April 17, 2009
By Rebecca Gladden
When I interviewed Tony Stewart last fall as part of the 2008 Chase Media Day satellite tour, I asked whether he had identified any specific goals for his new team, Stewart Haas Racing, in 2009.
"I don't really even know. I don't know what to expect," Stewart replied. "I think the big thing is just getting the key people in place right now and letting it go through its course. I don't know that I have an expectation or have set a goal, necessarily, for what I think this team could do next year. It's a first time deal for me, so I don't know what to expect. I'm not sure I know how high to set the bar for our first year."
Imagine if I could have told Stewart that day that after seven races he'd be fifth in points, with five top-10 finishes and two straight top 5s?
In an article posted today at StewartHaasRacing.com, Stewart reflected on the early success of his young race team, admitting that it has been a bit of a surprise.
"When we first looked at this deal and we looked at the resources available to us, on paper it's supposed to work," notes Stewart. "Everything is there. We have good crew chiefs, two good drivers and a great competition director in Bobby Hutchens. So we know that we have all the tools we need. But there's still the reality that we're going up against Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Childress Racing. Those are some big teams. We're a new organization with a new group of guys and to go out there and have the success that we've had, we have been a little surprised, but we're obviously very happy that we're out there holding our own."
Coming off a third-place finish in Martinsville and a fourth in Texas, it seems this weekend's Subway Fresh Fit 500 may be Stewart's best chance yet to reach the next big milestone for his fledgling team: a Cup series win.
Tony's had a long and successful relationship with Phoenix International Raceway dating back to his first Copper World Classic back in February, 1993, when Stewart was a little-known 21-year-old driver from south-central Indiana. He finished second.
Over the years, Stewart has raced practically everything at PIR, from Silver Crown cars and USAC Midgets to Indy cars, Supermodifieds and, of course, stock cars. He was the lead tire test driver for Firestone when he raced in the Indy Racing Lead and often tested on the one-mile oval because of Arizona's accommodating weather.
In NASCAR, Stewart has one Cup win and six top 5s in 14 starts at PIR, including two second-place finishes. He ran 14th and 20th here last year in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, but the year before, in a Chevy, he finished second and fourth.
If Stewart does pull off the win this weekend, it will be the first time since early 2007 that someone other than Jimmie Johnson has pulled into Victory Lane here. Johnson won the last three Phoenix races and, with Jeff Gordon's win just prior to that, it's been a Hendrick sweep at PIR the past two years.
That's actually great news for Stewart, who's two cars are an extension of the HMS juggernaut. The team's website notes, "While Stewart-Haas Racing stands on its own two feet, the ladder it's using to climb to the top of the NASCAR hierarchy is built by Hendrick. The team gets all of its engines and chassis from Hendrick, a relationship that has proven its worth by measure of Stewart's fifth-place point standing via two top-fives and five top-10s in the seven Sprint Cup races run thus far."
While his past performance at PIR is important to Stewart, he's also expressed a particular fondness for the desert destination he calls his western home away from home. "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. It's just kind of the total package when I go out there. It's a great facility. Obviously, there aren't 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 racetrack."
Stewart admits that his years of experience at PIR have helped him decide which end of the track to focus on, since Turns 1 and 2 are so different from 3 and 4. But whatever that advantage is, he's holding it as close to the vest as a card shark at an old-west poker table. "I do have a preference, but I don't tell everybody else that. That's what having all these years and these laps of experience there does for me. It's the one secret variable that I try to use to my advantage."
Whether that knowledge translates to a win this weekend will depend on a number of variables. But Stewart's fans would like nothing more than to see their driver climb the Phoenix fence and notch his first-ever win as a Cup series owner/driver, especially at the track that's been so pivotal to his success.
"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," said Stewart.
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