For the next three weeks the West Coast will serve as the pseudo headquarters for all things NASCAR. The “West Coast Swing” kicks off with this weekend’s Kobalt 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), is the 2012 winner.
While adding another trophy to his vast collection is top-of-mind for Stewart, so too is the big picture the West Coast Swing represents with back-to-back-to-back races at Las Vegas, Phoenix International Raceway and Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Beyond the logistical challenge of racing west of the Mississippi River for the better part of a month, these three tracks serve as a composite for the majority of tracks the Sprint Cup Series visits.
Las Vegas is a 1.5-mile intermediate oval, Phoenix is a flat and fast 1-mile oval, and Fontana is a sweeping, 2-mile oval. Run well at these tracks and chances are you’ll run well at many of the other tracks dotting the marathon-like Sprint Cup schedule that takes drivers deep into November with the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
With the Sprint Cup Series enjoying a strong balance of competition where nearly 30 driver/team combinations are capable of winning, the likelihood of a different winner for each of the three West Coast races is high. And while scoring the big trophy at the end of the race is always the goal, the intangible takeaway once the West Coast Swing is complete is where one stacks up against the competition. The real winners of the West will be able tote home more than just hardware. They’ll have confidence and knowledge that will carry them through spring and into summer and, ideally, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Stewart knows this well. The three-time Sprint Cup champion owns 48 career victories in NASCAR’s premiere series. Four of those wins have come at the tracks featured in the West Coast Swing: Las Vegas (2012), Phoenix (1999) and Fontana (October 2010 and March 2012). In 64 Sprint Cup starts across these three tracks, Stewart has amassed 21 top-five and 34 top-10 finishes while leading 1,369 laps.
Stewart will dig into that well of experience when Sprint Cup practice begins Friday morning at Las Vegas – a track that had thwarted the veteran racer for 13 years prior to him getting that long-sought victory in 2012.
Before that win, Las Vegas had been one of the most vexing tracks for Stewart. In those 13 starts before finally hoisting a trophy, Stewart earned five top-five and eight top-10 finishes. He had led laps, sat behind the wheel of dominant cars and been close enough to victory that he could almost taste the celebratory champagne – the most blatant example being the track’s 2011 Sprint Cup race.
Stewart dominated the 2011 edition of the Kobalt 400 where a win seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Stewart led four times for a race-high 163 laps and at one point opened up a four-second lead over his nearest pursuer. Foiling the effort, however, was a pit road penalty that sent him to the rear of the field late in the race. And while Stewart was able to maneuver through the pack to get back to second place, the penalty ultimately cost him what was a seemingly surefire victory.
Redemption was found one year later when Stewart started seventh at Las Vegas and led a race-high 127 laps en route to the win. While on paper he owned the prevailing performance, Stewart would later explain that he did not feel like he had the dominant car. The race would go on to be slowed by three different caution periods during the final 25 laps, placing Stewart in the unenviable position of having to hold off five-time Sprint Cup champion and four-time Las Vegas winner Jimmie Johnson throughout three late-race restarts. While some drivers may have buckled under the pressure of maintaining the race lead, Stewart thrived in the moment. He was simply not going to be denied. Stewart scored the win by pulling away to almost a half-second lead during the final four circuits around the 1.5-mile track.
Fast forward to 2015 where Stewart enters the Kobalt 400 with win a win, six top-five and nine top-10 finishes in 16 starts at Las Vegas. He’s led laps in eight of those 16 starts for a total of 482 laps led and has failed to finish a race at Las Vegas only once – 2008 when an early-race accident eliminated him from contention.
Typically, anything less than a win is unfulfilling. But on the West Coast Swing, front-running consistency validates the countless hours spent in the offseason. It could, in fact, be more valuable than a win. That is how the West will be won.
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