This is the question and answers from 2011 Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart from the Post Race press conference.
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER AND 2011 SPRINT CUP CHAMPION: WHAT ARE YOU THOUGHTS AND FEELING RIGHT NOW STANDING HERE AS A THREE TIME CHAMPION AND THE FIRST CAR OWNER CHAMPIONS THAT WE HAVE HAD IN ALMOST 20 YEARS? “After the way those first 109 laps went today, I could not be more proud. We had the problem early and had the hole in the nose, everybody on this Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy team did a great job of getting it back going, then we had the contact with (David) Reutimann and had to come back in and fix it again. I told them “Man, it is really going to make these guys mad when we come back twice and still kick their butt”. It was optimism and trying to keep the guys pumped up and then to come out here and actually do it, is awesome. It is an honor to be in the same category with Alan Kulwicki, but Alan did it all on his own and I have a great co-owner with Gene Haas and Joe Custer helped put all this together with Rick Hendrick and Just could not be more proud of our guys and our organization. Everybody Ryan Newman, my teammate, everybody on the US Army/ Tornados Chevy just an honor to be here tonight.”
YOU MADE A COUPLE OF MOVES OUT THERE THAT WERE AMAZING, TALK ABOUT THOSE MOVES?
“That shows how bad I wanted to win this thing. During the season you give guys a little more room than that, but when you are going for a championship, you can’t hold anything back. I was racing around good guys when I did that all night and we just could not leave it on the table, we had to go on the restarts. That was a strong suit for us all night. We took off that one restart I think 12th and came off the corner 5th or 6th on the outside. It is just an awesome night when your car drives that good and you can go get it done like that.”
THOSE LAST TWENTY LAPS CARL (EDWARDS) STARTING CLOSING IN, AND THEN YOU STARTED TO PULL AWAY; DID YOU DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT THEN? “Yea, I made sure that if we got in traffic that I had a little something in my back pocket to go with. We took care of it, we knew he was going to have to run hard to catch us and going to have to abuse his tires and if we just ran our pace, when we got to traffic or if he closed in anymore that we could go when we needed to.”
THE THIRD ONE AND I AM SURE THE MOST SPECIAL: “Yea and you owe me a six-pack for this too!”
TONY STEWART, NO. 14 OFFICE DEPOT/MOBIL 1 CHEVROLET – 2011 NASCAR SPRINT CUP DRIVER’S CHAMPION:
“I made sure that if we got in traffic that I had a little something in my back pocket to go with. We took care and we knew that he was going to run hard to catch us and was going to have to abuse his tires and if we just ran our pace that when we got to traffic or if he closed in anymore that we needed to go when we needed to.”
YOU ARE NOW IN THE SAME CATEGORY WITH GUYS LIKE DAVID PEARSON, DARRYL WALTRIP, CALE YARBOROUGH, LEE PETTY; ALL HALL OF FAMERS. YOU’RE A THREE-TIME CHAMPION. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? “That’s an honor. That’s an impressive group to be with. It’s just an honor to have the opportunity to be a part of that with those guys. Like I said, if it wasn’t for Gene Haas and Joe Custer and everybody at Haas Automation and Darian Grubb, we wouldn’t have had this opportunity. So I’m just very proud that I’ve got a group of guys that believed in us when we started this. Office Depot was the first company and then to have Mobil 1 come on board this year was just, we’re truly, truly honored.”
TWO OF NASCAR’S HEAVYWEIGHT’S GOING TOE TO TOE AND HEAD TO HEAD IN THE FINAL LAPS, AND YOU WON IT AND THE CHAMPIONSHIP. WHAT’S YOUR EMOTION RIGHT NOW? “Oh, thank the Lord for this one, buddy; man I’m telling you, it’s been a tough summer and a tough fall for us and you’ve got to believe in something; and the man upstairs held this rain off just long enough for us to get this job done. Thanks to all the fans who stuck it out all weekend here at Homestead. Oh, my! I don’t care how long it rains; I’m going to be up all night tonight! For Office Depot for Mobil 1 for Chevrolet for the U.S. Army for Tornados and Quicken Loans and GoDaddy and Ritz and Oreos and Coca-Cola; just everybody who is a part of the Stewart-Haas program; Mac Tools, we couldn’t do it without you guys. This is just unbelievable. We said all week we’d just go out and win the race and we didn’t have to worry about what he (Carl Edwards) did and that’s what we did. If this doesn’t go down as one of the greatest championship battles in history, I don’t know what will.”
IN THE FIRST 100 LAPS, YOU HAD TO GO FROM BACK TO FRONT TWICE. THREE AND FOUR-WIDE PASSES ON THE RESTARTS AND THEN THE GAMBLE ON FUEL. HOW CONCERNED WERE YOU THAT MAYBE THERE WERE JUST TOO MANY OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME AFTER ALL YOU WERE HAVING TO BATTLE TONIGHT? “There is one thing I learned when Gene Haas and Joe Custer gave us this opportunity and our good buddy Rick Hendrick and I couldn’t do it without you bud and everybody at Hendrick Engines and Chassis. And Darian Grubb, and everybody on this team has just dug deep and never given up and this is an awesome night. Eddie Jarvis and everybody at Stewart Haas Racing. I’ve got the best team in the business and it’s just awesome. I’m so grateful to be able to do this for Gene Haas because this man has invested a lot in this sport and for him to have the faith in me to do this; it takes a lot to do what he’s done and I’m glad I can get this done for him.”
THAT NO. 14 BELONGED TO YOUR HERO AND FRIEND, A.J. FOYT, WHO SAID YOU COULD TAKE THE NUMBER BUT DRIVE IT WITH THE TENACITY OF A TEXAN. TONIGHT YOU WON A CHAMPIONSHIP THE WAY HE WON THEM, UP ON THAT WHEEL AND REFUSING TO LOSE. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO TAKE THIS NUMBER, HIS NUMBER, BACK TO A CHAMPIONSHIP STATE? “I guarantee you I’ll probably talk to him tonight and he’s still going to tell me what I did wrong today (laughs). But I’m so proud. A.J. has always been one of my heroes and he’s been very supportive of this when we did this. When I asked him if it would be all right if I took his number, he was the one who gave me his blessing and it meant the world to me.”
WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN YOU SAW CARL EDWARDS BACK THERE, KNOWING HE WAS GOING TO DO EVERYTHING HE COULD TO TRY TO CATCH YOU? YOU HAD TO WIN THE RACE TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP?
“Those guys have done an awesome job all year and my buddy Ricky Stenhouse won the Nationwide Championship yesterday and Jack (Roush) got the Owner’s Championship so I didn’t feel bad taking this one away from them tonight. But he’s a great competitor and a great guy and we’ve been giving him a rough time this week. But it was all in an effort to do what we did tonight and win this championship. But it shows how classy a guy he is. He was the first one to me over there. And he said, ‘Promise me one thing that you’ll enjoy this and I hope it’s you and me in this position again next year.’ So that just shows how much class he’s got. He’s a great guy.”
Tony Stewart Post Race Interview is a post from: Awesome Race Fans
Awesome Race Fans
It is the night before the last race and I am feeling like a kid on Christmas eve! I am sure most of the fans out there are feeling the same way. For a change of pace I am going to keep this short because I want to hear from the NASCAR fans.
In the comments section I want you to fill out who will win Tony or Carl and why you think they will be the champion. I think that Tony will be the winner as he seems to be hungrier for the title and he is a past champion that can handle the pressure. My opinion isn’t important though, I want to hear from you.
Who Will Win the Nascar Championship Tony Stewart or Carl Edwards is a post from: Awesome Race Fans
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This past weekend at Texas Tony Stewart notched his fourth win in the Chase – it was an impressive feat considering that prior to the first Chase race in Chicago it had been 32 races since he’d last seen victory lane. Despite the late string of success, Stewart still finds himself second in the championship points standings. For some that’s inexplicable.
This fundamental question of what’s more important in the push to a championship is something that’s dogged NASCAR and motorsports for a long time. Do we want a champion who the had the best overall Chase, or the one who had the most wins? Often times they are not one and the same.
NASCAR, prior to this season, retooled the points in an effort to simplify and put slightly more emphasis on winning. The new system gave three extra points to the top finisher in addition to another point for leading a lap. NASCAR also gave the two teams outside of the top-10 but inside the top-20 with the most wins berths in the Chase.
The result of the points changes, while certainly an improvement and much easier to understand has been pretty insignificant this season. But is that a bad thing?
Championship success in NASCAR unlike other sports is not and never has been solely based on winning. It’s of course important, but consistency and good finishes are often the key. Consider Carl Edwards has an average finish of 9.7 on the season, with one win, and 5.6 in the Chase with no wins. Tony Stewart on the other hand is averaging a finish of 12.6 on the season and 7.3 in Chase. For Stewart that includes those four wins.
Carl has without a doubt put together the better, more consistent season. He’s even put together the better, more consistent Chase. And that’s why he finds himself leading the points.
I’ve always been of the belief that the best team should win the championship no matter how it gets there. In this case I want the team with the best Chase performance to win it all. Whether that means the championship winning team has the most wins or the most number of better finishes.
So what do you think should get the emphasis? Consistency? Or wins? Does NASCAR need to restructure the points again? Should Tony Stewart be leading the points?
Danica Patrick Shows off her new Sprint Cup Car at Stewart-Haas racing press conference.
Danica Patrick in Front of her Sprint Cup car
Today’s press confrence by Stewart-Hass racing unvieled the new Sprint Cup car that will be driven by Danica Patrick. The #10 GoDaddy car will be making limited starts with Danica driving as she will drive in the NASCAR Sprint Cup in 2012.
There was some fun banter between her and Tony Stewart and Tony mentioned how he understands the language Danica will bring over to the team because he came from Indy cup racing also.
Some tracks she mentioned were Bristol, Darlington, Atlanta, Chicago, and Daytona but she wasn’t exactly sure what races she will drive in as her main focus was the full time Nationwide series schedule.
Danica Patrick Unviels Her New Sprint Cup Car is a post from: Awesome Race Fans
Superspeedway racing tends to bring out the worst in everyone and this weekend in Talladega was no different. We had accusations of team orders, then subsequent denials, crew chiefs telling drivers to wreck on purpose, blatant cheating and complaints from everyone on track about the driving. There has been shock and outrage from the NASCAR press corps and the sport’s fan base. After all, who knew any of this went on?!
We’re Shocked Someone May Have Been Cheating
SBNation’s Jeff Gluck posted a story yesterday with audio from #48 crew chief Chad Knaus. Knaus is heard telling Jimmie Johnson to “crack the back of the car” if they win. Presumably they were beyond the allowed tolerances for whatever reason.
Knaus admitted the intention saying he was, “ Just being proactive, I just told Jimmie, ‘Look, man – we’ve just got to make sure there’s a tire mark or some type of visible damage.’ Just because cars do move when you race them like that.”
This ended up being the story du jour on Wednesday. It was unbelievable that a team could be working in the gray area – no one does that! Of course we already knew Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus were cheaters…
The Roush Team Orders
Jack Roush telling his drivers to stick with Ford teams!? Ridiculous.
This was the outrage of the weekend after word seeped out that Ford and Roush had, at the very least, made it clear that their teams should stick together at Talladega.
Ford and Roush both denied “orders” were issued, but it was pretty clear what the expectation was.
The way the talk was this weekend though you would have thought Roush was the only one that made this expectation clear. Of course anybody with two eyes and a basic understanding of the sport could see every other team on track had done the same, and why wouldn’t they? As I wrote on Monday, you draft with who brought you.
You Feel Double Crossed?
Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon were both beside themselves after the race Sunday. They had committed dancing partners who they felt abandoned, or sabotaged them in favor of teammates. It’s a cruel world.
Stewart told SB Nation:
“It’s a shame, because I’ve never seen more politics in a race go on in my life than what I saw this weekend…I think the car owners are to blame, the manufacturers are to blame and the fans don’t deserve that.“
Gordon echoed Stewart, saying after the race:
“I don’t think [Trevor Bayne] really ever had any intentions of pushing me, and if he did, the Ford folks told him to do something different. It’s politics, that’s part of it.”
As they say, it’s business, it’s not personal. And of all people I would expect Gordon and Stewart to know that. It’s true it’s unfortunate for the fans, it stinks for those who got the shaft, but the fact is it’s reality. Welcome to NASCAR boys.
Hey Trevor, Cool It With The Hyperbole
Speaking of distraught, Trevor Bayne. He’s young and apparently doesn’t know when to go light on the hyperbole. In an interview with SceneDaily he said:
“I was caught in the worst situation I could have ever been in.”
Devastating. I’ll bet there was some cringing at Roush after that interview.
He did go on to say that he wasn’t forced to switch drafting partners but felt it was his role as Kenseth’s teammate. Either way, nobody can fault him for making the decision he made – not even Jeff Gordon. He’s in a precarious position at Roush and needs to do what he has to do to keep the bosses happy and his butt in a ride.
A lesson though (not for our interests but his own) when you’re trying to make a good impression, toe the company line.
This whole week has left me shaking my head and rolling my eyes. While we don’t necessarily get to be witness to some of this stuff on a weekly basis, it happens that often. No one should be surprised about ANY of this. Consider this week a window into NASCAR reality.
Now on to Martinsville and a decidedly less controversial setting.
NASCAR® driver Tony Stewart will race a special “Honoring Our 9/11 Heroes” paint scheme on his No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet Impala during Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ race at Richmond International Raceway (Saturday, Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m. EDT, ABC).
As the world marks the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, Stewart’s red, white and blue scheme will honor the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives that day.
“Like so many others, September 11th, 2001, is a day I will remember forever,” Stewart said. “I’m humbled and honored to help pay tribute to the thousands of heroes we lost. Their stories and acts of courage live on, and we will never forget them or the families, friends and loved ones they left behind.”
Stewart’s “Honoring Our 9/11 Heroes” paint scheme will be produced as a Lionel NASCAR® Collectables diecast car for purchase. A portion of the proceeds will go to The Stephen Siller “Tunnel To The Towers” Foundation. The Foundation’s logo will be featured on Stewart’s car as part of the special scheme. Siller was a firefighter who lost his life on 9/11 after bravely running through the tunnel into the World Trade Center towers to rescue people who were trapped. His family created the Foundation in his memory, which works to support firefighters, children who have lost a parent and military who have been seriously injured in the line of duty.
Tony Stewart Special Paint Scheme is a post from: Awesome Race Fans
For Tony Stewart, Saturday night’s Cup race at Bristol was one to forget. After qualifying a dismal 42nd, Stewart rode around in the back all night and finished 28th. He was never higher than 28th on the leaderboard, and of the drivers that ran the entire race, Stewart had the seventh worst driver rating. It was his second finish outside the top 25 in his last three races. Smoke’s performance was almost surreal to witness, as watching the Office Depot Chevy fall three laps down in a race simply because it was too slow is not something we are used to seeing. Remarkably, Stewart is still clinging to the last spot into the Chase, but 2011 could go down in history as the worst of his career.
Through 24 races this season, Stewart has only two top five and nine top ten finishes. His average finish to this point (15.0) is the worst of his Cup career, and he remains winless. Keep in mind that Stewart has never had a winless Cup season in his career. He’s won as few as one and as many as six races every year going back to his rookie year in 1999.
With twelve races remaining, Stewart certainly has plenty of time to turn his year around. Smoke is known for being a much stronger competitor during the second half of the season and he’s got three career wins each at Atlanta and Richmond (our next two races). But as frustration mounts, especially with teammate Ryan Newman getting hot (five top tens in the last seven races), don’t expect Stewart to remain patient. This season’s dismissal of competition director Bobby Hutchens showed SHR isn’t afraid to make changes, and more are not out of the question.
Plenty of other notable drivers have struggled this season (see Jeff Burton), and I’m sure all would gladly trade places with Tony Stewart and his current hold on tenth place. But when expectations are as high as their are for Stewart, tenth place just isn’t good enough.
Sunday’s race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, dominated by fuel mileage, mistakes, and both Stewart Haas cars continued what has been a season of parity and added another contender to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Ryan Newman’s victory made him the 13th different winner after 19 races this season and gave him a one spot boost in the points. Perhaps more importantly, it gave Newman a win, further strengthening his chances at a spot in the Chase.
Past the halfway point of the season and with just seven races to go until the Chase begins, who gets in is still very fluid. At the top, Carl Edwards retook the points lead from Kyle Busch after Busch cut down a tire early on, and Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch made up spots. At the bottom, Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost one spot to ninth, while David Ragan and Kasey Kahne picked up two and three spots respectively to 13th and 14th (Kahne and Greg Biffle each have 523 points). Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin both have 570 points in 10th and 11th.
With wins being the ticket to the Chase outside the top-ten, there are currently four drivers who fit the bill and have been to victory lane – David Ragan, Brad Keselowski, Regan Smith and Trevor Bayne. Of those four, two have a realistic shot of making it into the requisite top-20.
The first of those two, David Ragan, is in good shape with his 13th place points position, but Brad Keselowski sits 23rd in the points – losing two spots this weekend. If Keselowski hopes to compete for a championship this year, he’s going to have to make up some ground – lucky for him there are only 95 points separating 23rd from 12th. With a good run over the next seven races that is certainly surmountable.
Competing with those two are the other chasers without a win, and those within the top-20 without a win. Considering the amount of parity there has been this season who makes it and who doesn’t is still wide open.
So what do you think? Who makes the Chase, who doesn’t? Feel free to sound off on the Championship Chase and the race at New Hampshire.