Stewart Soldiers to 17th at Martinsville

Tony Stewart soldiered to a 17th-place finish in the STP 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. The result boosted him two spots in the championship point standings to 15th six races into the 36-race season.

Stewart started seventh in the 500-lap race around the rough-and-tumble .526-mile oval and kept his No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS among the top-10 for the first 75 laps. But a tight-handling condition in the center of the corners abetted a lack of forward bite off the corners, and it quickly metastasized as the race wore on, dropping Stewart outside the top-20 after 100 laps.

Stewart ran amid the teens until a pit stop on lap 221, where he was dinged by NASCAR for being too fast upon entering pit road. Stewart had to serve the penalty on the following lap by driving down pit lane at the mandated 30-mph speed limit, relinquishing track position.

For the restart on lap 226, Stewart was 26th, the last car on the lead lap.

Stewart rose to 22nd by the time the next caution came out on lap 251, and in an effort to gain serious track position, crew chief Chad Johnston opted to keep Stewart on the racetrack. Johnston was not alone in this thinking, as Jason Ratcliff, crew chief for Matt Kenseth, employed the same strategy. When the race restarted on lap 258, Kenseth and Stewart lined up 1-2.

Unfortunately, their time at the front was short-lived. Both drivers dropped like rocks, as their slightly-worn tires proved no match for the new Goodyears worn by their competitors. Stewart briefly fell a lap down, but quickly earned it back by getting the “lucky dog” following a caution on lap 316. Kenseth was ready to go a lap down before being saved by the caution.

For the restart on lap 323, Stewart was 24th, the last car on the lead lap. He and Johnston continued to tweak on the No. 14 Code 3 Associates/Mobil 1 Chevrolet during the remaining four caution periods. They made small gains, allowing Stewart to climb to 17th when the checkered flag waved.

TSC PR