November 17, 2008
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. The end of the 2008 season is the end of an era. Tony Stewart says goodbye to Joe Gibbs Racing, where he won two Cup championships and 33 races.
Stewart will be moving to his own team next season are ten years at JGR, but which race win meant the most to him? Would it be the two times he won an Indianpolis?
"It's not that there are too many to count, they're just all special," Stewart said in a Mark Aumann article on nascar.com. "Every race that you win and with every accomplishment, there's something about each one of those that's special in their own unique way."
Still, the pressure on Stewart as the season came to a close must have been enormous. Not only must he focus on his current role as a driver for Joe Gibbs, he must also prepare for his role as team owner/driver at Stewart Haas Racing.
Some skeptics have wondered if Stewart’s focus on getting the 20 car to victory lane has fallen off of late, especially after the strong run he made during the later part of the year last season. However, according to Stewart the role hasn’t been too much for him.
"It's really not been difficult. During the week you're working on the stuff for next year, and on the weekends you stick to what you do here. You just change that focus," Stewart was quoted as saying in a Joe Menzer article for nascar.com. "You know, to me I don't find it as a hard task so far to do that.”
No doubt the end of the season has been difficult for Stewart, regardless of what he is willing to admit.
And Dale Earnhardt Jr’s., first season at Hendrick Motorsports draws to a close as well. The season seemed full of promise early for Earnhardt after he won the first two races of the season, albeit non-points paying races, but he still made the Race for the Chase and managed to finish consistently toward the front for most of the season.
A lot of people criticized his crew chief Tony Eury Jr., for making calls that appeared to squander several legitimate chances that Earnhardt had for winning races, most of this coming after Eury decided to keep the 88 car on the track at Michigan and won the race after making a fuel mileage gamble.
Given the current success of Hendrick Motorsports, next season offers a lot of promise for Earnhardt. His most ardent competition will most likely be the other drivers in the Hendrick stable. As of this writing, Jimmie Johnson is en route to his third straight championship and Jeff Gordon has won four Cup titles for Hendrick.
Mark Martin will be joining the team next season and will no doubt be hungry for his first championship as he has finished second four times in the point standings but has never won a title, just about the only thing that the aging driver has accomplished in the series.
Next year offers a lot of promise for a lot of drivers, but which one will be able to take advantage of it?
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