August 17, 2005

By Rebecca Gladden

For the past eight NASCAR Nextel Cup races, Tony Stewart has been making it look easy.

Just over two months ago, the series was in Pocono for the 14th race of the year. Stewart qualified 26th for the June 12th race and finished 29th. He was 10th in the points standings, 380 points out of first, and appeared to be just one of a group of drivers trying to unseat then-points-leader Jimmie Johnson before the start of the Chase for the Championship in mid September.

Since Pocono, the performance of Stewart and the Home Depot team has been nothing short of spectacular. Stewart has won five of the last eight races, tying Greg Biffle for most wins on the season. His finishes in the other three races were a 2nd at Michigan, a 5th at Chicago, and a 7th in the series' second visit to Pocono.

Additionally, Stewart has led 642 laps in those eight races, including dominant performances with 151 of 160 laps led in Daytona, 232 of 300 in New Hampshire, and a track record 83 of 92 in Watkins Glen.

Equally impressive is the fact that Stewart's victories have come on a wide variety of racetracks: the road courses at Infineon and Watkins Glen, the restrictor-plate track in Daytona, the small one-miler at New Hampshire, and the 2-1/2 mile oval at Indy.

Stewart scrambled to the top of the points standings almost as quickly as he did the 20-foot fence at Daytona. It took just seven races to climb from his 10th-place spot after Pocono to first after the Brickyard, and his lead over second-place Jimmie Johnson grew from 75 points to 105 points after Watkins Glen.

Stewart won both Nextel Cup road course races this year. Sunday also marked his third road course victory in a row and his fifth in five years.

After the race, the pressing question for both Stewart and crew chief Greg Zipadelli was why the team has been so dominant for the past two months.

As the 20 car took the checkers Sunday, Zipadelli cited testing at the Glen as one of several factors contributing to the team's success: "We came up here and we had a great test. We've had an awesome couple of months," said Zipadelli. "It's kind of like a fantasy. I hope it lasts another - I think we've got 14 more weeks of it. The good Lord's been shining on us. Everybody's been working hard. Smoke has been just fired up. Man, I haven't seen this guy this focused, this has been fun to be around in the last seven years. I can't say enough about him."

Moments later in Victory Lane, NBC's Allen Bestwick asked Stewart, "Why is this team on such a terrific roll, and how do you keep it going for another 14 races?"

"Pray a lot," Stewart replied, smiling. "And that's what we've been doing, you know? That's one thing with Joe Gibbs, you learn to pray a lot. So we're not doing it alone. I mean, we've got a guy upstairs helping.

"But it's all these guys behind us, their hard work," he continued, referring to members of the Home Depot team lined up behind the winning car. "You know, I can only drive it as fast as it'll go, but this thing could go really, really fast today, and it's because of Zippy and all the engineers and everybody at the shop. They've been really doing an awesome job."

After the race, Stewart was careful to minimize his role in the team's success. "For us to win at Daytona, Indy, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, and Loudon, to win on all those different disciplines really shows how diverse our program is. It's a tribute to Zippy and the guys and the good job they're doing."

Winning in NASCAR requires a delicate combination of intangibles. Whether divine intervention is one of them is a matter of faith, but the hottest driver in Cup racing credits prayer and teamwork as the biggest factors in his recent success. "From a driver's standpoint, you pray that you get good race cars like this to drive every week. But it's not me making the difference. They find the right package to make us go fast."

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. Although we may not always agree with what is said, we do feel it's our duty to give a voice to those who have something relevant to say about the sport of auto racing.