STEWART SOLID AT TEXAS, FINISHES SIXTH
Despite Handling Issues, Office Depot/Old Spice Driver Scores 23rd Top-10
of 2009
The good news for Tony Stewart during Sunday's Dickies 500 NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth was that he
spent the majority of the 334-lap race comfortably in the top-10. The
bad news for the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet
Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) was that he had difficulty
cracking the top-three en route to a sixth-place finish, which is his
23rd top-10 finish of 2009.
"We missed it a little bit today and it was one of those changes
that we couldn't do on a regular pit stop, so we just kind of had
to work around it," Stewart said. "I'm really proud of
Darian (Grubb, crew chief) and these guys. They had good pit stops today
and Darian and I kept talking about what we thought we could do to make
the Office Depot/Old Spice Chevy better. I thought team-wise we had an
awesome day working together and making gains at it. We never said,
'Well, we just can't get it any better.' We kept
throwing things at it to try to make it better."
Stewart's car went from one end of the spectrum to the other during
the course of the 501-mile race, for in the beginning of the race, his
car was tight and by the end of the event, he was communicating to Grubb
that his car needed to be tightened up because it was loose.
Grubb and the Office Depot/Old Spice crew worked to find a solid balance
on the car throughout a series of wedge, tire pressure and track-bar
adjustments, and while the car was a top-10 mainstay, Stewart never could
find his way to the front of the field.
Despite not contenting for the victory, the No. 14 team locked up its
top-10 finish with a stellar pit stop with 18 laps to go. The race had
been caution-free since lap 213 and nearly every driver needed to pit for
fuel in the final 20 laps. Any issue with the stop, which included a
splash of fuel and two tires, could have dropped the team outside the
top-20.
As they've done all year, the Office Depot/Old Spice crew delivered
a flawless stop and Stewart brought home his 10th top-10 finish in 16
career Sprint Cup starts at Texas.
Stewart's teammate, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas
Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for SHR, finished 12th to score
his 16th top-12 finish of 2009.
Kurt Busch stretched his fuel mileage and beat Denny Hamlin by 25.686
seconds to win the Dickies 500 and score his 20th career Sprint Cup
victory, his second of the season and his first at Texas.
Matt Kenseth finished third, while Mark Martin and Kevin Harvick rounded
out the top-five. Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and
A.J. Allmendinger comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were five caution periods for 26 laps, with six drivers failing to
finish the 334-lap race.
Both SHR drivers are represented in this year's Chase for the
Championship. Stewart remained fifth in the standings and is now 178
points behind Chase leader Jimmie Johnson, who was involved in a lap
three accident and finished 38th. Newman fell one spot to ninth and is
324 markers out of first.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Nov. 15 Checker
O'Reilly Auto Parts 500k at Phoenix International Raceway. The
season's penultimate race starts at 3:15 p.m. EST with live
coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 2:30 p.m.
-credit: shr
