Stewart led five times for a race-high 160 laps en route to his eighth top-five finish of 2011 and his eighth top-five result in 20 career Sprint Cup starts at Phoenix.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Veterans Day Chevrolet Impala for SHR, finished fifth. It was Newman’s ninth top-five result of 2011 and his seventh top-five in 19 career Sprint Cup starts at the 1-mile oval.

The last time both SHR drivers finished in the top-five was in July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon when Newman won and Stewart finished second.

Kasey Kahne won the Kobalt Tools 500k to score his 12th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his first at Phoenix.

Carl Edwards finished .802 of a second behind Kahne in the runner-up spot, while Stewart, Jeff Burton and Newman rounded out the top-five. A.J. Allmendinger, David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were eight caution periods for 30 laps, with 10 drivers failing to finish the 312-lap race.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Phoenix second and 12th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was three points behind Chase leader Edwards while Newman was 103 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Phoenix still in second and still three points behind Edwards. Newman moved up three spots to ninth in the standings and is now 107 points out of first. Both Newman and Kurt Busch have 2,252 points, but because Busch has two wins this season compared to just one for Newman, Busch is awarded eighth place.

Just one race remains before a champion is crowned following the Nov. 20 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Heading into the season finale, the top-12 Chase drivers rank as follows, with only Edwards and Stewart still eligible for the title.
1. Carl Edwards (2,359 points)
2. Tony Stewart (2,356 points, -3)
3. Kevin Harvick (2,308 points, -51)
4. Brad Keselowski (2,294 points, -65)
5. Jimmie Johnson (2,291 points, -68)
6. Matt Kenseth (2,289 points, -70)
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,257 points, -102)
8. Kurt Busch (2,252 points, -107)
9. Ryan Newman (2,252 points, -107)
10. Denny Hamlin (2,249 points, -110)
11. Jeff Gordon (2,247 points, -112)
12. Kyle Busch (2,224 points, -135)

The Ford 400 begins at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 2 p.m.

“We did not get on the pole, but we had a nice, solid lap and that’s what we needed to do,” said Stewart, who won at Phoenix as a Sprint Cup rookie in November 1999. “I would like to have been a little better. I think our car is a little better than that. I was a little too free to run a faster lap than that. It was a solid run and we’re in good shape right now.”

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Veterans Day Chevrolet Impala for SHR, will start 30th after turning a lap of 26.764 seconds at 134.509 mph.

“Not the lap we wanted,” said Newman, who won at Phoenix in April 2010 to score his first win in the No. 39 Chevrolet and the 14th of his Sprint Cup career. “There’s not a lot of grip in the track and we found that out.”

Matt Kenseth captured his seventh career Sprint Cup pole, his third of the season and his first at Phoenix by posting a lap of 26.258 seconds at 137.101 mph.

A.J. Allmendinger will start on the outside of row one as he timed in at 26.384 seconds at 136.446 mph. Marcos Ambrose was third (26.411 seconds at 136.307 mph), while Mark Martin (26.455 seconds at 136.080 mph) and Martin Truex Jr., (26.455 seconds at 136.080 mph) rounded out the top-five.

Forty-six drivers attempted to qualify for the Kobalt Tools 500k. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Scott Riggs, David Stremme and Andy Lally.

As far as manufacturers went, Ford took the top-three spots thanks to Kenseth, Allmendinger and Ambrose. Chevrolet was next best at the hands of Martin. The top Toyota was Truex, and carrying the flag for Dodge was 12th-quick Brad Keselowski (26.585 seconds at 135.415 mph).

The Kobalt Tools 500k gets underway at 3 p.m. EST on Sunday with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 2 p.m.

The maroon and red No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) proved quick from the start, as Stewart used it to crack the top-10 on lap 38 after starting 20th. Running some of the fastest laps of the race, he continued his march to the front.

Stewart was eighth when the caution flag waved on lap 60, whereupon he came to the pits for four tires and fuel, along with a track bar and air pressure adjustment to get his car to turn better through the center of the track’s corners. It was a flawless stop, and the No. 14 team’s quick work gained Stewart two spots on the track.

In sixth for the lap-66 restart, Stewart resumed his charge forward. He passed Kyle Busch for fifth on lap 75 and by lap 100 was up to fourth. Stewart hung in and around the top-five until a lap-224 pit stop while under caution. There, an issue prevented getting the left-rear tire off the ground quick enough, delaying the tire change and dropping Stewart from fourth to eighth when racing resumed on lap 229.

Now mired in traffic, Stewart and crew chief Darian Grubb were faced with the added challenge that the race was going to be decided by fuel mileage. When to pit, or to pit at all, was a decision that had to be made as the laps ticked off the board.

The lap-229 restart meant that only 83 laps remained. If some timely cautions came, Stewart might be able to make it to the end. Or, those timely cautions could also allow Stewart to pit for right-side tires and enough fuel to go the distance, with the risk being he’d be behind anyone who opted to stay out and gamble that their fuel mileage could carry them to the checkered.

When the caution flag waved for what would be the final time on lap 235, Stewart was in eighth-place and faced the decision: stay out and stay close to the leaders, or pit and give up track position for fresh right-side rubber and enough fuel to go the rest of the way.

Stewart stayed out, but everyone behind him peeled off the racetrack and onto pit road.

When the race restarted on lap 240, all those drivers with fresh tires quickly made their way past Stewart, jettisoning him to 12th in just five laps.

Since his track position was gone, Stewart went into fuel conservation mode. He backed nearly a second off the pace, dropping to 17th and the last driver on the lead lap. The theory behind this being the tortoise (Stewart), would out-wit the hare (the leaders). Unfortunately, nearly everyone played this fuel mileage game too, slowing their pace considerably in an effort to save fuel. The net result was that Stewart was stuck where he was.

With the field so strung out and no more cautions in sight, drivers were keenly aware of how fast they needed to go to keep their pursuers behind them. All hoped that whoever they were racing would run out of fuel. No one’s tank ran completely dry, and those who were close on fuel pitted, including Denny Hamlin, who led four-times for a race-high 190 laps but wound up 12th.

The quirky set of circumstances held Stewart in 17th when the checkered flag waved.

Playing the fuel mileage card well was Stewart’s SHR teammate Ryan Newman. The driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Veterans Day Chevrolet Impala finished in the runner-up spot behind race-winner Carl Edwards by 4.770 seconds.

Newman came into Phoenix as the track’s most recent Sprint Cup victor, as he scored the win in the series’ spring visit to the desert oval in April. He now has five top-10 finishes in 17 career Sprint Cup starts at Phoenix, with Sunday’s effort giving Newman his 13th top-10 finish of the season.

Edwards’ win in the Kobalt Tools 500k was his 17th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his first at Phoenix. It also ended a 70-race winless streak for Edwards, as his last victory came Nov. 16, 2008 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five, while Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 25 laps, with six drivers failing to finish.

Stewart represents SHR in this year’s Chase for the Championship. He came into Phoenix eighth among the top-12 drivers competing for this year’s title, 363 points behind Chase leader Hamlin. He leaves Phoenix ninth in points, 388 markers arrears Hamlin.

Newman remained 15th in the standings with 4,156 points, the third-highest non-Chase driver.

Just one race remains before a champion is crowned following the Nov. 21 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Heading into the season finale, the top-12 Chase drivers rank as follows, with only Hamlin, Johnson and Harvick still eligible for the title:
1. Denny Hamlin (6,642 points) +/-0
2. Jimmie Johnson (6,447 points, -15) +/-0
3. Kevin Harvick (6,416 points, -46) +/-0
4. Carl Edwards (6,198 points -264) +/-0
5. Matt Kenseth (6,151 points, -311) +/-0
6. Jeff Gordon (6,124 points, -338) +/-0
7. Kyle Busch (6,115 points, -347) +/-0
8. Greg Biffle (6,113 points, -349) +1
9. Tony Stewart (6,074 points, -388) -1
10. Kurt Busch (6,033 points, -429) +1
11. Clint Bowyer (6,028 points, -434) -1
12. Jeff Burton (5,958 points, -504) +/-0

The Ford 400 begins at 1 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN. A pre-race show airs at noon on ESPN2.

It was the second-outstanding performance of the season at the one-mile oval for Newman, who won the April Cup race in Phoenix.

Driving the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet that was adorned with more than 500 faces of military veterans, Newman opted not to pit for fuel late in the race while some of the leaders did. The strategy paid off for the Army team as Newman managed to conserve enough fuel to get to the finish line and pick up three spots in track position. He was solidly running in fifth place following the last pit stop on Lap 222 of 312.

“Our U.S. Army Chevrolet was good all day,” said Newman, who virtually ran in the top 10 and top five for the majority of the race. “It was such an honor to drive the Veterans Day car and I want to say thank you to all the Veterans for helping me along today. After the final stop we knew we were going to be a few laps short and our crew chief Tony Gibson kept on saying slow it down and save fuel. I am not sure of how much fuel we had in the car at the end, but I am pretty sure it was very little, if any.”

Gibson said he wasn’t 100 percent convinced the Army car was going to have enough fuel to make it to the end, but he went with his gut feeling and the confidence of his driver.

“You could sense it in Ryan’s voice that we were going to be okay,” said Gibson. “He was confident and that’s what you have to go with. We actually started to conserve fuel with about 40 laps to go. Ryan did a great job and the pit stops were excellent all day. A great team effort. Our Veterans Day car was the talk of the garage and we really wanted to give all the Veterans a win. We came up one short.”

Though Newman posted a strong result by claiming his fourth top-five and 13th top-10 finish of the season, he did not gain in the point standings. He remains 15th heading into the season finale next Sunday (Nov. 21) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, finished 17th and is ninth in the Chase standings.

With Edwards winning and Newman coming in second, the remainder of the top five finishers in order were: Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson.

Denny Hamlin, who was one of the leaders to pit for fuel at the end, leaves Phoenix with a 15-point lead over Johnson in the Chase. Kevin Harvick is third — 46 points behind.

Newman came into Phoenix as the track’s most recent Sprint Cup victor, as he scored the win in the series’ spring visit to the 1-mile oval in April. He now has five top-10 finishes in 17 career Sprint Cup starts at Phoenix, with Sunday’s effort giving Newman his 13th top-10 finish of the season.

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for SHR, finished 17th.

Carl Edwards won the Kobalt Tools 500k to earn his 17th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season, and his first at Phoenix.

Newman finished 4.770 seconds behind Edwards, while Joey Logano, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five. Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Kurt Busch and Jamie McMurray comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 25 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 312-lap race.

Stewart represents SHR in this year’s Chase for the Championship. He came into Phoenix eighth among the top-12 drivers competing for this year’s title, 363 points behind Chase leader Denny Hamlin. He leaves Phoenix ninth in points, 388 markers arrears Hamlin.

Newman remained 15th in the standings with 4,156 points, the third-highest non-Chase driver.

Just one race remains before a champion is crowned following the Nov. 21 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Heading into the season finale, the top-12 Chase drivers rank as follows, with only Hamlin, Johnson and Harvick still eligible for the title:
1. Denny Hamlin (6,642 points) +/-0
2. Jimmie Johnson (6,447 points, -15) +/-0
3. Kevin Harvick (6,416 points, -46) +/-0
4. Carl Edwards (6,198 points -264) +/-0
5. Matt Kenseth (6,151 points, -311) +/-0
6. Jeff Gordon (6,124 points, -338) +/-0
7. Kyle Busch (6,115 points, -347) +/-0
8. Greg Biffle (6,113 points, -349) +1
9. Tony Stewart (6,074 points, -388) -1
10. Kurt Busch (6,033 points, -429) +1
11. Clint Bowyer (6,028 points, -434) -1
12. Jeff Burton (5,958 points, -504) +/-0

The Ford 400 begins at 1 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN. A pre-race show airs at noon on ESPN2.

The 500 plus faces on Newman’s Veterans Day car represent multiple generations of men and women who embraced the call of duty, dating back to the World War I era.

Among the photos submitted through www.goarmy.com was from World War II veteran and Arizona resident Luis Rodriguez Jr. who will attend Sunday’s race as a guest of the U.S. Army race team. Rodriguez, 85, served in the U.S. Army and was a member of the 118th General Hospital, a U.S. Army military hospital located in New South Wales, Australia. He is a resident of Sahuarita, Ariz. (15 miles south of Tucson).

“What a cool way for us to say ‘thank you’ and honor the veterans who have served our country and fought for our freedom,” said Newman, who won the April race in Phoenix. “This is the Soldiers’ car and having the faces of these brave men and women will be a great inspiration and powerful reminder of what it means to be Army Strong.”

Col. Derik Crotts, director of strategic communications, marketing and outreach, U.S. Army Accessions Command, added, “Every time Ryan Newman drives the No. 39 Chevrolet with the Army colors, he represents the more than one million men and women who proudly serve our Nation. For this race, with this paint scheme, we pay tribute to our heroes past and present and their families. Each picture, each face, is a reminder of the sacrifice and service of the millions who have made our Army strong and our nation free.”

Starting today, veterans, along with their families, friends and loved ones, can go online and submit photos of the men and women who have embraced the call of duty and helped build and protect our country at www.goarmy.com/yourphotohere.

All veterans are eligible for inclusion among the photos in the special paint scheme. Images of Soldiers will be collected through Sept. 24. Those selected will be featured on the hood, trunk, side panels and bumpers when Newman gets behind the wheel of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet in Phoenix.

“What a cool way for us to say ‘thank you’ and honor the Army Strong Soldiers who have served our country,” said Newman. “This is the Soldiers’ car and having the faces of the brave men and women of the U.S. Army represented will be a great inspiration and a powerful reminder of what it means to be Army Strong.”

The special paint scheme will serve as an extension of Veterans Day (Nov. 11) when, as a country, we honor and remember the heroism, courage and dedication displayed by our veterans. While the nation remembers the service of its veterans, the millions watching the Kobalt Tools 500 at home and the tens of thousands more at the track will get a chance to see some of the faces who represent the true heroes of the Army.

“Every time Ryan Newman drives the No. 39 Chevrolet with the Army colors, he represents the more than one million men and women who proudly serve our Nation,” said Col. Derik Crotts, Director of Strategic Communications, Marketing and Outreach, U.S. Army Accessions Command. “For this race, with this paint scheme, we pay tribute to our heroes past and present and their families. Each picture, each face, is a reminder of the sacrifice and service of the millions who have made our Army strong and our nation free.”

The driver of the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) lost two laps about midway through the event when he made an unscheduled pit stop for a shredded right-front tire. Despite the issue, Newman was able to make calculated gambles to pick up 12 spots in the closing laps of the race, which ended in a green-white-checkered finish.

“Man, we could not catch a break until the very end there,” said Newman, whose top-20 result was his best four races into the 2010 Sprint Cup season. “But either way it was a hard-fought 17th-place finish for the Tornados Chevrolet. It looked like we were going to be 31st there for a long time and to get that break there at the end was really nice. We’ve just got to work a little bit more on it, but I have to say the guys did a great job on pit road today. We were really improved there.”

Newman qualified seventh for Sunday’s race but had to start from the rear of the field after making an engine change prior to the event. NASCAR rules state that if an engine change is made prior to the race, the car for which the change is made must drop to the rear of the field.

With the drop of the green flag, Newman didn’t waste any time as he tried to make up the lost ground. By lap 30, he had already moved into 15th. He told crew chief Tony Gibson that the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet was just a little too loose, especially off of turn two.

When the caution flag waved at lap 34, Newman pitted in hopes of helping his loose-handling racecar. The Tornados pit crew changed four tires, added fuel and made a track bar adjustment. A quick pit stop put Newman back on track in 14th-place. Although he was still picking up spots and had moved into 12th-place by lap 50, Newman told his team that his Chevy was still a little too free exiting the turns.

A caution on lap 80 afforded Newman’s crew the opportunity to improve his car’s handling. The pit crew made track bar and wedge adjustments and changed four tires and added fuel on the stop. Following the trip to pit road, the team noticed that the right-front tire was blistered and told Newman that tire wear was something that they would need to collectively watch closely over the course of the race.

Unfortunately, the chassis adjustments hurt Newman’s forward bite as the car was still too loose off the corners and tight in the center. Newman began sliding back and fell to 22nd when the caution flag waved again. The crew again made a series of wedge and air pressure adjustments to try and improve the handling of the Tornados Chevy.

By lap 150, Newman was in 24th and he told his crew that the adjustments had over-tightened his racecar and that he could not drive it through the center of the turns the way he needed to. The team began making a plan for the next stop, but Newman radioed that he had a tire issue and had to pit immediately.

The unscheduled pit stop came on lap 153 for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Newman’s right-front tire was shredded when the crew removed it from the car. He returned to the track in 30th-place, two laps down to the leaders.

As soon as Newman returned to the 1.54-mile oval, an untimely caution came at lap 157. Newman elected to stay out on the track since he had just pitted. The decision to stay out enabled Newman to gain back one of the lost laps, but he was still mired deep in the field. Over the next 130 laps, Newman’s team made a variety of tire pressure adjustments in hopes of helping the car’s handling. The team also made a series of strategy calls regarding when to stay out and when to pit in hopes of regaining their lost laps and making a run at the leaders.

However, the effort was thwarted when the No. 48 Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson made contact with Newman’s No. 39 machine as the two came off turn four on lap 285. Newman had to pit for a flat tire and to repair his left-front fender damage. For the second time during the race, Newman returned to the track and was greeted by another untimely caution which put him in 32nd, three laps down to the leaders.

Again, Newman stayed out while the race ran under caution and regained one of his laps. The team opted to roll the dice, and thanks to caution flags, Newman was able to get back on the lead lap before the final restart of the race at lap 339. Newman took the green flag in 29th and was able to pick up 12 spots over the final two laps to claim the 17th spot.

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala for SHR, finished 13th.

Stewart continues to lead the SHR driver lineup in the championship point race, as his top-15 finish bumped him three spots to eighth in the Sprint Cup point standings with 510 points, 134 markers behind series leader Kevin Harvick. Newman moved up three spots to 29th in the standings with 337 points, 307 markers behind Harvick.

Kurt Busch won the Kobalt Tools 500 to score his 21st career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his third at Atlanta.

Matt Kenseth finished .482 of a second behind Busch, while Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard rounded out the top-five. A.J. Allmendinger, Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Harvick and Scott Speed comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 11 caution periods for 53 laps, with eight drivers failing to finish the 341-lap race, which was extended 16 laps past its scheduled distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.

The Sprint Cup Series takes a rare weekend off before heading to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the March 21 Food City 500. The race begins at 1 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at noon.

“Long day,” said Stewart, who despite qualifying 15th had to start at the back of the 43-car field after his team changed engines following final practice on Saturday. “The tire deal kind of made the racing old school. You had to take care of your tires at the front of a run to make sure you still had tires at the end of the run. You could never run 100 percent. You really had to manage your equipment.”

The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) rallied his way into the top-10 less than 40 laps into the race. It was an impressive feat not only for the amount of positions gained in such a short time, but also because he did it with tires that quickly became worn thanks to the rigors of racing at Atlanta’s 1.54-mile oval.

Competitors were finding that their right-front tires would blister if they pushed them too hard, and hardly anyone had a set of tires that could last more than 40 laps, never mind a full fuel run. The tire wear Stewart encountered ran the gamut from mild to mashed, for if he had the opportunity to take care of his tires, the inside edge of his right-front would blister only slightly. But if the racing conditions forced him to really push, the loads placed on the tires, specifically the right-front, could not endure.

That was exactly the case on lap 190 when Stewart had to make an unscheduled pit stop for a flat right-front tire. He had been running seventh, but the stop, which happened under green, dropped him to 28th.

All was not lost, however, for as long as the race stayed green, everyone else would have to pit for tires. Even with the unscheduled pit stop, if all of Stewart’s competitors hit pit road eventually, everyone would cycle through, meaning that Stewart’s lost track position would be only temporary.

As luck would have it, that’s the way it played out. The yellow caution flag never waved, and as drivers ducked onto pit road, Stewart earned his lap back, and then methodically ticked his way up the leaderboard, rising to as high as third on lap 214.

“The balance wasn’t bad, but I just couldn’t run hard and keep the tires underneath it” said Stewart, who scored victories at Atlanta in March 2002 and October 2006.

As a result, Stewart slowly fell toward 10th, but he didn’t drop out of the top-10 until lap 288 when the caution flag waved and he was 12th. From there to the finish, a series of cautions meant a series of restarts, and, unfortunately, the Office Depot/Old Spice machine couldn’t take off as well as it counterparts. By lap 300, Stewart was in 14th. Seven laps later, though, he was a lot worse off.

A loose wheel sent Stewart to the pits for another unscheduled stop on lap 307. He emerged in 30th, and it seemed a dismal finish was all but guaranteed. Yet two separate multi-car accidents that collected a total of nine cars in the race’s final 17 laps allowed Stewart to claw his way to a respectable 13th-place finish.

Stewart’s SHR teammate, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet, finished 17th after enduring a similarly long day. He also had to start at the back, for his team made an engine change early Sunday morning, nullifying his seventh-place qualifying effort.

Kurt Busch won the Kobalt Tools 500 to score his 21st career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his third at Atlanta.

Matt Kenseth finished .482 of a second behind Busch, while Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard rounded out the top-five. A.J. Allmendinger, Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Scott Speed comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 11 caution periods for 53 laps, with eight drivers failing to finish the 341-lap race, which was extended 16 laps past its scheduled distance due to the green-white-checkered finish.

With round four of 36 complete, Stewart is eighth in the Sprint Cup championship standings. He gained three positions and now has 510 points, 134 markers behind series leader Harvick. Newman rose three spots to 29th in the standings. He has 337 points and is 307 points back of Harvick.

The Sprint Cup Series takes a rare weekend off before heading to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the March 21 Food City 500. The race begins at 1 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at noon.