With his second-consecutive victory in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, the actions by Stewart and his No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 team spoke even louder than his words at Martinsville.

Stewart left no doubt about this one, leading seven times for a race-high 173 laps around the 1.5-mile oval en route to his fourth victory through the first eight Chase races of 2011. His average speed of 152.705 mph made for the fastest Sprint Cup race in Texas Motor Speedway history, and it moved Stewart to within three points of leader Edwards in the championship with just two races remaining.

“I don’t think we have to say anything, I think our performance today spoke for itself,” said Stewart, who crossed the finish line 1.092 seconds ahead of the second-place-finishing Edwards in scoring his second career victory in 20 starts at Texas, his fourth victory of 2011, and his 43rd victory in 462 career Sprint Cup races. “He (Edwards) knows already, trust me. We had a great Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy today. It was pretty balanced yesterday (in final practice). We just could not put that big lap up, up front. The big key for us was hanging on for the first 10 laps of a run and it seemed like we could start pulling away after that. Carl kept us honest today, but we did everything we could do. We got all the bonus points we could get and got the win. We gained more than we needed to gain on the average for the week, so we’re doing good.”

Stewart is now just one victory shy of tying 1988 Sprint Cup champion Bill Elliott for 15th on the series’ all-time win list.

All four of Stewart’s victories this season have come during the Chase, which the two-time Sprint Cup champion began eight races ago with back-to-back wins Sept. 9 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., and Sept. 25 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

Stewart’s consecutive victories at Martinsville and Texas mark the ninth time in his career that he’s notched back-to-back victories. Prior to his consecutive wins at Chicagoland and New Hampshire to start this year’s Chase, the last time Stewart won consecutive races came in July 2007 when he won back-to-back events at Chicagoland and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Today’s victory also marks the third time in Stewart’s 13-year career that he won consecutive races twice in the same year. He also accomplished the feat in 2000 and 2005, and he has won at least four races in a season five times in his career (2000, 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011).

Stewart started fifth in today’s third-to-last round of the 10-race Chase and hovered at or near the front throughout the entire 334-lap event, taking the lead briefly for the first time from laps 43 to 45, and for the second time on lap 117 as crew chief Darian Grubb and the Office Depot/Mobil 1 crew worked to fine-tune the handling of Stewart-Haas Racing’s (SHR) No. 14 Chevrolet.

From there, Stewart spent lengthy chunks of time in the race lead, moving into the top spot for a 40-lap stretch on lap 119, for a 41-lap stretch on lap 162, and a 57-lap stretch on lap 207.

A pivotal point in the race came on a lap-274 restart, when Stewart took the green flag outside the race-leading Edwards but powered his way past the No. 99 Ford and back into the lead for another 26 laps until the caution flag flew, sending him and Edwards back to the pits for what turned out to be a final stop for four tires and fuel while several competitors opted to gamble on fuel mileage and stay on the track.

A magnificent pit stop by the Office Depot/Mobil 1 crew got Stewart out ahead of Edwards, and Stewart was able to hold his advantage over the Chase leader while competitors ahead of them peeled off one-by-one in the closing laps to top off their fuel tanks. Stewart inherited the lead for good with just five laps remaining when Jeff Burton pitted for fuel.

“Darian did an awesome job. It’s so hard to do what he does to the car, and he has made the right calls the whole Chase,” Stewart said. “It was like we told DJ (Dale Jarrett, ESPN TV analyst) on that last restart, if I could get the restart on him (Edwards) and get ahead of him, I thought we could stay there. That was the difference, and the guys had an awesome pit stop at the end. If they would not have had that pit stop, we would not be here (in victory lane).”

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic Chevrolet Impala for SHR, battled back for a solid 16th-place finish after having to make an unscheduled green-flag pit stop after he felt a vibration following his first pit stop of the day.

Kasey Kahne finished third, while Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 21 laps, with seven drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Texas second and 12th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was eight points behind Edwards while Newman was 89 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Texas still second in points, but is now just three markers behind Edwards. Newman remained 12th in the standings and is now 103 points out of first.

With only two 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 (2,316 points)
2. Tony Stewart (2,313 points, -3)
3. Kevin Harvick (2,283 points, -33)
4. Matt Kenseth (2,278 points, -38)
5. Brad Keselowski (2,267 points, -49)
6. Jimmie Johnson (2,261 points, -55)
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,237 points, -79)
8. Jeff Gordon (2,235 points, -81)
9. Kurt Busch (2,229 points, -87)
10. Denny Hamlin (2,217 points, -99)
11. Kyle Busch (2,216 points, -100)
12. Ryan Newman (2,213 points, -103)

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the penultimate race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Nov. 13 Kobalt Tools 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 2 p.m.

After starting 24th in the No. 39 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), Newman began working his way toward the front of the field while informing crew chief Tony Gibson that his car was a bit loose.

With no caution periods early in the race, Newman headed to pit road for a green-flag pit stop on lap 45, when the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic crew changed four tires, added fuel and made a chassis adjustment.

But two laps after Newman left pit road, he radioed to Gibson that he felt a vibration in his car and thought he might have a loose wheel. One lap later, the vibration became too much and Newman headed back to pit road for an unscheduled green-flag pit stop to change four tires and add a splash of fuel.

Newman returned to the track in 36th place, two laps behind the leaders, while Gibson and other crew members checked each of the four wheels to see if they could figure out what caused the vibration.

“We’re not sure what exactly happened,” Gibson said. “We think something may have gotten between the wheel and the hub so, when the tire changer tightened up the lugnuts, it caused the wheel to bend once it got on track. Still, it’s hard to say until we get back to the shop and look at the tapes and look at the data. It’s just a freak deal.”

From there, Newman and Gibson worked on the handling of the car and gained one of their two laps back by the 350-mile mark of the race.

Then things began to look up for the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic team. On lap 262, the caution came out and Newman and Gibson opted not to pit with the field but, instead, take the “wave-around,” which meant they would be allowed to pass the pace car just before the field went back to green and get back on the lead lap.

When the race restarted on lap 267, Newman was back on the lead lap but needed a caution so he could pit and remain on the same lap as the leaders. It took but three laps for that to happen as the caution came out on lap 270 for debris, which allowed Newman to pit one lap later for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment.

On lap 300, several of the top cars began to pit, but Newman stayed on track for several more laps as he had more fuel in his tank due to the later pit stop. This allowed Newman to move into the lead from laps 320 to 323. But, with 11 laps remaining, he was forced to pit for two tires and a splash of fuel. He fell to 19th but managed to gain three positions before the checkered flag fell.

“We had a freak thing happen on that first pit stop,” Newman said. “It’s kind of the way our luck has gone during the Chase. I’m proud of the guys for rallying back and we salvaged a 16th out of it and got back on the lead lap. Just wish we could have given Quicken Loans a better showing for their first race. I’m really looking forward to having them on our car for nine races next season and we’re going to do all we can to get them to victory lane.”

Newman’s SHR teammate, Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala, led seven times for a race-high 173 laps en route to winning the AAA Texas 500.

It was Stewart’s fourth win and 17th top-10 result of 2011, his second win and 11th top-10 in 20 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas, and his 43rd win in 462 career Sprint Cup races. Stewart is now just one victory shy of tying 1988 Sprint Cup champion Bill Elliott for 15th on the series’ all-time win list.

This was the fifth Sprint Cup victory for SHR in 2011, as Newman won in July at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. SHR now has 12 Sprint Cup victories since its inception in 2009.

Stewart finished 1.092 seconds ahead of runner-up Carl Edwards, while Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 21 laps, with seven drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Texas second and 12th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was eight points behind Chase leader Edwards while Newman was 89 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Texas still second in points, but is now just three markers behind series leader Edwards. Newman remained 12th in the standings and is now 103 points out of first.

With only two 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 (2,316 points)
2. Tony Stewart (2,313 points, -3)
3. Kevin Harvick (2,283 points, -33)
4. Matt Kenseth (2,278 points, -38)
5. Brad Keselowski (2,267 points, -49)
6. Jimmie Johnson (2,261 points, -55)
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,237 points, -79)
8. Jeff Gordon (2,235 points, -81)
9. Kurt Busch (2,229 points, -87)
10. Denny Hamlin (2,217 points, -99)
11. Kyle Busch (2,216 points, -100)
12. Ryan Newman (2,213 points, -103)

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the penultimate race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Nov. 13 Kobalt Tools 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 2 p.m.

THE MODERATOR We’re joined in the media center by tonight’s winning crew chief Darian Grubb. This is four now in the Chase. Talk about the momentum the team has going into the final two races.

DARIAN GRUBB: Momentum is huge, just knowing we can get it done. All the guys did a great job on pit road, all the guys in the garage. The car was fast all weekend. Tony gave us great feedback. It was a great weekend all the way around. Hopefully we can take it into the next two weeks.

THE MODERATOR We’ll take questions.

Q. You obviously had a great racecar. There were a couple times during the race Tony hauled it up on his back a little bit. Did you feel at times he was doing a little extra behind the wheel?
DARIAN GRUBB: He definitely did. Just like Martinsville when we were getting ready to go a lap down. He keeps fighting, finds that extra 3/10ths in the car. We fell back. You could tell the handling was going away a little bit. The other guys were running up on him a little bit. He got more speed out of the car and started moving forward after those guys fell off a little bit. He did a great job adapting to what the car needed.

Q. Correct me if I’m wrong. Have there been many instances this season where from start to finish of a race weekend you have been as strong as you were here?
DARIAN GRUBB: I think if you look back early in the season we kind of had some of those same stats going, we just didn’t get the finishes like we needed at the end. Las Vegas is one we qualified, stayed up front, dominated the race, had bad luck and finished second. Kick myself now, because I wish we did two tires there at the end again to pull off that win instead of Carl.

Those are points we knew we gave up early in the season. It’s good to have a weekend like this, give everybody that extra shot of confidence to know they can get it done.

The setups we have are working. Knowing we have the mile and a half come up at Homestead, hopefully we’ll take a lot of these things there and have that same speed.

Q. A question about momentum. Four wins in eight weeks. I may have this a little bit wrong, but when you substituted for Chad you had two wins with Jimmie. Does momentum mean anything to you guys?
DARIAN GRUBB: Yeah, that was two wins in four weeks. It’s definitely momentum and just the attitude that you carry. You come in with a little bit more of a pep in your step and you’re bouncing around because you know you can get it done.

Having that extra confidence means a lot, being able to go in, keep your head up, keep working on everything that you think you need to work on, work through practice plans like you think you need to. When you unload fast, you can afford to work on those things like we did this weekend.

Q. You were around the 99 it seemed like in practice and everything. Talk about the weekend with them. Was it fun? What was it like?
DARIAN GRUBB: It’s definitely fun. It’s one of those things where we go out there and have a good time with it. We do the same job week in and week out regardless of what’s going on around us. When everything happened with the 18 car, it seemed like all the media disappeared away from us. Every camera was in our stall for the first practice, but after that everybody kind of disappeared. Bob and I were joking, I’m going to get up in your face and say, What are you having for dinner tonight?

It’s fun. We have fun with it. We’re all there to get the job done. We’re not there to do the pomp and circumstance and all these other things. We want to do what we’ve got to do to make fast racecars.

Q. It seems like through the first 26 races of the regular season, it was a struggle. Once the Chase starts it’s like this light bulb moment went off. Was there one indeed once the Chase started?
DARIAN GRUBB: I really don’t think so. We had strong cars, we just didn’t get the finishes. We got in a little bit of a slump in the middle of the summer where it seemed like anything we did didn’t go right. We would have a pit call, it would bite us, next week try to do it again. Worked one week, wouldn’t work the next.

Just as the Chase started, we got the momentum on our side with the first two wins. Keep it rolling now. It’s been better ever since.

Q. Were you confident all the way there was no way Burton could make it to the finish?
DARIAN GRUBB: Pretty confident. Just the lap they pitted on, we knew they were going to have a hard time stretching it that far. At that point we were also gaining on them a second a lap. It was going to pretty much add up we were going to catch them there with one or two to go. We were trying to get everything we could get.

Q. When Burton went into the lead and Tony lost a couple of positions after the last fuel stop, you didn’t get panicked? What did you tell Tony over the radio?
DARIAN GRUBB: No, we were pretty confident that they couldn’t make it from that early. If they did, the speed was going to have to be so slow. We thought we could catch them anyway. We told him to worry about the 99 that was behind him. Hopefully it was going to work out. If nothing else, it was going to be a great points day for us and be ahead of Carl. We just have to keep fighting for all those points.

Q. I know the 99 car had a right front tire problem early on. Nobody likes right front tire problems. What were you thinking? Did you see anything at all?
DARIAN GRUBB: We had the same issues. Pretty much everybody in the garage that was running those speeds did. The tire is a good tire. That’s the limit of what you can do. I’m sure Goodyear is going to come back with something a little bit different. If not, the race is even more exciting with that. The way the tires fall off the fuel windows were getting shorted anyway. We had to make sure we take care of it. If you got really tight, you had to be even more careful.

Q. Going into Phoenix, do you look forward to something like that, where you don’t have a whole lot of notes, it’s going to be more I don’t want to say seat of your pants?
DARIAN GRUBB: We really do because it’s something where we did the tire test there, the open test. We have four full days of data that we’ve been digging through for a month and a half. We’re looking forward to going there and seeing if everything we learned while we were there still applies.

The track is going to change while we’re there with all the practice we have. We have to be smart how we adapt to those changes. Hopefully we’re going to have that speed.

THE MODERATOR Thank you very much. Congratulations.

The man next to you doesn’t need any introduction, the winner of tonight’s race, Tony Stewart. It’s his second career win at Texas Motor Speedway and fourth in the Chase. He’s three points back of leader Carl Edwards heading into the final two races.

Tony, talk about your run tonight.

TONY STEWART: I think it was all right (smiling). It was fair. We probably could have done a better job.

I don’t know what we could have done any different. We had a good car to start with and the good thing was it was close enough to where Darian was fine tuning all day. This is a race where the conditions change a bunch from the beginning of the day to the end. I was real proud we were able to adapt all day long.

I don’t know that we ever got out of the top five there the whole race. Seemed like we just kind of stayed there, stayed in the top three or four the whole day. Restarts were key obviously. But we got a really good restart that last one, had the lead coming into the pit stop. Our guys did an awesome job in the pits, got us out ahead of him. That was really the difference, was just being able to get that track position and be able to run our pace versus trying to make something happen to catch him.

THE MODERATOR We’ll take questions for Tony.

Q. Coming into this weekend, I think Carl felt like advantage them here at Texas. You come out and you do this. How big of a message is it to them that maybe what they thought was reality isn’t reality?
TONY STEWART: We tried to tell them that last week, so… It is what it is. I mean, I still stand firm that we’re not counting on them to make mistakes. We’re controlling our destiny. Today is a perfect example of that. We’re worried about what we’re doing. We’re not worried about what they’re doing. We raced our race today. We didn’t do anything worrying about what they were doing or how they were doing things. We just ran our race. That’s what we intend to do the next two weeks.

It’s theirs to lose now. But I don’t know that they have a choice now. I mean, we did what we said we were going to do. We’re going to take it if we want it. Today is a perfect example. We took five points off that deficit today. We have that ability to do that the next two weeks.

Q. Just seems like this championship Chase of yours, you’re having a lot of fun doing it. Has this been the most fun of a championship run you’ve had?
TONY STEWART: I think so. The good thing is we’ve been in this position a lot of times and this isn’t the first time we’ve been in this deal. We have that ability. Like I said, I didn’t think we belonged in the Chase to start with, I didn’t think we were a factor. What do we have to lose? We don’t have anything to lose. I don’t care about second or third in the points. After you won it, second doesn’t really matter.

To me it’s about going out, getting that championship, doing everything you can to accomplish that goal. We’re not a group that’s going to sit here obviously and say, We’ll take the easy road and settle for second. I’d rather finish sixth or seventh in points knowing that we did everything we can to win.

That’s what we’re going to do the next 14 days.

Q. Tony, I know you’re not worried about the 99 and all that. But how cool was it to battle it out with him tonight?
TONY STEWART: It shows what this Chase is going to be about. It’s a good battle right now. I mean, this was a good race today. We never really got far away from each other. At the end it was down to the two of us.

I don’t know if you’re Brian France right now, I would say he’s giddy. If not, he should be, because this is the perfect scenario. It’s the perfect storm, so to speak, going into these last two weeks. That’s what you want. This is about as exciting as it gets, to have two guys that are down to three points with two weeks ago.

Q. He drew a little bit on your picture out there.
TONY STEWART: I saw that. The bad thing is I look really bad to start with. He actually made me look a little better (smiling). I think he was actually a little too infatuated with me to be drawing on me. Kind of scares me he was so concerned about it.

Q. Tony, you talked about this a little bit, but you’ve won a championship before, two of them. Carl has been in the Chase but has not won a title. How much of an advantage, if any at all, is that for your group? How might it be an advantage?
TONY STEWART: It’s definitely an advantage. But I’m not going to tell you why ’cause that’s what I’m going to take to the next two weeks with me. We win this thing, I’ll tell you what the advantage is and why. But there’s an advantage.

Q. Tony, this is the second straight week where on restarts you were so strong coming from the outside, not in the preferred line. How gratifying is that?
TONY STEWART: Yeah, I mean, it’s very gratifying. I thought we were really strong all day on restarts. I mean, we had the one restart where we took off third there. We were two wide with Matt Kenseth going into one for the lead. We’re aggressive right now. It’s like I said, I’m taking charge and trying to control my own destiny. I think the restarts today showed what our intentions are and what we’re about for these next two weeks.

Q. Does it feel odd at all winning four races in the Chase and still being the chaser and not the guy being chased?
TONY STEWART: Not if you look at how bad a race we had at Dover. We had to win four races to make up that deficit of what we got ourselves into at the Dover race.

I’m going to be real disappointed if people are trying to make a story out of a guy that’s got four wins isn’t leading the points. It’s about 10 weeks. You got to be good for 10 weeks. You can’t just sit there and say, You can throw it all away to try to win a race and get there.

We have had to have those four wins to make up for Kansas that we missed an opportunity there, Dover that we just were bad. We’ve had to rebound from that. The good news is our four wins have carried us within three points of the lead. So I’m proud that we’ve been able to fight our way back up to it.

Q. Tony, can you remember the last time you had such a strong weekend from start to finish? You were very confident coming here. You must have felt some reinforcement getting out on the track Friday and being fast in practice and qualifying well.
TONY STEWART: We joke around about the Matt Kenseth syndrome. If he qualifies well, you know he’s going to be good in the race. That was proved today. He qualified well and he was a factor. We’re kind of in that same boat. We’re not known for qualifying. For us to qualify fifth, start that far forward, you got a sense it’s going to be a decent weekend.

The thing that we saw on the lap speeds in practice, we didn’t have that raw speed at the front of a run, but it seemed like after 10 laps we matched those guys that did have the raw speed. It seemed like by lap 15 it was kind of going the other way.

You know that this race most likely is going to be decided in a relatively long run most of the time. The good thing is it did today. Other than the traffic we struggled with at the end, we had a really good long run car and that’s what you need.

Q. Four wins in eight weeks in any Cup season is spectacular. Are you a believer in momentum?
TONY STEWART: It would be hard to not believe in it right now, to be honest. But still when we get to Phoenix next week, what happened this week and last week are over, and you still got to start that weekend from scratch.

I think our group is really good at that. But I think where the momentum carries isn’t when you start on Friday, it’s tonight through Thursday night. It’s the demeanor of the guys, the guys at the shop, how excited they are, knowing these guys are pumped up about what we got going on. When you got them working on your racecar, you want them pumped up and excited about how things are going.

But it’s back to business on Friday. The good thing at the test there, like Darian mentioned, we were really fast at the test. I’m looking forward to getting there.

Q. Last week you told Carl he better worry. He was a little more subdued in here today than last week. Any more words of wisdom for Carl Edwards?
TONY STEWART: I’m pretty sure what we did on the racetrack said everything we needed to tell him today. I mean, I don’t know how you top that. He knows. Trust me, he knows. If he’s out there drawing on me, he knows.

The fun thing is I don’t feel like I have to say anything. I feel like I already got it done.

Q. Clean, professional race today. Is that a function of the track or some guys more sobering reality this week? When you get that kind of race for you, is it a pleasure?
TONY STEWART: We’re not on a half mile anymore. You’re ripping around here, like Darian mentioned. The speeds we were running today, unbelievable how fast we run here at Texas. You’re not going to get guys doing what they did last week. Guys don’t have to get in that position of trying to take chances and put themselves in bad positions to get to the bottom of the racetrack like they had to do last week.

I think you kind of throw last week out of the equation. That’s not normal for this series. You only see it really twice a year at Martinsville. But that is what makes Martinsville exciting. At the same time that’s why I’m glad we don’t run 10 weeks at Martinsville to decide the championship because it would get ugly.

Yeah, it is nice to come here and know you’re not going to have to worry about that. Guys that had dramas last week had clean races today. It just shows that a lot of it’s a product of how fast we’re running here. Guys have a lot more respect for each other here.

Q. Carl said earlier he doesn’t want to count anybody out who is still mathematically alive no matter how far they are. Realistically, he’s the guy you’re worried about?
TONY STEWART: I’m not worried about anybody. I’m worried about what we’re doing, and that’s it. I mean, make no mistakes, understand this when you leave here, for the next two weeks, I don’t care what he does. I didn’t care what he did last week. I didn’t care what he did this week. I was worried about the 14 car and that’s all. That’s why we had the result we had today. We’re not worrying about somebody else or something else.

You’re crazy, the way the race went last week, guys having engine problems, you never can count anybody out of the equation. But I’m one of those guys, I believe there’s 35% of the things that happen on a race weekend that we can control and 65% that we can’t. All I care about is that 35% that we can control. That’s all we’re going to focus on and worry about. The rest of it we’re not going to worry about what they’re doing.

When you got two weekends in a row like we’ve had, we don’t have to do anything different. We just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing, and that’s worrying about our own racecar. Everybody else has to worry about what we’re doing, why and how.

Q. With going into Phoenix and Homestead the next two weeks, it’s been a while since you won at either of those tracks. Do you think you can get back to Victory Lane at either place?
TONY STEWART: Been a while since I won here, but we’re here tonight, aren’t we? I don’t know how you count us out. Been a long time since we won at Martinsville and here. We’ve done it two weeks in a row. Yeah, if I ever had confidence that we can do it, yeah, I feel that we can.

THE MODERATOR Congratulations, Tony.

TONY STEWART: Thank you.

It was Stewart’s fourth win and 17th top-10 result of 2011, his second win and 11th top-10 in 20 career Sprint Cup starts at Texas, and his 43rd win in 462 career Sprint Cup races. Stewart is now just one victory shy of tying 1988 Sprint Cup champion Bill Elliott for 15th on the series’ all-time win list.

All four of Stewart’s victories this season have come during the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which the two-time Sprint Cup champion began eight races ago with back-to-back wins at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., on Sept. 19 and New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on Sept. 25. Last Sunday he won at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and today he led seven times for a race-high 173 laps en route to a 1.092-second victory over runner-up Carl Edwards.

Stewart’s consecutive victories at Martinsville and Texas marked the ninth time in his career where he’s notched back-to-back victories, with the previous occurrence coming earlier this year at Chicagoland and New Hampshire. Prior to this year, the last time Stewart won consecutive races came in July 2007 when he won back-to-back races at Chicagoland and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Today’s victory also marked the third time in Stewart’s 13-year career that he won consecutive races twice in the same year. He also accomplished the feat in 2000 and 2005 and he has won at least four races in a season five times in his career.

This was the fifth Sprint Cup victory for SHR in 2011, as Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman, won in July at New Hampshire. SHR now has 12 Sprint Cup victories since its inception in 2009.

Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic Chevrolet Impala for SHR, battled back for a solid 16th-place finish after having to make an unscheduled green-flag pit stop after he felt a vibration following his first pit stop of the day.

Kasey Kahne finished third, while Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five. Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 21 laps, with seven drivers failing to finish the 334-lap race.

Stewart and Newman are both in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup and came into Texas second and 12th, respectively, in the Chase standings. Stewart was eight points behind Chase leader Edwards while Newman was 89 points out of the top spot. Stewart leaves Texas still second in points, but is now just three markers behind series leader Edwards. Newman remained 12th in the standings and is now 103 points out of first.

With only two 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 (2,316 points)
2. Tony Stewart (2,313 points, -3)
3. Kevin Harvick (2,283 points, -33)
4. Matt Kenseth (2,278 points, -38)
5. Brad Keselowski (2,267 points, -49)
6. Jimmie Johnson (2,261 points, -55)
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2,237 points, -79)
8. Jeff Gordon (2,235 points, -81)
9. Kurt Busch (2,229 points, -87)
10. Denny Hamlin (2,217 points, -99)
11. Kyle Busch (2,216 points, -100)
12. Ryan Newman (2,213 points, -103)

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule – the penultimate race of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup – is the Nov. 13 Kobalt Tools 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 2 p.m.

TALK ABOUT THREE RACES TO GO AND WHAT YOU WANT TO DO THIS WEEKEND AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY. “Our last three races we need to kind of pick up the pieces of the puzzle that we dropped in the first seven of the Chase. I said going into it I felt like we had a championship contending team and I think we did for the first couple of races but it kind of spiraled out of control and from our standpoint we just need to finish on a good note and build for 2012 and take every opportunity we have to get the car in victory lane. I guess regain focus and piece it back together.”

ANNOUNCED EARLIER THIS WEEK ABOUT THE SPONSORSHIP FROM QUICKEN LOANS IN 2012, TALK ABOUT THAT. “It was a big day for us and to have Quicken Loans on the car in 2012 for nine races. To be a part of Stewart-Haas and their first venture in NASCAR, racing in the Sprint Cup Series it’s an honor for me to be able to represent them. They are the nation’s largest online mortgage group out there and we’ll do our best to get them in victory lane obviously but just proud to represent a new sponsor in the sport which is obviously in tough economic times. Really proud of the people at SHR that put it all together, Tony Stewart and everybody else.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE BOSS MAN GETTING ALL FIRED UP IN VICTORY LANE AND THROWING THE GAUNTLET DOWN TO (CARL) EDWARDS? “It’s not unlike him. Usually he’s all excited about getting a new clock or something like that but he was really gung ho about giving a good speech afterwards. I was proud of him for that. He made a point and then he’s shown that in this Chase winning three out of seven, he’s a force to be reckoned with so these next three are going to be interesting for all of us. I think from my perspective if you look at it I don’t know the last time in any championship or Chase format that we’ve had four teams from four organizations have a shot in the last three races to go for a championship so it’s exciting.”

YOU’RE KNOWN FOR YOUR ENGINEERING BACKGROUND AND ALL THAT, HOW MUCH DIFFERENT NEXT WEEK SHOULD WE EXPECT THE PHOENIX RACE TO BE SINCE THEY’VE CHANGED THE TRACK? “From what I experienced in the test the performance of the race and the function of the race is going to be a derivative of how wide the race track gets. It took us the better part of two days to get it just from sliding around a little bit and I actually spun the car out and tapped the wall a little bit down in (turns) three and four just because I got up in the dust basically. Whatever chemical or physical reaction there is between the tires and the race track it turns into a dust. We moved it up and I know they took some school cars out there and trying to do everything they can, but having the cars, trucks and everybody else out there is going to help. I think the race track will be its best when the checkered flag falls on the Cup race. The racing itself I think will be good, the track I don’t think is a huge difference. After the first test when it was 110 degrees out there and all the grumblings that went around in the middle of the summer, I was pleasantly surprised with how good it drove out there.”

EARLIER TODAY MARK MARTIN ANNOUNCED TWO MORE YEARS OF RACING WITH A POSSIBLE THIRD, SO AT THE END OF THIS CONTRACT HE WILL BE CLOSER TO 60 THAN 50, DOES THAT INSPIRE YOU TO RACE INTO YOUR 50’S? “No, it inspires me that I might be able to and can but my intentions for my career are not to pattern them off Mark Martin and his from a longevity standpoint. I didn’t’ want you to take that the wrong way because Mark is very successful.”

YOUR TEAMMATE HAS WON THREE RACES IN THE CHASE, THE GUY WHO IS LEADING THE POINTS HAS WON ZERO RACES IN THE CHASE, WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU ABOUT THE NUMBERS IN TERMS OF HOW THE POINT SYSTEM WORKS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “I don’t know. There’s still and always will be a reward for consistency and Carl (Edwards) has had that. I don’t remember exactly what the difference was going into the Chase, so there’s truly a difference in the math there. I think Carl started with nine bonus points and Stewart had none so there is a difference in respect to that and the fact that Stewart spent three of his races he won in the Chase equaling out to the wins that Carl Edwards had going into the Chase if I remember right. HE HAD ONE. “One win all year. Okay I assumed he had three, sorry. So there’s six points difference there. My point is the consistency is a big part of what we do as well as the wins. Those bonus points for the wins are nice but they’re not a necessity to be a consistent Cup championship contender.”

IS THAT RIGHT? “I don’t know if that’s right. In the end when you’ve got the trophy in your house and it was right enough. But from the fans perspective, the media’s perspective is it right? I’d say it’s 50/50. You can argue it until you’re blue in the face.”

GOING BACK TO PHOENIX, IN REGARDS TO THE DUST ON THE TIRES DO YOU FEEL GOODYEAR NEEDS TO DEVELOP A NEW COMPOUND? “Like I said, I don’t know if it’s a chemical or a physical change that the tires actually make. As the tires interact with the asphalt they create a dust. When we ended the test the track was dustier out of the groove than it was when we showed up on a green race track after it had been raining and nobody had been on it so it’s not a factor of the tire, I think any tire would probably do that because of the asphalt that they have there. They did a unique quenching process because it was so hot out there to try to get the asphalt to quench and cool and I don’t know if that was a part of it or not. It’s nothing on Goodyear, Goodyear has a good tire for the race and a good tire we had at the test. SO BASICALLY IT’S JUST A BYPRODUCT OF IT? “It’s a byproduct of a new paving. A different asphalt company, whatever the chemistry is. Look at the paving that we’ve had in the past between places like Homestead and Darlington and Charlotte, every one’s a little bit different. I would expect the aggregates in Phoenix, Arizona to not be the same as the ones in Darlington, South Carolina.”

ATLANTA HAS A BIG AGGREGATE, TIRES WEAR ALL YOU DRIVERS LOVE ATLANTA, ALL THESE OTHER TRACKS THAT HAVE BEEN PAVED HAVE A TIGHT AGGREGATE SO THE TIRES WON’T FALL OFF, DO YOU THINK SOMEBODY SHOULD BE LOOKING AT WHATEVER THEY DID AT ATLANTA AND TRY TO PUT THAT KIND OF AGGREGATE ON SOME OF THESE OTHER TRACKS SO THE TIRES WEAR AND YOU GUYS CAN BE FAST AT THE START OF A RUN THEN CHANGE TIRES? “That was discussed a little bit when the process in Darlington was done because everybody enjoyed so much how the tires fell off and you changed the way you drive, you changed your points and all that stuff. I think the other percentage of it because it is 50 percent asphalt and 50 percent tires, the fact that the chemistry of the tires changed a little bit and you don’t see nearly the marbling of the tires as we used to which is obviously for other reasons. It’s not just the aggregate, yeah that old style asphalt whether it’s in the aging process that makes it do it or in the way they can apply a new asphalt to be aged. They are basically putting 220 grit down instead of 80 grit or vice versa, that’s something I think that people consider but in the end when you’re spending millions and millions of dollars do you want to have something that is aged when its laid down. I think that is the question that everybody considers the most.”

YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT TONY AND THE THROWING OF THE GAUNTLET; IT WAS INTERESTING LATER WHEN HE SAID HE FELT LIKE HE’S DONE FAVORS FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE AND NOW IT’S TIME TO CASH IN THE CHIPS, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ABOUT WHAT HE MEANS BY THAT? “I don’t know who all he’s been playing poker with so I’m not really sure how to answer that. I don’t know. I know that he’s had mentors in his career and he’s mentored people in his career so I don’t know what that family tree looks like when it comes to those things, if he expects something from Carl Edwards or Kevin Harvick or whoever or something in return. I don’t know that’s a better question for him than me.”

ON TODAY’S ANNOUNCMENT WITH DANICA PATRICK. “Yeah, it’s definitely nice. Everybody wanted to know where she was going to be racing, what the number was on the car and that’s what today was all about. Just being able to give everybody in the media and the fans an idea of where they are going to see her next year, that was a pretty big step.”

YOU TWO SEEM TO GET ALONG REALLY WELL AND THE CHEMISTRY IS OBVIOUS, THAT HELPS A LOT I’M SURE. “Yeah, she’s a lot of fun. She’s got a great personality and she’s very dedicated to being good so she’s the kind of person that you want as a teammate. She works hard at it and she has fun doing it. I think she’s a perfect fit for us.”

EDDIE (GOSSAGE) HAS THIS LITTLE FIGHT MOTIF GOING ON WITH YOU AND CARL (EDWARDS), CARL WASN’T EXACTLY ENAMERED WITH THE IDEA, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? “I think that’s why Eddie Gossage is one of the best promoters in the United States and probably will be before it’s all said and done. I thought it was funny personally. I was just glad I was the guy that got to wear the black hat.”

DO YOU THINK THAT IDEA CAME FROM SOME OF YOUR COMMENTS? “There’s no doubt it did. It shows you how good of a promoter Eddie is. I guarantee by Monday morning he already had that idea done.”

SUNDAY NIGHT, HE DIDN’T WAIT UNTIL MONDAY MORNING. “That’s what I’m saying, by Monday morning he was done already. He already knew what he was going to do.”

WERE YOU THROWING DOWN A GAUNTLET WITH THOSE COMMENTS? “No, I just stated a fact that we’re ready for this. We’re ready for these three weeks. After a race like we had last Sunday, I’m ready to go for these weeks. If anybody counts us out they’re making a mistake.”

HOW HAS YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT THE CHASE CHANGED IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS WITH THE SUCCESS YOU’VE HAD? “Obviously going into Martinsville being fourth in the points we felt good that we were still in the hunt like we were. I think after the way we ran last Sunday and the way that we were more so not so much how we ran but how we rebounded from a really slow start of the day and were able to overcome it and have a dramatic finish like that at the end. I mean that’s the stuff that puts you in that position at the end and you have that with three weeks to go you’ve got something going on.”

HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR DOES THE PIT CREW, AND CREW CHIEF MAKING CHANGES THROUGH THE RACE HAVE, YOU TALKED ABOUT HOW THAT’S CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE WON? “Exactly, it’s easy to get flustered and kind of get frayed on the ends and Darian (Grubb, crew chief) did an awesome job. The big thing was just saying hey what we’re doing isn’t working, the direction we’re going with our changes isn’t working, we’ve got to make a big swing at it. He didn’t go crazy with it but he made educated decisions and that’s what got us there at the end. He had two really good pit calls that got us the track position to once we got up there to do something with what he had changed.”

HOW DID YOU KEEP YOUR TEMPER LAST WEEK? “I made a mistake and put the No. 43 in a bad spot but the thing I did was when I made that mistake I didn’t pick the gas up and go ahead and take the spot. I kind of let him get the back in any spot that he had. He didn’t deserve to lose it because I made a mistake and pushed him out of the way. I think we raced everybody with respect.”

EVEN WITH DENNY HAMLIN, YOU WERE ON THE RADIO TELLING HIM YOU’RE JUST GONNA HAVE TO…. “I wouldn’t normally race him that way. I would have more respect for the leader than that if I was getting lapped and if that were the spring race I probably would have let him go like you should but Denny also knew why we were doing what we were doing and I think it just shows the respect that we have for each other. If you don’t put guys in bad positions they don’t put you back in it the other way.”

HAS EVERYTHING THAT’S HAPPENED WITH THE NO. 10 CAR AND THE ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT YOU’VE MADE THIS WEEK, DOES THAT TAKE SOME OF THE PRESSURE OFF GOING INTO THE FINAL THREE RACES? “I think a little bit. It’s been a busy week make no mistakes about it. I guess I still think in the bigger picture than just what I’m doing. It’s an exciting day for Danica. It’s an exciting day for GoDaddy and this is something we’ve been looking forward to this day. We’ve been looking forward to the day we can pull the cover off of this car and we can sit there together in a press conference and talk about how excited we are doing this together. I’ve looked forward to this. It’s not a distraction, but it is nice to get it done here and do it at Texas where we like anyway. Get it behind us and now we can go back to work.”

IT’S VERY DIFFICULT TO GO GET MONEY IN THIS SPORT RIGHT NOW, ESPECIALLY NEW MONEY LIKE YOU GUYS DID, HOW MUCH ARE YOU HAVING TO GIVE OF YOURSELF IN ORDER TO LAND THESE SPONSORSHIPS? “We’ve got a great staff at SHR and we’ve got a great marketing department and I feel like they are the reason we’ve been able to be successful on this side. I think they’ve thought of ways thinking outside the box of how to make these partnerships with these sponsors work and work for them in a way they haven’t had these opportunities in the past with these other teams in the series. To bring somebody new into the sport, that’s a really, really big feather in our cap from an organization standpoint. I take a lot of pride in that.”

ITS EASY TO LOOK AT VICTORY LANE LAST WEEK AND SAY HE WAS FIRED UP, HE SAID SOMETHING BECAUSE HE WAS SO FIRED UP, BUT YOU MEANT IT SO WOULD YOU SAY IT SITTING RIGHT HERE LIKE A CALM SITUATION TOO? “Absolutely. The feeling hasn’t changed. It wasn’t the adrenaline that was saying that. I’ve been racing 31 years and we’ve been a part of a lot of championship battles and I know what that feeling is when you feel that stuff is going right and that you’ve got that shot again. Like I said he’s making a mistake if he’s counting us out and if he thinks it’s just a mind game deal I really don’t care what he does. I’m going to control my destiny and my car, I don’t care what he does with his car. I’m going to take care of business with ours.”

THERE SEEMS TO BE SO MUCH FOCUS ON YOU AND CARL FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP, JIMMIE JOHNSON SAID TODAY HE HOPED THAT SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN AND HE COULD GET BACK IN IT SO YOU CAN’T COUNT HIM OUT EITHER. “No, you never do. I guess I’m looking at it from the standpoint of looking up. I’m not looking behind and I’m not worried about anybody else. I’m not worried about Carl I’m not worried about anybody, I’m worried about what we’re doing with our car. I think practice this morning showed that.”

SHOULD YOU LOOK AT IT DIFFERENT WITH ONLY THREE RACES LEFT? “Why would you?” I DON’T KNOW I’M WONDERING. “No, you don’t change what gets you there.” MAYBE MORE WILLING TO GAMBLE OR SOEMTHING LIKE THAT. “Listen, I’m going to tell you this just like I told everybody else and make sure everybody still understands it, we still do this one day at a time. We’re not looking to Sunday, I’m looking to qualifying here in a minute. Once that’s over I’m going to get ready for race practice tomorrow. We still carry the same approach we’ve told everybody for weeks and months now. It’s not changing and there is a reason I do it that way and it works. So we won’t change it until 50 laps to go, you might have to do something different at Homestead late in the race but you don’t change that formula. If you are doing something that gets you to the front of this deal you darn sure don’t change that until it’s over so we’re not going to change anything.”

HOW WAS PRACTICE OUT THERE AND WHAT WERE YOU WORKING ON? “Like I said, we kinda of feel like we’re in the Matt Kenseth mode. I’m kind of happy. If we qualify like we practiced there and get an upfront starting spot, that’s normally a good sign for us. I’m not a good qualifier so if we qualify well we normally race well behind it. I’m excited about it. I thought we were decent in race trim. I think we learned some stuff going from race trim to qualifying trim that was a parallel as far as the balance was concerned. I think we found what might fix that so I’m pretty excited about it right now.”

DANICA SAID FOR A LONG TIME THAT YOU WERE THE PERSON SHE WOULD ASK HER NASCAR QUESTIONS TO THAT SHE HAD, DID YOU FEEL LIKE SORT OF THE LEADER IN THE CLUBHOUSE IN LEADING HER OVER HERE? “Not necessarily. Trust me there are a lot of people that have a lot of respect for her and what she’s doing and knowing how hard it is with all the attention she gets to be able to focus and do what she’s doing. Like we mentioned, I’ve been where she is, I know what those cars feel like so for her to ask a question about something that’s going on or a feel it’s easier for me to understand why she’s asking that question verses just the question itself. I don’t know that it made us feel like we  were in the lead in that category but I think that’s what’s going to make it fun and make it a natural fit for us because we do have that comparison and that parallel with each other.”

HOW MUCH HARDER IS THE CHANGE SHE’S GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE COMPARED TO WHEN YOU MADE BECAUSE OF TESTING? “Yeah, but Juan (Pablo Montoya) didn’t get to do them either and Juan made it work. Just some people make it and some people don’t. Like Sam (Hornish), Sam’s a great open-wheel racer and for some reason and he’s getting better in the stock car the longer he goes but it’s an easier transition for some than it is for others. You’ve seen guys like Dario Franchitti and Jacques Villeneuve that never figured it out and these are guys that have won the Indy 500, won championships and are accomplished race car drivers. There’s no blue print, there’s nothing that says you’re going to figure it out but we feel like with our group we’re giving her the best opportunity we can for her to figure everything out. What we’ve seen so far from her in a stock car, she’s already starting to pick things up. She’s a sponge when it comes to information. She gathers everything in and then figures out how to separate it, cipher it and go on. I think she has the mindset that some of those guys that tried to make it didn’t have.”

IS THERE A COMMON THREAD THAT CONNECTS THE ONES THAT GET IT FAST AND THE ONES THAT DON’T? “I wish because then it would be easy to know right off the bat which guys are capable of doing it and which ones aren’t but unfortunately it’s not that easy.”

YOU’VE GOT THREE CHASE WINS, YOU’RE ONLY EIGHT POINTS DOWN, YOU’VE GOT MOMENTUM BUT CARL IS LEADING THE POINTS, IT’S HIS CHAMPIONSHIP TO LOSE? “How many points do you get if you win the race verses second? SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT SOMETHING LIKE THAT. “How many points are we behind?” WELL YOU’VE GOT TO BEAT HIM OBVIOUSLY. “Okay, so.” SO IF HE LOSES THE CHAMPIONSHIP HAVING THE LEAD RIGHT NOW I’D SAY IT’S HIS TO LOSE. “No.” YOU DON’T THINK? “How many points is it from first place to second place in the race?” ABOUT SEVEN. “I think its three. So he’s eight points ahead so if we win all three races and he runs second we’ve taken it from him. He didn’t lose it. We took it from him. Now if it was a bigger gap than that and all he had to do was finish right behind us then I would agree with you that it was his to lose but we still have the opportunity to take it from him.” HE’S HAD TWO BAD RACES, TWO LUCKY FINISHES … “I feel like I got him back in the corners.” YOU DO? “Yeah, I do. Like I said these are three tracks that I like. I feel like we run really well here, Texas is one I really look forward to coming back to. Phoenix we were really good at the test and Homestead is a track that I like. We haven’t won there since they redid it but I like the style that we have to race there and I like where we have to run on the race track. So its three tracks that I like and I feel like we can control our destiny. If we were more points out and we couldn’t gain them by winning the race and him running second then I would feel like it’s his to lose but we can still go up there and take it from him. We don’t have to worry about what he does all we have to do is control our destiny and we can still win this thing.” CAN YOU WIN ALL THREE? “I didn’t think I could win three of them in the Chase let alone the rest of them. I would love to be able to say yeah, I can win all three of them but there’s no give me’s in this deal and there’s no guarantees and there’s a lot of variables that are out of our control but we’re going to control the ones that we have control of and let the rest of it fall in place.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN GET IN CARL’S HEAD A LITTLE BIT, IT APPEARS THIS WEEK YOU KIND OF HAVE? “I don’t know. He’s growing facial hair we’ve never seen him have and he’s saying stuff I’ve never heard him say so I don’t know what’s going on with him this week.”

YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT HAVING HIM BACKED INTO THE CORNER, IF YOU’RE ABLE TO MAKE SOMEONE FEEL THAT WAY BECAUSE IS THAT PARTIALLY BECAUSE YOU KNOW HOW TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP, YOU’VE DONE IT BEFORE AND BECAUSE YOU’RE MORE CONFIDENT AND YOU FEEL YOU KNOW THE GAME? “I know what to expect. I know what is going on. I’ve been in that situation so it’s not a new experience for me and it’s definitely not a scenario I’m uncomfortable with. That’s why I’ve been walking around for a whole week with a smile on my face because I’m very comfortable with where we are at and very confident with what we have going on these next three weeks.”

HE KNOWS HOW TO LOSE CHAMPIONSHIPS, HE LOST TWO, IN FACT HE LOST 2005 TO YOU, DO YOU REMEMBER THE LAST FEW RACES OF 2005 BECAUSE HE REMEMBERS THEM? “I can’t remember what I did two days ago let alone back to 2005. I honestly don’t. You’ve got to lose some to win them and we’ve lost our share of them in the past too but I think that’s what also makes it easier to win them when you know what you’ve got to do to overcome those.”

WHAT KIND OF RACING ARE YOU EXPECTING AT PHOENIX NEXT WEEK WITH THE NEW TRACK? “Nobody knows. Your guess is going to be as good as mine is right now. I think we’ll have a little better idea hopefully on Friday in practice we’ll get some cars around each other and see what we’ve got.”

THIS CAR (NO. 10) IS RUNNING 10 RACES, WOULD THERE BE THE OPTION OF PUTTING ANTOHER DRIVER IN THERE TO KEEP THE POINTS UP? “Yes, we would definitely like to run the car the whole season. If we can get another sponsor to take care of the rest of the races I would love to run this car full-time next year and have that opportunity to work with that crew and the crew chief and get them ready for the whole season in 2013 also.”

I CAN’T IMAGINE A BASEBALL GENERAL MANAGER DOING ALL THE DEALS, TRADES, AND THEN GOING DOWN AND PITCHING THE GAME WHICH IS ESSENTIALLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING.  “Piece of cake.” DOES IT EVER GET GRINDING? “Not for me. I’m a single guy, I don’t have a wife and children to go home to. I don’t have to delegate my time to a family. These race teams and my race tracks and everything we are doing kind of is that family. I like staying busy in that capacity. I wouldn’t know what else to do. This is the only way I’ve done it for a long time now and I don’t know if I could change it now.” DO YOU SLEEP? “Not very well. I don’t need to sleep though.”

BEFORE THE CHASE YOU SAID WE DON’T EVEN DESERVE TO BE IN THE CHASE, THEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN YOU GET IN AND WIN THREE RACES AND ARE ON FIRE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR OF ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP, WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO? “I wish I knew. I’d love to know because I would make sure we didn’t get ourselves in that position again. A lot of it is when you look at our season the first half to two-thirds of it we just had weird things happen that we’ve never had happen before that would get us behind and get us backed in a corner and we couldn’t get our way worked out of it by the end of the race. Maybe it’s just something simple as getting all that bad luck out of the way early in the year and it seems like the last seven weeks have kind of been back to normal scenarios and not having these weird things happen that cost us races early in the year.”

NEXT YEAR YOU ARE GOING TO A THREE-CAR TEAM, YOU’VE SEEN RCR GO TO FOUR CARS THEN BACK TO THREE, ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT STRUGGLING AT ALL WITH A THREE-CAR TEAM? “No, I’m not really. When we sat down originally Gene Hass’ vision was to build us to a four-car team and I sat down and we hired Ryan Newman and Tony Gibson and Darian Grubb and Bobby Hutchens and said listen we’re going to get these two cars up where they need to be before we add a third car. Having six opportunities to get these two cars in the Chase and accomplishing that five to six times now and having the opportunity to run for a championship this year is proof that we’ve got our program where it needs to be where we can accommodate that third team. We won’t expand it to a fourth team until we make sure these three cars go really well first. Timing is everything but its making sure that when you make that commitment to go to that next step that you have all your ducks in a row and I feel like we’re in that scenario now.”

WHEN YOU STARTED STEWART-HASS RACING I IMAGINE YOU SET GOALS FOR YOURSELF, ARE YOU AHEAD OF THOSE GOALS? “I think you just be realistic and have to evaluate it as you go. I would call it goals as much as it would be a wish list. You set where you would like to be. I don’t think any of us really knew what to expect. It’s hard to. It’s hard when you go into a new venture that you’ve never been a part of before you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. Just like Danica next year, she may have in her head that a top-15 is the only way she’s going to feel happy or a top-20 is going to be a good day. My opinion of it is different. I want her to get the laps and get the experience. You sit down at the end of the day and you evaluate what’s going on and I feel like we’ve done a lot of things that people didn’t feel like we could do in three years and we’re pretty proud of that.”

DANICA WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW YOU GUYS HAVE THIS REPORT, WAS IT ALWAYS LIKE THAT WAY? “Oddly enough it’s been like that from day one that we met. Like I said you can see by watching her, she’s very relaxed, she’s got a great personality and a good sense of humor. I think that’s what will make her, Ryan and I a good combination together. We’re going to have a lot of fun next year. Ryan and I have fun like that already but it’s nice to have another teammate that fits that mold and has that personality that matches ours.”

CAN SHE GIVE AS GOOD AS SHE GETS? “She’s pretty good at it, yeah. She’s gets her good share of shots in so you can’t turn your back on her because she’s going to get you if you do.”

TALK ABOUT TEXAS, A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY THIS TRACK IS GOING TO SHOW WHO THE REALLY GOOD TEAMS ARE, WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS TRACK IS ALL ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AS WE HEAD INTO THIS FUN.? “It’s always been about showcasing teams. You don’t run well here with a poor organization. You’re not going to back into a good finish here. Even when there’s been late-race pit strategies that have played out it’s always been strong teams that have come to the top, this is a place that is going to showcase what these organizations are all about.” THAT’S WHY YOU FEEL SO CONFIDENT RIGHT NOW? “Like I said this is a track that we’ve always ran well at. If I’m in the top-three on the speed chart at the end of qualifying practice that’s normally a pretty good sign.”

WITH YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL NOW, OBVIOUSLY YOU CAN’T TAKE A REALLY BAD RACE AND TRY TO MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF IT, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN MAKE UP SOMETHING HERE NO MATTER WHAT? “I don’t think I’m looking at it from that standpoint as much as it’s I feel like we’ve got the two or three tracks I was worried about in the Chase behind us now. We’ve got Dover out of the way, we’ve got Talladega that we didn’t know what could happen and Martinsville was one I was concerned about too.

We’ve got those three tracks out of the way and these three tracks we have left are places that I feel confident that we’ve had really good race cars in the past so it makes you a little more relaxed about it. You don’t feel like you’ve got to make something happen. You feel like you should be in decent shape going into it.”

ON DANICA’S SCHEDULE.
“Part of it is timing when it comes up in the season. This is in my opinion our fastest 1.5-mile track that we go to. She’s going to go to places that tires are going to give up, she’s going to go to tracks that you  have to move around the race track a lot and then you’re going to come here and you’re going to rip around here all day so we picked a variety of tracks that we knew would be a challenge from different standpoints. But those are the things that you’re going to run through the whole season that lead up to a championship. It was strategic in the standpoint of the timing of the schedule and where it was at.”

As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series carnival arrives at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500, one can sense something different in the air.

Edwards, not five-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, sits atop the point standings. And Tony Stewart, the last driver not named Jimmie Johnson to win a Sprint Cup title, is just eight points behind Edwards in second place with only three races to go.

In the first seven races of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Stewart has won three times, the most recent of which came last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in a daring, next-to-last-lap pass of Johnson. And there, in victory lane, Stewart threw down the gauntlet: “Carl Edwards had better be really worried. That’s all I’ve got to say. He’s not going to have an easy three weeks.”

A confident Stewart is a dangerous Stewart, especially at Texas, where the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet has a pole, a win, four top-fives, 10 top-10s and has led 554 laps in his 19 career Sprint Cup starts. And, in the last 13 races at the 1.5-mile oval, Stewart has the best average running position (ninth), the best average green-flag speed (173.043 mph), the second-best driver rating (102.9) and has spent a series-high 3,561 laps in the top-15 (81.8 percent).

Something wicked this way comes, and it’s in the form of Stewart, who has lopped 16 points from Edwards’ lead in the last two races.

Now that the series is in Texas, where in addition to his Sprint Cup success Stewart has an IROC win (April 2006) and three IZOD IndyCar Series starts that saw him lead from the pole twice en route to racking up 208 of a possible 624 laps led (33.4 percent), Stewart has another opportunity to usurp Edwards’ status as the points leader. Stewart can gobble up points and reassert the title-winning form that netted him championships in 2002 and 2005.

Sunday’s win at Martinsville, combined with Stewart’s strong history at Texas and equally strong resumes at Phoenix and Homestead (Fla.) – the final two races of the season where Stewart has a total of three wins and 771 laps led (one win at Phoenix with 386 laps led; two wins at Homestead with 385 laps led) – has given the 13-year Sprint Cup veteran the moxie he needs to unseat Johnson and chase down Edwards.

A well-rested Stewart rolls into Texas ready to do what he’s done eight times before in his career – win back-to-back races, something he did to kick off the Chase when he won the first two rounds at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., and New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. And Stewart’s last win at Texas? November 2006, after winning the previous week at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The years are different but the tenacity and swagger Stewart carries into the cockpit of his Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet remain the same.

“This is a tough series,” admitted Stewart, a seven-time Chase for the Sprint Cup participant. “It’s been a tough Chase. This is the best Chase field we’ve ever had. You work hard all year to try to be in this position and, to be in the position we’re in right now, sitting here knowing we’re right in the middle of this thing with three weeks to go, it’s obviously a great feeling and a great position to be in. We’ve just got to go out and keep doing what we’re doing here.”

What Stewart’s been doing is winning, and he aims to do it again Sunday in the AAA Texas 500.

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

Is the championship down to you and Carl Edwards?

“I wouldn’t say that. There is still Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski and other guys we have to worry about in the points. We’re not just racing the ‘99’ car (Edwards). We’re racing the entire Chase field right now. We’re not focusing on one team. We’re just going to go out and do what we’ve done every week. It’s what got us in this position.”

In your last 13 races at Texas, you’ve earned the second-best driver rating, had the best average running position, the best average green-flag speed and have run in the top-15 a series-best 81.8 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 who 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 get wider and 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.

“Any time 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 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.”

A lot of drivers talk about turn two at Texas, where it feels like the banking falls out from underneath them. Can you describe that sensation?

“It does. The entry and exit of these corners, they’re very abrupt as far as the banking. When you turn in the corner, it’s very abrupt getting in and falls off very quickly. The reason for that, when they built Texas Motor Speedway, they intended to have the Indy cars race on the apron. That’s why the apron is so wide at Texas. The Indy cars were not originally meant to run on the banking. That’s why the banking on the entry of the corner and exit falls off so fast, so the cars could come from the straightaway from the apron and back up with a smooth transition from the bottom. It makes it a different challenge than what we have at Charlotte or Atlanta because of that. It does make it a lot more challenging to get your car set up for it. You can’t relax on the entry and you can’t relax on the exit of the corner. A lot of times, it’s hard to get your car secure on the entry because you don’t have that banking to hold it. Once you get in the corner, it seems like it’s all right. Same thing happens on the exit. Turn two is the tighter of the two exits of the racetrack. You’re still trying to finish the corner there and you have to keep tugging on the steering wheel and, at the same time, make sure you don’t lose the back (of the car). It definitely falls out from under you. When it does, you have to make sure your car is tight enough to make it through that transition.”

TONY STEWART’S TEXAS PERFORMANCE PROFILE

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

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

Consider the news announced Nov. 1 that Quicken Loans Inc., the nation’s largest online retail mortgage lender, has formed a partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team co-owned by two-time series champion Tony Stewart and Gene Haas.

Quicken Loans will be the primary sponsor of Newman’s No. 39 Chevrolet for nine races in 2012 and, when not serving as a primary sponsor, will be an associate sponsor. Additionally, Quicken Loans will be an associate sponsor on the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala of Stewart throughout the 2012 Sprint Cup season.

If that “new and exciting” news wasn’t enough, consider the “new and exciting” event Quicken Loans will be promoting on Newman’s Chevrolet when he competes in this Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas.

The No. 39 team will carry a special paint scheme to highlight the upcoming Quicken Loans Carrier Classic, which will pit the No. 1 North Carolina Tar Heels against the Michigan State Spartans in an unprecedented NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball season opener, as the game will be played Nov. 11 on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson. The Veterans Day event will be held at Naval Base Coronado in the San Diego Harbor in front of 7,000 military personnel and spectators while being televised live on ESPN at 7 p.m. EST (4 p.m. PST).

And the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic was given an extra boost when it was recently announced that President Barack Obama would be in attendance.

It’s a perfect fit for Newman and the No. 39 team, which has proudly supported the military under primary sponsorship from the U.S. Army since SHR’s inception in 2009. And Quicken Loans has heavily backed the military as, in honor of Veterans Day and the millions of people who have served in the Armed Forces, Quicken Loans recently made a $111,111 (Nov. 11, 2011 – that’s 11/11/11) donation to the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, which provides financial, educational and other assistance to members of the Naval Services, family members and survivors.

In addition, Quicken Loans will improve the financial situation of nearly 150,000 American families, including more than 11,000 active and retired military clients, by providing assistance in purchasing or refinancing their homes.

While there are plenty of “new and exciting” things happening for the No. 39 team, Newman is hoping to bring some “old excitement” back this week when he hits the track at Texas.

The driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic Chevrolet for SHR is looking for his second win at Texas, having claimed victory at the 1.5-mile oval in April 2003. He’s also captured two poles (April and November 2005) and three top-five finishes in 16 starts there.

Newman has a new sponsor and a unique paint scheme to kick of the partnership. Thus, he would like nothing more than to be “quick enough” to put Quicken Loans in victory lane.

RYAN NEWMAN, Driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Carrier Classic Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Quicken Loans’ tagline is ‘Engineered to Amaze,’ which seems fitting as you have an Engineering Degree from Purdue University.
“I’ve always said it’s an honor for me to represent the U.S. Army, and what Quicken Loans does to help the veterans and to be a part of this ‘Engineered to Amaze’ and have my engineering degree, I’m very thankful to them for all the things that they do. The Army is just like us and what we do in NASCAR. We’re teaming up as a group to go out there and win and be victorious in our battles, and I’m really proud to represent the Army, really proud to have this opportunity with Quicken Loans and Stewart-Haas Racing and, as I always say, each and every week, we’ll do our best to represent them and try to get them into victory lane.”

Talk about the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic paint scheme you have on the No. 39 Chevrolet for this week’s race at Texas.
“It’s a cool-looking car with the hardwood paint scheme and the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic logo on the hood. It’s a really cool event that Quicken Loans is a part of and it’s really cool for us to be able to leverage that at SHR. It’s just a unique event to have two of the most well-known college basketball teams playing on an aircraft carrier, on Veteran’s Day, with the President in attendance and a crowd of all military – it’s something that’s never been done before. Hopefully, we can have a strong car at Texas and put the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic Chevrolet in victory lane and get the festivities started off right for the week leading up to the game.”

Talk about racing at Texas.
“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 the mail. Texas is actually one of the fastest tracks 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 my finishes. It’s a smooth, fast racetrack and there are multiple grooves, so it’s fun to race there. The asphalt has aged the track to the point it has gotten better and better each time we come back. What I mean is that the track has basically gotten wider. It’s gotten a bit more character. A little more bumpy, which is fine. I like it. I think that, in general, the track has gotten wider and racier each time we’ve come back. It’s got less grip, but that’s fine. I’d rather slide around a little bit and be in charge of my racecar than be stuck to the racetrack. It’s a race we look forward to. Because the asphalt has aged, it’s really gotten to be a better race. I love the speed. It’s a fast racetrack.”

With the championship out of reach, what is the mindset going into the final three races of the season.
“Obviously you want to win every race, but we also want to build for next year. The Chase hasn’t gone like we would have hoped, but we want to finish out the year strong so we can have good momentum going into 2012. And with Tony (Stewart, teammate) being in the championship hunt, we want to help him in any way we can – giving good information and helping those guys as they try to win. We’ve won at Texas and Phoenix, so we know we can get it done. It’s just a matter of putting ourselves in a position to win.”

RYAN NEWMAN’S TEXAS SPRINT CUP SERIES PERFORMANCE PROFILE

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

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

Photo by John Harrelson - Getty Images for NASCAR

It turned out not to be, as Stewart ran out of fuel on the final lap and finished 12th, but the duo sure made things interesting in the race’s last 100 laps. As crushing as the ending was, the fact that Stewart even got into a position to contend for the win was impressive.

The driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) rallied from his 26th-place starting spot, a pit road collision on lap 11 and a late-race pit road speeding infraction to still lead twice for a total of 12 laps. Savvy pit calls by Grubb put Stewart in the lead, and had him poised to steal his 40th career Sprint Cup victory and second at Texas, even after Stewart was dinged for speeding on entry to pit road during his final pit stop on lap 276.

The resulting pass-through penalty dropped Stewart to 16th, but because of smart strategy by Grubb, Stewart didn’t have to make another stop while the rest of his counterparts did. As such, the pit road penalty was essentially wiped clean, for Stewart was able to climb back into the top-five while his competitors dove onto pit road to fill their thirsty fuel tanks.

The strategy worked to near perfection. Without it, Stewart would’ve only been able to contend for a top-10. But now, a top-five and even a top-three was possible. That is until Stewart’s tank ran dry on the final lap and he had to coast toward the finish line, dropping him from either a third- or fourth-place finish – as Carl Edwards was challenging him for third at the time – to a disappointing 12th.

“You know, it took almost the whole race to crack the top-10, so to be in the position we were in there at the end, I guess is a good thing,” Stewart said. “But when you’re in that position and you can’t capitalize, it’s pretty frustrating. Speeding on pit road didn’t exactly help the cause either.”

It wasn’t until lap 237 that Stewart cracked the top-10, and it was done via Grubb’s methodical work on making the Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet better handle Texas’ D-shaped layout. Stewart was as tenacious as ever behind the wheel, but with a blistering pace being set by the leaders during a period of long, green flag runs, making any headway toward the front was tough, but as Stewart and Grubb proved, not impossible.

Their run to the front began inauspiciously when after pitting on lap 206, the caution came out four laps later to put Stewart a lap down, but only temporarily. Since the No. 14 was the first car one lap down, Stewart earned his lap back via the lucky dog. Then before the race restarted, Grubb smartly called Stewart to pit road for four tires and fuel.

The benefit to this was that Stewart had fresher tires and more fuel than any of his competitors, all of whom had pitted earlier. This meant Stewart could go the distance on one more stop, while everyone else needed two – theoretically, at least, as the last lap proved one lap too many for Stewart’s 18-gallon fuel cell.

The 12th-place result actually bumped Stewart up one spot to 10th in the Sprint Cup championship standings. He now has 213 points and is 43 markers behind new series leader Edwards.

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Reserve Chevrolet Impala for SHR, finished 14th to drop one spot to seventh in the standings. He has 233 points, 23 points arrears Edwards

Matt Kenseth won the Samsung Mobile 500 to score his 19th career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his second at Texas. The 2003 Sprint Cup champion ended a 76-race winless streak dating back to Feb. 22, 2009 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

Clint Bowyer finished 8.315 seconds behind Kenseth in the runner-up spot, while Edwards, Greg Biffle and Paul Menard rounded out the top-five. Marcos Ambrose, David Ragan, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kurt Busch comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were five caution periods for 24 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the April 17 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at noon.

Photo by Chris Graythen - Getty Images for NASCAR

“We knew we were behind the eight ball with speed and handling and never could find the right balance in our U.S. Army Reserve Chevrolet,” said team crew chief Tony Gibson. “I feel we got everything and more out of our car tonight. Some days it’s not going to be there and you just hope you can squeeze out every ounce of possible performance. That is exactly what Ryan did — an awesome job to finish a respectable 14th.”

The finish dropped Newman one spot in the driver point standings — he is now seventh after seven races.

“This was a demanding race tonight,” stated Newman, who qualified 16th in the Army Reserve Chevy. “We worked a lot harder for a 14th-place finish than a top 10 or top five. This team is so much fun to be around because no one gives up and you know that no matter how bad things get you just work harder and some how you’re able to salvage a decent result. Our brave Soldiers do it every day and we better do it as well since it’s their team and we wear the Army colors.”

The race winner was Matt Kenseth. Rounding out the top-five in order were: Clint Bowyer, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Paul Menard.

The Sprint Cup Series heads to Alabama next Sunday (April 17) for the restrictor plate race at Talladega Superspeedway.