Tony Stewart: Where There's Smoke

I have to admit, when Tony Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing two years ago to start his own team, I had my doubts that he’d make it a success. How could he manage a two-car operation and drive? 

Well, he won some races even if he wasn’t a threat to win a championship. 

And then this year, he was abysmal, limping into NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Chase with no wins and going in the wrong direction. Even Stewart admitted he didn’t think much of their chances, saying he didn’t think they even belonged in the Chase. After the season he had, and at over forty years old, I had to agree, even as I wondered if the fire inside him had been extinguished. 

But then he promptly went out and won the first two races of the Chase, at Chicago and Loudon. Then, after some setbacks at Dover, Kansas, Charlotte and Talladega, he went out and won at Martinsville and Texas, before finishing third at Phoenix. 

However, while Stewart was winning four of nine races, Carl Edwards was himself busy, finishing no worse than eleventh in any of the Chase races. 

And Sunday, they headed into the final race of the season at Homestead, with Edwards holding a mere three-point edge over Stewart. 

Edwards started on the pole; Stewart back in the field. But those of us who follow NASCAR understand that it’s not where one starts a race that matters. It’s where one finishes. 

Stewart moved up quickly, but sustained damage to his grill and, after a lengthy pit stop under caution, restarted fortieth. 

Again he moved up steadily, making his way into the top thirty, before the next pit stop and more repairs sent him again to the back. 

While Edwards made it look easy, leading lap after lap and never out of the top ten. 

But Stewart never gave up and he never let his crew down. He took risks worthy of a champion, passing cars low and high. He rewarded their hard work and by the time the rain came, bringing out the red flag, he’d made his way back into the top ten. 

This was a race for the championship worthy of a true champion, and Stewart was showing us he had the stuff. Success rarely comes without effort. Success is most gratifying when it doesn’t come easy. 

And Stewart’s drive for his third championship was fraught with setbacks, early and late. Two late slow pit stops lost him valuable track space; but he was his crew’s biggest cheerleader, telling them over the radio he wasn’t finished yet and that the competition—Edwards—was in for a surprise. 

Yes, it was a race for the ages, a race that took more than five hours to complete as even the weather conspired to delay the crowning of the champion for 2011. 

When Stewart’s crew chief, Darien Grubb, left him out on old tires to play the fuel strategy late, I groaned, thinking even Grubb was conspiring to keep Stewart from winning; but shortly after Stewart’s final pit stop, the rain arrived. 

Edwards had to stop and he came out in sixth place, behind Stewart, who was in fourth. 

The rain was light and didn’t force a red flag, and when the green flew again, the race was on, with both cars having enough fuel to go the distance. 

Stewart quickly grabbed the lead and Edwards slipped into second place. 

For the final twenty laps Stewart and Edwards paced each other, each turning laps within a few hundredths of a second of the other. 

Edwards tried everything he knew to close the gap; but Stewart kept him back, between a second and a second and a half behind him. 

When the checkered flag fell, the improbable had happened: Stewart and Edwards had driven to a virtual tie—each had amassed 2,400 points. 

Yet we, in America, won’t settle for equality. In all sports we demand a clear-cut winner and NASCAR is no different. The first tie-breaker is number of wins in the Chase and Stewart had the edge with five wins to Edwards' one. 

Edwards showed class, being the first to congratulate Stewart, and I wondered if Stewart might let us know what was said as Edwards leaned into Stewart’s car, and Stewart didn’t disappoint. 

“He told me to promise him I’d enjoy this and offered his wish that we’d find ourselves in identical circumstances next year.” 

A class act in the aftermath of bitter disappointment. 

Yet Edwards has no cause to hang his head, even as I understand the disappointment won’t settle in until tomorrow and the days ahead: what could’ve been.

 In truth, neither driver deserved to lose; each competed at the highest level. 

Jimmy Johnson, who was never a factor in this year’s Chase, may have won the last five championships; but it’s this Chase, and the final race at Homestead in particular, that will be the most memorable for me. 

Congratulations, Smoke, for a great Chase of the Cup. See you next season at Daytona.