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.

But he’s never scored a victory in a points-paying race at the 1.5-mile oval and would love nothing more than to change that in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.

Not that his finishes have been bad, by any means. Twice (October 2003 and May 2009), the driver of the No. 39 Cookies for Kids’ Cancer/Gene Haas Foundation Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) has finished in the runner-up spot, and he has seven top-10 finishes in 21 career starts at Charlotte. He even won the non-points Sprint All-Star race in May 2002 and he finished in the top-10 in all five of his Nationwide Series races at the 1.5-mile oval, including a victory in the May 2005 event. He also started on the pole and won a 100-mile ARCA race in October 2000 at Charlotte.

And, every driver and team in the garage area knows that when it’s time to qualify, Newman is the biggest obstacle they will have to overcome. He’s won nine poles at Charlotte, the most of any active driver and second only to the legendary David Pearson, who claimed the top spot 14 times. Newman has been so good at Charlotte that he’s qualified fourth or better in 13 of 19 qualifying sessions he’s been a part of. (Qualifying was rained out in October 2002 and October 2008.) Only twice has he qualified outside the top-15.

A win at Charlotte would also kick back into gear Newman’s efforts in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The No. 39 team hasn’t enjoyed the results it has been looking for through the first four Chase races and sits 11^th in the standings, 54 markers behind championship leader Carl Edwards.

Victory would also be huge for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, which will be featured on Newman’s No. 39 Chevrolet for the Bank of America 500. The Gene Haas Foundation, formed in 1999 by SHR co-owner Gene Haas, is donating $25,000 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer which, through the concept of local bake sales and online cookie sales, inspires individuals, organizations, and businesses to join in the fight against pediatric cancer by raising the funds and awareness necessary to help change the effects of pediatric cancer and provide more families with the hope they deserve.

Cookies for Kids’ Cancer was founded in 2008 by Gretchen and Larry Witt, who were inspired to do so by their son, Liam, who was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in 2007 while just 2 years old. After successfully hosting a 96,000-cookie bake sale that raised more than $400,000 for cancer research during December 2007, Cookies for Kids’ Cancer was formed. Tragically, Liam came to the end of his courageous four-year fight with cancer in January 2011 at the age of 6 and, though devastated by his loss, the Witts remain more determined than ever to continue the fight against pediatric cancer.

As they look ahead to Saturday night, think just how “sweet” it would be to see Cookies for Kids’ Cancer celebrating in Charlotte Motor Speedway’s victory lane as part of Newman and Company’s relentless efforts to win the Bank of America 500.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Cookies for Kids’ Cancer/Gene Haas Foundation Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What are your overall thoughts heading into Charlotte?
“I think that the racing is really good there. The track, as far as running up against the fence, running down on the bottom, both ends of the racetrack, are really racy. I think it’s racier than it has ever been in my career, when it was the original surface, and then it was ‘levigated,’ and then it was repaved. I think it is the best now that it has ever been. The cars are so similar and the speeds are so fast that it’s still a difficult place to pass. It’s really a fun racetrack once you get your car right there. The track is so different end to end that it does take a specific balance to get the car balanced out end to end. It’s fun, especially on qualifying days, for me.”

How does Charlotte change from day to night?
“Night racing there is always cooler and not just temperature-wise. It’s cooler because you can see the sparks flying and the lights make the cars look faster. Hopefully, we can put on a good show for everybody. I’ve always liked racing there, but we haven’t won there since the All-Star race, so we’d like to get a win again, obviously.”

Does your mindset heading into a weekend change week to week or does it remain the same?
“If I was last in points or if I was first in points, it would be the same. And that is to do my best to go out there and win the race. If you have a car that is not capable of winning the race, then you try to turn a 15^th into a 10^th or a 10^th into a fifth by using strategy. You do whatever you possibly can to get that victory. I don’t have a different approach. Maybe I should – I wouldn’t be 11^th in points right now, but I don’t think there has been a problem.”

Talk about Cookies for Kids’ Cancer being on the 39 car this weekend?
“It’s neat for us to have them on board and, hopefully, we can get them some good exposure. The best way to do that is by running up front and winning. Gene (Haas) has an incredible foundation and he’s partnered with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer which, from what I’ve read and seen, is an incredible organization. What the Witts have done is amazing and, hopefully, we can bring a lot of attention to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer this week at Charlotte.”

RYAN NEWMAN’S CHARLOTTE SPRINT CUP SERIES PERFORMANCE PROFILE

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

* Race cut short due to weather.

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

The incident resulted in Newman finishing a disappointing 31st in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Newman didn’t get any breaks in the driver point standings either, he dropped three positions from seventh to 10th.

“We really wanted to go out there tonight and showcase the Army Chevrolet on Memorial Day weekend,” said Newman. “We fought hard like our Soldiers and never quit, but we just had too much car damage to overcome.”

After starting NASCAR’s longest race of the season from the 12th position, Newman struggled with handling issues almost from the get-go. The Army car was tight in the corners and lacked speed on the straightaways. A number of adjustments were made, but nothing seemed to click to gain track position.

But following a decision by crew chief Tony Gibson not to pit during a caution on Lap 295 of 400, Newman jumped to 13th place when the race was restarted a few laps later.

As Newman was maneuvering around the 1.5-mile oval, he found trouble when Mark Martin and David Gilliland got tangled on Lap 302. Newman got collected in the melee and had no choice but to drive his car to the garage where the Army crew made major repairs. When Newman returned to action in his hoodless car, he was more than 40 laps down.

“I couldn’t get the car pulled down in time and they (Mark Martin and David Gilliland) bounced off the wall and came back and got me,” explained Newman. “We were just a by-product of it. We shouldn’t have been in that position, we should have been out front. The U.S. Army Chevrolet was not good but the guys fought hard. Just got on the unfortunate side of an unfortunate accident.”

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, finished 17th and is currently ninth in points.

The race winner was Kevin Harvick. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: David Ragan, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Marcos Ambrose, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Regan Smith, David Reutimann and Denny Hamlin.

The Sprint Cup Series next race is Sunday (June 5) at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.

Despite radioing to crew chief Darian Grubb that something was amiss in his engine with less than 20 laps to go, Stewart found himself in ninth place just before a green-white-checkered finish would decide the race two laps past its scheduled 400-lap distance. But when the green flag waved, Stewart’s engine sputtered, either from whatever was happening inside the engine to the fact that Stewart’s fuel tank was nearly dry or a combination of the two. Either way, Stewart was unable to take off at full song, and when Jeff Burton spun off turn one in front of Stewart, the two-time Sprint Cup champion had to jump on the brakes to avoid hitting him, losing even more spots.

Stewart quickly gathered himself and made the final tour around the 1.5-mile oval to log his 10th top-20 finish in the 12 races run thus far in 2011.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala for SHR, finished 31st after being collected in an accident on lap 303. His crew made repairs that allowed him to return to the race and gain five positions.

Kevin Harvick won the Coca-Cola 600 to score his 17th career Sprint Cup victory, his third of the season and his first at Charlotte.

David Ragan finished .703 of a second behind Harvick in the runner-up spot, while Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top-five. Marcos Ambrose, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Regan Smith, David Reutimann and Denny Hamlin comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 14 caution periods for 64 laps, with 13 drivers failing to finish.

With round 12 of 36 complete, Stewart picked up one position to rise to ninth in the Sprint Cup championship point standings. He now has 356 points and is 89 markers behind series leader Carl Edwards. Newman dropped three spots to 10th in the standings. He has 353 points and is 92 points back of Edwards.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the June 5 STP 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 12:30 p.m.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton - Getty Images for NASCAR

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala, led the two-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway by finishing 17th in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Stewart led five laps during a green flag pit sequence, but engine woes in the waning laps knocked him out of the top-10.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala for SHR, finished 31st after being collected in an accident on lap 303. His crew made repairs that allowed him to return to the race and gain five positions.

Kevin Harvick won the Coca-Cola 600 to score his 17th career Sprint Cup victory, his third of the season and his first at Charlotte.

David Ragan finished .703 of a second behind Harvick in the runner-up spot, while Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top-five. Marcos Ambrose, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Regan Smith, David Reutimann and Denny Hamlin comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 14 caution periods for 64 laps, with 13 drivers failing to finish the 402-lap race, which was extended two laps past its scheduled distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

With round 12 of 36 complete, Stewart picked up one position to rise to ninth in the Sprint Cup championship point standings. He now has 356 points and is 89 markers behind series leader Carl Edwards. Newman dropped three spots to 10th in the standings. He has 353 points and is 92 points back of Edwards.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the June 5 STP 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 12:30 p.m.