“We just weren’t very good. We struggled all night,” said Stewart, who has participated in each All-Star Race since joining the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as a rookie in 1999 and won the 2009 All-Star Race. “We just missed it tonight. I mean, we’re not going to hit it every week, and if you’re going to miss it, you’d rather miss it on a night like tonight.”

Stewart’s run in the All-Star Race served as test session for the Coca-Cola 600 next Sunday at Charlotte – a point-paying race that also happens to be the longest event on the Sprint Cup schedule. When asked what he learned from the All-Star Race that could be applied to the Coca-Cola 600, Stewart was succinct, “Yeah, don’t bring back what we just ran tonight.”

The run was disappointment for Stewart, who carried the colors of Bass Pro Shops and the National Wild Turkey Federation on his No. 14 Chevrolet.

“I wanted to run really well for Johnny Morris (founder, Bass Pro Shops) and the guys at Bass Pro Shops and the National Wild Turkey Federation,” said Stewart after the race that was made up of four 20-lap segments followed by a 10-lap shootout. “It was an important night for me to run well for those guys, and I just let ‘em down.”

Teammate Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, finished 10th to score his seventh top-10 finish in 11 career All-Star Races.

Jimmie Johnson won the All-Star Race. It was his third All-Star Race win and his ninth Sprint Cup victory at Charlotte.

Brad Keselowski finished .841 of a second behind Johnson in the runner-up spot, while Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr., rounded out the top-five. Kevin Harvick, Marcos Ambrose, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.

The Sprint Cup Series returns to point-paying racing Sunday, May 27 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. The longest race on the Sprint Cup schedule gets underway at 6 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX beginning at 5:30 p.m.

It took nearly 80 laps and six pit stops with multiple adjustments for Newman to finally get the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet to his liking. And while Newman’s car handled the way he wanted, he was mired deep in the field and didn’t have the track position needed to be a contender in the final 10-lap dash for $1 million.

“Honestly, it was too little too late for us,” said Newman, who has participated in each All-Star Race since joining the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as a rookie in 2002, the same year that he won the non-points event. “The Tornados Chevy was way too loose, but we finally got the car right during that last caution period. But in the end we didn’t have the track position to go with it.”

Newman battled a loose racecar from the drop of the green flag. The Tornados team pitted at the end of the first three 20-lap segments to work on the racecar, making multiple chassis and air pressure adjustments to help improve the loose-handling condition. But it wasn’t until an extended caution during the fourth segment that the team finally hit on a series of adjustments that helped Newman’s ill-handling racecar.

During the extended caution period beginning at lap 67, Newman’s team pitted three times to make wholesale changes to the No. 39 Chevy. Newman restarted in 16th-place at lap 74. By the end of the fourth segment, he had moved into the 13th position and told his crew that his car was the “best it had been.”

Newman started the final segment in 11th place. While his racecar was right, the track position wasn’t there. He finished the night in 10th place.

For Newman & Company, the 90-lap All-Star Race served as test session for the Coca-Cola 600 next Sunday evening at Charlotte – a point-paying race that also happens to be the longest event on the Sprint Cup schedule.

“That’s probably the best thing that came out of the race,” Newman said. “I just didn’t have any confidence in the car for most of the race. We got it right there at the end, and I think that’s going to help us figure out where we need to be going in to next weekend’s race.”

Teammate Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/National Wild Turkey Federation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, finished 17th.

Jimmie Johnson won the All-Star Race. It was his third All-Star Race win and his ninth Sprint Cup victory at Charlotte.

Brad Keselowski finished .841 of a second behind Johnson in the runner-up spot, while Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-five. Kevin Harvick, Marcos Ambrose, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to point-paying racing Sunday, May 27 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. The longest race on the Sprint Cup schedule gets underway at 6 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX beginning at 5:30 p.m.

That is the only mainstay of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, the non-points event for recent winners in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (2011-2012), as well as past All-Star Race victors and former series champions held annually at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

This year’s edition totals 90 laps around the 1.5-mile oval, and it’s broken into four, 20 lap segments and then a final 10-lap shootout that’s kicked-off by a pit stop where teams will need to decide if they want to take fuel only or grab two or four fresh tires.

Ask Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/National Wild Turkey Federation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), if he’s familiar with any of the various tweaks to the 28-year-old event, such as the winners of the first four segments being guaranteed to enter the pits in the top-four starting spots prior to the 10-lap dash to the finish (provided their cars are on the lead lap), and he’ll simply shrug his shoulders and say, “Suuurrrrrrrrrrre.” The format is of little matter to Stewart, for as long as there’s a checkered flag at the end, he knows what to do, as evidenced by his win in the 2009 All-Star Race.

Stewart led only once for two laps in that event, but they were the most important ones. He paced the final two circuits after getting by Matt Kenseth for the lead on lap 98 of the 100-lap contest. Stewart’s margin of victory over the 2003 Sprint Cup champion was .971 of a second.

It was Stewart’s first victory as a driver/owner with SHR, the team he co-owns with Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world. The win made Stewart the first driver/owner to win a Sprint Cup-sanctioned event since Ricky Rudd won a point-paying race in October 1998 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. It was also the first All-Star Race win for Stewart, who had six top-10 finishes in 10 previous starts in the event. Stewart became the second driver/owner to win the All-Star Race, joining Geoff Bodine, who accomplished the feat in 1994.

The victory was Stewart’s first in 11 tries, and the soon-to-be-41-year-old – his birthday is May 20 – has been a part of the All-Star Race since his rookie year in 1999. Way back in what used to be known as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, Stewart advanced into The Winston – the event we currently call the All-Star Race – by winning The Winston Open (now known as the Sprint Showdown). Stewart used the promotion for all it was worth, as he came from his last-place starting spot to finish second to winner Terry Labonte.

Since Stewart has won at least one race in every season he’s competed in the Sprint Cup Series, he’s always been a member of the elite All-Star Race. Back in the All-Star Race for a 14^th straight season, Stewart is looking to grab another All-Star win and pick up his fourth NASCAR-sanctioned checkered flag to add to the ones he earned in the Gatorade Duel at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

For obvious reasons, a win would be ideal. But if victory isn’t in the cards, 90 laps of track time at night is a precious commodity.

NASCAR has a testing ban at all tracks that host its top-three national touring series – Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Camping World Truck. As such, time on the track in actual race conditions is impossible to come by, with the lone exception being Saturday night’s All-Star Race.

While winning is at the forefront of each driver’s mind, gaining valuable information for how their car will react in the following weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 is just as important. With 400 laps being run on the same track, what’s learned in the All-Star Race’s 90 laps is applicable to what drivers will face in the longest race on the Sprint Cup schedule.

The All-Star Race literally provides a win-win scenario for drivers and their teams. The drivers get to vie for a $1 million victory with no points on the line, and the teams they’re racing for get a sneak peek at what they’ll experience in one of the biggest races of the Memorial Day weekend.

For Stewart and his No. 14 team, they’re going all in to this year’s All-Star Race, all over again.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/National Wild Turkey Federation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Are you familiar with the format of this year’s All-Star Race?

“It’s not hard to figure out. I know that it’s a no-holds-barred 90 laps and you could swear that we’re short-track racing on a big mile-and-a-half track.

“It doesn’t matter to me what they do with the format. Whatever it is, the goal is still to win it. So, whether it’s 10 laps, 40 laps, two-tire pit stop, four-tire pit stop – it doesn’t matter to us. The important thing is that it puts on a good show for our fans. At the same time, you’ll figure it out. Whatever the format is, these teams figure out what’s the best way to accomplish that goal.

“I like the individual segments. I think it’s going to add a lot of excitement. I think it’s going to make it to where the class of the field will be up front where they belong. And, those four guys that win those four segments will be the four guys to watch at the end of this thing. It’s going to put an emphasis on each segment on trying to get into those first two rows.”

Because the All-Star Race is a non-points event, does it take on the same kind of importance as a regular, point-paying race?

“It’s an event for the fans and that’s something that’s very important to us, but there’s a lot of bragging rights, too. Charlotte is an area where 95 percent of the Cup teams are based, so when you go there, you want to run well. You’re able to have guys come from the shop that don’t get a chance to travel. They don’t get a chance to come to the racetrack very often and see the fruits of their labor, so for them to come to the All-Star Race and see their cars run, especially when you have a good night, it really pumps up your organization. You do it for your fans, but at the same time, you do it for your organization and your team. That’s why the All-Star Race is important.”

The 2009 season was your 11^th in Sprint Cup, but your first as a driver/owner. How much of your win in the All-Star race was a sense of relief and how much of it was a sense of exhilaration?

“Well, we’d been running well before the All-Star Race, but I don’t think any of us had an expectation of when we thought we’d win a race. I felt in my heart that the team was capable of winning a race in the first year at some point, but I never would’ve dreamed it was going to be one of the biggest races of the year, especially in our backyard. I think that’s really what made it so big – that it happened much sooner than a lot of people anticipated. There were a lot of people that didn’t know what to think about what we were trying to do. I think it really sent a message about how dedicated our organization is to being successful. It kind of quieted a lot of the naysayers and a lot of people that were on the fence trying to decide if I’d made a good decision or not (to become a team owner). I think standing there on the stage and getting the check was a pretty good statement.”

What stood out the most about your win in the All-Star Race?

“Probably the best part was the fact that it was the first chance that Gene (Haas) had gotten to come and watch the team run. For him to come to the track and the first night out, go to victory lane – that was a pretty cool welcome back party for him. That made it a huge night for the organization to be able to have everybody there and not feel like somebody got left out. Everybody was there and present for it. Guys that don’t get a chance to come to the track, get to come to the track that weekend. So, it was cool to get guys in victory lane for the first time.”

What’s the best thing about winning the All-Star Race?

“Well, the greatest thing about it is, if you win the thing from a car owner’s standpoint, which I know very well, now, it’s a great way to pay bills. It helps that out quite a bit. This weekend’s a fun event. It’s not a typical Cup race, by any means. The format is strictly set up for an exciting finish for the fans. It’s cool. It’s a big deal when we come to Charlotte and it’s not because of anything more than the fact that the guys who work at the shop everyday and don’t get a chance to go to the racetrack, they get a chance to go to Charlotte. They get to come see their racecars that they work on during the week. Instead of just watching them on TV, they get to be there, they get to see what the road crews are doing, and they get to be there first-hand. And that’s a big sense of pride if you have a good night. And to be able to celebrate with guys who never get to go to the track, if you can win a race at Charlotte, it’s big. This weekend, we’re racing for $1 million. That’s definitely nothing to pass off lightly.”

Can the All-Star Race be used as a test session for the Coca-Cola 600?

“Absolutely. It always is. If your car is driving well, you’re running for $1 million. But if your car isn’t driving well, you’re learning from that and applying it to the 600 instead. I’ve always looked at it as however your car is driving in the All-Star Race is relatively true to how your car is going to drive in the 600. It’s a really good test because it’s really the only time we have to run at night in race conditions.

“At the same time, the style of racing is very different. Guys that run well in the All-Star Race will run well in the Coke 600, but they’re not going to beat and bang like they might in the All-Star Race.”

TONY STEWART’S NASCAR ALL-STAR RACE PERFORMANCE PROFILE

It takes a flawless performance from an ensemble cast (the driver and the pit crew), and it even takes a little help from the extras (the other competitors on the racetrack and their respective pit crews) to capture the victory and bring home the top prize.

It was 10 years ago Friday night that Ryan Newman and his team had an impressive performance at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, when they earned the title of NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race winners.

The year was 2002 and it was Newman, the eventual Rookie of the Year winner, and his No. 12 Penske Racing team who earned their first-ever victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ranks, although it came in the non-points-paying All-Star Race.

On that night, Newman wasn’t even qualified in the main event at the start of the night but raced his way into the main event, which was then called The Winston, by winning the 16-lap No-Bull Sprint.

After that already amazing feat, Newman and his rookie team had nothing to lose. After all, they weren’t even supposed to be part of the show. The team strategized, Newman was able to drive his race, and he benefited when fans voted to invert the field for the final 20 laps. He took the lead with 17 laps to go and never looked back.

With that win, Newman and his team proved that a new kid on the circuit had what it took to come out on top. He became only the second rookie in series history to win the All-Star Race.

This weekend, the South Bend, Ind., native and now-Sprint Cup veteran is ready to earn his second All-Star title.

So far this season, Newman has one win, two top-five finishes and three top-10s. He currently sits 14th in points. And after disappointing finishes in the last few races, Newman & Company are looking forward to a chance to regroup at this Saturday night’s non-points-paying event.

Unlike any other race, the All-Star Race is about the fame, the glory and a cool $1 million. And with no points on the line, Newman and his crew can go off-script, using their improvisation skills to really do what it takes to earn that top prize in this unique event.

After all, as Newman says, this race is all about winning or bringing home nothing but the steering wheel.

So, for Newman and his No. 39 Tornados Chevy team for Stewart-Haas Racing, this weekend’s All-Star Race is a chance to showcase their skills and prove their performance is worthy.

And if things work out for Newman, he’ll be able to hoist the trophy and perhaps even earn the praises of one of his favorite TV personalities – Joan Rivers, most recently of Oscar Night Red Carpet fame – for his bold moves and stylish performance while on NASCAR’s version of the Red Carpet – victory lane at the Sprint All-Star Race.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What makes the All-Star Race so different from any other race?

“When push comes to shove in the All-Star Race on Saturday night, you do what you have to do to win. This race is about the glory and the big prize. There are no points on the line so, the way I see it, you want to either win it or bring back just the steering wheel in your hands, knowing you did everything you could to be the best of the best that night.”

What is it about the All-Star Race that you like so much as a driver?

“I think one of the coolest things about the All-Star Race for us is that it’s a short race. It’s kind of like the races we all grew up racing. It’s a make your move and make it now kind of thing. It’s a unique layout, and to me that’s what makes it fun. You have the different segments and the rules, and the strategy changes each and every lap. The All-Star Race is huge in our eyes because it’s the All-Star Race, and it’s in our backyard, everybody’s backyard. It’s all about bragging rights. We’re all about beating each other at our own game at our home field, I guess you would say. It’s definitely a challenging race but it’s a lot of fun. Everyone wants to come out on top not just for the $1 million, but also for the bragging rights. ”

This weekend, so much focus is put on the pit crews of each team. There’s the pit crew competition on Thursday night and then, on Friday night, the pit crew is actually part of qualifying because it has to perform a four-tire stop. Talk about what that means.

“So much emphasis in this sport is put on the driver, but what people don’t understand is that this is truly a team sport. How well our pit crews do in the pits for any given stop can truly make or break us during the course of the race. I rely on them to get me out of the pits quickly, and they rely on me to be solid on the racetrack. I really like the format for qualifying because it shows the importance of the entire team, and it really puts our guys in the spotlight. I know it would mean a lot to them to win the pit crew challenge on Thursday, or for us to get the pole on Friday night.”

In 2002, you got your first-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in the non-points-paying All-Star Race. Talk a little bit about that All-Star win and what it meant to you.

“Honestly, until I won the Daytona 500 in 2008, the win in the All-Star Race was my greatest win, I thought, as a driver and as a team. What we did and what we achieved that night, it’s all for the glory. Obviously, there’s some money on the line, but you’re in your own backyard and you’re in everybody’s backyard. When you win on the home field and it’s the race that’s the All-Star Race, it meant a lot to me. We weren’t even expected to be in it and that’s why it was even sweeter, yet, because we had to race our way in. I mean, we raced our way into the race and got the invert and walked away with it for a while, there. It was a close finish at the end, with (Dale) Earnhardt Jr. It was just a great team victory and that’s what we’re here for as a team and as an organization – to put those events together – and it always doesn’t happen like that. In an All-Star Race, it’s that much more pride.”

What is your favorite moment at Charlotte Motor Speedway?

“My All-Star win was really my only one. I won an ARCA race there. We led every lap. And I won a Nationwide race there. That was a lot of fun. But the All-Star Race, when we raced our way into the race and then started last, made the cut, then got the invert and had a fast racecar, that was really cool because nobody expected us to even be in the race. When you race your way in then beat the best, in my opinion, that was a true All-Star moment.”

I think people would be surprised to know that you like Joan Rivers. Is that true?

“Oh yeah. I watch that show, ‘Fashion Police.’ I think she is hysterical. I sit there and just laugh. She’s bold, she’s brash. I love that she says exactly what’s on her mind, and she doesn’t hold back.”

RYAN NEWMAN’S NASCAR SPRINT ALL-STAR RACE PERFORMANCE PROFILE

Stewart started from the pole and led three times for 94 laps before posting his 12th top-10 finish in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at Charlotte. It was also his 14th top-10 finish this season and his sixth top-10 in the last nine races.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Cookies for Kids’ Cancer/Gene Haas Foundation Chevrolet Impala for SHR, led six laps early in the race before finishing 10th. It was his eighth top-10 finish in 22 career Sprint Cup starts at Charlotte and his first top-10 result since finishing eighth four races ago at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.

Matt Kenseth won the Bank of America 500 to score his 21st career Sprint Cup victory, his third of the season and his second at Charlotte.

Kyle Busch finished .968 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top-five. Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger, Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were four caution periods for 16 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Charlotte seventh and 11th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was 19 points behind Chase leader Edwards, while Newman was 54 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Charlotte fifth in points, 24 markers behind Edwards. Newman moved up one spot to 10th in the standings and is now 61 points out of first.

With five races remaining before a champion is crowned following the season finale Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the top-12 drivers competing for the title rank as follows:

1.                  Carl Edwards (2,203 points)
2.                  Kevin Harvick (2,198 points, -5)
3.                  Matt Kenseth (2,196 points, -7)
4.                  Kyle Busch (2,185 points, -18)
5.                  Tony Stewart (2,179 points, -24)
6.                  Brad Keselowski (2,178 points, -25)
7.                  Kurt Busch (2,176 points, -27)
8.                  Jimmie Johnson (2,168 points, -35)
9.                  Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,143 points, -60) *
10.              Ryan Newman (2,142 points, -61) *
11.              Jeff Gordon (2,137 points, -66) *
12.              Denny Hamlin (2,117 points, -86) *

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the sixth race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Oct. 23 Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 1 p.m.

* Over one full race behind in points standings

“We were good off the front there, just when we got back in traffic we got really tight. That was kind of the theme of the night,” said Stewart after earning his 14^th top-10 of the season and his sixth top-10 in the last nine races. “Our car seemed to change balance-wise a lot more in traffic than some of the other cars did.”

Stewart held the point for the first 42 laps around the 1.5-mile oval, relinquishing the lead during a period of green-flag pit stops from laps 43-46. The driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) was back in the lead by lap 47, but only for three laps as a surging Greg Biffle took the top spot away from Stewart on lap 50.

Stewart hung in the top-three before reasserting his presence at the front when a two-tire pit stop while under caution on lap 148 put him back in the lead. The next 48 laps were paced by Stewart until another round of green-flag pit stops jumbled the running order.

Once that series of pit stops cycled through, Kyle Busch was on top with Stewart in second. They ran that way until more green-flag pit stops began to take place on lap 236, and it was there where Stewart’s once dominant run got derailed.

Stewart pitted under green on lap 236 for a scheduled, four-tire pit stop. Unfortunately, the caution came out three laps later, catching Stewart a lap down. It was just plain, rotten luck, with the only saving grace being that Stewart was the first car one lap down when the caution came out, allowing him to regain his lost lap and restart on tail end of the lead lap.

When the race restarted on lap 243, Stewart was in 13^th. The clean air he had enjoyed at the front of the field was now gone, and the wake created by the 12 cars ahead of him wreaked havoc with his car’s aerodynamics.

“I feel like I’m treed behind these guys,” said Stewart over the team radio on lap 256. “I can only go as fast as they go.”

Fifteen laps later, nothing had changed. “It’s hard to believe how aero-dependant these cars are. I just keep getting tighter and tighter,” Stewart added.

Those radio conversations came during a stretch of green-flag racing, and by lap 286, it was time for another round of green-flag pit stops.

Stewart stopped for four tires and fuel, and then in a case of déjà vu, the caution came out a lap later, momentarily putting Stewart a lap down.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” said Stewart on the radio.

Stewart took the “wave around” where any car that doesn’t pit under caution can get a lap back if every car on the lead lap does pit. It put him back on the lead lap, but mired in 14^th.

Aided by a three-car spin that brought out the caution on lap 294, Stewart rose to ninth. And through two more caution periods between laps 301-303 and 318-322, Stewart was able to run down Denny Hamlin to pick up eighth before the checkered flag fell.

“The clean air was really, really valuable to us,” said Stewart, who now has 12 top-10 finishes in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at Charlotte. “We would be tight in a run, but we could still hold them off. But when we got back in traffic a little bit, we could not get the car to turn in the center of the corner. We just kept getting tighter and tighter.

“In the end, we just kind of rallied back.”

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Cookies for Kids’ Cancer/Gene Haas Foundation Chevrolet Impala for SHR, led six laps early in the race before finishing 10^th. It was his eighth top-10 finish in 22 career Sprint Cup starts at Charlotte and his first top-10 result since finishing eighth four races ago at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.

Matt Kenseth won the Bank of America 500 to score his 21^st career Sprint Cup victory, his third of the season and his second at Charlotte.

Kyle Busch finished .968 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top-five. Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger, Stewart, Hamlin and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were eight caution periods for 34 laps, with 11 drivers failing to finish.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Charlotte seventh and 11^th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was 19 points behind Chase leader Edwards, while Newman was 54 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Charlotte fifth in points, 24 markers behind Edwards. Newman moved up one spot to 10^th in the standings and is now 61 points out of first.

With five races remaining before a champion is crowned following the season finale Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the top-12 drivers competing for the title rank as follows:

1.             Carl Edwards (2,203 points)
2.             Kevin Harvick (2,198 points, -5)
3.             Matt Kenseth (2,196 points, -7)
4.             Kyle Busch (2,185 points, -18)
5.             Tony Stewart (2,179 points, -24)
6.             Brad Keselowski (2,178 points, -25)
7.             Kurt Busch (2,176 points, -27)
8.             Jimmie Johnson (2,168 points, -35)
9.             Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,143 points, -60) *
10.         Ryan Newman (2,142 points, -61) *
11.         Jeff Gordon (2,137 points, -66) *
12.         Denny Hamlin (2,117 points, -86) *

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the sixth race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Oct. 23 Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 1 p.m.

* Over 1 full race behind in points standings.

But after soldiering home with their first top-10 finish since the opening Chase race four weekends ago at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., Newman and his No. 39 SHR teammates leave Charlotte knowing they made at least a little progress – as hard-earned as it was.

Newman started sixth for tonight’s 500-mile event around the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway oval and weathered persistent but relatively minor handling issues that were enough to hamper his ability to drive his way up in the running order but not enough to prevent him from maintaining his position solidly in the top-10. He even led a half-dozen laps just prior to the 100-lap mark thanks to a crafty two-tire pit stop.

Later, just short of the 200-lap mark, Newman suffered what turned out to be only a temporary setback when a lengthy pit stop dropped him all the way back to 15^th, but he was able to make his way back into the top-10 thanks to quick work by the No. 39 crew over the next two rounds of pit stops.

And in the end, after flirting with a top-five finish with just 35 laps to go, Newman proved his mettle in holding onto a 10^th-place finish while a handful of competitors who pitted for fresh tires during a late-race caution were able to work their way past him in the closing laps.

“We got a good, solid top-10, and we needed to get at least that much out of it tonight,” said Newman, who scored his eighth top-10 finish in 22 career starts at Charlotte. “I sure wish we could’ve finished a whole lot better than that. The balance of the car wasn’t all that bad through the course of the night, but we just didn’t seem to have the speed we needed to finish any better than we did. We had one bad pit stop in the middle of the race that cost us about five spots, but we made that up by the end of the race. We just didn’t have quite what we needed at the end to give us a better finish than we ended up with. We’ll take a top-10 here tonight and now it’s on to the next one.”

“We felt like we had a decent race car,” added crew chief Tony Gibson. “Our balance was pretty good. We really didn’t do anything, a little bit of wedge and air pressure. Track position was huge and we lost it there about midway through the race. We had a bad pit stop and got back to like 14^th or something and just kind of maintained right there. Then we climbed back up inside the top-10 and that was where we were running – eighth, ninth, 10^th – doing pretty decent. I probably screwed up there at the end. I thought those guys who had just pitted for tires wouldn’t pit again and they did, right behind us. Two or three of them got around us. We probably should have pitted but, in those situations, you just never know what’s the right deal to do. I was hoping more of the leaders might pit. But, just a solid top-10 day for us, so we’ll take it. Build on that. We needed a good run. We needed a solid run to build off of so we’ll take it. It’s a push in the right direction and we’ll go to Talladega.”

Newman’s SHR teammate, Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala, finished eighth. Stewart started from the pole and led three times for 94 laps before posting his 12^th top-10 finish in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at Charlotte. It was also his 14^th top-10 finish this season and his sixth top-10 in the last nine races.

Matt Kenseth won the Bank of America 500 to score his 21^st career Sprint Cup victory, his third of the season and his second at Charlotte.

Kyle Busch finished .968 of a second behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Carl Edwards, Kasey Kahne and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top-five. Kevin Harvick, A.J. Allmendinger, Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were four caution periods for 16 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Charlotte seventh and 11^th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was 19 points behind leader Carl Edwards, while Newman was 54 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Charlotte fifth in points, 24 markers behind Chase leader Edwards. Newman moved up one spot to 10^th in the standings, 61 points out of first.

With five races remaining before a champion is crowned following the season finale Nov. 20 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the top-12 drivers competing for the title rank as follows:

1.             Carl Edwards (2,203 points)
2.             Kevin Harvick (2,198 points, -5)
3.             Matt Kenseth (2,196 points, -7)
4.             Kyle Busch (2,185 points, -18)
5.             Tony Stewart (2,179 points, -24)
6.             Brad Keselowski (2,178 points, -25)
7.             Kurt Busch (2,176 points, -27)
8.             Jimmie Johnson (2,168 points, -35)
9.             Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,143 points, -60)*
10.         Ryan Newman (2,142 points, -61) *
11.         Jeff Gordon (2,137 points, -66)*
12.         Denny Hamlin (2,117 points, -86)*

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the sixth race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Oct. 23 Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 1 p.m.

* More than 1 full race behind in points

With a lap of 28.131seconds, 191.959 mph behind the wheel of his No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet, the two-time NSCS champion captured the pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.

Team Chevy will have four drivers starting in the top-10. Ryan Newman, No. 39 Cookies for Kid’s Cancer/Gene Haas Foundation Chevrolet will start in sixth position. Paul Menard, No. 27 Certain Teed/Menards Chevrolet, will roll off seventh.

Five-time defending NSCS champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Chevy 100th Anniversary Chevrolet, will start ninth in the 334-lap/501 mile race, the fifth in the 2011 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Other Team Chevy drivers in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup qualified as follows: Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet -14th; Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard/Chevy 100th Anniversary Chevrolet-15th and four-time NSCS champion Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive To End Hunger/Chevy 100th Anniversary Chevrolet-23rd.

The race is scheduled to start Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET with live coverage on ABC TV, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

TALK ABOUT TERRIFIC QUALIFYING LAP, BIG RACE HERE SATURDAY NIGHT 500 MILES, TALK ABOUT STARTING THE RACE UP-FRONT:
“That was a pretty cool lap; the hard part is typically we see the pace pick up a little more in qualifying than we say tonight. You just didn’t know what to think. There were guys that broke even or may have barely picked up a little bit or lost a little bit in their lap and that are not what you normally see here. You normally see a large, large pick up from practice speeds to qualifying in the evening here, but just was happy with the lap. I felt like we had a good pick up, definitely had a really good lap obviously, but you sit there after that lap and felt like hopefully we had something that was going to be a top five or six run there but, it was definitely better than we thought after we got out of the car.”

YOU SAID IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST CARS YOU HAVE UNLOADED HERE IN A LONG TIME. SAFE TO PICK YOU THIS WEEK FOR MY FANTASY TEAM?
That is why they call it fantasy, you never know. It is definitely been a good start to the weekend. The first run we made today was in race trim and that was the best balance we had taken off the truck here in a long time. Darian ( Grubb) thought the pace was really good, what we ran there and I felt comfortable in the car, so it definitely got the day started off on the right foot for sure, when we started doing our qualifying runs, we were pretty decent in speed too. You never know. I have had runs here in qualifying where I have missed it and missed my marks doing something to try to gain that extra time that you think you are going to need and made mistakes. Tonight I tried to duplicate my lap that I ran in practice and just get a little bit more out of it versus trying to get that big chunk like we were used to in the past. It has definitely been a good start to the weekend. I have never got into the fantasy anything, I watched fantasy island as a kid, that is about as much fantasy as I have had.”

WHY DO YOU THINK THE TRACK DIDN’T PICK UP FROM PRACTICE TODAY AND ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT IN THE TOP THREE SPOTS, NO ONE CAME FROM THE LAST TEN GUYS THAT WENT OUT?
I am surprised, I was surprised when we got out of the car, when you are on top of the board like that you start paying a little more attention obviously you are more concerned about what is going on there than if you have missed it in your qualifying run, but I honestly don’t know. I don’t know why guys didn’t pick up, I was watching from the motor home and was watching guys lap times and looking at the sheet and seeing what they had practiced and it just wasn’t as much as what we had seen. I think obviously we had a lot of cloud cover today and cool temperatures here in the last couple of days. I don’t think the track changed as much and got as hot during the day as what we typically see here so, I think that is the reason we did have the big pick-ups. You still anticipate that at night the guys are going to pick up speed. It just seems like outside the air is just a little muggier right now and I don’t know if that hurt horse-power and created more drag and just evened anything out. Guys that made gains in their car for qualifying but the temperature and humidity and air probably equaled it back out but it makes our lap that much better of a lap knowing that we were able to gain what we did.”

It was Stewart’s 13th pole in 459 career Sprint Cup races, his first of the season, his first in 26 starts at Charlotte and his first since July 30, 2010 when he qualified on the pole at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, 46 races ago.

“That was a pretty cool lap. It’s definitely a good start to the weekend,” said Stewart, who has one point-paying win at Charlotte (October 2003) and one win in the non-points NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (2009). “The first run we made today was in race trim, and that was the best balance we had taken off the truck here in a long time. Darian (Grubb, crew chief) thought the pace was really good, and I felt comfortable in the car, so it definitely got the day started off on the right foot.

“When we started doing our qualifying runs, we were pretty decent in speed, too. I’ve had runs here in qualifying where I’ve missed it and missed my marks doing something to try to gain that extra time that you think you’re going to need and made mistakes. Tonight I tried to duplicate my lap that I ran in practice and just get a little bit more out of it versus trying to get that big chunk like we’ve tried to in the past. It’s definitely been a good start to the weekend.”

This is the ninth pole for SHR, with Ryan Newman delivering the last one on Sept. 23 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, three races ago.

Newman, driver of the No. 39 Cookies for Kids’ Cancer/Gene Haas Foundation Chevrolet Impala for SHR, will start sixth after turning a lap of 28.186 seconds at 191.584 mph.

“I didn’t get the lap that I wanted. The car bottomed out pretty good in (turns) one and two. But really proud that we picked up a lot of speed, something we’ve been lacking here the last couple of weeks,” said Newman, who has four top-fives and seven top-10s in 21 career points-paying starts at Charlotte. “It was a good effort for the guys and we’ll see what we can do. Proud to represent the Gene Haas Foundation and Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.”

Matt Kenseth will start on the outside of row one as he timed in at 28.137 seconds at 191.918 mph, while his Roush Fenway teammate Carl Edwards was third (28.144 seconds at 191.870 mph). A.J. Allmendinger (28.159 seconds at 191.768 mph) and Greg Biffle (28.163 seconds at 191.741 mph) rounded out the top-five.

Forty-six drivers attempted to qualify for the Bank of America 500. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Geoffrey Bodine, Scott Speed and Josh Wise.

As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took the top spot via Stewart’s pole run. Ford swept the next four spots led by Kenseth. Toyota was the third-fastest make thanks to eighth-quick Kasey Kahne (28.214 seconds at 191.394 mph), while 20th-quick Kurt Busch (28.336 seconds at 190.570 mph) carried the flag for Dodge.

The Bank of America 500 gets underway at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Oct. 15 with live coverage provided by ABC beginning with a pre-race show at 7 p.m.

Intermediate tracks are the bread-and-butter of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Chase, where half of the venues are 1.5-mile ovals.

Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., kicked off the Chase, and its 1.5-mile D-shaped layout is a near clone of Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, which the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visited last Sunday. Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway is next up on the docket, as Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 serves as the halfway mark in the Chase and in the slate of intermediate tracks. Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, which features a similar layout to Charlotte, comes in November, and the season finale follows two weeks later at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing, earned a GPA boost by winning the Chase opener at Chicagoland and then following it with another victory the next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

The back-to-back wins put Stewart atop the point standings, but his time there was short lived. A 25^th-place finish in round No. 3 of the Chase at Dover (Del.) International Speedway dropped him to third, nine points out of first. A rebound seemed eminent at Kansas, where Stewart ran second to race-winner Jimmie Johnson for much of the day, only to have his effort undone by a late-race pit miscue that left him 15^th.

After becoming only the second driver in Chase history to open the championship charge with back-to-back wins, Stewart comes into round No. 5 at Charlotte seventh in points, 19 markers out of the top spot. The GPA boosters Stewart earned via his wins at Chicagoland and New Hampshire have him still eligible to take class honors, but to deliver the commencement address at the awards banquet in Las Vegas, Stewart must take the strength shown at track doppelgangers Chicagoland and Kansas and deliver another strong run at Charlotte in the Bank of America 500.

Can it be done, especially as five-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson has rallied from eighth in the standings, 16 points back after round No. 1 at Chicagoland, to third in points, only four points away from the lead? Consider that Stewart was winless after the 26-race regular season, but come Chase time, rattled off two straight wins to go from ninth in the standings to first.

With wild point swings seemingly happening after each Chase race, another positive point swing can certainly happen at Charlotte. And with Charlotte being the third 1.5-mile oval the series visits in this year’s Chase, Stewart is banking on a Bank of America 500 performance that will emulate the kind of run he had there in October 2003 when he scored a dominant win by leading six times for a race-high 169 laps.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing:

A lot of your fellow drivers have said that this slate of races at the intermediate tracks will set the tone for the remainder of the Chase. Do you agree with that?
“I think so. I mean, there are more mile-and-a-half tracks in the Chase than there is anything else. It’s definitely a situation where these couple of weeks will give everybody an idea of where they are and what they have to do.”

You’re seventh in points, 19 points behind Chase leader Carl Edwards. Can you still win this championship and collect your third career Sprint Cup title?
“My standpoint has always been, until they say that you’re mathematically out of it, you always have a shot. We won the USAC Silver Crown Series championship in ’95, and we were the third driver of three that had a shot, mathematically, to win it. There were two drivers, Jack Hewitt and Dave Darland, that were neck-and-neck in the point standings, and we were kind of the third wheel. We were only included in the group media sessions because we were mathematically in the hunt. Both of those drivers ended up having problems in the race, and we won the championship by two points. You realize when you use that experience, knowing that as long as you’re mathematically in the hunt, you still have a shot. If we have a chance to win the championship at the end, trust me, we’re all for that and we would love nothing more than that. But I think right now where we’re at and how many points we need to make up, I think it lets us have a go-for-broke attitude and just go out and try to do what we did at Chicagoland and New Hampshire and win races. I’ve always said, if you win races, the points will take care of itself. We could still, by theory, win the next six races in a row and still not win the point championship. For us, it’s about going out and doing what we can do, and the other 11 drivers are going to dictate their fates, too.”

Is there a time when a driver who has had some poor runs needs to go into catch-up mode?
“Yeah, the season finale at Homestead. You can ask me that question after we run Saturday night and the answer may be totally different. It’s strictly a week-to-week deal. None of us can predict this. If we could, we’d be bookies in Las Vegas making millions of dollars betting on these races instead of driving in them. And it’s a heck of a lot safer sitting in a chair in that dark room letting cocktail waitresses bring you drinks. I don’t have the answers. Nobody has the answers. All we can do is speculate on what’s going to happen until each week actually happens. So, all we can do is guess on what’s going to happen. If any of us can predict the top-10 positions in Saturday night’s race – you’re a genius, let alone figuring out how the next six weeks are going to be.”

How do you compete against 11 guys for a championship while still competing with 42 guys for a race win?
“For the 12 that are competing, we’re still racing against 31 other guys just like we’ve been since the beginning of the year. For the first two or three weeks, I don’t think we’ve been too conscious of where we are on the racetrack. It’s still business as usual. But as we get closer to the end of the season – probably with two or three races to go – you’re going to be singling out guys a little bit more and paying closer attention to where they are on the racetrack, what position they’re in, and how many laps they’ve led. The further we get into it, the more the points are going to separate the field, and you’re going to see exactly who you’re racing against for the championship. There probably won’t be 12 guys with two or three races left. It’ll be down to four or five guys who have a shot at it.”

What does it take to be successful at Charlotte?
“It always seems like it’s a battle of trying to get your car to cut through the center of the corner and keep the forward drive in it. It seems like it’s a sacrifice of one or the other, but the two ends of the track are different. It seems like you can carry a lot more speed through (turns) one and two, and (turns) three and four are a little more thread-the-needle-type corners. Sometimes there isn’t a big difference between the fall and spring races at Charlotte. They’re spread out so far and they’re at the beginning of summer and the end of summer, so a lot of times they can be very similar.”

TONY STEWART’S CHARLOTTE PERFORMANCE PROFILE

* Race cut short due to weather.

† Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points.

× Race length extended due to green-white-checker finish.