“It was a nice lap for the U.S. Army Chevy,” said Newman, who has three Sprint Cup wins at Dover (June 2003, September 2004 and September 2005). “It gives us a good starting point, which is important at this track. Turns one and two feel better than (turns) three and four and we need to work on that in tomorrow’s practices. It’s not quite right yet, but we’ll get it figured out.”

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala for SHR, qualified 16th with a time of 23.042 seconds at 156.236 mph.

“It was a decent lap for our Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet,” said Stewart who has two Sprint Cup wins at Dover (June 2000 and September 2000). “We had a pretty good car in race trim during practice, so we’ll work on it tomorrow and get ready for Sunday.”

Martin Truex Jr., captured his fifth career pole, his first of the season and his first at Dover by posting a lap of 22.884 seconds at 157.315 mph.

Kasey Kahne will start alongside Truex on the outside of row one, as he timed in at 22.890 seconds at 157.274 mph. Mark Martin (22.901 seconds at 157.198 mph) was third, while Kyle Busch (22.929 seconds at 157.006 mph) and Jimmie Johnson (22.944 seconds at 156.904 mph) rounded out the top-five.

Forty-five drivers attempted to qualify for the Autism Speaks 400. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Todd Bodine and Max Papis.

As far as manufacturers went, Toyota took the top spot thanks to the qualifying effort of pole-winner Truex. Ford was next best at the hands of second-fastest Kahne, while Chevrolet was the third-fastest make thanks to third-quick Martin. Sam Hornish Jr., who qualified 10th, was the top Dodge at 22.989 seconds at 156.597 mph.

The Autism Speaks 400 gets underway at 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 16 with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at noon.

In Friday’s time trials, Newman’s No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet covered the one-mile all-concrete oval in 22.952 seconds at 156.849 miles per hour.

“It was a nice lap for the U.S. Army Chevy,” said Newman. “It gives us a good starting point, which is important at this track. Turns 1 and 2 feel better than (Turns) 3 and 4 and we need to work on that in tomorrow’s practices. It’s not quite right yet, but we’ll get it figured out.”

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, qualified 16th with a time and speed of 23.042 at 156.236.

The pole winner was Martin Truex Jr. (157.315 mph). Rounding out the top five in order were: Kasey Kahne, Mark Mratin, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson.

Sunday’s race will be televised on FOX, beginning with a one-hour prerace show at noon ET.

Tony Stewart was one of the biggest, most successful stories in NASCAR on race weekend at Dover International Speedway last spring.

Story-wise, he’s a biggie again this year as he gets ready to take on the Monster Mile—but for the opposite reason. Stewart’s season is in the toilet and there is a hand on the flush lever.

“We’re kind of in a slump right now,” Stewart said last week, and that was before a second consecutive finish of 23rd knocked him from 15th to 18th in points heading into Sunday’s Autism Speaks 400 Sprint Cup Series race.

A year ago, Stewart was kind of on a high.

He was making the owner/driver thing look elementary. In his first season in that role for Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart arrived at Dover for the 13th race of the year with eight top-10 finishes, four podiums and he was second in series points.

He finished second that weekend and headed out of town with the points lead. He would keep that lead until the points standings were reset for the Chase.

Stewart would go on to win four times in 2009, make the Chase and end the season as the No. 6 driver in Cup.

For many, it was a given that Stewart would have similar success in 2010.

Except that he has not.

Stewart has one top-five finish this season—that, a runner-up job he got at Bristol seven races ago.

Six times in his 11 starts this year, he has finished 20th or worse.

It all seems kind of baffling—same championship-caliber driver, same crew chief in Darian Grubb, same Hendrick Motorsports support, but few signs of life.

“It’s hard,” Stewart said last week. “There’s nothing easy about what we do. You’re competing against 41 other guys each week and it’s not always clear-cut what the right answer is and where the problem lies.”

Perhaps the solution lies at Dover.

When Stewart stays out of trouble at the high-banked mile, he does well. Almost always. He has two victories there. Granted, both came 10 years ago when he swept the Monster Mile, but he also has 14 top 10s in 22 starts. His average finish is 11.5, and that goes even lower if you can throw out the three DNFs he’s had there.

Stewart has led 1,072 laps at Dover, which is fourth-best among active full-time drivers.

The better news for Stewart is that his success is not all restricted to ancient history.

While his finishes have not been good in recent weeks, his cars have been fast. Stewart has led laps in each of the last five races. At Texas four weeks ago, he led 74 laps and appeared quite capable of winning before getting caught in a wreck.

“I’ve got my head up,” Stewart said. “We’re not proud of how we’re running right now. We know we’re better than that, but we’re going to get it sorted out and get going again.”

Like Bristol, site of Stewart’s best finish this season, Dover features a concrete racing surface.

That’s neither good nor bad. Just tricky, Stewart said.

“Because it is concrete, the track has a lot more bumps than an asphalt track would,” he said. “There are seams in Dover’s surface and places where they’ve cut the concrete for expansion. Those sections shift and change, and every year when you go there, the bumps are a little bit different than they were the year before. Dover is a track that’s constantly changing. But it’s one of those places where you really can’t change your driving style.”

What Stewart hopes is that the concrete surface at Dover allows him to really change his 2010 racing fortunes.

Concrete of a different sort is in store for Stewart this weekend at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, one of only two concrete tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit. The 1-mile oval on the Delmarva Peninsula is home to Sunday’s Autism Speaks 400, round 12 on the 36-race Sprint Cup schedule.

With 11 races down, 15 races remain before the cutoff for the Chase following round 26 Sept. 11 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. After that race, only the top-12 drivers in points will be eligible to compete for the championship during the season’s final 10 races, and Stewart is currently 59 points arrears 12th-place Dale Earnhardt Jr. With so much racing still to go, 59 points is a relatively small margin to overcome.

The road to redemption begins at Dover, mainly because it’s Stewart’s next race, but also because concrete brought Stewart his best finish so far this season.

The only other concrete track on the circuit is Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, where Stewart finished second to four-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson on March 21. Since that time, Stewart has finished no better than 16th, so a return to racing around a concrete oval is a welcome one. In fact, he’ll even use the same No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet that delivered him that second-place result.

And it’s not just Chassis No. 14-530 that likes concrete. Stewart likes it, too, particularly the concrete at Dover. The two-time Sprint Cup title-winner has scored two wins, three second-place finishes, 10 top-fives, 14 top-10s and has led a total of 1,072 laps in 22 career Sprint Cup starts at Dover. It’s a body of work that dwarfs the six-race skid Stewart has endured since running second to Johnson at Bristol.

Stewart has been a part of NASCAR’s trip to New York’s concrete jungle five times since the advent of the Chase in 2004. He plans to use Dover’s concrete as a springboard to the concrete of Manhattan, where for two days he’ll trade his firesuit for a business suit.

He’s not going to sweat the point standings now. He’s simply going to take care of business starting this weekend at Dover.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Last year was your first as a driver-owner and it was an incredible season, as top-10s quickly became top-fives, which quickly became wins. It was a charmed season. This year is anything but, as you’re coming off six straight races where you’ve finished outside the top-15 and you’re now 18th in points.

Are you still trying to identify what you need to do to turn things around this year?
“Yes. It’s hard. There’s nothing easy about what we do. You’re competing against 41 other guys each week and it’s not always clear-cut what the right answer is and where the problem lies, but that’s what makes it so rewarding when you do have things going your way and you’ve got stuff figured out. We’re just kind of in a slump right now. Darian (Grubb, crew chief) is working really hard. I know Bobby Hutchens (competition director) is trying everything. Ryan Newman (teammate) and Tony Gibson (crew chief, No. 39 car) are trying to help us as much as they can to get us turned around. We’re definitely struggling right now. The thing I think I’m really proud of is – the positive out of the negative – is that the morale of the team and the organization is still very, very high. Darian’s got his head up. I’ve got my head up. We’re not proud of how we’re running right now. We know we’re better than that, but we’re going to get it sorted out and get going again.”

How concerned are you about how you’ve been running of late?
“We’re confused as to what’s going on and why it’s going on. The good thing is the morale of our team is still really high still. Darian (Grubb, crew chief) and I are side by side on it and our attitude with each other is great, so that’s a big positive in trying to get it all sorted out. We’re not building barriers between ourselves. We’re not even talking about it because we’re so close. He feels bad for me after the race. I feel bad for him and the guys after the race. I think that’s what’s kept us all so close through all of this.”

Have you had an experience like this before?
“I had this same thing happen in ’94 when I won the USAC Midget championship with Ralph Potter. We started the year and it was a disaster. It was exactly the same thing, but it was just a disaster start to the season. But we found what we were missing and got better. There are no guarantees in racing. Technology changes. Things change. We’re missing on something right now, but we’ll find it.”

Is it different when you’re searching for answers as a driver-owner versus being just the driver?
“No. I still have to get in there on race day and put my helmet on and try to figure out why the car won’t do what I want it to do. It’s not any different. You still work just as hard.”

Since finishing second at Bristol in the fifth of the race season, you’ve dropped from fifth in points to 18th. Are you paying attention to the point standings?
“No. It’s way too early for that now, for me at least. I don’t do it.”

Where you are right now is similar to where you were in 2006 when you didn’t make the Chase. Do you feel like you’re on the brink again this year?
“I don’t feel that way, yet. If there were three races to go, then I might be a little more nervous about it, but I think we’ve got a lot of time. It doesn’t mean that you take it for granted because you’ve got that time, but I’m not sure the panic button’s been hit yet.”

What about in regard to where your cars are now, as compared to then?
“So much has changed since then. These cars are so sensitive now to change that, if you miss it a little bit, you miss it a lot. It seems like if you don’t have it at the beginning of the day, you don’t have it and you’re not going to get it. Guys who are in that range at the beginning of the race have a shot at it. The guys who aren’t, it seems like there are days when it doesn’t matter what you do, you can’t get it there from where you’re at.”

Your average start is slightly better this year than last year. You’ve also led a few more laps this year than you did at this time last year. So, is this just a string of bad luck you’re experiencing?
“I don’t think so. It’s not like crashes or miscues have been the problem. It just seems like we’ve missed the handle this year. I’m not a very good qualifier, but I’ve qualified much better this year than I have in the past, for years, so I’m really excited about that side of it. And yes, we’ve led some laps. We just haven’t been able to be good the last half of races or the last two-thirds of races. We start off strong and somehow we lose the handle on it and don’t get it back by the end of the day. So, that’s something we’re definitely looking at.”

Does it help that you’re coming up on the summer months, when it gets hot and you visit some racetracks where you’ve had success?
“It’s definitely a section of the season that I’m looking forward to, for sure. There’s definitely is a string coming up that makes me feel a little more comfortable, going to tracks that I know we’re historically good at.”

Dover’s surface is concrete. Do you have to alter your driving style when you race on concrete?
“I don’t think you drive it any differently. But because it is concrete, the track has a lot more bumps than an asphalt track would. There are seams in Dover’s surface and places where they’ve cut the concrete for expansion. Those sections shift and change, and every year when you go there, the bumps are a little bit different than they were the year before. Dover is a track that’s constantly changing. But it’s one of those places where you really can’t change your driving style. You still have to do the same things you always do. It’s just a matter of finding the package that’s right for that racetrack. But other than that, you go through the same set of scenarios and challenges you would on any asphalt track.

“It’s been a dream season for us up to this point, and you hope that you don’t wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden realize that we’re just getting ready to go to Daytona or something and it’s all been a dream,” said Stewart, who has a 46-point lead over his nearest championship pursuer, Jeff Gordon, after 13 of 36 races. “I’m proud of our entire organization. To get caught up like we had to do through the winter with the personnel changes and updating equipment and everything, it just took a lot to get everything ready for Daytona, let alone to keep it ready and keep us going each week. I mean, we probably all lost bets that at this point we would be this far along. But it’s a good bet to lose, I guess.”

Advancing into the point lead came by way of Stewart advancing his way through the 43-car field. After a disappointing qualifying performance on Friday that left Stewart 31st on the starting grid, the 11-year Sprint Cup veteran had to pick his way toward the front. He did just that, slicing his way to 16th by lap 60 and cracking the top-15 five laps later with a pass of Bobby Labonte.

When green flag pit stops began to occur on lap 109 of the 400-lap race, Stewart was running in 13th. He and crew chief Darian Grubb decided to wait out the cycle as long as they could, knowing that a timely caution would allow them to leapfrog anyone who had already pitted. That caution came on lap 116 when the yellow flag waved for debris. After a standard four-tire change, Stewart restarted in fifth when the race resumed on lap 123.

“We needed that,” said Grubb. “We could only go another six laps on fuel.”

With good track position and tenacious driving, Stewart rose to fourth after a decisive pass of Kyle Busch on lap 156.

The caution came out again on lap 165, where another four-tire pit stop took place. This one was a tick on the slow side, as Stewart lost five spots and had to restart in ninth. It seemed of little matter after a few green flag laps of racing, for Stewart quickly picked off two cars to rise to seventh.

But as more laps clicked off the board and more rubber was laid down on the 1-mile oval, Stewart’s No. 14 machine became loose through the track’s corners. He dropped all the way to 13th before a caution period allowed him to come to pit road. Once there, Grubb called for a track bar adjustment that would plant the rear of the Office Depot/Old Spice Chevy down onto the racetrack. The change worked, as Stewart methodically began working his way back toward the front, breaking into the top-10 for a second time on lap 314 after passing Reed Sorenson.

On Stewart’s second to last stop during a caution on lap 332, the crew got Stewart in and out so quickly that they gained their boss an incredible three positions, putting Stewart in seventh-place when racing resumed on lap 335.

Stewart was sixth when the caution flag waved on lap 363. With less than 40 laps remaining and plenty of fuel to go the distance, a call had to be made – stay out and maintain track position or come to pit road for either two tires or four tires. As soon as the cars ahead of Stewart ducked onto pit road, Stewart came too. Grubb decided on a two-tire, no fuel strategy, and it got Stewart back onto the racetrack in second-place when the green flag dropped.

“It was the perfect call,” added Stewart after the race. “We decided to take a gamble. We were going to stay out, and then Darian called us at the last minute to do two (tires). We weren’t that fast a car, but it got us the track position we needed.”

From there, Stewart took off after race leader and two-time Dover winner Greg Biffle. Stewart caught him on lap 392 to take the lead, but charging behind Stewart and Biffle was three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. Johnson juked through lapped traffic with five laps to go to breathe down Stewart’s neck. His persistence paid off, as Johnson took the lead from Stewart on the penultimate lap and held on to take his fourth win at Dover, his second of the season and the 42nd of his Sprint Cup career by .861 of a second over Stewart.

“You had three guys racing for the lead inside 10 laps to go. I don’t know how it gets much more exciting than that,” said Stewart, who now has 10 top-five finishes in 21 career Sprint Cup starts at Dover. “Jimmie had the fastest car, and when you’re coming as fast as he was, it was just a matter of getting the opening that he needed. We did everything we could to take his line away as often as we could, but we just couldn’t do it long enough.”

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS for SHR, finished eighth to score his fifth straight top-10 result and his seventh top-10 of the season. The result allowed Newman to gain two spots in the championship standings, bringing him to fifth, 173 points behind teammate Stewart.

Biffle ended up finishing third, while Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five. Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Newman, Casey Mears and Mark Martin comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 10 caution periods for 43 laps, with 12 drivers failing to finish the 400-mile race.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the June 7 Pocono 500 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 12:30 p.m.
[nichemate]0,1,4,’Tony Stewart’,,US,,,,,,,,1[/nichemate]

THE MODERATOR: We’re now joined in the infield media center by today’s second place finisher, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot Old Spice Chevrolet, Tony Stewart. Tony is the first driver/owner to lead the points since Alan Kulwicki at the end of the 1992 season, November 15, 1992. Stewart leads by 46 points over Jeff Gordon. Tony, thoughts on the day?

TONY STEWART: Obviously that stat there is pretty cool, to be leading the points standings this early into the new venture. But really proud of our guys to give us equipment that puts us in this position. Just pretty excited about the end of the day there. It was fun racing with Jimmie like that. Definitely the fastest car. They’ve been the fastest car all day, so there’s no shame in running second to a guy that led the most laps all day. So pretty excited about it.

We had an opportunity. We got to the lead there and got by Biffle and just couldn’t hold off Jimmie. He was like a freight train coming. I mean, I was surprised I could hold him off as long as I did, but I was pretty happy that we were able to do it for that long.

Q: I’ve got two quick ones. Who do you think enjoyed those last 20 laps the most, you, Jimmie Johnson or the fans?

TONY STEWART: I hope the fans did. I mean, you had three guys racing for the lead inside ten laps to go. I don’t know how it gets much more exciting than that. But I would say if I had to pick between the three of us on the racetrack, I’d have to say Jimmie. I mean, when you’re the fastest car and you’re coming as fast as he was, it was just a matter of getting the opening that he needed, and we did everything we could to take his line away from him as often as we could, but just couldn’t do it long enough.

Q: How much of a handful was your car on two, and what made you and Darian think you might be able to pull that off?

TONY STEWART: We kind of got stuck back around 11th or 12th there, and we kept fighting with lap cars so bad today, I mean, if you couldn’t right there at the end, that was proof of it. As soon as we got clear of Jeff there and had some decent air and could run our line, we were fine. But we just kept getting hung up by the same lap cars all day long, and it just was frustrating.

So we decided to take a gamble, and if that many guys came, we were just going to stay out, period, and then Darian called us in at the last minute to do two. It was a perfect call obviously, but we weren’t that fast of a car. I don’t think we were a second place car all day, but we were better than where we had been running track position wise, we just had gotten hemmed up so far back there we couldn’t get going until everything sorted out.

Q: That was your first two tire stop all day?

TONY STEWART: No, that was our second one.

Q: Looked like you passed Jimmie on the high side and then you started going down low. Did you feel you might have been able to take him down low, because every time you stayed up high you pulled away from him?

TONY STEWART: You know, every time I stayed high, though, and he knew I was going to commit to it he would start moving around. I tried to make him guess where we were going to be when we got there. When he was that fast, that was your only hope was to keep him get guessing on where we were going to be when we got there.

We really weren’t stellar anywhere. We were a little better Wednesday with you got to middle of the track. But the groove got so wide, you weren’t going to just hold him off and you didn’t know exactly where he was going to be. There were a couple times he about got by us on the bottom. You don’t know where you need to be, really.

Q: I don’t know if you guys saw this, but obviously this became like a ticking time bomb with Johnson coming behind you. Tony, you were talking about the difficulty of traffic. I would think if you saw this both of your hearts sank when Johnson went between Gordon and Truex behind you with relatively little ease. Did you notice that? That might have been the difference in whether he could catch you or not.

TONY STEWART: I can say I did, because you’re trying to see where you can gain on Greg, and at the same time you’re checking on what’s going on behind you. We didn’t see him get through the lap cars there, but once he got to third, his car every corner got bigger and bigger, and that’s never a good sign from a driver’s standpoint, especially you’re trying to do everything you can to run the leader down and at the same time you’re trying to pull away from the guy that’s behind you. So it’s kind of a double edged sword.

Q: The reality is you finished second but you’re first in points now. What does it say about your program at the halfway point to be leading in the points standings?

TONY STEWART: We’re excited about it. I mean, you know, it’s been a dream season for us up to this point, and you hope that you don’t wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden realize that we’re just getting ready to go to Daytona or something and it’s all been a dream to this point. I’m proud of our organization. I’m proud of Bobby Hutchins, I’m proud of Darian Grubb, proud of our teammate Ryan Newman and Tony Gibson and our entire organization. To get caught up like we had to do through the winter with the personnel changes and updating equipment and everything, you know, it took a lot just to get everything ready like they had it ready for Daytona, let alone to keep it ready and keep us going each week. Just proud of our guys. I mean, it’s something that we probably all lost bets up to this point that we would be this far along. But it’s a good bet to lose, I guess.

Q: Just a follow up to the point question, Tony. How difficult it is to do this is kind of spoken by the fact that it hasn’t been done since Alan Kulwicki. Were you familiar with him as you were doing your open wheel stuff at that time? Does that mean anything to you?

TONY STEWART: Well, it does. Everybody respected Alan because he was an owner driver and what he was able to accomplish. But I think it was a little bit before I was really a die hard NASCAR guy. I was still Sprint Car and midget racing at that point and wasn’t able to keep up because we were racing the same days Cup was racing.

You know, you go through a time and you’re able to go back and look at how the history of the sport has evolved and what milestones and moments shaped the sport to what it is. So it’s a pretty cool moment to have your organization mentioned with his organization.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Congratulations.

“It was not what we wanted for the U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet, but it was a good points day for us,” said Newman.

The 400-lap race was indeed a good points day for Newman and teammate, Tony Stewart, who finished runner-up to Jimmie Johnson.

After 13 races, the Stewart-Haas Racing drivers are positioned in the top five in points. Newman gained two spots and is currently fifth while Stewart jumped to first in the driver standings — overtaking Jeff Gordon for the lead.

The result was Newman’s fifth straight top 10 and his seventh of the season. It was also his ninth career top 10 in 15 starts at Dover’s Monster Mile.

When the race was restarted for the final time with 27 laps remaining, Newman was running in third place after gambling with a two-tire stop on Lap 366. Prior to that stop, he was positioned in 10th place.

“I drove the car a little harder than I wanted to at the end on two tires,” noted Newman, who virtually ran in the top 10 the entire race after qualifying 11th. “We just didn’t have a good handle on the car today. Typically with these cars the more you finesse them the better they are. But there was no finessing today.”

Crew chief Tony Gibson agreed about the car’s handling, but was proud of the way Newman and the crew worked through the problems.

“We were a top-10 car and that was it,” explained Gibson. “We could never really hit on anything that really worked for Ryan. We danced with air pressures, wedge and track bar adjustments but never hit on anything.

“But here again this U.S. Army race team never gives up. We keep on pounding away, pounding away and pounding away. We have to stay strong as a team and if we do that we can prevail on a day like today. It’s pretty good when you can say you’re ticked off because you finished eighth. Our driver never gives up and this crew never gives up. We support the Army colors and that’s their slogan to never give up.”

The next stop for Newman and the U.S. Army team will be Sunday (June 7) at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. [nichemate]0,1,4,’Ryan Newman’,,US,,,,,,,,1[/nichemate]

Teammate Ryan Newman finished the race in 8th place, which puts both Stewart-Haas Racing drivers in the top 5 as Ryan took over 5th place.

Dover (Del.) International Speedway is next up for those competing in NASCAR’s elite division, with the Autism Speaks 400 presented by Heluva Good! serving as round 13 on the marathon-like Sprint Cup schedule. But while 36 seems pretty far away from 13, it comes with the same warning etched into the side-view mirrors of most passenger cars: “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” That’s because Dover serves as the halfway point before the cutoff for the final, 10-race Chase for the Championship begins. And when it does, only the top-12 drivers in points will be eligible to vie for title of “2009 Sprint Cup Champion.”

Firmly ensconced in second-place in the championship standings — only 44 points behind series leader and four-time champion Jeff Gordon, 115 points ahead of third-place Kurt Busch and a stout 256 points ahead of 13th-place David Reutimann — Tony Stewart is well on his way toward pursuing a third Sprint Cup title.

The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing won his first championship in 2002 under the old, Chase-less formula. He won his second championship in 2005 in the second year of the Chase when only the top-10 drivers in points were eligible.

Both titles came when Stewart was simply a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. But after 10 years of answering to the man most called “Coach,” Stewart decided to answer to himself beginning in 2009 by becoming a driver/owner. Stewart-Haas Racing, which Stewart co-owns with Oxnard, Calif.-based Haas Automation — the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world — has burst out of the gate.

Stewart’s second-place point standing is due to five top-fives and eight top-10s. Making Stewart’s new endeavor even more impressive is that his teammate, Ryan Newman, is seventh in points thanks to four straight top-fives and two other top-10s.

It’s a potent one-two punch that now comes to Dover.

The Monster Mile, as it’s aptly known, is a brutal track. Its corners are banked at a staggering 24 degrees and its teeth-chattering concrete seams have made it monster-like for its ability to chew up and spit out even the most talented racecar drivers.

Stewart knows. In his first 12 career Sprint Cup races at Dover, he scored two wins, five top-threes, nine top-fives and had only one finish outside the top-10, which was an 11th-place run in June 2002. Oh, and he led a total of 1,066 of the 4,800 laps available (22.2 percent).

But since those halcyon days of yore, when Dover’s dusty confines from the horse track it houses within its infield provided the perfect backdrop for when Stewart dusted the field, the two-time champ has finished outside the top-10 in seven of his last eight races. And in his last nine starts at Dover, Stewart hasn’t led a lap.

No worries.

Never in Stewart’s 10 previous years of Sprint Cup competition has he been this high in points 12 races into the season. And he’s doing it when conventional wisdom says he shouldn’t, as he’s driving for a new team in a new role with a new car overseen by a new crew chief.

Seemingly surrounded by newness, Stewart’s stalwart competitiveness remains as strong as ever. The same zeal Stewart brought with him to Sprint Cup as a rookie in 1999 is back, but now it’s laced with wisdom thanks to 33 career victories and the aforementioned two championships.

Two of those 33 wins came at Dover when Stewart swept the track’s two races in 2000. Now back for his 21st career Sprint Cup start at the Monster Mile, the newly minted 38-year-old is ready to show that what’s old is new again by continuing his strong start to the 2009 season.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:

With all this success, how good does it feel to be a driver/owner?

“It’s awesome. It was supposed to be so stressful to do this, especially this year with the economy being what it is. It was supposed to add stress. It has actually taken stress away. I don’t understand why. I don’t really have a good answer for it. Every day when I wake up, I look forward to going to the shop. I look forward to going to the track. I’m having fun. I haven’t had this much fun for a long time. I loved where I was at, I loved the group of people I was with, but I guess this is a situation that you see with pro athletes all the time. Sometimes you just need a change, and this was a change that apparently I needed and didn’t realize.”

You started this season strong, and have gotten progressively stronger after only 12 races. Top-10 finishes turned into top-five finishes, which turned into a win in the non-points NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race May 16 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C. Knowing that you’re capable of winning as a driver/owner, and being second in the championship point standings, have your expectations changed from what they were before the season started?

“Honestly, the thing that is important in this series is just being able to run consistently in the top-five. That’s where we want to be every week. You know on a particular night when the scenario is working out right that eventually, if you’re running up front, you’re going to get that win. You don’t feel like you have to push and try to make something happen, because you know if you’re running that consistently in the top-five, it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of when. We got consistent, Ryan (Newman) is getting consistent and we know that’s what it’s going to take to win a championship. To us it was more important to run consistently in the top-five each week than it was to try to worry about when that first win was going to happen. Really, our mindset isn’t changed. We’re doing the things we need to be doing now. I feel like we’re doing things right. We’re consistently running in the top-five. We got that first win out of the way. We have to stay consistent and do what we’re doing right now. We’re right on pace.”

Is winning any different when you’re a driver and an owner?

“Does it matter? As long as you’re enjoying it, you’re enjoying it. The one part that was a little different than it had ever been when we won the All-Star Race was afterward all I cared about was getting back and seeing my guys. I didn’t really even realize it until after we finished third in the Shootout at Daytona in February. It was the first event we ran and couple of the guys came up and were high-fiving each other and said, ‘Hey, that is the best finish we’ve ever had.” It was like, you guys have never run in the top-three in a Cup race… ever? That was what was so exciting about the All-Star Race — knowing that there is a group of guys in this organization that have been there from day one, guys on my team, guys on Ryan’s team, that had never been to victory lane. That, from a driver and owner standpoint, is just cool, that you were part of getting them their first win and being there to celebrate with them.”

Did you think you could compete for a championship in your first year as a driver/owner?

“I’m not sure that I thought we could win a championship the first year. It’s like we said a million times — you look at everything on paper, you look at the resources, you look at the equipment that we have, the shop that we have, all the pieces of the puzzle — it makes sense that yes, you have a shot just like everybody else does. But you get to the track and see the guys you are up against and the competition we are racing against, there are no slouches. I mean, there haven’t been any slouches in this series for a long, long time. There have always been car owners that have been on top of their games. As the sport has evolved and times and technologies have changed, these car owners have evolved with it. You don’t become successful by not adapting to that. We have a long way to go. We are up against some tough competition. When you have two cars in the top-10 in points and you have a day where you go out there and beat them, you may not be the super team necessarily, but you have a shot. The great part is we are aligned with a super team and that gives us the opportunity to have the success we are having. We keep working well with Hendrick Motorsports, and their engine department and chassis department are a critical part of how we’ve been able to do what we’ve been able to do so far.”

Dover’s surface is concrete. Do you have to alter your driving style when you race on concrete?

“I don’t think you drive it any differently. But because it is concrete, the track has a lot more bumps than an asphalt track would. There are seams in Dover’s surface and places where they’ve cut the concrete for expansion. Those sections shift and change, and every year when you go there the bumps are a little bit different than they were the year before. Dover is a track that’s constantly changing. But it’s one of those places where you really can’t change your driving style. You still have to do the same things you always do. It’s just a matter of finding the package that’s right for that race track. But other than that, you go through the same set of scenarios and challenges you would on any asphalt track — either the car is going to be tight or it’s going to be loose.”

Is Dover the type of racetrack where a driver can make up for a racecar that isn’t handling well?

“To a certain extent, yes. With the way the cars slide around on the racetrack late in the day, there are times when a driver can make up for what the car won’t do. They can move around on the racetrack and help themselves out by finding a faster groove.”

After you’re done competing at Dover, you’ll put on your track promoter hat and get ready to host the fifth annual Prelude to the Dream Wednesday, June 3 at your racetrack — Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Talk about that.

“It’s a lot of fun. The biggest part of the gratification for me is just seeing the guys that come up there and how much fun they have driving these dirt late models on a night where we get to race with guys we’re typically racing with every week. But we get to do something a little different, and that takes the edge off I think.”

Why should someone order the fifth annual Prelude to the Dream and watch it on HBO Pay-Per-View?

“The Prelude to the Dream is a race that we hold prior to ‘Dream Weekend,’ which is one of our biggest weekends at Eldora Speedway. Professional dirt late model racers from across the country are racing for $100,000 to win. The Prelude to the Dream is on the Wednesday before, and it’s a race that myself and 25 drivers from the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NHRA compete in for bragging rights, but also to raise money for charity. It’s a fun atmosphere for the drivers, crews, fans and the people watching at home on HBO Pay-Per-View. Most of these guys don’t race on dirt very often, so it’s a chance for a lot of us to go back to our roots and have a great time. The viewers at home get to see us much differently than they would on a normal race weekend. There are no points, no pressure, just a lot of fun. This year, we’re helping out injured and fallen soldiers by raising money from the Prelude to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, Intrepid Heroes Fund, Operation Homefront and Fisher House. The men and women in our armed forces fight for our freedom to make sure we can continue to have fun at events like the Prelude, and everyone who tunes in and buys the event on HBO Pay-Per-View will be helping our troops all over the world.”

How gratifying is it for you to see all the drivers come together to help you with such a great cause?

“That’s the best part of it. To me, that’s the biggest compliment — that they are willing to take a day out of their schedule. You know, our schedules get more and more hectic every year. So, to get a full day on your schedule, that’s taking away a lot. And, for these guys to all do this once a year and come to our facility and race at a place I’m very passionate about is something that is very humbling, but at the same time, it shows their passion and compassion for charities and the fact that they work very hard to give back to communities.”

Why is racing on dirt so much fun for you guys?

“I think what’s fun, or challenging, about dirt is that the surface is never the same. When we go to Charlotte or Daytona or Talladega, the conditions are pretty much the same every time, as far as the surface goes. Dirt tracks are always different from the last time you were there. So, for the guys who are preparing the cars and doing the setups on them, they kind of have to guess ahead and try to plan for what they think the track is going to do. The drivers have to plan accordingly, too, and they have to make adjustments while they’re out on the track because the conditions are constantly changing. That’s what’s so fun about dirt — it’s never the same twice.”

How unique is it for 26 of the top drivers in the country to race at a half-mile dirt track in the middle of Ohio cornfields?

“It’s unreal. I guess it would be like Tiger Woods taking all of his buddies and going to play the local putt-putt course, or Michael Jordan taking all of his friends to the playground and shooting hoops. These guys all converge on this track and it’s fun, and it gets us back to our roots — why we got into racing to begin with. There are no points, no prize money. Guys pay their own way to get there and it’s for a worthwhile cause — the injured and fallen soldiers and their families.”

When you guys go to Eldora, the routine is totally different from a normal race weekend. Is that part of the challenge, or the fun for you guys — getting adjusted to the dirt and getting away from your normal routine?

“Yeah, I think if we could get an hour of practice like we do at a (Sprint) Cup race, most of these guys would really pick this up really quick — and they do anyway. But they have to do it in probably a total of 10 to 12 laps, and that’s something they’re not used to having to do. I mean, they’re used to being able to have a lot of practice time, where on dirt tracks, you just can’t spend that much track time without it affecting the racetrack. So, where you used to have two warm-up sessions for the race at a Cup event, now, all of a sudden, you get two five- or six-lap sessions to get ready to go qualify right away, and that’s not a lot of time for a professional driver to try to figure out a different racecar and a different racetrack and surface.”

* Current streak of four straight top-five finishes — third (Talladega), fourth (Richmond), fourth (Darlington) and second (Charlotte).

* Best finishing average of 3.25 in the last four point races.

* Ranked seventh in the driver point standings. The last time he was inside the top 10 after 12 races into the season was in 2005.

* Overall 2009 season record includes: 12 starts, four top fives, six top 10s, one pole and one outside pole.

* Already doubled his top-five finishes compared to the entire 2008 season.

Newman has repeatedly said that he expected strong performances from the get-go even though the new Stewart-Haas team has been labeled the surprise story of 2009. Newman’s teammate and team owner, Tony Stewart, is also enjoying a successful campaign, ranking second in driver points.

“The backbone was there — we just had to branch out,” said Newman. “Our new branches were new people. We had to build new cars and bring in some different situations to try and make things better from where they were. I always felt that we would come out of the gate strong. Our success is just a product of effort and hard work and the team doing what it should be doing, which is working together and moving forward.”

“We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing and we’ll get what we’re after — and that’s a win in the U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet,” added Newman.

The next stop on the Sprint Cup circuit is Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway, where the 31-year-old Newman has enjoyed a great deal of success.

In 14 starts at Dover’s Monster Mile, Newman has captured three wins, six top fives, eight top 10s, four poles and has led 813 laps. His average start is 8.4 and his average finish is 10.5.

“Dover is one of my favorite if not my favorite racetrack,” noted Newman, a 13-time tour winner. “It’s a lot of fun to drive there, I really like the banking. Once you get a race car right there, it usually stays right all day. It’s fast and I like the challenge of dropping off into the corners and the way it pushes you down in the seat when you’re coming off the corners. Just a lot fun — I enjoy qualifying and racing at Dover.”

Newman’s three wins at Dover came in June 2003 (from the pole), September 2003 and September 2004.