“We missed it a little bit today and it was one of those changes that we couldn’t do on a regular pit stop, so we just kind of had to work around it,” Stewart said. “I’m really proud of Darian (Grubb, crew chief) and these guys. They had good pit stops today and Darian and I kept talking about what we thought we could do to make the Office Depot/Old Spice Chevy better. I thought team-wise we had an awesome day working together and making gains at it. We never said, ‘Well, we just can’t get it any better.’ We kept throwing things at it to try to make it better.”

Stewart’s car went from one end of the spectrum to the other during the course of the 501-mile race, for in the beginning of the race, his car was tight and by the end of the event, he was communicating to Grubb that his car needed to be tightened up because it was loose.

Grubb and the Office Depot/Old Spice crew worked to find a solid balance on the car throughout a series of wedge, tire pressure and track-bar adjustments, and while the car was a top-10 mainstay, Stewart never could find his way to the front of the field.

Despite not contenting for the victory, the No. 14 team locked up its top-10 finish with a stellar pit stop with 18 laps to go. The race had been caution-free since lap 213 and nearly every driver needed to pit for fuel in the final 20 laps. Any issue with the stop, which included a splash of fuel and two tires, could have dropped the team outside the top-20.

As they’ve done all year, the Office Depot/Old Spice crew delivered a flawless stop and Stewart brought home his 10th top-10 finish in 16 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas.

Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for SHR, finished 12th to score his 16th top-12 finish of 2009.

Kurt Busch stretched his fuel mileage and beat Denny Hamlin by 25.686 seconds to win the Dickies 500 and score his 20th career Sprint Cup victory, his second of the season and his first at Texas.

Matt Kenseth finished third, while Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five. Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 26 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Both SHR drivers are represented in this year’s Chase for the Championship. Stewart remained fifth in the standings and is now 178 points behind Chase leader Jimmie Johnson, who was involved in a lap three accident and finished 38th. Newman fell one spot to ninth and is 324 markers out of first.

It was Newman’s 12th top-12 finish this season and his fourth top-12 result in 14 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas.

“We just struggled with the car being loose on entry at the beginning of every run throughout the race, and that is what hurt us in the end,” said Newman, who said he was still sore from last week’s horrific crash in the closing laps at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. “Tony Gibson (crew chief) and the guys tried a lot of different things to help the car not be so loose on entry and to help me get a better run at the start of each run, but we just couldn’t get the right changes. They did a great job today. I was sore all weekend, but it was good to be back in the racecar.”

Following practice on Saturday, the Haas Automation/U.S. Army team made numerous changes to the No. 39 Chevy in hopes of finding a setup that would help them improve upon their 26th-place starting position. With the drop of the green flag, Newman began patiently working his way into the top-20.

Newman reported that the No. 39 machine was loose on entry into the track’s corners, particularly at the beginning of the run. He also told Gibson that he needed to cut through the center of the turns better. Newman made his first green flag pit stop of the day at lap 55 for four tires, fuel and track bar and air pressure adjustments.

Back on the 1.5-mile oval and still running in the top-20, Newman once again complained of being loose at the start of a run. The loose-handling issue at the beginning of the run was hampering his efforts to gain spots on the track, but as the run wore on, the handling of the No. 39 Chevy would tighten up, which helped improve the car’s overall handling.

Under caution at lap 85, Newman pitted for four tires, fuel and track bar and air pressure adjustments and then restarted the race at lap 91 in 19th-place.

By lap 150, which was shortly after the team’s third pit stop of the day, Newman was running in 15th-place. As he battled for position he again told Gibson that the car’s tendency to want to spin out on entry into the corners early in the run was killing his momentum and preventing him from advancing.

“I’m way too loose getting in, and then about 10 laps into a run it snugs up,” Newman said. “I just need to be tighter at the start of the run, but I don’t want to make it tighter throughout the course of the entire run.”

Over the course of 500-mile race, Newman’s crew went to work and tried a variety of air pressure, track bar and wedge adjustment combinations in hopes of finding a cure to aid the car’s handling woes.

Newman’s final, four-tire stop of the night came at lap 266. The crew also made another series of chassis adjustments. Newman returned to the track and was in 15th-place by the time the green-flag stops had cycled through. Gibson told his driver that they would not have enough fuel to make it to the end of the 334-lap race, so they would have to pit once more.

The team pitted at lap 318 for right-side tires and fuel and finished the race in 12th-place

“It was a tough day for Ryan because he was sore and he was battling the racecar, but he hung in there and proved how tough he is,” Gibson said. “We’ve got two more races to try and get our first win as a team, which has been our goal all season, and that’s what our focus is now.”

Newman’s Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) teammate and owner, Tony Stewart, came home sixth to score his 23rd top-10 finish of 2009.

Kurt Busch stretched his fuel mileage and beat Denny Hamlin by 25.686 seconds to win the Dickies 500 and score his 20th career Sprint Cup victory, his second of the season and his first at Texas.

Matt Kenseth finished third, while Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five. Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 26 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Both SHR drivers are represented in this year’s Chase for the Championship. Stewart remained fifth in the standings and is now 178 points behind Chase leader Jimmie Johnson, who was involved in a lap three accident and finished 38th. Newman fell one spot to ninth and is 324 markers out of first.

It was Stewart’s 23rd top-10 finish of 2009 and his 10th in 16 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for SHR, finished 12th to score his 16th top-12 finish of 2009.

Kurt Busch stretched his fuel mileage and beat Denny Hamlin by 25.686 seconds to win the Dickies 500 and score his 20th career Sprint Cup victory, his second of the season and his first at Texas.

Matt Kenseth finished third, while Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five. Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 26 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Both SHR drivers are represented in this year’s Chase for the Championship. Stewart remained fifth in the standings and is now 178 points behind Chase leader Johnson, who was involved in a lap three accident and finished 38th. Newman fell one spot to ninth and is 324 markers out of first.

[nichemate]0,1,1,’Stewart-Haas’,,US,,,,,,,,1[/nichemate]

With only two races remaining before a champion is crowned following the season finale Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the top-12 drivers competing for the title rank as follows:

1. Jimmie Johnson (6,297 points) +/-0
2. Mark Martin (6,224 points, -73) +/-0
3. Jeff Gordon (6,185 points, -112) +/-0
4. Kurt Busch (6,126 points, -171) +2
5. Tony Stewart (6,119 points, -178) +/-0
6. Juan Pablo Montoya (6,061 points, -236) -2
7. Greg Biffle (6,050 points, -247) +/-0
8. Denny Hamlin (5,975 points, -322) +3
9. Ryan Newman (5,973 points, -324) -1
10. Kasey Kahne (5,898 points, -399) -1
11. Carl Edwards (5,857 points, -440) -1
12. Brian Vickers (5,777 points, -520) +/-0

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Nov. 15 Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The season’s penultimate race starts at 3:15 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 2:30 p.m.

The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing is essentially out of championship contention and in much the same position he was in 2006 and again in 2007 and 2008 when he came to the Lone Star State’s 1.5-mile oval.

In 2006, Stewart was outside the Chase for the Championship, having failed to make the cut by just 16 points in what was then a 10-driver Chase. With no points to worry or care about, Stewart focused on winning races. And win he did, taking three Chase races, including the 2006 Dickies 500.

In 2007, Stewart was back in the Chase, but with only three races remaining and a 322-point deficit to then championship point leader Jeff Gordon, Stewart entered that year’s Dickies 500 with the same mindset he had the year before. Winning races was all that mattered, because while the championship might mathematically have been in reach, realistically, it was about as far away as Mars.

But like the championship, another Texas win wasn’t in the cards for Stewart, as he finished 11th in the fall classic at Texas. Same story in 2008, when Stewart finished 16th.

But that victory in 2006, where Stewart led eight times for a race-high 278 laps to take his first Sprint Cup win at Texas, continues to resonate, especially as Stewart looks up from his 279-point deficit to current championship leader and soon-to-be four-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

The dominant performance had been in the making for some time, as Stewart had six top-10s in his nine previous Sprint Cup races at Texas. And the authoritative run was foreshadowed earlier that year, when in April 2006 he won the second round of IROC XXX. He followed that win with a victory on the road course at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, and with a third-place finish in the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Stewart secured his first IROC championship – the last in the 30-year history of IROC.

As the last IROC champion, Stewart has lifelong bragging rights. But in NASCAR, where it seems you’re only as good as you’re last race, a win in Sunday’s race at Texas would give Stewart the kind of bragging rights he enjoyed just five races ago at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City when he scored his fourth Sprint Cup win of the season and the 37th of his career.

Never a fan of points racing to begin with, Stewart can again eschew points for victories. And knowing what it felt like to pull the trigger on two Beretta six-shooters in Texas’ victory lane in 2006, Stewart’s target this year is his 38th career Sprint Cup win and his second at Texas.

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

You’re 279 points behind championship point leader Jimmie Johnson with only three races remaining. Do you think that you’re out of the championship?

“As far as the championship is concerned, it’s out of our control. So, we’re back to the mode we were at this time last year and the year before that and that’s just trying to win races. We can’t do anything about the points now. It’s strictly a matter of us going out and doing the best we can each week. The only way we’re going to get back in it is going to be dictated by what happens to the guys in front of us. If they don’t have any trouble, it doesn’t matter whether we lead the most laps and win all the races, we’re not going to catch them.”

Is where you finish in points based more on luck than anything else?

“It just is what it is. That’s the easiest way to describe it. It’s more about things that are out of our control than about the things that are actually in our control.”

The championship seems to be all but decided, but how far up the standings can you climb before the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway?

“We still have three races we can try to win here. That’s what I try to do every week is win, so that’s not going to change whether we have a reality of winning the championship or not. It’s still about going out and doing the best you can every race. All you can do is keep your fingers crossed that things go your way, and when the season is over, we’ll see where we’re at.”

In your last nine races at Texas you’ve led 453 laps (15 percent) and have run in the top-15 in 81.1 percent of the time. How have you been able to adapt to Texas’ layout?

“I’ve found that you can pass anywhere, really. If you get a guy that misses the bottom of the corner and he bobbles, you can get around him. But even if someone doesn’t make a mistake and you’ve got a little better car than they do, the groove has moved up enough over the years to where the track’s a little wider, so you have more room to get a run on a guy. But as the tires wear out and grip goes away, drivers will make mistakes and a car’s handling will become more important. And when a guy makes a mistake, you need to be there to capitalize on it. You can really pass anywhere as long as the right opportunity comes up.”

Texas is a track where you’ve been consistently good. Does that make you more comfortable?

“Yes. Absolutely. It puts you in a positive frame of mind when you go to a track knowing that you’ve run well there before.”

What is it, specifically, that makes you so comfortable at Texas?

“You have to be comfortable or you’re not going to go fast. The more comfortable I am, the faster we go.

“This track, the grooves have moved around, especially in the last couple of years. We’ve seen the track start getting wider and Eddie (Gossage, track president) took the initiative to try to get the bumps smoother in (turns) one and two. A lot of promoters wouldn’t have done that. They wouldn’t have taken that much time and effort, but it’s made it to where you can move around on the racetrack and where you can run the top side or the bottom side. It’s nice from a driver’s perspective to be able to have that flexibility behind the steering wheel, knowing that if your car’s not driving exactly the way you want it to, you can move around the racetrack and find a spot the car likes better.

“Anytime you put more seasons on a racetrack, the better it gets because it seems like the pavement wears out on the bottom and it makes it to where you can run the top and be fast and you can run the bottom and be fast. It makes the whole racetrack, speed-wise, about the same, versus when they pave a racetrack and the only groove is right on the bottom. The fastest way is the shortest way, because it all has the same amount of grip, so the shorter distance is faster. Every year that we come here I think the racing just gets better and better, as far as being able to move around on the racetrack and guys not having to just follow each other and get stuck behind each other. You can actually pass. You can race. You can get away from guys if your car’s fast.”

Before you raced at Texas in a stock car, you raced there in an Indy car. What was the difference?

“The IRL car was nothing like driving a stock car. You could go anywhere on the track with the IRL car that you wanted to, and you could run wide-open while doing it. It was as easy as riding down the interstate, whereas with a stock car, you’re not off the gas very long, but you do have to lift. With the track being so line-sensitive, it’s really important that you’re doing the same thing every lap, and making sure you’re very consistent in how you’re driving the car.”

You and Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage have developed quite the rapport. How did your friendship begin?

“We’ve just been friends for a long time. Eddie’s always been good to us, and we’ve spent time on the Kyle Petty Charity Ride and we’ve worked on some charity events together. He’s a great guy, and someone I’ve looked to for help in my career as a track promoter at Eldora Speedway. Eddie and everyone on his staff has always been a group that we enjoy working with and have had fun with, and that’s something that makes the Texas race weekend a lot more enjoyable Glad to know he’s feeling better and back in action.”

“Get back up, dust yourself off and just keep right on riding,” Hedeman went on to say.

For NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Ryan Newman, the time to ‘cowboy up’ is now as he heads to this weekend’s Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Last weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Newman recorded his first DNF (did not finish) of the 2009 season following a harrowing crash with just five laps remaining in the AMP Energy 500. It was his first DNF since the fall Talladega race in 2008. The “Big One,” so to speak, was triggered on lap 184 when the freight train of cars running the outside line, parallel to a line of cars running along the track’s bottom, hiccupped as it raced down Talladega’s backstretch.

A car barreled into the back of Newman, which led to a chain-reaction crash that caused Newman’s No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevy to shoot left and into the path of Marcos Ambrose. That contact turned Newman backward, whereupon his car’s aerodynamics became reversed and lifted off the ground.

After somersaulting onto its roof, the car first landed on the nose of Kevin Harvick’s Chevrolet before hitting the pavement and skidding across the track and into the SAFER Barrier lining the outside retaining wall in turn three. The No. 39 Chevy finally came to rest in the soggy infield grass a few yards off the track’s apron, having rolled yet again.

Safety crews quickly arrived and worked to extricate Newman from the car. The process was tedious, but Newman was able to give updates to his crew via the team radio that he was okay. With his car finally righted and the roof cut off, Newman climbed from his battered machine and walked on his own to a waiting ambulance. Following a thorough evaluation in the infield care center, Newman was released.

Although still sore and reeling from the accident that took his team out of contention five laps from the checkered flag at Talladega and resulted in his first DNF of the season, Newman is ready to get back in the saddle at Texas. His goal – the team’s first win of the 2009 season.

In 12 Sprint Cup starts at the 1.5-mile oval, Newman has two poles, three top-five finishes and three top-10s. He has also claimed victory and worn the famous cowboy hat trophy on one occasion – in 2003, when he started third and led 77 laps en route to the win.

With just three races remaining, Newman and Company still have work to do. The Talladega crash was yesterday’s news. Now, the team has its eyes focused on a win and a top-10 finish in the Sprint Cup point standings. A farm boy at heart, raising two bulls of his own named Rosco and Flash and two calves on his farm in Statesville, N.C., Newman knows what it means to pull up his boot straps and keep right on riding. And this weekend at Texas, he plans to show everyone how to “cowboy up.”

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing

Last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, you were involved in what was a pretty scary crash that had your car flip and barrel roll onto its roof, where it finally came to a stop in the infield grass. Everyone was happy to see you walk away from that accident on your own. How are you doing now?

“I was pretty sore after the crash. I actually chipped a couple of teeth, but other than that I’m okay. I’m still sore, but I feel better every day. I’ve really kind of just taken it easy this week. I’ve done all the normal things that I would do – go to the race shop for debrief, spend time on my farm and at home doing the things I do every week when I have time off.

“Unfortunately, we were the victims of a bad wreck at Talladega. On the bright side of things, everything worked the way it was supposed to and I was able to walk away from a bad crash just being sore. There are a lot of people I have to say thanks to for that. I want to thank ButlerBuilt (seats), Simpson Race Products and all the guys at the shop and Hendrick Chassis for what they do to make the cars safer. I obviously tested everything last week. I also want to thank all the NASCAR fans and the people who work in the sport for their outpouring of concern. I’ve gotten more calls, texts, emails and notes than I could have imagined. I know people have reached out to Krissie and people at Stewart-Haas Racing, and it has just really been amazing. So, I want to say thanks to everybody for that.”

You have a win, three top-five and three top-10 finishes at Texas. You finished 15th there in the spring. What are your thoughts as you head there this weekend?

“Following the race at Texas in the spring, I said that we needed to work on our mile-and-a-half program, and I feel we have definitely improved. That’s not saying we still can’t get better. I just believe we have been better from the time we have unloaded at these tracks as the season has progressed. I think we probably had a better car than 15th place here in the spring, but handling issues seemed to get the best of us. We’ve been able to improve that, and we have had some solid finishes at Charlotte and Chicago and Atlanta. We’ve also qualified better since then, so I’m looking forward to getting to Texas and putting the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army machine out front in qualifying.

“I always look forward to racing at Texas. I love the speed at Texas. It’s a fast racetrack, and the weather should be cool, so hopefully we can haul mail. Texas is actually one of the fastest tracks that we go to all year, so you have to be on top of your game because things can happen pretty quickly. It’s a track I’ve always liked, although it doesn’t necessarily show in the finishes. It’s a smooth, fast racetrack and there are multiple grooves, so it is fun to race. The asphalt has aged the track to the point it has gotten better and better each time we come back. It’s a race we look forward to.

“This weekend, we’re going there for the first time with double-file restarts. I think that is going to be another bundle of excitement as we’ve seen at most every racetrack this year. The double file restarts are more advantageous at bigger racetracks, especially the wider ones. I saw for the first time at Martinsville that the double file restarts really didn’t make much difference compared to the way it used to be. At Texas, you can get three- and sometimes four wide in the corners. So to me, the bigger the racetrack, the wider the racetrack, the more the double-file restarts have an impact. I think it definitely adds some multiple levels of excitement. I think the double-file restarts have been a great addition for NASCAR, and I think Texas will be a great place for it. I’m looking forward to it.”

You say that Texas Motor Speedway has matured and aged. How so?

“Basically it’s gotten wider and it’s gotten a bit more character. It’s a little more bumpy, which is fine. The tunnel bump here in turns one and two was getting pretty big, so I’m glad they took some of the ‘character’ out of it. I think that, in general, the track has gotten wider and racier. It’s got less grip, which is fine. I’d rather slide around a little bit and be in charge of my racecar than be stuck to the racetrack.”

TONY GIBSON, Crew Chief of No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing

The end of the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway was pretty intense, to say the least, for the No. 39 team. How is Ryan doing following the wreck? As dramatic as the wrecks are, in many ways they also prove to be beneficial for the race team. What are you learning from Ryan’s wreck last weekend that might help this team in the future?

“I talked to Ryan after the wreck on Sunday and then he came to the race shop on Monday. He was okay. He chipped a couple of teeth, and he was sore, but that was to be expected. I guess the best way to say it was he was out riding his tractor on the farm on Monday morning, and he came to the shop in the afternoon for team debrief.

“For us, it was kind of ironic – the timing of the wreck and everything that happened with Ryan after the wreck. He said he couldn’t get his helmet off because of where the roll cage ended up after he slid down the track on his roof. Well, we had already been in the process of moving his seats down in the car back at the race shop. That just gets his head further down and gets his whole body lower in the car. It’s just weird that three weeks ago we started looking at how to get his weight lower in the car. At the time, we weren’t really thinking about the head, but just getting his weight lower in the car. The wreck on Sunday makes us look at other areas, too. We can see why it’s an advantage and safer to get his body lower in the car. There are two things we are doing – his neck and shoulders are all lower from the roll cage so he has more protection from a side hit, and it obviously gets his head lower from that bar on the roll cage. So, we had already had a car rigged up with the lower seat for Ryan to try out on Monday. Timing-wise, it was ironic because we had planned all along for him to come in on Monday and sit in that car to see what he thought. It was just kind of strange. We had him get in the car and try it out, and it’s something we’re going to continue working on. We spent all day Monday looking at the car from Talladega and studying it. NASCAR came over to the shop, too. We looked at the interior, and everything really looked great. It wasn’t compromised. Nothing moved at all.”

Although the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army team is out of contention for the championship with just three races to go in the 2009 season, the team still has goals and there are still positions to be gained in the standings. Can you talk a little bit about how you address the next three weeks and what this team would like to accomplish?

“We know we are out of contention for the championship, but we still have three races and our goals are the same. We want to keep finishing high, get top-10 and top-five finishes, and make sure that we finish in the top-10 in points. We want to try to win a race. That’s been our goal this whole season. Our goal right now is just to win. We want to finish in the top-10 in points. We feel like that’s where we have run most of the year. We have been a solid top-10 car and top-10 team. We just want to make sure we stay in the top-10 and finish. That’s pretty important to us. More important right now is to get that first win, and we have a few more shots to do that.

“We feel like our mile-and-a-half program has really improved over the course of the year. Obviously, our Charlotte program was good. We were good at Chicago, and we ran well at Kansas but we didn’t get a good finish there. We’ve definitely improved since we started this season, and I think we’ll have a good weekend ahead of us at Texas. We’re trying things chassis-wise the next few races to work on for next year. Since there is no testing, we’re trying to use as many of these races as we can to try some things and get a jump on next year. But, more than anything, we want to get that first win.”