ASSOCIATED PRESS
What a wild ride it’s been for Tony Stewart in 2011. The Columbus-born driver went winless throughout the Sprint Cup Series regular season, only to set up a memorable finish to the Chase for the Cup. BY KIRK JOHANNESEN, johannesen@therepublic.com
MIAMI — Tony Stewart says he has nothing to lose, even though a third NASCAR Cup championship is on the line Sunday. That perspective is far brighter than earlier in the season, when he spoke as if an entire season was lost. Although the 40-year-old Columbus native trails Carl Edwards by three points in the Chase for the Sprint Cup heading into Sunday’s season-ending Ford 400 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he is relishing the role of the hunter rather than the hunted. “We can’t go backwards. He’s the one in the position where he can lose something Sunday. That’s a good position to be in,” Stewart said Thursday at a press conference with Edwards on South Beach. For much of the season, Stewart talked as if the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 team was lost in the woods, heading nowhere near contention for his first championship since 2005. “We had some good race cars; we had some good performances; we just weren’t getting the results at the end of the day. Some of them
were self-inflicted; some of them were circumstances that got us there. We didn’t have at that time the consistency we needed to run for a championship,” Stewart said. One missed opportunity that has stuck with his team was the third race of the season, at Las Vegas. Stewart led the most laps, 163 of 267, but finished second behind Edwards. “That was the one win Carl got. Those are the three points he came into the Chase with as a bonus over us, so that is the gap right now,” said Darian Grubb, Stewart’s crew chief. “That is the definite six-point turnaround. We would have had three, and he would have lost three at that point.” Stewart was in first place after Las Vegas, but five weeks later he was 12th and fighting to keep a position in the Chase. For the next 18 weeks after dropping to 12th, he rose no higher than seventh. He entered the final 10-race Chase in ninth. He stated publicly he wasn’t a contender. (Cont. on E2)
Photo by Joe Harpring
ASSOCIATED PRESS
E2 2011 Head to Head
E3 Carl Edwards
E4-5 Career Timeline
E6 Crew Chiefs
E6 Proud Parents
E7 Rise to Stardom
Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway Sunday on ESPN beginning at 2 p.m., race at 3 p.m.