Tony Stewart dodged the calamity Talladega offers up – tandem racing where a driver has to rely on another driver to push him around the vast 2.66-mile oval at speeds approaching 200 mph – to finish seventh and move up to fourth in the championship standings.

Stewart’s No. 14 El Monterey/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) was strong throughout the 188-lap contest, as he led five times for a race-high 30 laps en route to his 16^th top-10 result of 2011 and his 13^th top-10 in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at Talladega.

But the run to the front didn’t come without some hairy moments, the most notable of which involved his teammate, Ryan Newman.

Newman and Stewart showed their strength early, with Stewart pushing Newman to the lead four times for five laps. But the tandem racing that allowed them to move to the front bit them on lap 81. While racing through the tri-oval, Newman and Stewart came upon David Reutimann, and as the pair passed him low, aerodynamics and a bump-draft from Stewart sent Newman sideways.

The momentary loss of downforce caused when Newman slipped past Reutimann, combined with the nose of Stewart’s car tapping the rear bumper of Newman’s No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet, sent Newman spinning onto the infield grass, whereupon the splitter was ripped from beneath the front bumper. It was damage Newman was never able to overcome, and he wound up 16 laps down in 38^th.

Making matters worse was that Stewart was left without a drafting partner. The banged-up car of Joey Logano, who lost his left-front fender when a cut tire earlier in the race tore apart the sheetmetal, was Stewart’s only hope. Amazingly, with Logano pushing Stewart, the duo drove through the field, ultimately running 1-2 from laps 136-145 and again from laps 149-156.

As successful as the pairing was, it was broken up with less than 25 laps remaining. Logano, employed by Joe Gibbs Racing, was instructed to assist his teammate, Denny Hamlin.

Exit Logano, enter Paul Menard. The winner of this year’s Brickyard 400 attached himself to Stewart’s rear bumper beginning with a restart on lap 168. The duo proved just as strong as the Logano pairing, with Menard pushing Stewart back into the lead for laps 169-178.

But with Menard’s Richard Childress Racing (RCR) teammates, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton, posing as Stewart’s biggest challengers for the win, Menard got his instructions to not push Stewart past his RCR brethren. And in the race’s final restart on lap 187, Bowyer and Burton shot forward while Stewart and Menard dropped back, as Stewart’s pusher was suddenly not as strong as he’d been just a few laps earlier.

When the checkered flag dropped, Bowyer had his fifth career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his second at Talladega, with Burton .018 of a second behind him in the runner-up spot. Stewart was seventh.

“I screwed up and got out of sync with Ryan (Newman) and crashed him, and after that you just had to pick up whoever you could pick up,” said Stewart, who has one Sprint Cup victory at Talladega, earned in October 2008. “We had a good run with Joey (Logano) there for a long time and were lucky enough to pick Paul Menard up. I had good partners to push with. Paul and Joey both did a great job and Ryan did a great job. I let Ryan down today.”

Dave Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers rounded out the top-five. Kasey Kahne, Stewart, Hamlin, Michael Waltrip and Martin Truex Jr., comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were nine caution periods for 38 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Talladega fifth and 10^th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was 24 points behind Chase leader Carl Edwards while Newman was 61 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Talladega fourth in points, 19 markers behind Edwards. Newman fell two spots to 12^th in the standings and is now 88 points out of first.

With only four 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 (2,237 points)
2.             Matt Kenseth (2,223 points, -14)
3.             Brad Keselowski (2,219 points, -18)
4.             Tony Stewart (2,218 points, -19)
5.             Kevin Harvick (2,211 points, -26)
6.             Kyle Busch (2,197 points, -40)
7.             Jimmie Johnson (2,187 points, -50)
8.             Kurt Busch (2,185 points, -52)
9.             Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,163 points, -74)
10.         Jeff Gordon (2,155 points, -82)
11.         Denny Hamlin (2,153 points, -84)
12.         Ryan Newman (2,149 points, -88)

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the seventh race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Oct. 30 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race begins at 1:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 1 p.m.

For the first 80 laps at Talladega Superspeedway, Newman and his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Tony Stewart, were a force to be reckoned with as the two drafting partners ran up front on the high-speed, 2.66-mile oval.

But on Lap 81 of 188, Newman became the victim of the two-car draft as he was accidentally spun by Stewart, causing major front-end damage to the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet. The severe spin in the grass tore off Newman’s front-bumper assembly and left him with a heavily damaged race car and a 38th-place finish in the Good Sam Club 500.

Newman eventually drove his car to the garage for repairs and when he returned to action he was 16 laps down.

“Up until the spin, I felt we had a car that would be challenging for the win,” said a disappointed Newman, who led four times for five laps. “I am not really sure what happened. All I know is that we’ve had really good cars this year at the superspeedways but zero luck.”

Stewart, who was pushing Newman’s car at the time of the spin, did not have any damage to his car and went on to post a seventh-place finish.

Regarding the incident with Newman, Stewart said, “I screwed up and got out of sync with Ryan and crashed him.”

Newman led late in the two Daytona International Speedway restrictor-plate races this season but got crashed in each. He basically suffered the same fate in the April Talladega race where he was a front runner before being spun out a couple of times and shoved to the back of the field.

“We’ll keep on fighting with our Army spirit and grit, ” said Newman. “Hopefully it will all come together for us at the next superspeedway race, which will be next year’s first race, the Daytona 500.”

The 38th-place finish dropped Newman from 10th to 12th in the Chase point standings. Stewart moved up one spot to fourth and is 19 points behind leader Carl Edwards with four races remaining.

The next Sprint Cup race is Sunday (Oct. 30) at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Stewart led five times for a race-high 30 laps en route to his 16th top-10 result of 2011 and his 13th top-10 in 26 career Sprint Cup starts at the 2.66-mile oval.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala for SHR, finished 16 laps down in 38th. Newman led four times for five laps early in the 188-lap race, but suffered damage to his racecar on lap 81 when contact with Stewart sent him spinning into the infield grass, ripping the splitter from beneath the front bumper.

Clint Bowyer won the Good Sam Club 500 to score his fifth career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his second at Talladega.

His Richard Childress Racing teammate Jeff Burton finished .018 of a second behind Bowyer in the runner-up spot, while Dave Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Brian Vickers rounded out the top-five. Kasey Kahne, Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Michael Waltrip and Martin Truex Jr., comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were nine caution periods for 38 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Talladega fifth and 10th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was 24 points behind Chase leader Carl Edwards while Newman was 61 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Talladega fourth in points, 19 markers behind Edwards. Newman fell two spots to 12th in the standings and is now 88 points out of first.

With only four 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 (2,237 points)
2. Matt Kenseth (2,223 points, -14)
3. Brad Keselowski (2,219 points, -18)
4. Tony Stewart (2,218 points, -19)
5. Kevin Harvick (2,211 points, -26)
6. Kyle Busch (2,197 points, -40)
7. Jimmie Johnson (2,187 points, -50)
8. Kurt Busch (2,185 points, -52)
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,163 points, -74)
10. Jeff Gordon (2,155 points, -82)
11. Denny Hamlin (2,153 points, -84)
12. Ryan Newman (2,149 points, -88)

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the seventh race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Oct. 30 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The race begins at 1:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 1 p.m.

“We didn’t know what to expect since we didn’t make any qualifying laps yesterday in practice. We concentrated on race trim,” said Newman, who has a best Talladega finish of third, earned in April 2009. “It was a pretty good lap considering when we went out (22nd). It’s all about how the guys prepare this U.S. Army Chevrolet to make it fast. It’s up to me to keep the fenders on it and stay out of crashes.”

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 El Monterey/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for SHR, will start 12th after turning a lap of 53.168 seconds at 180.108 mph.

“I held it wide-open all the way around and will do it all over again tomorrow,” said Stewart, who has one Sprint Cup victory at Talladega, earned in October 2008. “We’re going to drop to the back anyhow, so the starting spot isn’t that important. The pit selections is, and 12th gets us a good spot for the El Monterey/Office Depot Chevy.”

Mark Martin captured his 51st career Sprint Cup pole, his second of the season and his third at Talladega by posting a lap of 52.799 seconds at 181.367 mph.

Martin’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson will start on the outside of row one as he timed in at 52.801 seconds at 181.360 mph. Clint Bowyer was third (52.835 seconds at 181.243 mph), while Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne (52.903 seconds at 181.011 mph) and Jeff Gordon (52.930 seconds at 180.918 mph) rounded out the top-five.

Forty-seven drivers attempted to qualify for the Good Sam Club 500. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Geoffrey Bodine, Scott Speed, T.J. Bell and Josh Wise.

As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took five of the top-six spots. Ford was the lone make to crack the top-five via Bayne, while Dodge was next best at the hands of 14th-quick Kurt Busch (53.209 seconds at 179.970 mph). Carrying the flag for Toyota was 20th-quick Kevin Conway (53.291 seconds at 179.693 mph), the 2010 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year.

The Good Sam Club 500 gets underway at 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 23 with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 1 p.m.

YOU GET TO WATCH YOUR WORLD OF OUTLAWS TEAM AT THE TALLADEGA DIRT TRACK TOMORROW NIGHT, ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT IT? “Yes, I’m excited to go watch because I’ve seen all six races that they ran there and four of the six were three-wide for the lead with less than 10 to go. I’m excited to go see it.”

ARE YOU RACING? DID YOU THINK ABOUT IT? “No. Honestly hadn’t been (thinking about it), just have been busy. I just knew I was going to watch anyhow.”

CAN YOU JUST SHARE SOME OF YOUR THOUGHTS ON WHAT HAPPENED SUNDAY AT LAS VEGAS AND THEN GETTING BACK IN A CAR THIS WEEKEND? “It is definitely a tragedy. It doesn’t affect us getting back in the car. We all know that can happen every week. It’s been a part of racing forever. I don’t know that it’s necessarily why we do what we do; but, we know those risks going into it. It is part of the sport. It always has been and it always will be. You’re never going to make it 100% safe. Safety in both IndyCar racing and stock car racing has come a long way in the last 10 years.”

FIRST PRACTICE OUT THERE WITH THE NEW RULES, ANYTHING DIFFERENT OUT THERE? “I didn’t see anything any different. I think the temperatures, the water pressure, is what you are still focusing on right now. We have a cooler day than what we had here in the spring, so, it’s pretty similar right now because of the temperatures.”

DID YOU WORK WITH GILLILAND IN PRACTICE? “We haven’t yet. We don’t know. I’ve kind of heard the Ford guys are kind of being told they have to stay with Ford guys. So we’re not sure exactly who we are going to run with on Sunday yet.”

ARE YOU HAVING TO SCRAMBLE A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE OF THAT? “I just ran with Bobby Labonte in that first session. I’m not sure who we are going to run with in the second session. We have all day today and tomorrow to figure out who exactly it’s going be with us. We don’t really have to know right now I guess. It’d be nice to know, but, we thought we had a plan and then it sounded like it got dismantled. So, we are going to have to try to come up with something else for Sunday now.”

BECAUSE YOU ARE SO GOOD HERE, DO YOU WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO APPROACH YOU THAT THEY WANTED TO RUN WITH YOU? “Oh no, I definitely want to be more proactive than reactive with it for sure. So if I can go out and pick somebody I want I rather do that than wait for them to come. There is no benefit to waiting on somebody to come to you, you are better off going and trying to get the guy you want.”

HOW DO YOU PICK SOMEBODY? “I think it’s real important to have the similar philosophy on how you want to run this race and where you want to be when. If you got a guy that wants to go up and lead the whole race verses somebody like me that likes to hang around the back the first half of the race, those philosophies aren’t going to match so you go and find somebody that wants to run the race the same way you do.”

SO WHAT’S THE ETIQUETTE, CAN YOU BREAK UP ANOTHER PAIRING SO TO SPEAK? “I don’t know. I don’t think they signed contracts for pairing up so I think everybody is fair game at this point. It’s just who you can get and there’s going to be times in the race where you don’t necessarily get with the guys you want to be with anyway. You’ve always got to do the Peyton Manning; you’ve always got to be ready to call an audible at any point so just wait and see what you can get.”

HAVE YOU HEARD ANY REASON WHAY THE FORD GUYS WOULD ELECT TO DO THAT THIS TIME? “You have the recorder go ask them.” I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT HAVE SOME INSIGHT. “Of course, because I do go around and talk to them all the time. I ask them questions like that a lot.” I DIDN’T KNOW IF IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN BECAUSE OF THE NEW RULES. “I don’t know. I’m going to wait on you to come back with all the insightful answers and tell me so I know.”

HOW DOES THE INDYCAR ACCIDENT EFFECT YOU, I KNOW YOU HATE IT FOR THE SERIES TO SEE THAT HAPPEN. “You know you hate it for everybody involved. Randy Bernard has been getting beat up over it and he shouldn’t. It’s part of racing, its part of what can happen. Everybody is a back chair quarterback going no we should do this or shouldn’t do that. It’s racing; I mean it’s always been racing. I mean auto racing as a whole is safer than it’s ever been. It still boils down to the people that are steering the cars around. It’s not that the cars are unsafe, there’s still people that tell the cars where to go so we’ve got to take responsibility. There is no reason for anybody to point fault anywhere. There’s no fault in it. It’s racing.

“Racing has always been dangerous. That’s why people come to watch races because there is an element of danger involved. You’re never going to get it all out but like we said it’s safer than it’s ever been. It’s a freak thing that happened and it can happen every race. It can happen every race that we run but it’s safer than it’s ever been. I think everybody has got to take a deep breath and let the emotions settle down. Everybody is obviously thinking about Dan and his family, his wife and two children, there’s a lot of great charity stuff coming up to help them out which we are really proud to be a part of but I think everybody has to take a step back from it and realize this is auto racing.

“It’s always been dangerous but everybody still does it. If it was so bad none of us would want to do this but we still love doing this every week and it’s just part of the sport unfortunately. It’s never going to be 100 percent safe.”

A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK ITS NASCAR VS. INDYCAR WHEN IN ALL REALITY ITS MOTORSPORTS. “I think when you see how many people have donated to Dan’s charity deal; I think you’ll realize that nobody does that except the media. I think fans are fans, they will watch racing no matter what. When we’re not racing we watch IndyCar races, if they’re not racing they watch our races. Racing is racing and race fans are race fans. They want to see racing. It’s stupidity to compare back and forth and make it into that situation.

WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY IS BECAUSE PEOPLE THINK THAT THEY THINK MAYBE PEOPLE WOULD BE ROUTING FOR INDYCAR TO FAIL … “I don’t think there is anybody doing that.”

DO YOU WORRY FOR THEM, THAT SERIES AT ALL? “I don’t worry about it because I don’t think anybody

actually thinks that way. I think it’s ludicrous if somebody does think that. There’s always been IndyCar racing and stock car racing and it’s coexisted for years and it’s always been fine.”

I GUESS WHAT I’M GETTING AT IS THE INSTABILITY OF THEIR SERIES, DO YOU WORRY ABOUT INDYCAR ITSELF? “No, they had 34 cars at Vegas. That’s an incredible field. That’s the biggest field I’ve seen in years. I don’t think so. I think that’s a sign that they’re gaining a little bit and I hope they are. I’m a big fan of IndyCar racing. I always have been and I always will. I prefer to watch them on the ovals verses the road courses. I’ve always been a fan of it.”

DID THAT ACCIDENT MAKE YOU THINK AT ALL ABOUT YOUR ACCIDENT THERE? “No, they were totally separate, totally different circumstances. Still the same facility but you know the track being changed had nothing to do with it. Our accident was totally, it was opposite ends of the spectrum of what happened with their wreck.”

WOULD YOU RACE ANY RACE IN INDYCAR BECAUSE YOU HAVEN’T RACED ONE OBVIOUSLY IN A WHILE, YOU’VE NEVER HAD ANY SAFETY CONCERNS HAVE YOU? “No, never. Not once.”

IF YOU HAD NOTHING TO DO WOULD YOU GO RUN ONE OF THOSE? “If the opportunity was right. The hard thing is that series has gotten really competitive. You aren’t just going to go show up and drop in one and be up to speed right away. That’s why it makes it so hard to go do something like that. It would be like trying to go run a top fuel dragster next week. I’ve never done it and its going to take you a while to get used to something like that. The reason we don’t do it isn’t even remotely safety issue-wise it’s just time-wise and it you’re going to do it you want to be competitive doing it. You want to make sure when you show up at a race you’re competitive and ready to go.”

PRIOR TO SUNDAY, HOW DID YOU FEEL LIKE THAT SERIES WAS DOING THIS YEAR UNDER RANDY’S DIRECTION? “I don’t know I was just watching races. I didn’t really think about it. Like we said, we watch the races and qualifying every chance we had so I was enjoying watching the races this year just like always.”

LOOKING AHEAD AT MARTINSVILLE, WHAT’S THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF THAT TRACK FOR YOU? “It’s been everything for us. If you get a good handling car your brakes aren’t really an issue anymore there. We’ve fought handling the last couple of times there and it does make it harder because you’re trying to make up more in the braking zones. It’s just getting your car to do what you want it to do just like any where else but if it’s not right it does bring that brake element back into it.”

DO YOU THINK THE COOLER TEMPERATURE WILL IMPACT HOW MUCH YOU HAVE TO SWAP? “Yeah, that’s why they did that in the first place. We’re supposed to have a little warmer day on Sunday. I think it’s supposed to be 70 or 71. I’m not sure what it is today, it’s in the mid-60’s today. The warmer it gets the more often we’re going to have to swap so it will definitely help out with that.”

Talladega, especially when the series makes its fall visit to the 2.66-mile oval, can be the biggest game-changer on the 36-race Sprint Cup schedule.

Horsepower-choking restrictor plates. A dicey game of bumper cars where drivers have to align themselves in two-car drafts to make any headway toward the front of the field. All with a championship on the line. That’s Talladega in October.

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 El Monterey/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing, enters the fifth to last race of the season fifth in points, only 24 markers behind championship leader Carl Edwards. Stewart could very well emerge from Talladega atop the point standings, as he did in October 2002 en route to the first of his two Sprint Cup titles, or wind up tumbling out of championship contention because he was caught up in the Big One.

Multi-car accidents are commonplace at Talladega, and for every time that Stewart has logged a top-10, he’s also had a finish outside the top-25. His win in October 2008 and six second-place finishes are augmented by five DNFs (Did Not Finish).

What will this round of racing at Talladega bring? No one really knows.

The tandem racing on display in the first three restrictor-plate races of the season will get a tweak this weekend at Talladega. NASCAR has increased the size of the holes in the restrictor plate from 56/64ths of an inch in diameter to 57/67ths, which will add about 7-10 horsepower. On the track, that means an additional 2-3 mph. NASCAR also lowered the pressure on the radiator valve by eight pounds, which means that maximum water temperature before an engine overheats could be reduced from 245-255 degrees to 225-235 degrees. NASCAR also won’t allow teams to polish the rear bumpers of their cars during the race, making it more difficult for a driver pushing another driver to slide across the rear bumper and get air onto the nose of his car and into his grill openings, thereby cooling the engine.

Drivers will still have to coordinate a 200 mph swap, with the lead car drifting high or low to allow his partner to scoot past, whereupon the former leader of the two-car draft assumes the role of pusher. They’ll just have to do it more often.

The break in momentum forces a tandem to lose 8-10 mph, all while focusing less on what’s going on in front of them than with the swap they’re engaged in. And with 20 of these tandems performing swaps over the course of 188 laps around Talladega’s 2.66-mile layout, the chances of a Big One ratchet up, as does Talladega’s role of being a game-changer in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.

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

What’s the tandem racing we’ve seen at the restrictor-plate races about?
“Well, you have to have a partner. There’s no choice. And you both have to know where each other is going all the time, and that’s the hard part. Somebody has to lead. Somebody has to follow. The guy that’s following has to trust the guy that’s leading. The guy that’s leading has to trust that the guy he’s leading is going to do everything that he’s supposed to do behind him.”

What does it feel like to run in these two-car packs at the restrictor-plate tracks?
“What we’re doing now was shaping up back when Talladega was first paved, and it’s been building and building since. It’s evolved. We went from 30-car packs to two-car packs. It’s just the evolution of the sport and how things are changing.

“I don’t know what it’s like to look at and watch, but I know what it feels like. When you’re in that third group and you catch a group that’s running side-by-side, they can’t get away from each other, but you’re running 5-8 mph faster. The guy behind you can’t tell if you want to slow down, so you have to find a hole when you get there. If you don’t find one, you almost have to make one, to a certain degree.

“But I can promise you this, the guys that are driving these things are watching. Everybody is watching out for each other. Everybody knows that we can put each other in a bad spot in a hurry if we don’t give each other room. You don’t see guys blocking like we’ve seen in the past.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t like the big packs we used to have to run in. I didn’t like that people always had to block. I never agreed with that. The good thing is, now we don’t have to do it either. If you get a run on a guy, you’re going to make an opportunity to pass them. You may not get it done, but at least you have that opportunity now.”

How important is communication during a restrictor-plate race?
“You have to work really hard at getting the spotters to communicate with each other. It’s really hard for the spotters because while they’re trying to take care of us while we’re in the racecars, they’re sitting up there trying to find another driver’s spotter that’s 20 feet away. And they’re still trying to watch the racetrack, go down and find that guy’s spotter, and try to communicate information. Instead of it just being a direct link, sometimes it was up to a spotter, over to another spotter, down to a driver, that driver responds back, and it comes back down the chain again. But, everybody’s learned to do it. We got used to it.”

Is the fall race at Talladega slightly more nerve-wracking, because when you’re in the Chase there’s more on the line?
“We’re looking at it as an opportunity to gain some points and positions. Every time you’re at Talladega you try to take care of yourself and your equipment by not getting yourself in compromising positions that are going to take you out of an opportunity to get you to the end of the race. For me, it’s no different whether the race is in April during the regular season or in October when I’m in the Chase.”

Back in the day, restrictor-plate racing meant racing against Dale Earnhardt – at least if you were racing for the win. October 2000 at Talladega marked Earnhardt’s 76^th and last career Sprint Cup win. Do you have any special memories from your time racing against him?
“You just always knew that, if he was behind you, it wasn’t going to be easy keeping him behind you. There was a reason that he got the nickname ‘Intimidator.’ When you looked in the mirror, you were intimidated by him. Not so much that you were actually intimidated, but you knew that it wasn’t going to be like racing with someone else. If he got to you and if he didn’t get by you in a couple of corners, then he was going to lean on you a little bit. You might wreck, you might keep going, but he was going to make it interesting. That’s what made him so special. The first Bud Shootout we won at Daytona, we outran him there and that was as much as I ever wanted to see of that black ‘3’ in my mirror. That was way too much stress. It was more mental stress than it was physical stress. My mind was wore out after winning that race because he had such a large bag of tricks at Daytona and Talladega that just watching what he was doing and trying to figure out what he was thinking or trying to set up just made you exhausted. Driving the car was easy, it was just trying to mentally figure out and trying to stay up to pace with what his thought process was at the time and knowing how to anticipate what his next move was going to be to beat him.”

TONY STEWART’S TALLADEGA PERFORMANCE PROFILE

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

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

The line of convenient Mexican snacks will adorn Tony Stewart’s No. 14 Chevrolet throughout the Talladega race weekend in its first stint as a primary sponsor at the elite Sprint Cup level, joining longtime sponsor Office Depot.

The No. 14 El Monterey/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala hits the track on Friday for practice, Saturday for qualifying and Sunday for the 188-lap Good Sam Club 500. SPEED will broadcast practice and qualifying while ESPN will carry the race.

“We’re obviously very proud to have El Monterey join Office Depot this weekend at Talladega,” said Stewart, who won at Talladega in October 2008 while totaling six second-place finishes in 25 career Sprint Cup starts at the 2.66-mile oval. “It’s a partnership that has only grown since they joined Stewart-Haas Racing, and to see El Monterey on the hood tells me this partnership works well for them, too.”

El Monterey has served as an associate sponsor of Stewart’s No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet since the beginning of the 2011 season, with its sister snack brand, Tornados, serving as an associate sponsor on Stewart’s car since 2010 and as a primary sponsor of Stewart’s SHR teammate, Ryan Newman.

The parent company of El Monterey is Ruiz Foods, a family-owned corporation co-founded by Louis Ruiz (pronounced “rees”) and his son, Fred, in 1964. Now in the third generation of leadership, Bryce Ruiz is president and CEO, and Kim Ruiz Beck is chairman. Their father, Fred, now serves as Chairman Emeritus.

El Monterey features a complete line of authentic, convenient and quality Mexican food, including burritos, taquitos, quesadillas, tamales, enchiladas and chimichangas. To learn what nearly 200,000 Facebook fans of El Monterey already know, please visit www.facebook.com/ElMonterey or www.ElMonterey.com for coupons, recipe ideas and to view its soap opera campaign spoof.

About Ruiz Foods and the El Monterey brand:
Ruiz Foods is a family-owned company and is home to both the El Monterey frozen Mexican food brand and Tornados frozen snack brand. Now in the third generation of leadership, Bryce Ruiz is president and CEO, and Kim Ruiz Beck is chairman. Their father, Fred Ruiz, co-founded the company and now serves as Chairman Emeritus. The El Monterey brand is the market leader within the frozen Mexican food category and the No. 1 frozen Mexican food brand in the United States. It specializes in easy, deliciously-authentic, frozen Mexican snacks. The Tornados snack brand, introduced just six years ago, is a very popular hot-to-go snack in convenience stores across the country. Ruiz Foods employs over 2,500 Team Members in three facilities located in the U.S. Visit www.ElMonterey.com or www.mytornados.com for more information.

After three-straight Sprint Cup finishes between 18 and 25, Newman’s No. 39 team righted the ship Saturday night with a 10th-place result at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“We need to have some special runs in the next five races,” said Newman, who is currently 10th in driver points. “We definitely have the potential to do well at each of the next five tracks. We just need to avoid the bad breaks that plagued us during the first five Chase races.”

But avoiding bad breaks in his U.S. Army Chevrolet during Sunday’s Good Sam Club 500 at Talladega Superspeedway is always a major challenge at the 2.66-mile oval.

“No matter which way you dissect the numbers, we haven’t produced the results in the past couple of years at the restrictor-plate races in Daytona and Talladega,” noted Newman,” who did win the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in 2008. “However, our recent sub-par finishes at the restrictor-plate races were not from a lack of performance, but mostly from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Newman is indeed correct about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In both of the Daytona races this season, he was leading in each event with a few laps remaining, but fell to finishes of 23rd and 25th respectively due to factors beyond his control.

“We all know what usually happens in the closing laps of a restrictor-plate race,” stated Newman, who was also in contention in the April Talladega race. “If you’re one of the fortunate teams that can avoid trouble while running up front in the closing laps, then you have a pretty good shot at winning. I really feel we’re due to once again drive the Soldiers’ car to Victory Lane.”

Newman and the rest of the Sprint Cup field will have to contend with two new rule changes this weekend that could make tandem drafting more difficult. The rule changes include a slight increase in the size to the restrictor plate openings and a decrease setting in the radiator’s pressure relief valve.

“We’ll have to wait and see what effect the new rule changes will have on restrictor-plate racing,” said Newman. “We all have our theories but won’t know for sure until we actually get on the track this weekend. Personally, I think there will be less tandem drafting than in the past because of the rule changes. But weather will also dictate how long we can push each other before swapping. Cooler temperatures the better.”

Whichever way the 43 cars will race on Sunday at NASCAR’s longest track, Newman would like to snap his four-race Talladega jinx that includes finishes of 36th, 35th, 23rd and 25th.

“It would sure be nice to have a smooth race at Talladega and bring home a solid finish,” said Newman. “We have the potential, just need to avoid trouble.”

Induction Into Talladega Walk of Fame

Newman will be inducted into the Talladega-Texaco Walk of Fame on Saturday. The Talladega-Texaco Walk of Fame in downtown Talladega is a focal point saluting NASCAR’s greatest names and a tribute to one of racing’s brightest stars — the late Davey Allison of Hueytown, Ala. Developed in 1994, the Talladega-Texaco Walk of fame has inducted one active driver and up to two inactive drivers since 1995 on a vote by fans chosen from a ballot of nominees selected by strict guidelines. Also being inducted is the late Alfred “Speedy” Thompson one of the most successful drivers in the late 1950s.

Photo by Jerry Markland - Getty Images for NASCAR

Newman, who had one of the strongest racecars in the field, was spun twice in two laps – due to inopportune bump-drafts – with just a handful of laps remaining in the race. While he was able to save his racecar from sustaining any damage during both mishaps, the incidents put him too far back in the pack and without a strong drafting partner to help him get back through the field, resulting in a 25th-place finish.

“I am proud of the guys because it wasn’t the finish we wanted or deserved, but we survived it,” said Newman, who led three times for six laps in Sunday’s race. “It’s better than we were last year. I’m just happy with the speed of the car and the performance of the guys and everything else was just wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Wrong-place, wrong-time” has been a common occurrence for Newman and the No. 39 Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) team at restrictor-plate racetracks – Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Talladega – since joining forces in 2009. While Newman’s 25th-place finish isn’t indicative of the team’s strong run, the upside was that he once again had a car to beat while recording his third consecutive finish at a restrictor-plate track after a string of DNFs (did not finish) at the two tracks.

Much like the racing at Daytona earlier this year, the style of racing around the 2.66-mile oval had taken on a whole, new look. In past years, large groups of cars were bunched together inches apart. The new style of restrictor-plate racing, prompted by newly designed front ends on the racecars this season, features drivers pairing up with each other almost as if the rear of the lead car is connected to the front bumper of the car following.

Newman and Denny Hamlin, who had worked well together this past February at Daytona, opted to pair up again at Talladega. And once again, the pairing proved to be impressive. They worked together on several occasions during the course of the race, moving from the back of the field to the front with ease, and they turned some of the quickest laps on track on numerous occasions.

With Hamlin on the No. 39 Chevy’s bumper late in the race, the tandem stuck together and with their game plan. With 20 laps to go, they began to make their move toward the front.

However, their plan had its first hiccup on lap 171. Newman and Hamlin became disconnected, and when their bumpers reconnected in turn three, Newman’s No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet turned. Newman was nearly sideways in the middle of the turn and actually collected another car, but he was able to make an incredible save to right the racecar and keep going.

Newman and Hamlin were able to hook back up again but, unfortunately, Newman got sideways once again at lap 173. His Haas Automation Chevrolet looped around and came to rest on the apron of the racetrack. Newman was able to keep the racecar from hitting any walls, and the body of the racecar did not sustain any further damage. However, Newman could not quickly re-fire the racecar, which brought out the caution flag.

Newman, who sustained left-front fender damage during the first spin, brought the No. 39 Chevy to the attention of his pit crew for four fresh tires. Newman made a second stop so the crew could repair the left-front fender damage from the first spin and make sure he didn’t have a left-rear tire rub. Newman returned to the track for the lap-177 restart in 27th place, but he had little drafting help and couldn’t make up any ground on the field, leaving him with the 25th-place finish.

“If there was a category for ‘saves of the day,’ I think we’d be the only one that had two,” Newman said after the race. “But it’s just disappointing, obviously, because we had a good car. The No. 11 (Hamlin) and I were just biding our time and we decided to go and I got loose and it’s just the way it works. I just got loose underneath the No. 33 (Clint Bowyer), and whoever hit me (Juan Pablo Montoya) straightened me out. That helped, but it knocked the fender into the tire and that ended up shortening up our day. I’m proud of the guys to come back from the things we went through there, but I wish we could have been better.”

SHR teammate Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala, finished 17th.

Jimmie Johnson won the Aaron’s 499 to score his 54th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his second at Talladega.

Clint Bowyer finished .002 of a second behind Johnson in the runner-up spot to equal the closest margin of victory since NASCAR instituted electronic scoring in May 1993. The margin tied Ricky Craven’s margin of victory over Kurt Busch at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in March 2003.

Jeff Gordon finished third, while Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five. Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, David Gilliland and Joey Logano comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 88 lead changes among 26 drivers during the race to tie the all-time Sprint Cup record for lead changes, first set at Talladega last April.

There were six caution periods for 24 laps, with eight drivers failing to finish the 188-lap race.

With round eight of 36 complete, Newman remained seventh in the Sprint Cup championship standings. He now has 253 points and is 42 markers behind series leader Edwards. Stewart dropped two positions to 12th in the standings. He has 240 points and is 55 points back of Edwards.

After a rare off weekend to celebrate the Easter holiday, the Sprint Cup Series returns to action April 30 with the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 7 p.m.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox - Getty Images for NASCAR

While no one was high-fiving the top-20 effort, crew members clad in Office Depot/Mobil 1 uniforms were happy to load a straight racecar into the team transporter, something that couldn’t be said for many of their counterparts.

Certainly, a better result was the aim, and Stewart’s No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala was poised for at least a top-10 finish before race-long drafting partner David Gilliland had to let off the gas ever so slightly to avoid a spinning Dave Blaney. The hiccup broke the draft between Stewart and Gilliland, briefly losing momentum for the two and allowing Kurt Busch to suck in behind Stewart’s bumper.

The draft, however, is fickle, and Busch proved it by quickly jockeying over to push another car, which left Stewart hanging, momentarily, before Gilliland caught back up with his Talladega teammate.

The successive breaks in momentum jettisoned Stewart from a surefire top-10 effort to an ambiguous 17th-place finish. Not great, but not bad either – especially by Talladega standards.

“This thing is a crapshoot,” said Stewart after the race. “You try to do your best and think ahead and put yourself in the right position to do what you think you need to do, and it still doesn’t work.

“But I think what we were trying to do was right, and I had the right guy pushing me. David (Gilliland) was a workhorse. He could push me all day, it seemed. And when he did, it was solid. We never really had any dramas. Obviously, we were hoping for a better result, but David finished ninth and I’m happy for him. He sure earned it.”

Stewart’s official teammate at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), Ryan Newman, had a solid day undone by back-to-back spins incurred from inopportune bump-drafts from his Talladega teammate, Denny Hamlin. Newman led three times for six laps around the 2.66-mile oval, but wound up 25th after having to pit multiple times to repair his No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet.

Jimmie Johnson won the Aaron’s 499 to score his 54th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his second at Talladega.

Clint Bowyer finished .002 of a second behind Johnson in the runner-up spot to equal the closest margin of victory since NASCAR instituted electronic scoring in May 1993. The margin tied Ricky Craven’s margin of victory over Busch at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway in March 2003.

Jeff Gordon finished third, while Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five. Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Gilliland and Joey Logano comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were 88 lead changes among 26 drivers during the race to tie the all-time Sprint Cup record for lead changes, first set at Talladega last April. And there were six caution periods for 24 laps, with eight drivers failing to finish the 188-lap race.

With round eight of 36 complete, Newman remained seventh in the Sprint Cup championship standings. He now has 253 points and is 42 markers behind series leader Edwards. Stewart dropped two positions to 12th in the standings. He has 240 points and is 55 points back of Edwards.

After a rare weekend off to celebrate Easter, the Sprint Cup Series returns to action April 30 with the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. The race starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 7 p.m.