May 18, 2009
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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You knew it was only a matter of time before Tony Stewart would find his way back to victory lane…but I don’t know that anyone expected it to happen quite like this.
After 10 years of driving the Home Depot #20 for Joe Gibbs Racing, it took Tony Stewart just 12 races to win the first trophy for his own team, Stewart Haas Racing.
What a great way to celebrate his 38th birthday this week.
Saturday night’s All-Star Race looked like it was going to be a dud with Jimmie Johnson giving the impression he was going to make Lowe's Motor Speedway “his house” again. He led solidly for the entire first 50 lap segment, ending it on a note of kindness to the 39 team of Ryan Newman, who was already one lap down due to a mechanical issue, and was about to get lapped to go 2 laps down as they came to lap 50. Johnson was being pressured from behind, but was able to keep Newman in the “Lucky Dog” slot.
That kindness would come back and bite one of Jimmie’s teammates 40 laps later.
Then we moved to two 20-lap segments, and that is when it looked like Kyle Busch was going to give Jimmie a run for the million bucks.
Kyle took the lead in the second segment, and led one of the 20 laps.
Then Jeff Gordon moved up and took the lead half way through the third segment.
And then we had the last red flag and the 10-lap shootout.
I don’t know whose idea it was to bring the 10-lap dash back, but that is the way every race should end. Apparently, I’m not the only fan of the return to the “old ways” of the race.
“That final 10 laps, nobody's holding back. Everybody's going for it. I applaud the format changes and everything that happened” commented Kurt Busch after the race. Kurt had given Johnson a solid run for his money in the first segment, and was always lurking, but in the end, just never had a chance to grab the lead and take off.
Joey Logano, the current driver of the Home Depot #20, and the winner of the fan vote to get into the main event, stated that despite being a rookie with no time running in the big race ” I had fun. The last 10 laps was really cool, not counting cautions and everyone was going for the gusto out there. That was really cool.”
You knew that the last segment was going to be a blood-letting. A no-hold bars dash for the cash, with everyone doing whatever they needed to to get to the front of the pack.
You saw it on the first lap, when Kyle attempted to jump out around Matt Kenseth before they crossed the start line. Then Jimmie Johnson was turned…amazingly no one hit him as he spun mid-pack…and as a result, ended up having to go to the back of the pack.
Then the action started happening between Gordon, Busch, Ryan Newman, and Matt Kenseth. Kyle threaded the needle as soon as the green flag flew to restart the last segment, and before the end of that first lap, he was out in front. Gordon passed him, and Newman got a run and joined the chase for the lead. This time, Newman took them three wide…and it didn’t end well for anyone involved. Gordon hit the wall and climbed out of the 24 car as fluids ran down the track. Newman restarted after the crash, but ended up going to the garage a short time later. Only Kyle was able to finish the race.
Busch commented over his radio "Looks like a race broke out here," after the crash.
As Jeff Gordon said after being released from the infield care center “That’s the All-Star event…it’s just a bunch of guys racing really, really hard. I heard three-wide at the last second, and I was already wide open…I’m just glad it wasn’t worse than that, I was pretty nervous sliding across the track like that. It was a great night for us up until that point. Oh well.”
In the end, the leader of the first segment got in a crash, the leader of the second segment got in a crash, and the leader of the third segment got in a crash.
Over the last five laps, Tony found his way into the fray as the 17 of Kenseth and the 18 of Busch battled for the lead. Tony found the bottom line and, after a third caution, this one for debris, he and Kenseth settled in for a great battle to the finish.
As the 14 pit crew took up position standing on top of the pit wall, Tony and matt fought for position along the bottom of the track, knowing that was the place that Smoke was able to get grip and go. Kenseth held him off for three, but with just over two miles left in the race, Tony got to the inside and past Kenseth…and for only the second time in All-Star race history, an owner-driver took the checkered flag.
The wonderful irony was that on Friday night during qualifying, Smoke messed up during the mandatory pit stop. Instead of waiting for a four tire pit stop as was required, Smoke took off after the team got the right side tires on…had to stop three pit stalls away…backed up…and let the team complete the stop. After getting out of the car, he looked a bit sheepish and knew he had made a big blunder, but took it with good humor.
“That was part of our strategy was to actually get those guys so confused that they were still talking about it today and wondering what I was doing and why I was doing it. And I still don't have an answer for why I did what I did (Friday)” he chuckled.” We're still confused about it.”
The Tony of just five years ago would have been more likely to throw a fit and do a little screaming, but the older, “owner” Smoke seems to have realized that it is easier to laugh at yourself that get bent out of shape.
Speaking of shape, as soon as he crossed the finish line, his Crew Chief Darian Grubb came on the radio to say “Let’s go climb the fence baby!” referring to Tony’s practice of climbing the fence in 2007 after a win. Tony came back with “I’m too old and too fat to do that, so let’s just enjoy this!”
Well, just because the boss wasn’t willing to do it didn’t prevent the rest of the team from doing it, and there were suits of red scaling the front stretch fence at Lowe's as the boss did a small burn out and pulled into “Victory Lane”.
After the race, Kenseth noted he had no one to blame but himself for losing the race. “'I’m obviously disappointed we lost. But I feel stupid. Looks like I rolled up and Tony went flying right by me, which he did.”
Fans in the background could be heard chanting “Tony! Tony! Tony!” during post race interviews. Within the 15 minutes after the checkered flag, well over 100 posts of congratulations were placed on Tony’s Facebook page.
Who would have thought just a few years ago, as Smoke pushed a photographer out of the way or stormed off after bad races or fought with his crew on a regular basis, that you would see a smiling car owner, thanking everyone on the planet, talking about patience and what a great teammate Ryan Newman is, hearing his name chanted by thousands of excited fans?
“I was so excited, I wanted to get back to them right away. There's guys on this team that haven't been to Victory Lane before” Smoke commented post-race. “That was something I was really looking forward to was getting there and congratulating (co-owner)Gene (Haas)on his first win and these guys that have been with the organization and haven't been in Victory Lane, to see those guys get their first win and be a part of it with them was what I was really looking for."
“To get them to there for the first time, that means more than a million dollars does to me.”
Just because Smoke was the winning driver didn’t mean he wasn’t also willing to pull out the boss hat, albeit with a smile, when someone asked a question he didn’t want answered: “Darian, talk about some changes after the third segment. You had a little intermission there, talk about some of the things you did.”
“You tell them that, I'll kill you.” Smoke said with a half smile before Grubb had a chance to say a word.
When it comes to the race, Tony understands just how hard it is to accomplish what he did this weekend.
“It's a hard race to win," said Stewart. "There's nobody holding anything back. You look at the racing out there…and how many times do you see Jimmie Johnson spin out? How many times did Jeff Gordon get spun out? Three wide for the lead with less than 10 laps to go. You don't see that very often.
“You know, this is a special race. You know it's different. You know it's going to be more difficult because of that.”
As for the race as a whole, the fans seem to like the changes…and the resulting no-holds barred racing to the finish:
“That was one of the best All-Star races ever!!!”
“Awesome awesome race!!! Now that is what I call racing!!!”
“What a battle!”
“Great race! That last segment was awesome!!”
I look forward to seeing if Smoke can follow up his win Saturday with a win in the 600 next weekend. I’ll be there, in person, covering all the activities of the 50th anniversary of the Coca Cola 600 live from Concord, NC. And I’ll be doing it from the newly re-named “David Poole Deadline Room” within the media center.
Speaking of David, he was great friends with Smoke, and I am almost certain he was smiling down on the end result of Saturday’s race.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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