Tony Stewart knew from a very young age he wanted to drive racecars. Whether it was an innate yearning or an interest fostered through the support of his parents is a classic nature versus nurture debate best left to the humanities experts. All that mattered is a young Stewart enjoyed the thrill of competition and felt the need for speed.
That thirst for speed will be quenched this weekend at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, site of the Quicken Loans 400. In his No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart will turn laps around the 2-mile oval in excess of 200 mph.
Fast has been the most common adjective used to describe Michigan since it was repaved in time for the 2012 season. Changes to the track’s surface combined with changes to the cars have resulted in the track qualifying record being broken on two occasions – first by Marcos Ambrose in June 2012 with a lap of 35.426 seconds at 203.241 mph and again last August when Joey Logano turned a lap of 35.303 seconds at 203.949 mph.
Coinciding with the increase in speed has been an escalation in the number of caution periods. In the four races prior to the repaving project, the yellow flag was displayed a total of 19 times for 78 laps. The caution rate since 2012 has increased nearly 50 percent, with 34 caution periods slowing the last four races for a total of 146 laps.
While the additional speed has proven problematic for some, Stewart has thrived. Aside from an engine failure during the track’s August 2012 race, Stewart has finished fifth or better since the repaving project, with a runner-up finish in June 2012 being his best effort.
A closer look at Stewart’s record at Michigan reveals his ability to navigate the track’s fast, sweeping confines has, in fact, been on display since he first wheeled a Sprint Cup car on the D-shaped layout in June 1999.
Stewart finished a respectable ninth in his Michigan debut as a Sprint Cup rookie in 1999. Had he not run out of gas at the finish of the race, he likely would’ve earned a top-five. When the series returned to Michigan two months later, Stewart overcame a 37th-place qualifying effort to finish third. He would go on to best that top-five effort the following June when he raced to his lone Michigan win – an event in which he started 28th and rallied to lead twice for a total of 13 laps.
Those first four trips to the Irish Hills set the tone for the complementary relationship that not only has existed during the course of Stewart’s Sprint Cup career, but has became even more pronounced since 2009 when Stewart joined Gene Haas as a co-owner of SHR. Stewart has finished in the top-10 at every Michigan race since SHR’s inception of SHR but for two events – a 17th-place result in the August 2009 race and a 32nd-place finish in the August 2012 race, the result of the aforementioned engine failure. Stewart has 29 career starts at Michigan with a win, 12 top-fives and 20 top-10s.
As has been the case through much of his career, Stewart tends to turn up the heat the same time NASCAR reaches its summer stretch. Of his 48 career Sprint Cup victories, almost half (23) have been scored in June July and August. It’s a trend Stewart eyes this weekend at Michigan as he seeks his first win of the 2014 season.
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