All things considered, Stewart pleased with runnerup finish
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. Without that final red-flag period, Tony Stewart says he might have had a shot at teammate Kyle Busch in Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race. And, he admits, that's a big maybe.
Stewart finished second in the Centurion Boats at The Glen at Watkins Glen International. Although expectations were high that Stewart could earn his first victory since winning at the track a year ago, the driver found himself at a significant disadvantage to his teammate throughout the race. Once Busch got warmed up, the only time Stewart managed to pass him he gained his five bonus points for being at the front and then quickly slipped back to second.
So a runnerup finish actually wasn't all bad, especially for a team that needed a good run to solidify its position in the standings.
“I was pretty happy with it and it was pretty uneventful from our side," Stewart said of the race. "We didn’t have any big dramas during the race. The red there at the end kind of killed us a little bit. I’m really proud of the whole organization."
JGR certainly had a good day, with Busch winning, Stewart second and Denny Hamlin eighth.
Still, Stewart's might have been a little bit better. He's now gone 36 races without a win, but he gained two spots to seventh in the standings with four races remaining before the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup field is set.
He says that he would be more disappointed if his car had been off somewhere, but he was pleased with the overall run. After all, he says that Busch didn't make any mistakes in the race at all - and that is difficult to beat, no matter how well one's car is handling.
"It’s hard to be disappointed with that because the good thing is that we’re back on track and it’s not all about wins," he said. "There’s a bigger prize at the end of the year than an individual race. The last three weeks have been good for us and the last two weeks to finish in the top-two, there’s a lot of guys that would love to have two weeks in a row where they could say they finished second.
"No complaints leaving. I thought that if we ever could have gotten track position on Kyle that we might have been able to do something. I think if we would have been leading when the red flag came out and our balance was like it was at the end then he would have gotten by us anyway. I can’t be disappointed with a second-place run to a teammate like that. He’s on fire this year. When you have a run like that - it’s hard to be upset with it.”
