By: Dustin Long – Motor Racing Network
DOVER, Del. – Tony Stewart and his team have worked for a day like Sunday, but he didn’t think it would come so soon.
Mired in the worst start to a season in his career, Stewart and his team struggled to cure their ills. Less than 24 hours before Sunday’s FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway, Stewart admitted he was prepared “for a long day.’’
It was – extended by the celebrating after he snapped a 30-race winless drought.
That wasn’t the day Stewart anticipated.
Even after testing at this track last month, Stewart had not found much speed this weekend and seemed set to score his sixth consecutive finish of 20th or worse at this 1-mile banked track.
Competition director Greg Zipadelli, crew chief Steve Addington and the team mulled several changes for Sunday’s race.
“This was not a little bit of a tweak here, a little bit of a tweak there,’’ Stewart said. “This was going and really sitting down and saying, “OK, we may have to abort everything that we are doing to try to come up with a new package.’’
Helped by a key pit call late, Stewart led the final three laps – the only laps he led Sunday – to earn his 48th career NASCAR Sprint Cup victory.
Stewart won a race where Jimmie Johnson was penalized for jumping the final restart, Juan Pablo Montoya seemed headed for his first oval win in Cup and Denny Hamlin suffered a setback in his bid to make the Chase despite missing four races earlier this season.
While Stewart celebrated, the news wasn’t as good for Brad Keselowski and his team. The front of Keselowki’s fifth-place car was found to be too low in post-race inspection. Any penalties are likely to be announced Tuesday. Crew chief Paul Wolfe, along with the team’s car chief and an engineer, remain on probation until Dec. 31 even with serving their suspension for a violation found in April at Texas.
Stewart admits he would have been happy with a 10th-place finish with the way his day was going. Track position was critical and Stewart didn’t have it for most of the 400-lap race.
The race changed when Hamlin blew a right front tire and hit the wall to bring out the race’s seventh and final caution on lap 378.
The contact damaged an upper control arm in Hamlin’s car, ending his race. He finished 34th. Hamlin fell two spots to 26th in the standings and is 74 points behind 20th place – the cutoff to be eligible for a Chase wildcard spot. He lost 21 points to 20th place Sunday.
Hamlin’s caution sent the leaders to pit road. Stewart entered pit road 10th. Addington called for a two-tire stop.
“That gave us the opportunity to run for the win,’’ Stewart said.
Stewart exited pit road fourth. Montoya led with Johnson second.
On the restart, Johnson shot by Montoya and had a sizable lead when he crossed the start/finish line. NASCAR penalized Johnson for jumping the restart and he had to pass through the pits, which dropped him a lap behind the leaders. Johnson finished 17th and said disagreed with the call, adding he tried to give the position back to Montoya.
With Johnson out of the way, Montoya was in the lead and Stewart lurking.
“The car was a little bit too much of a handful there at the end,’’ Montoya said. “I think it was too hot on the tires the run before, and our left tires were completely gone I think. Taking two really hurt us, but we had to for the track position. It’s one of those deals.’’
The two tires helped Stewart.
“Juan very easily could have made it very difficult and very complicated to race him,’’ Stewart said. “I’ve always liked Juan. I’ve always respected Juan. And I think he’s come a long way in this series about the mindset of this.’’
While the win helped Stewart’s mindset- he moved four spots to 16th in the standings – he is cautious about the coming weeks even with the series heading to Pocono where his team recently tested.
“This is not an organization that’s turned around in two weeks,’‘ he said. “We still have a lot of work to do to get it turned around. But the last two weeks, we’ve made progress, and last week was a big step and this week is another step. It gives Ryan (Newman) and Danica (Patrick) and I confidence as a driver. It gives the three crew chiefs confidence that we are making progress and we are making forward progress at this point.’’
