Top 35 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers: No. 6 - Tony Stewart

By Lee Montgomery - Associate Editor

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Stewart-Haas Racing owner/driver Tony Stewart is a two-time champion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

LaDon George
NASCAR Scene

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Top 35 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers: No. 8 - Juan Pablo Montoya

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Tony Stewart was one of the surprises of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, his first as co-owner and driver of Stewart-Haas Racing.

He won four races and led the points standings for 13 weeks before slipping in the Chase For The Sprint Cup to sixth in the final standings.

Stewart took over as part owner of the former Haas CNC Racing team for the 2009 season and made sweeping changes to the organization. He also brought in driver Ryan Newman as a teammate, and Newman, too, made the Chase.

Stewart also won the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and earned $6,836,146 for the season.

During the offseason, SceneDaily is taking a look at the top 35 in 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points. Here’s how Tony Stewart’s season unfolded:

By the numbers: Expectations for Stewart’s team were fairly low, but he finished in the top 10 in three of the first four races. Six top-fives later, Stewart was leading the points. For the season, he won four times, finished in the top five 15 times and in the top 10 23 times.

Season highlights: A six-race stretch with five top-fives early in the year was good, but then Stewart ran off eight consecutive top-10s, with victories at Pocono and Daytona as part of seven top-fives. Stewart later won at Watkins Glen and then at Kansas in the Chase.

Key setbacks: Stewart failed to finish in the top 10 in the four races before the Chase and then was 14th in the first Chase race. He recovered with the Kansas victory but finished 13th or worse in four of the final six races of the year.

Newsworthy moment: Stewart’s victory in the all-star race was proof he could succeed as an owner and driver on the Cup level. Four points victories solidified the team’s status as a contender.

In his words: ““I feel like for a first-year team, I have to give us an ‘A.’ If we could’ve won the championship, you would give yourself an ‘A+’, but for a first-year team an ‘A’ or an ‘A-’ is appropriate for what had to do to come together in such a short amount of time. There was a lot of change for everyone who came to Stewart-Haas, and to get all the people organized, get them working together, along with getting all of our equipment ready, I think we did fairly well, and from that standpoint, I don’t think I could be any happier.”