Stewart on the road to historic victory at Watkins Glen?
By Rea White - Associate Editor
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
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Tony Stewart must be getting tired of coming close to a win. He's endured a series of races that seemed to be certain wins this season, only to come up short every time. This weekend, though, he's on comfortable ground as he attempts to gain his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win of the season.
Stewart is the series' most recent winner at Watkins Glen International and has won three of the last four races at the track. His worst finish in that stretch is second.
Clearly, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has the ability to manage the 2.45-mile track in this weekend's Centurion Boats at The Glen. Throw in the pair of top-five finishes he's earned in the last three weeks - his setback was Indianapolis where Stewart ran well but couldn't handle a late two-tire change - and this is clearly a team to watch.
Stewart and crew chief Greg Zipadelli have ended the distractions of the early season – Stewart is leaving JGR to form his own team next season, Zipadelli is staying with the organization he's been a crew chief with for 10 years – and their on-track performance is right where it normally is at this point in the season. Although Stewart is ninth in the standings, he appears to be headed for a berth in the Chase For The NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Now, it's time to gain a win. With four wins at Watkins Glen he joins Jeff Gordon in trying to make it five at the track. No driver has hit that mark in 60 years of racing at the facility - in any series.
“It’s definitely a place I feel like we’ve got the potential to win, even before we make a single lap," Stewart said.
And why not? Stewart is simply stellar there. In nine starts, he has only one finish worse than 11th. He has started outside the top five only three times and never worse than 11th. He’s also led a total of 190 laps of the 812 laps available (23.4 percent) at The Glen, with a lap completion rate of 100 percent.
The fact that he hasn't won since last year at The Glen puts Stewart on the longest winless streak of his Cup career at 35 races.
Now, he's ready to grab that historic victory.
“It’s always cool to be a part of history," he said. "When A.J. Foyt was the first to win four Indy 500s – that was huge. To imagine all the different types of racing that’s been at Watkins Glen and know that we’ve got a shot to do something that hasn’t been done before is definitely a cool opportunity.”
Stewart can't really explain what it is about the road courses that he loves so much. He just relates to that type of racing.
In addition to his Watkins Glen prowess, he has two victories at Infineon Raceway for a total of six road-course Cup wins.
That helps breed confidence for both he and his team each time they head to Watkins Glen.
“I’ve just always liked it," said Stewart, who won a national championship racing karts on road courses to begin his love affair with the winding tracks. "… Driving cars with suspension, and definitely driving cars that you had to shift, that’s something that came relatively easy to me and still comes easy to me as far as knowing how to synchronize the gears without having to use the help of the clutch. Even in the sports cars that I’ve driven with guys who have driven road courses all their life, I’ve gotten out of the car and the crew has torn the gearboxes apart and said that the dog rings in my transmission look better than when those guys are done with a transmission.
"There’s just something about the shifting side of it that’s been really natural to me, and it’s fun. I like having a different discipline to race on. I like having the opportunity to do something twice a year that we don’t get a shot at doing very often. I take the same amount of pride that someone like Ron Fellows or Scott Pruett does when they come into a road-course race. I take that same pride in running well that they do in these cars. I don’t look at it from the standpoint that it’s a negative weekend. I look at it as a positive, that it’s something we enjoy, and I feel like that gives us a leg up on most of the guys we race with at these tracks.”
He likes that he's a guy people watch when a road course crops up on the schedule, that he and his team are always expected to be a factor in these races.
And he likes the competitors he's generally racing for the win. Chief among those is Hendrick Motorsports' Gordon. The two have enjoyed some epic battles on the two Cup road courses. Last year at Watkins Glen, Stewart led three times for 20 laps and Gordon three times for 51 laps before Gordon spun off course trying to hold Stewart out of the lead.
Stewart doesn't even think that was the best showdown between the pair. He remembers fighting for position at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., three yeas ago in a race where Gordon eventually had a parts failure. He says that the two like the competition between them because it's based on mutual respect.
Perhaps that's a big part of why he enjoys these road-course races so much - it's fun to race certain people and to know that it's going to be a hard, clean run for the win.
"You know that when you outrun Jeff that you did an excellent job," Stewart said. "You’re not going to back into a win with Jeff out there.
“There’s mutual respect. There’s more to this racing thing than just winning races and trophies and prize money. There’s a day we all quit Driving, and it’s about the relationships you make along the way, and you’re going to have battles and rivalries with guys that are strong competitors with you, and, you know, that’s to be expected. But at the same time, there’s a huge admiration and respect when you race guys like that, too. I think we both realize that.”
- Mentioned Drivers:
- Tony Stewart
Comments
2 responses to "Stewart on the road to historic victory at Watkins Glen?"
ANNE OBERGFELL said:
Aug 6, 2008 at 5:32 PMIF ANYONE CAN DO IT TONY CAN HE IS THE BEST THERE IS AND THERE BEST THAT EVER WILL BE go tony go
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» Confirm Abuse ReportGladys Bedwell said:
Aug 6, 2008 at 6:15 PMWOW Anne - You took the words right out of my mouth! Well said!
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