May 17, 2009
By Ron Felix
CIA Stock Photos
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Tony Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing after being with the team for ten years to run his own race team. Stewart did what he had threatened to do since the beginning of the season. He had parlayed five top-five finishes in the last six races into a second place in the Cup series standings, but victory had eluded the 37-year-old driver nicknamed "Smoke" -- until Saturday night.
"We weren't that good until the last run," Stewart said. "Darian Grubb (crew chief), I mean he made some awesome calls there at the end to get us where I could drive that thing the way I could. Man, it was fast."
Stewart also accomplished something only one other driver has managed to do, Geoff Bodine was the only other car owner/driver to win the All-Star event -- this was Stewart's first victory in an All-Star race. Stewart collected a cool and badly needed $1,022,975.
Darian Grubb and Stewart's crew members wanted him to climb the fence (like he used to do) but he was having none of that. Yet the crew did it without the out-of-shape driver.
"They took that upon themselves to do it," Stewart said. "They told me. I said: 'No way, I'm not doing this again'. I'm too old to be doing it. But 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."
Stewart, who turns 38 years-old next Wednesday, started 14th on the field and only led two laps, the final two. After the last caution period, the race restarted with five laps to go. Matt Kenseth was leading with Kyle Busch in second and Stewart in the third spot. Stewart easily passed Busch and set out after Kenseth. With four to go Stewart got up along-side Kenseth but his car wiggled and Stewart had to back out of the throttle. Stewart regrouped, coooled his tires and set out after Kenseth again and passed him with two laps to go in the 100 lap race -- a million dollar pass. It was clear sailing after that.
"I can't believe he gave me the bottom," Tony said of his inside pass for the lead. "I just cannot believe he gave me the bottom. But I'll take it. Matt is a guy you can trust. We got to second there, got by the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) and I thought, 'All right, we have a shot at this thing.'"
Kenseth gave it a valiant effort but couldn't hold off the hungry Stewart.
"We were too loose all night, and we were really slow on restarts," said Kenseth. "For long runs we were pretty good… During the break we had to tighten the car up a lot, which we did -- put more air in the tires and did all the things we needed to do for a short run. "It was actually pretty good for five or six laps, but with all the short runs and cautions (three after the start of the final segment) and getting the body banged in a little bit, it just hurt it, and with three or four (laps) to go, it started getting really tight and wouldn't turn at all that last lap. -- and Tony just rolled on by."
Leading the race wasn't the place to be. The segment One leader Jimmie Johnson was involved in a wreck, then the segment Two leader Kyle Busch got tangled up with segment Three leader Jeff Gordon. Busch faded back after the contact and Gordon took a ride in the ambulance to the infield care center.
"That's the All-Star race. Everyone is going for it. There's a lot at stake," Gordon said. "There's a lot of pride and money and we're putting on a heck of a show for these fans. We were certainly proud of our DuPont Chevrolet team tonight. Man, they were doing awesome. We had a great, great race car. Starting from the pole is a little bit of a disadvantage and so we didn't get a very good restart. Kyle (Busch) got to the outside of us and from that point on I was just fighting hard. I didn't even know the No. 39 (Ryan Newman) got three-wide on the outside. I just ran out of room. It was nobody's fault."
Kurt Busch finished third and Denny Hamlin was fourth.
"For us I was just hoping that the 17 and the 14 would duke it up a little bit and we would be able to come sliding through the smoke and hoist up the trophy," said Busch. "But not to be. And Tony did a great job tonight and so did Matt.
Carl Edwards finished in the fifth spot followed by Mark Martin, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to round out the top ten.
As usual and for good reason this time, Kyle Busch wasn't too happy after the race.
"We had a good car all the way up to the end," Busch said. "We sat here and talked about what we were going to do those last 10 laps to get the car some speed in it and it bit us. I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about it, but everybody was with it and I was like, ‘Well, okay, let’s do it.’ Went into qualifying mode and should have left it alone because I think we had the best car for the short run.”
Joey Logano, who was voted into the All-Star race by the fans, had the time of his young life.
"I really gotta thank the fans for that one. For a rookie to come in get the fan vote, a lot of big names in that race to get the fan vote right off the bat, that was very surprising," said Logano. "I had a blast tonight. I had so much fun. It was the most fun I've had in a Cup race so far, that's for sure. I think it's cool how it's 50 and 20 and 20 and 10. That was different. But I enjoyed it."
The next race on the Sprint Cup schedule – the 12th event of 36-races for the 2009 Sprint Cup Championship. The Coca-Cola 600 will be on Saturday May 24th, at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. The race begins at approximately 5:00 p.m. eastern time with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 4:30 p.m. eastern time.
The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128 and PRN radio.
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