Tony Stewart Prepared To Steal the Show

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

The field for the 2015 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is set, and the 16 drivers competing for this year’s championship will garner the bulk of the attention for the next 10 weeks. That’s not to say, however, that the drivers outside the Chase aren’t prepared to steal some of the spotlight. 

Tony Stewart is one such driver, and he’s no stranger to stealing the show despite being out of title contention.

During the next 10 races, there is plenty of opportunity to make headlines. Recapturing the consistency that made him a three-time Sprint Cup champion and getting back to victory lane are at the top of the to-do list for the driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). Sunday’s MyAFibRisk.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois is the perfect place to start.

When it comes to racing at Chicagoland, no one has been better than Stewart. He leads all drivers at the track in the most important category – wins, with three.

Stewart started the winning at Chicagoland in 2004 – the fourth-ever Sprint Cup race at the 1.5-mile oval – when he led a race-high 160 laps, including the final 27 circuits. Three years later, he followed it up with yet another dominating performance, leading a total of 108 laps and scoring the win from the 19th starting spot.

It’s the most recent win on the outskirts of the Windy City, however, that is the most significant for Stewart, who won his series-leading third race at Chicagoland in 2011 after stretching his fuel mileage over the final 52 laps to earn the victory. While the win placed him in the lead of the Chicagoland wins category, it wound up being just the first of his five wins in 2011 – all of which came in the 10-race Chase. The 40th victory of Stewart’s Sprint Cup career sparked his drive to a third Sprint Cup title as he became just the second driver to win the championship after winning the first Chase race, joining Kurt Busch, who accomplished the feat in 2004.

And Stewart has done more than just win when it comes to racing at Chicagoland. In his 13 Sprint Cup starts at the track, the Indiana native has scored a pole, four top-twos, five top-threes, eight top-fives and has finished outside the top-10 only three times. His 434 laps led ranks him third in that category, just behind Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth with 577 and 437, respectively. Additionally, Stewart averages a 9.2 finish, has completed all but 11 of the 3,474 laps run in his 13 races there, and has only once failed to finish a race at Chicagoland – a 33rd-place result in the track’s inaugural event.

While Stewart has a proven record at Chicagoland, so too is his “Chaseless” record. Despite the disappointment of just missing the Chase in 2006, Stewart buckled down and went on a championship-worthy tear, winning three of the final 10 races that season, including back-to-back victories at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Stewart may be out of the running for the 2015 Sprint Cup title, but he’s never shied away from the spotlight and is always in contention when it comes to stealing the show.

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Speedway Digest Staff
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