speedway is never easy, but tens of thousands of Hoosiers will gather Sunday at the Brickyard to say goodbye to one of their own.

“I grew up and lived my whole life in Indiana,” Stewart said. “I didn’t move to Indiana. I didn’t move away from Indiana. I’m the only NASCAR driver in the Cup Series who’s from Indiana and who still lives in Indiana, and I’m proud of where I was born. I’m proud to be back. I still live in the town I was raised in. I take a lot of pride in that. I think the state of Indiana takes a lot of pride in that, and that’s why it makes it a big weekend.”

But spare him the emotional goodbyes.

Stewart, who’ll drive the No. 14 Mobil 1/Chevy Summer Sell Down Chevrolet this weekend, insists, “I’m not going away. I’ll be around. I just won’t be driving in NASCAR. Heck, around Indiana, the fans will probably have more chances to watch us race on dirt than they would if I stayed racing in NASCAR. I’ve got a lot of racing left in me. I look at it like 2017 will begin the second half of my driving career.”

Stewart understands the historic significance of Sunday’s race and the role he’s played at the world’s most famous racetrack. The former USAC and IndyCar Series champion grew up about 45 minutes from the historic track and once drove a tow truck while trying to make ends meet as an aspiring USAC driver. Stewart would drive down Georgetown Road toward 16th Street, running parallel with the speedway’s 3,330-foot-long frontstretch, and wonder what it would be like 300 feet to the left running at 200 mph.

“I’m not going to downplay it because it’s one of the most important weekends of the year for me, being at home and racing in front of friends and family for the last time there. It’ll be an emotional weekend, for sure, but I’ve got a plan on how I’m going to approach the weekend, and I’m just going to stick to that plan and go about our work.”

Like one of the sports stars he admires, Peyton Manning, Stewart wants to walk out of his final season with his head held high carrying a trophy. He arrives at Indianapolis after finishing second at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon last weekend. The performance is the latest in several consecutive weeks of running at the front of the field. Stewart has the second-most points of any driver in the last five races and the eighth-most in the last 10.

Because he missed the first eight races of the season after sustaining a burst fracture of the L1 vertebra in a Jan. 31 all-terrain-vehicle accident, Stewart’s first race in 2016 didn’t occur until April 24 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. NASCAR granted Stewart a medical waiver that made him eligible for the 2016 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup playoffs. After the Sonoma victory, Stewart now must race his way in by ending NASCAR’s 26-race regular season in the top-30 in driver points. Heading into this weekend, Stewart is 28th and leads 31st-place Brian Scott by 67 points.

History says Stewart will be a favorite this weekend. He has one pole, two wins, three top-three finishes, seven top-fives, 11 top-10s and has led a total of 227 laps in 17 career Sprint Cup starts at Indianapolis. He only has four finishes outside the top-12 – a 17th-place result in 2001, a 23rd-place finish in 2008, a 17th-place run in 2014 and a 28th-place finish last year. His average Sprint Cup start at Indianapolis is 14.6, his average Sprint Cup finish at Indianapolis is 9.6. His lap-completion rate is 100 percent. His open-wheel career at Indy is impressive, as well. In five Indy 500s, he earned three top-fives and only finished outside the top-seven once. He led four of the five races for 122 of 1,000 laps.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Chevy Summer Sell Down Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Did winning the 2005 Brickyard 400 lift a weight off your shoulders?
“I think back in 2005 I was fairly realistic that I was never going to get back to Indianapolis in an Indy car. The one thing that was always on the top of my resume was a blank spot that said Indy 500 winner. I think winning the Brickyard that year took the sting out of not winning there in an Indy car. It didn’t replace it, but it just took the sting out of it. To finally win at home, and to win at a facility that all my life was the holy grail when you grow up in Indiana, to finally be able to check that off the list, to do it a couple of times, now, they are definitely two of the highlights of my career.”

How special was it to finally kiss the yard of bricks in 2005?
“It was everything to me. My whole life, since I was a kid, that’s what I wanted to do. Not that I had some fascination with kissing bricks as a child, but my fascination to do it (at Indianapolis) was pretty obsessive.”

What’s different about driving at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
“When you come down the front straightaway, there are grandstands on both sides. Visually, it makes turn one seem like you are driving down a dark alley. It’s very intimidating when you are coming down the front straightaway. The back straightaway is, dimension-wise, exactly the same, but there are no grandstands on the inside. The sun, when it is setting in the west, comes across and gives you a better perspective of seeing around the corner. Man, that front straightaway, especially where the start-finish line is, if you are leading that race and you come off turn four, that’s a long way to the checkered flag. If a guy isn’t right behind you, you have a lot of time to savor that moment driving underneath the double checkered flags and the yard of bricks. Man, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime feeling.”

Why retirement?
“I have spent my whole time doing this. I’ve been racing since I was 8 years old. I definitely feel like we’ve earned it. But I don’t know that it’s an earned deal. I mean, I still want to be a racecar driver. I still want to drive racecars. I still want to be active in racing. But the time demands, I mean, every year – I can tell you over the last 17 years how much more gets added on and added on and added on, and every time they add something, that’s less time we get to do the things we want to do, and I’m just finally to the point where I’m ready to regain some of my time back.”

Will you run in the Indy 500 again?
“Absolutely not. Every year somebody asks me that, and every year I tell them absolutely not, and for some reason they don’t seem to get it. I don’t think 45 years old is an age to try to revive an IndyCar drive. The good thing is, if I want to go to the Indy and watch the 500, now I have the opportunity to go to the Indy 500 again as a spectator and watch, and then get on a plane and fly down and watch our cars race at the Coke 600.”

When you raced in USAC, you had an eye pointed toward Indianapolis, but only in regard to running an Indy car. Now drivers running in USAC still seem to have their sights set on Indy, but it’s in regard to running a stock car. What caused this change?
“Jeff Gordon was probably the biggest influence. He had a lot of success in USAC – won a lot of races. He wasn’t just handed an opportunity in NASCAR. He earned his way down there. When he got the opportunity to go to NASCAR, he opened up a lot of opportunities for drivers like myself. And the TV package that USAC had at the time with the Thursday Night Thunder Series on ESPN, it brought guys from all over the country because of the recognition that could be earned from running USAC. We had guys coming from Pennsylvania, California, Colorado, Wisconsin and Illinois to participate in USAC races because of Jeff’s success and the opportunity that he had to come to NASCAR. Indy cars weren’t an option at the time because, unless you brought a big-dollar sponsor, you weren’t going to get a ride. When Jeff had his success down South, it boosted everybody’s spirits and helped show everyone in USAC that it was a reality and that if they had the same kind of results that Jeff had on the track, then it could happen to them, too.”

Does your experience at Indianapolis in both NASCAR and IndyCar make it that much more comfortable to you, or is it just another track where you have a couple of victories?
“No, it’s definitely not just another victory to us. It’s a big deal to us to win here. This is an event that I definitely circle on the schedule and emotionally have a lot invested in it. To us, it’s definitely not just another stop that’s on the calendar and on the schedule. You don’t just pull in and say, ‘we’re going to go in, try to win the race and then pull out of here.’ When you’re here, you’re amped up because you’re at Indianapolis.”

What was your first childhood memory of Indy?
“I came with my father. We were in some bus that had a luggage rack in the top of it. You had to get up at o-dark-30 to get on the bus to ride up to Indy for race day. They threw me up in the luggage rack. Somebody gave me a pillow and everybody started throwing their jackets on top of me to keep me warm. The ride home wasn’t nearly as cool because, after a long day at the track, everybody but my dad and I were kind of rowdy. I was probably 5 years old. We sat in turns three and four. We were two rows up, right in the middle of the short chute. The hard thing was you could hardly see anything. The cars were so fast. They were a blur. But to see those cars under caution and smell the methanol fumes and everything, it was still pretty cool.”

- True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing

What's next for Tony Stewart following Sonoma win?

Tony Stewart was 100/1 to win the Chase before winning at Sonoma.

LAS VEGAS -- Tony Stewart's Sonoma win on Sunday makes him eligible to be one of the final 16 drivers participating in the seasons final 10 races during the Chase for the Championship. All he has to do now is get himself into 30th-place and he'll be on his way to re-producing the same type of storyline as Kyle Busch last year when he won at Sonoma and it helped propel him to the season title. Stewart is currently in 32nd-place after missing the first eight races, but only needs to make up nine points over the next 10 races.

Before the win, Stewart was listed at 100-to-1 odds to win the 2016 Chase. That number is surely to drop almost in half now that he's so close to making it. How he'll perform from here on out is still a mystery because it was only his third top-10 in eight races and one of those he needed a mid-race replacement driver to finish at Talladega. However, this win could be a jump start for him, a psycholocal boost of sorts after all the tragedy he's endured physically and emotionally the past three seasons.

Sunday's win ended an 84-race winless streak. His last win was at Dover in 2013. Stewart hopes his 2016 story ends up just like Busch's did last year. Following Busch's Sonoma, he would go on to win three of the next four races in July and then eventually winning his first title. Stewart is looking to win his fourth title and what a story it would be if he were to ride off into the sunset a champion in his final season like Peyton Manning or John Elway.

Even if he hadn't won last week he'd still be a good candidate to win Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway. He's never won the Daytona 500, and he missed his final attempt this year because of an off-season road racing accident, but he is a four-time winner in the summer race at Daytona, the last one coming in 2012. He's also led 668 laps over 34 Daytona starts which is most among all active drivers. Brian Vickers drove his No. 14 to a 26th-place finish in February. Because most of the cars in restrictor-plate races are so equal, a rejuvenated Stewart might offer value to win at 30-to-1 odds or higher.

Harvick fastest in rain-shorted first Richmond practice

Stewart is back....ran lots of laps in practice.

Kevin Harvick was fastest during Friday's rain shortened first practice at Richmond International Raceway in preparation for Sunday's Toyota Owners 400. He laid down the fast lap at 129.069 mph on the second of his nine laps run on the flat 3/4-mile layout while in qualifying trim. It's a sign that three-time Richmond winner might be just as good as he was winning at Phoenix six weeks ago, a track requiring very similar set-ups.

The session was scheduled for 85 minutes, but was cut short to 62 minutes due to rain. Most teams saw the rain coming and used the practice exclusively for simulated qualifying runs. However, there were a couple teams searching for a good race day set-up. If Friday's qualifying (4:15 pm ET) is rained out, which is a distinct possibility (it did happen), the lineup will be set by the times from the first practice.

Joey Logano, who ran 35 laps, was second quickest in the session (128.694), followed by Jimmie Johnson (128.187), last week’s winner Carl Edwards (128.181) and then Virginian Denny Hamlin (128.156), who leads active drivers with 1,404 laps led at his home track.

Rounding out the top-10 quickest drivers in the session were Brad Keselowski (128.011), Kurt Busch (127.799), Kasey Kahne (127.334), Kyle Busch (127.298) and AJ Allmendinger (127.220). Kyle Busch has a series high four wins at Richmond and an amazing total of 14 top-five finishes in 21 starts,

Tony Stewart, in his first race of 2016 -- his farewell season, was 18th fastest and ran the most laps (38). The three-time Richmond winner also had the best 10-consecutive lap average among the six drivers that attempted as many laps in a row. Chase Elliott, with the 23rd fastest lap, ran the second-most laps (37).

On Saturday, the teams will have two more practice sessions in the morning, weather permitting, which will tell the entire story of what's going to happen on Sunday. Harvick and the Gibbs drivers look strong, but Logano, who won this race in 2014, should be in the mix.

Check back Saturday afternoon for the final analysis and driver ratings.

Richmond Practice #1

Tony Stewart to miss Daytona 500 due to back injury

Tony Stewart has never won the Daytona 500. 

CHARLOTTE -- Tony Stewart will miss the start of his final NASCAR Sprint Cup season after undergoing back surgery Wednesday to repair a burst fracture of his L1 vertebra, Stewart-Haas Racing said Thursday.

An interim driver was not named and a timetable was not given for Stewart's return.

Stewart suffered the injury while riding in a sand car with a group in Southern California on Sunday. He was transported to a local hospital and then flown to North Carolina on Tuesday night, where he was admitted to a Charlotte-area hospital.

SHR said Stewart is expected to make a "full recovery" and return to the No. 14 car this season, which had already been announced as his last.

Stewart, 44, will miss the Daytona 500, a crown jewel event he has not won in his 17-year career.

Read More Here....USA Today

Stewart hasn't been in car since Homestead, but he's ready for Sprint Unlimited

Stewart is 12/1 to win Sprint Unlimited

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Feb. 11, 2015) – It was all there. The trademark mischievous grin. The perfectly timed wisecrack. The twinkle in the eye. It was vintage Tony Stewart, and it was on display a few weeks ago during the annual Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Media Tour.

It’s Stewart’s state of being as the driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS begins his 17th year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, where his aim is a return to the championship form he displayed in 2011 when he scored his third Sprint Cup title.

Nonetheless, Stewart comes into 2015 fresh off a championship, albeit as a car owner. As the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing with Haas Automation founder Gene Haas, Stewart was able to hoist the championship-winning car owner trophy when his driver and teammate, Kevin Harvick, triumphed in the 2014 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

But there’s a reason Stewart is referred to as a driver-owner, for driving is his first priority. Since earning his most recent driving title in 2011 when he outdueled Carl Edwards in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Stewart has won only four times in the three years since. For someone who is used to winning multiple times in a single season to earn a total of 48 career Sprint Cup victories – tied for 13th on the Sprint Cup Series’ all-time win list with NASCAR Hall of Famer Herb Thomas – Stewart is ready to go retro.

In a career that has seen three championships (2002, 2005 and 2011) and victories at all but two of the tracks the Sprint Cup Series visits, Stewart has a robust resume any racer would covet. But one trophy missing from his mantle is the Harley J. Earl, given to the winner of the season-opening Daytona 500.

The 57th Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 22 will be Stewart’s 33rd career, point-paying Sprint Cup start at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. And while he has yet to score a Daytona 500 win, the “World Center of Racing” is a likely place for Stewart to return to his winning ways.

Among active drivers, Stewart is Daytona’s all-time race winner. Between point-paying Sprint Cup races, non-point races, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the former IROC series, Stewart has a total of 19 Daytona wins. The tally places Stewart second on the track’s all-time win list, 15 behind the late, great Dale Earnhardt, who has 34 total victories at Daytona and is part of the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame class of 2010.

Stewart is a four-time Sprint Cup winner at Daytona, having scored victories in the annual Fourth of July weekend race in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2012, the most among active drivers. Augmenting those four wins are nine top-fives, 14 top-10s and 668 laps led in 32 career, point-paying Daytona starts.

In his most recent Sprint Cup win at Daytona – the 2012 Coke Zero 400 – Stewart exercised textbook patience, waiting to make his move for the win well past the race’s halfway mark. He took the lead on lap 131 and led 21 circuits before relinquishing the top spot to the duo of Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle on lap 152. A massive crash set up a two-lap dash to the finish and Stewart regained the lead on the final lap with an impressive drive around Biffle and Kenseth off turn two and down the backstretch. When another multicar wreck brought out the caution, Stewart’s victory was sealed. It was his 47th career Sprint Cup win.

Stewart arrives for Budweiser Speedweeks at Daytona with a reinvigorated focus on the future that is buoyed by past success. It’s the perfect balance, and it’s vintage Smoke.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What is your outlook as you prepare for the 2015 season?
“I can tell you that from a desire to still compete at a high level and win championships, it’s as high as it’s ever been. I’m not happy about the last two years of my life, by any means, but I’ve never questioned who I am or what I do. It’s probably made my desire stronger than ever. We’ve had two rough years back‑to‑back – something I would never wish on anybody – but deep down inside I know who I am as a person and I know who I am as a driver. It’s given me more drive and desire to get back to the old form that our fans and our sponsors like Bass Pro Shops and Mobil 1 and everybody is used to seeing us in. That’s what I want to get back to, and that’s what makes the start of 2015 so exciting for me. It’s flipping the page and getting ready to get focused again on what we love doing.”

How much does last year’s car-owner championship shape your outlook for this season?
“Kevin Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers and that No. 4 team winning the championship proves we have the right tools in place to have that kind of success. It’s a matter of just putting the pieces together. We know we have room for improvement as an organization and getting all of our cars performing at the same level. That’s what we’ve worked on in the offseason, to try to match what Kevin’s done.”

This is your second year with Chad Johnston as your crew chief. How much has the relationship with him grown since this time last year?
“I think from day one – when it comes to personality – we are a perfect fit for each other. When you hear people talk about driver and crew chief combinations, you hear them talk about it as a marriage, and you really have to be in sync with the person that is your crew chief. It’s just taken a while for me to get used to the path that he was going down with the engineering. As everything evolves each year, you have to keep changing as a driver to catch up to it. So I feel like getting that first year under our belt was important. I’ve seen a lot more confidence, especially at the end of last year. He made some key personnel changes in the offseason, and I think they’re changes he’s very, very comfortable and confident with. It’s just given us more time during the offseason to develop our relationship, but I see more confidence in him now than ever.”

What is the status of your leg since having that fourth surgery in December?
“I haven’t been in a car since Homestead, but everything else I’ve been doing with just everyday life shows that it’s been feeling much, much better. There is one more surgery scheduled at the end of next year – about the same time as this past year – and it’s just to take the titanium rod out. At that point I will have all of the hardware out of my leg. That should be the last surgery, and it will be a short recovery period.”

Restrictor-plate racing isn’t your favorite type of racing, but it is one at which you seem to excel, particularly at Daytona. What makes it frustrating?
“I wish I could explain it. I’m certainly not any happier about it than I’ve always been, but we’ve had a lot of success at restrictor-plate tracks, especially Daytona. I’m glad we’re halfway decent at it, but it’s still always frustrating when you have to rely on what everybody else does. It’s not what you do. It’s what you do along with somebody else who decides that they’re going to follow you and help you. That’s the part that frustrates you as a driver. The great thing about restrictor-plate racing though is that 43 cars all have the same shot at winning the race, but again, that’s also part of what makes it frustrating, too. It’s just being at the right place at the right time.”

It seems that luck plays as much of a factor at Daytona as everything else. Why is that?
“Someone described racing on the superspeedways of being a combination of a science project and the luck of a casino, and it’s exactly that way. You do everything in your power to take care of the science or technology side. You do everything you can to build the fastest car. If you don’t have the luck to go with it – even if you don’t have any drama with getting the car touched, nothing happens to the car – if you’re just in the wrong spot at the wrong time, it can take you out of the opportunity to take the best racecar in the field and win.”

What would winning the Daytona 500 mean to you?
“You look at marquee events around the world, and not only in NASCAR but in all of motorsports – the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours At Daytona, the Indy 500, the Knoxville Nationals – and to be a driver that can cross off one of those marquee events as a winner, that cements your legacy in motorsports. To be able to win the Daytona 500 is the ultimate dream of a racecar driver.”

Where would winning the Daytona 500 rank for you?
“No. 1. I may never get a chance to run in those other marquee events, so that’s why it puts the Daytona 500 at the top, because it’s something that we actually have a shot at. But it is hard. It’s a hard race, and it’s not like you get to come back next week and try it again if you don’t accomplish it. You get one shot a year to accomplish this goal.”

In 2008, you nearly won the Daytona 500. How close were you?
“I’ve run that race over in my mind a million times on what I thought I could’ve done differently. If it would’ve been the Daytona 498, I had it won. I was forced to make a decision of whether I was going to put my whole race in jeopardy to win it, or know that I was getting passed but I may have a shot to get it back in the end. I took the safer route, and I wish I would’ve thrown caution to the wind. I think I would’ve rather crashed out of it knowing that I did everything I could, but I wasn’t sure that if I made the move to block Ryan (Newman, the 2008 Daytona 500 winner) to get in front of him – they were coming at such a high rate of speed, I was probably going to crash half the field if I moved.”

If you had to do that race over again, would you make the other decision?
“Yes. That decision to play it safe has haunted me ever since. So, if that situation happens again, I may come back on a hook, but at least I can say I know I did everything I could do to give myself that shot.”

Why was a Daytona 500 win just not in the cards for you that day?
“Ahhh, you know, I was working really good with my (then) teammate Kyle Busch. It was just being at the right place at the right time and, you know, Ryan (Newman) and Kurt Busch had just got hooked up and were making a huge, huge run, and that’s what it took to get by us. That was the only way they were going to get by us, was to get locked together, and they did a really good job at it.”

When you’re in the draft, how much control do you feel you have inside the racecar?
“It depends on the circumstances. You can’t see the air and you hit different pockets (of air). You hit a pocket where you get a real big tow or you hit a pocket where it seems they’re getting a tow and pulling you back, and you just have to play the circumstances. You just try getting in different scenarios and try to learn if you get in the middle of the draft, what does it do? Will it give you a push? Will it not give you a push? If you get next to this car, does it suck you up or does it slow you down? It’s trial and error, but at the same time, it’s like pulling a pin on a grenade. You know through that process that if one guy makes a mistake, your car’s torn up. It’s just a delicate balance of how hard you go, how many things you try, and how much time you spend doing it.”

TONY STEWART’S DAYTONA PERFORMANCE PROFILE

Year	Event	Start	Finish	Status/Laps	Laps Led	Earnings
2014	Daytona 500	21	35	Running, 174/200	0	$349,521
	*Coke Zero 400	12	40	Running, 45/112	3	$115,398
2013	Daytona 500	13	41	Running, 118/200	0	$321,179
	×Coke Zero 400	13	2	Running, 161/161	0	$254,490
2012	×Daytona 500	4	16	Running, 202/202	2	$379,025
	Coke Zero 400	42	1	Running, 160/160	22	$340,650
2011	×Daytona 500	25	13	Running, 208/208	0	$305,863
	×Coke Zero 400	19	11	Running, 170/170	1	$143,783
2010	×Daytona 500	6	22	Running, 208/208	0	$329,918
	׆Coke Zero 400	9	25	Running, 158/166	7	$127,448
2009	*Daytona 500	5	8	Running, 152/152	15	$371,371
	†Coke Zero 400	1	1	Running, 160/160	86	$349,873
2008	Daytona 500	6	3	Running, 200/200	16	$871,049
	×өCoke Zero 400	17	20	Running, 162/162	0	$141,286
2007	×Daytona 500	3	43	Running, 152/202	35	$283,781
	†Pepsi 400	6	38	Running, 125/160	0	$131,086
2006	×Daytona 500	15	5	Running, 203/203	20	$529,661
	Pepsi 400	2	1	Running, 160/160	86	$369,586
2005	×Daytona 500	4	7	Running, 203/203	107	$389,411
	Pepsi 400	1	1	Running, 160/160	151	$368,261
2004	Daytona 500	5	2	Running, 200/200	98	$1,055,553
	Pepsi 400	17	5	Running, 160/160	12	$149,628
2003	*Daytona 500	8	7	Running, 109/109	6	$285,828
	Pepsi 400	13	21	Running, 160/160	0	$114,128
2002	Daytona 500	6	43	Engine, 2/200	0	$162,065
	Pepsi 400	29	39	Handling, 111/160	0	$102,038
2001	Daytona 500	24	36	Accident, 173/200	0	$113,700
	Pepsi 400	36	26	Running, 160/160	0	$67,325
2000	Daytona 500	7	17	Running, 200/200	0	$118,875
	Pepsi 400	7	6	Running, 160/160	1	$71,425
1999	Daytona 500	2	28	Running, 181/200	0	$102,204
	Pepsi 400	6	6	Running, 160/160	0	$52,475

* Race cut short due to weather.                                                               

× Race length extended due to green-white-checker finish.

ө Race was started by Stewart, but finished by J.J. Yeley who took over for Stewart in a relief role on lap 72.                                                                   

† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points.

- True Speed Communications

Stewart makes 30th Cup start at Richmond Saturday night

Tony Stewart is 20/1 to win this week at Richmond

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (April 24, 2014) – Tony Stewart likes to win. As both a driver and an owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, winning is something he’s been able to do. Repeatedly.

As a driver, Stewart has scored 48 point-paying victories along with a trio of Sprint Cup championships. Since partnering with Haas Automation founder Gene Haas to form Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in 2009, Stewart has earned 22 point-paying Sprint Cup wins as an owner, the most recent of which came April 12 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway via Kevin Harvick.

SHR has won three of the first eight races of the 2014 Sprint Cup season. Prior to Darlington, Harvick won March 2 at Phoenix International Raceway. And in between those wins was Kurt Busch’s victory March 30 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. SHR, in just its sixth season, leads all NASCAR teams in wins in 2014.

With all of that winning, Stewart the owner is grinning from ear-to-ear. Stewart the driver, however, wants to add his name to SHR’s 2014 victory scroll. With Richmond (Va.) International Raceway the next stop on the Sprint Cup circuit, Stewart spies opportunity.

On Saturday night, Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS, will make his 30th Sprint Cup start at Richmond, home to three of his 48 career wins. And when not winning at the .75-mile oval, Stewart has been in sight of victory, with four second-place finishes, 11 top-fives, 19 top-10s and a total of 950 laps led.

Stewart’s winning record in Sprint Cup began at Richmond on Sept. 11, 1999. In just his 25th career Sprint Cup start during his rookie season, Stewart scored his first Sprint Cup win in dominating fashion by leading 333 of 400 laps. Stewart has been winning ever since, with at least once victory in each of his previous 15 years in Sprint Cup, the longest such streak among active drivers.

Stewart’s success at Richmond hasn’t been limited to just Sprint Cup. In addition to his three Sprint Cup triumphs, Stewart has a pair of victories in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, winning back-to-back events in 2002 and 2003 while driving for former car owner and current ESPN analyst Andy Petree. Stewart also found success in a Late Model at Richmond, winning the 2012 Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown, a 75-lap charity race.

The winning and the strong showings have made Stewart an unabashed fan of Richmond, frequently calling it his favorite track. In addition to the Sprint Cup car, Truck and Late Model stock car, Stewart has raced a NASCAR Nationwide Series car, a USAC Silver Crown car and a USAC Midget at Richmond. Now, Stewart’s back at the Virginia short track in his most familiar confine – the No. 14 Chevrolet, emblazoned this weekend with Rush Truck Centers, the premier service solutions provider to the commercial vehicle industry.

In the racing industry, Stewart knows the best solution is victory. With a pole two races ago at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth along with two-top-fives and four top-10s in the eight races so far this season – all of which have positioned Stewart 12th in points after leaving the season-opening Daytona 500 32nd in the championship standings – Stewart is primed for a win, especially now with his favorite racetrack up next on the Sprint Cup docket.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You’ve had a lot of success at Richmond and have often said it’s one of your favorite tracks. Why?
“First, it’s not one of my favorite tracks, it is my favorite track. It’s the perfect-sized track for a Cup race. The other short tracks we run – Bristol and Martinsville – they’re cool in their own right, but there’s a lot of congestion at those two tracks. But at Richmond, it just seems like that extra quarter-mile, and that three-quarter-mile shape, and how wide the groove gets there, allows for good racing. It seems like we have to race ourselves and race the racetrack versus racing each other a lot of times. You do have to race each other, obviously, but there are a lot of times during the race when you have the flexibility to move around on the racetrack and try to find a spot that our Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevy likes better than somewhere else. A lot of times on a short track, you don’t have the flexibility. You’re more narrowed down with what groove you’re going to be in. It is literally the favorite track of mine on the circuit.”

What does it take to be successful at Richmond?
“As much as you’re racing everybody else, you have to race the racetrack. It just seems like a place where if you can get the balance right, it makes it an extremely fun day. With the two ends of the track being different like they are, it seems like you’re always fighting something, but that’s what always makes the racing good, too. You never really get anybody who gets their car perfect. Even the guy that gets the lead still isn’t happy with his car. So, it’s really trying to find that balance and trying to figure out how to balance both ends of the track together.”

SHR has a lot of momentum right now. It seems things have shifted from where it was at the start of the season.
“The whole organization has been doing an awesome job. Obviously, we’re coming in here after Kevin’s (Harvick) second win – two of our cars have won three races for the team, which is a great feeling for us. We had the pole a few weeks ago at Texas and we were pretty proud of that. I don’t know if there is any one thing that changed because our cars have had speed. Kurt (Busch) and Kevin (Harvick) have been qualifying and running well all year, for the most part, and the good thing is it’s not just one team. I don’t know that we can really point to one thing that has changed in the first eight races to be truthful. I think it’s still early in the year and a lot will change. I think the biggest thing for us is that the atmosphere at our shop is really good right now. It has been ever since the end of last season. We have a lot of new faces, and with that has come a new excitement at the shop, and it seems to be transferring to the racetrack.”

Aside from Harvick’s win at Phoenix, the first couple races seemed to be a challenge for the organization. How do you deal with the tough times as an owner?
“It’s not easy, for sure. I mean, it was always hard as a driver, but it’s even worse as a driver/owner. When things are tough, the pressure and the burden is more on you knowing that you’re responsible for everything versus just being the guy driving the car. It’s hard, but it’s also what makes it more gratifying when things go right, and that’s what we’re getting to enjoy right now.”

SHR had a lot of change in 2014 with the addition of a fourth team for Busch. How challenging has it been to manage that growth?
“Well, adding the fourth car was part of it, but the bigger part is that all of the cars are running a totally different package this year with set-ups with no ride-height rule and all that. Everything that we did last year is kind of out the window, and now you’re doing things that are totally different. You’re not just doing it for our Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevy. You’re doing it for all four cars. So, there have been a lot of changes, but they go beyond the fourth team.”

- True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing

Tony Stewart looking for third Fontana win this week

Tony Stewart is 25/1 to win Sunday at Fontana

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (March 19, 2014) – In more ways than one, this week is a rush for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR).

Teams rushed to get back from what turned out to be a Sunday night race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway as rain pushed the afternoon race to a primetime affair. The four-car SHR operation diligently rushed to turn cars, equipment and trucks around for the trip to the left coast for Sunday’s Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. – the third western race of the very young 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

And the rush won’t stop once SHR finally touches down in Southern California. Tony Stewart will make sure of it.

Rush Truck Centers is back for the 2014 season as an SHR partner, making its season debut as primary sponsor for Stewart and the No. 14 Chevrolet SS this weekend in Fontana.

A subsidiary of Rush Enterprises, Inc., Rush Truck Centers is the premier service solutions provider to the commercial vehicle industry and the United States’ largest network of truck and bus dealerships, representing industry-leading brands. With more than 100 vehicle centers strategically located in high-traffic areas or near major highways, Rush Truck Centers operate as one-stop centers offering an integrated approach to the needs of its customers.

As a partner of SHR since 2010, Rush Truck Centers has played an integral role in getting the team’s racecars to and from the track. The relationship evolved and the company signed on to be the primary sponsor for Stewart at three events in 2013. In 2014, Rush Truck Centers will serve as a primary sponsor of Stewart and the No. 14 team for five races, with the Auto Club 400 serving as its kickoff.

Rush Truck Centers’ timing couldn’t be better.

Stewart and Co. are coming off a season-best fourth-place finish at Bristol. Now they carry that momentum to Fontana, a track where Stewart is already a two-time Sprint Cup winner, the most recent of which came in 2012 in a rain-shortened race around the 2-mile oval.

Although that race did not run to its scheduled distance, the fact that Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet was fast couldn’t be negated. The three-time Sprint Cup champion started ninth and quickly charged to the front of the field, taking the lead for the first time on lap 85. He would eventually be credited with a total of 42 laps led, including the final 22.

Preceding that victory was a win in October 2010 at Fontana, an event Stewart won from the 22nd starting spot.

In addition to those wins, Stewart has scored six top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in 22 career Sprint Cup starts at Fontana. And while he earned an impressive fourth-place finish in his very first start at the track in 1999, it’s with the inception of SHR in 2009 that Stewart’s stats have soared.

Since SHR’s inaugural season, Stewart’s poorest Auto Club result is the 22nd-place finish he earned last season, the result of an incident with Joey Logano in the final laps that dropped him from the top-10, where he had competed for the majority of the race. In the seven races since 2009, Stewart has failed to lead a lap only once, which was in February 2010 when he finished ninth

As a driver/owner at SHR, Stewart is always in a rush. And this week in Fontana, Stewart’s fast-paced life is appropriately emblazoned with Rush Truck Centers.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What stands out about your last win at Fontana, other than it being shortened by rain?
“It really boiled down to Denny Hamlin and myself. We were, at different times, the fastest cars on the track, but I was really happy with my car. We didn’t have to adjust very much with it and I felt like we had a car that had a lot of adjustability to it later in the day. Really from the drop of the green flag through the course of the race, and to the part where we actually got rain, we had a dominant car. Denny had spots where he was the fastest and I think he had room to gain to close that ground. They were definitely en route to do that when the rain came, but I think it was really going to be down to the two of us for the rest of the day, regardless of the weather.”

Fontana is a track with multiple racing grooves which places the race a little more in the driver’s hands. Do you appreciate that, and how soon do you start moving around the track testing the other grooves?
“It’s nice knowing that as a driver you can help yourself out and you’re not relying so much on the car. Regardless of what everyone else is doing, you can find a way to help yourself out. It makes you feel good knowing that because the place is so wide, you can move around, and basically, earn your money that day. As far as when to start trying the different grooves, really from the drop of the green flag, you do it from there on out because what works for one part of the race may not work at another point. Basically, it’s as soon as you feel like you’re not where you need to be. If you feel like you’re slower than the pace you need to be running, you’re going to move up the racetrack and find a place that helps balance your racecar.”

Rush Truck Centers is back as a primary sponsor. How did that relationship come about?
“We’ve been doing business with Rush Truck Centers for years. It’s an established relationship that has a much higher profile thanks to Rush Truck Centers becoming a primary sponsor with our team. Rush Truck Centers keeps our trucks and transporters up and running, and you could argue those are the most important parts of our race team. Without them, our cars never get to the racetrack. The employees of Rush Truck Centers are as detail-oriented as we are, and they play a critical role in the success of our race team.”

How much did last Sunday’s fourth-place finish at Bristol help you and the team?
“It was something I needed, for sure. It wasn’t the day we wanted for our teammates, but if you come out of Bristol with a top-five, you’ve had a good day. Obviously, for Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and I to work together for the first time and four races into the season be able to get a top-five at Bristol – that’s pretty big for us. So it’s definitely a step in the right direction.”

A big question at the beginning of the season was in regard to how SHR’s four drivers – you, Danica Patrick, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch – would work as a group. Now that we are nearly five races into the season, how is the group working together?
“We’re all equally competitive and that’s what makes this a great combination and a great set of drivers for an organization. I think what makes it so exciting is that we don’t have anyone that’s just kind of laid‑back and easy‑going. We’ve got four of us that push hard all the time. As a comparison, I’ve played pool with a lot of people, and I want to play guys that are better than me, so having four of us together that are people that push each other, it just makes all four of us better as we go. It’s an interesting pairing from that standpoint, and I don’t know how it could be a better grouping than what we’ve got.”

What is the biggest asset of SHR’s driver lineup?
“I think each of us can go to any racetrack and be competitive, but I think there are racetracks that Kevin (Harvick) really is that much better. There are tracks Kurt (Busch) is that way, and I think there are tracks that we’re that way. Danica (Patrick) has got strengths that we all can feed off of as well. I think our personalities lend to that. We all want to push to make each other better because we all understand if we make each other better, we as a group just continue to grow. I feel that that’s a huge asset for all of us right now.”

TONY STEWART’S FONTANA PERFORMANCE PROFILE

Year	Event	Start	Finish	Status/Laps	Laps Led	Earnings
2013	Auto Club 400	8	22	Running, 200/200	18	$137,405
2012	*Auto Club 400	9	1	Running, 129/129	42	$323,450
2011	Auto Club 400	5	13	Running, 200/200	11	$134,083
2010	Auto Club 500	16	9	Running, 250/250	0	$138,398
	Pepsi Max 400	22	1	Running, 200/200	27	$262,598
2009	Auto Club 500	11	8	Running, 250/250	3	$139,748
	Pepsi 500	20	5	Running, 250/250	6	$143,248
2008	†Auto Club 500	6	7	Running, 250/250	0	$158,061
	Pepsi 500	14	22	Running, 250/250	0	$137,936
2007	Auto Club 500	11	8	Running, 250/250	28	$148,161
	Cal 500	22	13	Running, 250/250	12	$143,286
2006	×Auto Club 500	12	43	Engine, 214/251	28	$131,453
	California 500	22	9	Running, 250/250	0	$149,611
2005	Auto Club 500	29	17	Running, 250/250	0	$133,111
	×California 500	14	5	Running, 254/254	56	$178,036
2004	Auto Club 500	11	16	Running, 249/250	0	$120,603
	Pop Secret 500	33	18	Running, 250/250	0	$127,978
2003	Auto Club 500	3	41	Engine, 128/250	100	$117,708
2002	NAPA Auto Parts 500	8	29	Running, 247/250	0	$102,003
2001	NAPA Auto Parts 500	4	4	Running, 250/250	0	$107,072
2000	NAPA Auto Parts 500	32	10	Running, 250/250	0	$75,950
1999	†NAPA Auto Parts 500	7	4	Running, 250/250	1	$68,175

* Race cut short due to weather.                                            

† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points.                                           

× Race length extended due to green-white-checker finish. 

- True Speed Communication for Stewart-Haas Racing

Things should be interesting with 2014 Stewart-Haas season

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Greg Zipadelli joked Monday that he is preparing a special room for driver meetings at the Stewart-Haas Racing shop next year.

After all, with three drivers who could be considered volatile at times — Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch — as well as Danica Patrick, Zipadelli expects some heated moments and difference of opinions.

As competition director, he will be in charge of a team with three drivers who haven’t always seen eye to eye and who have had their share of emotional outbursts and temper tantrums throughout their careers. Stewart, Busch and Harvick, in fact, could be considered the three most volatile drivers in the sport, with all three having had multiple run-ins with NASCAR, other drivers and the media.

Stewart even reportedly punched Busch once in the NASCAR hauler following practice at Daytona. And Harvick and Busch haven’t always been on the best of terms.

“We built a rubber room upstairs, that's the first thing we did,” Zipadelli said with a laugh.

“When you have four passionate drivers, I would much rather deal with that than to try to figure out how to get them going. You're born with that. The competitiveness that these guys have, that's what you need in this sport.”

Read More Here.......Sporting News

Kurt Busch signs deal to drive for Stewart-Haas in 2014

Kurt Busch is now back with big-time program

Kurt Busch has decided to join Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014.

Stewart-Haas Racing has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon, when it will announce that Busch will leave Furniture Row Racing for Stewart-Haas starting in 2014.
ESPN and Fox Sports first reported the deal Monday morning and Busch confirmed it to Sporting News on Monday afternoon.

“This is the kind of situation every driver wants to be in,” Busch said in a text message to Sporting News. “I’m grateful to (team co-owner) Gene Haas and Haas Automation for providing me this opportunity. … My focus still remains on the present and trying to achieve our Chase goal on the No. 78.”

Furniture Row released a statement Monday afternoon confirming Busch's departure.

“It was always our intention to extend Kurt's contract with Furniture Row Racing," team general manager Joe Garone said. "We made him an offer last week to continue as the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet in 2014 and beyond. Though he did not accept our offer we respect his decision and wish him future success.

"His driving skill and being a dedicated team player will always be appreciated at Furniture Row Racing. But for right now the main focus for Kurt and the team is to qualify for the Chase and contend for the 2013 Sprint Cup Series championship."

Read More Here......Sporting News

2013 GoBowling.com 400 Preview: Who can stop Johnson from sweeping Pocono season?

Tony Stewart is one of a few who could give Johnson a run Sunday

For those looking to wager on this Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway, the first order of business at hand is to not only look at what happened in the June 9 race at Pocono, but also last week’s results from the Brickyard 400. The similarities between the two 2.5-mile tracks lie within the long straightaways and at least one instance -- turn 3 at Pocono -- that resembles Indy’s flat turns.

Ten of the top-15 finishes in the first Pocono race finished in the top-15 Sunday at the Brickyard, including Sunday’s winner, Ryan Newman, who finished fifth at Pocono. Jimmie Johnson won the June race and finished second on Sunday using the exact same chassis for both races, which was also the same one that he used to win last year’s Brickyard 400. However, that beast of a chassis is unlikely to be turned around this quickly and be ready for this week, even though there shouldn’t be too much tinkering required on it because the set-ups for each track are similar.

The No. 48 team will have its press release sent out by Wednesday which will detail what chassis Johnson is using this week, and if it isn’t the same chassis he used to lead the most laps at Pocono and Indy this year, it shakes up the odds considerably for everyone else. Or rather, it gives everyone else a fighting chance.

If it wasn’t for an out-of-the-ordinary late muff by the No. 48 pit crew in their final pit stop that last 17 seconds, Johnson would have been able to win at Indy again -- for a record fifth time. Newman’s crew made the winning move by taking only two tires in their final pit stop, while Johnson’s took four, but the margin victory was just under three seconds. If Johnson’s crew had just been able to shave off three seconds and make just an average pit stop, Johnson would have been able to make the winning pass on Newman with about two laps to go.

No one’s crying for Johnson, though. This guy has four wins on the season already and is making a mockery of the points system by having a 75-point lead over second-place Clint Bowyer. That’s almost two entire races of maximum points that Johnson leads by which is why he’s an overwhelming EVEN (Bet $100 to win $100) money favorite at the LVH Super Book to win the Chase this season.

As for Newman, he moved up three points in the standings to 16th but still needs some help to gain the final wild card spot in the Chase with six races to go. For the lucky few that had the foresight to take Newman last week, he paid off at 50/1 odds. Following a good practice session and then qualifying well enough to start from the pole, his odds were dropped down to 25/1 at the LVH.

Read More Here.......Top-5 Finish Prediction

Tony Stewart wins FedEx 400 at Dover

Tony Stewart wins at Dover for first time since 2000

Tony Stewart, who had gotten off to a terrible start to the 2013 season, spoiled an upset bid by Juan Pablo Montoya to win Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Dover.

Both of them took advantage of a late-race penalty to Jimmie Johnson, who dominated the race but was black-flagged after jumping the final restart.

Montoya beat Johnson out of the pits during the final caution period and held the lead for the final restart on Lap 20, but Johnson jumped the restart to take the lead and was black-flagged. He had to serve a pass-through penalty, handing the lead to Montoya with 14 laps remaining.

But Stewart, who had just two top-10 finishes this year, closed on Montoya and finally passed him for the lead with three laps to go.

Montoya finished second followed by Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Clint Bowyer.

Denny Hamlin, who is trying to fight his way back into Chase contention after missing four races with a back injury, started on the pole, led early and was running sixth when he had a flat tire and hit the wall with just 24 laps remaining. He finished 34th, further damaging his hopes of getting back into the top 20 to become eligible for a Chase wild card.

Johnson dominated the second half of the race and was leading when Hamlin hit the wall to bring out the final caution flag. Johnson, Montoya, Stewart and others took just two tires on their pit stop, and Montoya led Johnson off pit road.

Read More Here...Sporting News

FedEx 400 Results


Johnson disagrees with penalty

DOVER, Del. —Moments after losing what appeared to be a sure victory Sunday, Jimmie Johnson put on a hat, had a few sips of a sports drink and then calmly talked about the race that got away.

Perplexed and disappointed that NASCAR penalized him for jumping a restart with 19 laps remaining, Johnson dealt with his 17th-place finish matter-of-factly just minutes after screaming on his radio that he should not have been penalized.

“It happens and not much I can do about it,” the five-time Cup champion said in the garage at Dover International Speedway. “If I was sitting here bitching and complaining with 60-something wins, I don’t think anybody would feel sorry for me, either.”

Read More Here...Sporting News

Penske Says He'll Give Stewart Indy 500 Car if He Wants One

Speedtv.com

Stewart in Indy 500 would boost event

If Tony Stewart wants to run the Indianapolis 500 next season, Roger Penske will give him a car.

Penske twice Friday night offered Stewart the chance to enter next year's race and insisted he's serious about the opportunity.

"Where's Stewart?" Penske asked during his speech accepting the Sprint Cup trophy during NASCAR's season-ending awards ceremony. "How about doing the double at Indy this year? You available?"

The banquet room at Wynn Las Vegas Resort broke out into laughter, but Penske later insisted he was serious.

"If he wants to do the double, I'd put him in it," Penske said. "We've talked about it before. I guess I made it official tonight."

Stewart was not immediately available for comment.

Penske-owned cars have won the Indianapolis 500 15 different times, but not since Helio Castroneves' 2009 victory.

The Indy 500 is Stewart's favorite race, but he has not entered it since 2001.

NASCAR's three-time champion twice attempted to run both the Indy 500 and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day: In 1999, he was ninth at Indy and fourth at Charlotte, and in 2001, he was sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte.

He hasn't tried Indianapolis since, and has seemingly let go of his childhood dream of winning the 500. He has twice won the Brickyard 400, NASCAR's race at storied Indy.

Read More Here..

Harvick to Leave RCR after 2013 and Join Stewart-Haas in 2014

Lame duck for a whole season?

Sporting News

Kevin Harvick will leave Richard Childress Racing after the 2013 season and has signed a multiyear contract to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing starting in 2014, ESPN.com reported Friday.

Citing multiple NASCAR sources, ESPN reported that Harvick will drive a fourth Stewart-Haas car, teaming with team co-owner Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Danica Patrick.

Harvick has driven for RCR throughout his 12-year career. He replaced Dale Earnhardt following Earnhardt’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500.

Neither Harvick nor Stewart would confirm the report Friday.

"I'm looking forward to finishing out this season on a strong note with RCR and continuing to build our program going into the 2013 season with the ultimate goal of winning a championship," Harvick told ESPN.com. "Anything beyond that, once I know what my future plans are set I'll let you know."

Read More Here....

Stewart Holds Off Kenseth-Biffle Duo to Win at Daytona

Tony Stewart salutes the fans after winning Coke Zero 400 (Getty)

Florida Times-Union

DAYTONA BEACH - Tony Stewart passed a pack of cars on the back straightaway on the final lap of the Daytona International Speedway and captured the Coke Zero 400 Saturday, his fourth victory in Daytona's July race in the last eight years.

Stewart, the defending Sprint Cup champion, survived a crash-marred final 35 laps to win his 47th Sprint Cup race. Stewart blew past Matt Kenseth with half a lap to go after Kenseth had dominated most of the race, leading 78 of the first 120 laps.

Stewart also won in Daytona in the July races in 2005, 2006 and 2009. Stewart had qualified second but the time was disallowed because of an illegal air duct inside his car. Stewart started 42nd.

Unlike the Daytona 500 in February, which was delayed more than 30 hours because of rain, weather for the July meeting at DIS was perfect, if not broiling until the sun slipped behind the main grandstand before the start of the race.

The was cleanly run over the first half of the 160 laps. The first caution flag didn't drop until lap 82, when Sam Hornish Jr. cut a tire on the backstretch. Hornish had no idea when he woke up in the morning that he would be racing at Daytona Saturday. He was a quick replacement for Penske Racing teammate A.J. Allmendinger, who was suspended by NASCAR receiving a positive drug test of his "A" sample taken randomly last week at the race site in Sparta, Ky.

Allmendinger's No. 22 car was 15th on the grid. He had finished among the top-10 three times this season and was 23rd on the points list following Kentucky. Allmendinger has 72 hours to formally request his "B" sample be tested.

Hornish, who had finished 10th in the Nationwide Series race Friday and had returned home to North Carolina, boarded a private plane and landed at the nearby Daytona International Airport at 7:20 p.m., 15 minutes before former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden and grand marshal gave the command, "drivers, start your dad-gum engines."

The suspension gave Hornish his first start in a Daytona Sprint Cup race since July of 2010.

There were four more spectacular wrecks in laps 92, 125 and 153 and 160. The third involving 14 cars in a turn one melee, and was initiated when Denny Hamlin and Greg Biffle tangled in the middle of the track.

Coke Zero 400 Results

Coke Zero 400 Article Links
Stewart Wins 4th Time at Daytona - Daytona Beach News-Journal
Burton Settles for Seasons Best Finish - Daytona Beach News-Journal
Bobby Bowden: Drivers Starts Your Dadgum Engines - Daytona Beach News-Journal
Dale Earnhardt Jr: Drivers Tried But Couldn't Pass - SBNation.com
Five Things Learned at Daytona - SI.com
Allmendinger Banished From Racing - Monte Dutton