TONY STEWART
Going For One More Spot at The Glen
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (Aug. 4, 2009) -- They were racing on asphalt instead of
dirt. Their cars had roofs. All four of their wheels were covered by
fenders. And for every left turn they made, they also had to turn
right. Yet here they were, Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne -- two former
stalwarts of the U.S. Auto Club (USAC) who were about as far away as they
could get from the dirt tracks and open-wheel Midget, Sprint and Silver
Crown cars they used to catapult themselves into the elite NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series -- battling for the win on the road course at Infineon Raceway
in Sonoma, Calif.
Stewart had proven himself long ago as a guy who could race stock cars on
road courses. His first road course win came at Sonoma in 2001 and he
has since notched three other road course wins and a total of 10 top-twos
in 21 career Sprint Cup starts on the series' two road courses -- Sonoma
and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, site of Sunday's Heluva Good! at
The Glen.
Kahne, meanwhile, was more of a surprise. The sixth-year Sprint Cup
driver had never finished better than 14th in 10 road course starts, but
he was able to at least match Stewart lap for lap, and in the end, beat
him, even during a nail-biting string of late-race restarts where Stewart
was breathing down his neck.
It was a breakthrough win for Kahne and another strong run for Stewart,
who wound up second. While Stewart was genuinely happy for his USAC
wingman, he left the twists and turns of Sonoma wanting more.
Stewart looks forward to the two road course events on the 36-race Sprint
Cup schedule. They break up the monotony of oval racing, and the
different discipline allows for a different technique -- one the driver
of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas
Racing has honed to near perfection.
As Stewart returns to road course racing with this weekend's stop at
Watkins Glen, he sees opportunity. And why shouldn't he? The two-time
Sprint Cup champion has not finished worse than second in his last five
Sprint Cup starts at the 11-turn, 2.45-mile layout in upstate New York.
And in 10 career Sprint Cup starts at The Glen, he has an average finish
of 5.7.
Thwarted for the win six races ago at Sonoma, Stewart is intent on
finishing one spot higher in the final road course race of the 2009
season.
TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet
Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing:
You had a pretty impressive battle with Kasey Kahne for the win in June
at Sonoma. Kahne proved victorious, and his win surprised a lot of
people because he hadn't really shown that kind of performance in past
road course races. Did he surprise you as well?
"I was surprised because I don't remember him in the past being a big
road course racer. I don't remember ever having to race him at a road
course race. But man, he was good. We ran the whole race together. We
seemed to be on the same pit sequence during the whole day. Whether I
could see him in front of me or in the mirror, we were always right
around each other. When we were at the back of the pack and had tires
and had to drive through the field, we were matching each other lap for
lap At the end it became a shootout between us and it wasn't surprising
at that point of the day, but during the day with him running the pace he
was running, I wasn't used to seeing that from him. But he did it
consistently all day, and obviously he's picked it up and has got it
figured out."
Toward the end of the Sonoma race it was restart after restart. With the
new double-file restarts, did they help or hinder you in your attempt to
get past Kahne?
"He kept picking the right-side lane on the restarts, which was very
smart. He made the right decision, where most of the guys were picking
the left-side lane during the day. He was really the only guy that I
remember that actually picked the right side, especially when it
counted. He made the most of it, because it got us hung on the outside.
We just kept the pressure on him and tried to force him into a mistake
and he never made it. He just was very composed and solid there to where
on all of those restarts we couldn't get him to bobble."
Were the double-file restarts any different at Sonoma, because back in
the day you would've had lap-down cars alongside the leaders? And will
the double-file restarts present any issues at Watkins Glen?
"At Sonoma, you don't get a lot of lapped traffic, so it wasn't ever
really a factor, and it never really was at Watkins Glen. The
double-file restarts will be more conducive at Watkins Glen than they
were at Sonoma. Turn one doesn't seem to be quite as line sensitive.
You can run both lines and still be in good shape."
Knowing how strong you were at Sonoma despite finishing second, can
things that you learned at Sonoma carryover to Watkins Glen, especially
since you were able to log another test at Virginia International Raceway
(VIR) in preparation for Watkins Glen?
"We tried a package I wasn't familiar with at Sonoma. It was good
enough to run second, but it wasn't good enough to win. So, we went and
tested at VIR to try and sort a couple of things out. I was very pleased
with our run there at Sonoma. We always run well there and we always run
well at Watkins Glen, and after a second-place run at Sonoma, we're
pretty confident and excited about going to Watkins Glen and getting that
one extra spot."
You've won six road course races altogether -- two at Sonoma and four at
The Glen. Does success at one venue transfer to the other?
"The two tracks, while both road courses, are still pretty different.
At Watkins Glen you don't have to finesse the throttle near as much as
you do at Sonoma. When you get the car turned, you can get in the gas
and then stay in the gas. Watkins Glen is much faster than Sonoma. I
think there are the same amount of passing opportunities, but because of
the speeds that you're able to run at The Glen, brakes become a much
bigger factor than I think they are at Sonoma. It's pretty much a
horsepower track. It's horsepower and aerodynamics just like it is
anywhere else we go. It just happens to be in the form of a road
course. Sonoma has a lot less grip in the racetrack. You have to really
be careful with the throttle there, and that puts more of the race in the
driver's hands. If anything, Sonoma is probably more technical than
Watkins Glen because there's hardly any time where you get a chance to
rest. You're always either shifting or accelerating or braking or
turning or doing something. At Watkins Glen, at least on the
frontstretch and on the backstretch, there are three straightaways where
you get a little bit of time to take a break. Watkins Glen seems to be
more in the crew's hands and the engine builder's hands. Obviously,
there's still a job that I need to do in the racecar, but I'm relying
on the equipment and the crew a lot more at Watkins Glen."
With all those wins, do you feel you have a better opportunity to win on
a road course than you do at some of the oval tracks?
"It's definitely a place I feel like we've got the potential to win,
even before we make a single lap."
What is it about you and road courses? Because it's such a different
discipline, do you go in and just throw caution to the wind, or is it a
little more involved than that?
"I've just always liked it. I won a national championship racing
go-karts on road courses, so the concept of what it took to win races on
road courses wasn't totally unknown to me, but driving cars with
suspension, and definitely driving cars that you had to shift, that's
something that came relatively easy to me, and still comes easy to me as
far as knowing how to synchronize the gears without having to use the
help of the clutch. Even in the sports cars that I've driven with guys
who have driven road courses all their life, I've gotten out of the car
and the crew has torn the gearboxes apart and said that the dog rings in
my transmission look better than when those guys are done with a
transmission. There's just something about the shifting side of it
that's been really natural to me, and it's fun. I like having a
different discipline to race on. I like having the opportunity to do
something twice a year that we don't get a shot at doing very often. I
take the same amount of pride that someone like Ron Fellows or Scott
Pruett does when they come into a road course race. I take that same
pride in running well that they do in these cars. I don't look at it
from the standpoint that it's a negative weekend. I look at it as a
positive, that it's something we enjoy and I feel like that gives us a
leg up on most of the guys we race with at these tracks."
How much do you look forward to racing on the road courses?
"I love the two road courses. It's nice because it kind of breaks up
the monotony of the season. We do the same thing every week and it's
nice to have two road course races thrown in the mix that give us a
chance to do something a little bit off-center for all of us. It's kind
of like the 'Prelude' with no dirt added, unless you drive off, which a
lot of us do. We still get a dirt aspect in it, I guess."
(The "Prelude" is the Sept. 9 Gillette Young Guns Prelude to the Dream,
an all-star dirt late model race featuring many of NASCAR's top drivers
at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, a half-mile clay oval owned by
Stewart. Televised live on HBO Pay-Per-View, the event has raised nearly
$2 million for charity. This year's event will benefit four
military-themed charities -- Wounded Warrior Project, Intrepid Fallen
Heroes Fund, Operation Homefront and Fisher House. -- Ed.)
-credit: shr
