Stewart Grabs Top-10 Nationwide Race at Chicagoland
Tony Stewart missed a shift as he went up through the gears at the start of Friday night’s Dollar General 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. But even as the V-8 engine beneath the hood of his No. 20 Old Spice Toyota pegged the tachometer, Stewart stayed cool throughout the 200-lap contest to finish ninth and bring home his seventh top-10 effort in the eight Nationwide Series race he’s run this season.
“I don’t know what I did on the start. I missed a shift really bad and put some revs in that motor I never dreamed I would see,” said Stewart, who has never finished outside the top-10 at Chicagoland in three career Nationwide Series races at the 1.5-mile oval. “I’m surprised it made it, but that’s a testament to the engine department at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) and what a good job they’ve been doing. For a driver to make that bad of a mistake and hurt the motor in the way that I did, and for it to go ahead and run 300 miles and still get a top-10 out of it, I thought that was pretty remarkable. I take my hat off to those guys. They did a great job with it. I just wish I never made that mistake. It was a mistake I never could recover from all day.”
When Stewart missed a shift as the green flag waved, friend and fellow competitor Kevin Harvick had nowhere to go and rammed into Stewart’s rear bumper. The contact punched a hole in the bumper of the Old Spice machine and knocked its right-rear quarterpanel out and over the tire, creating a parachute-like effect as Stewart lapped the track at speed.
During a caution period on lap 64, Stewart brought his car to pit road where crew chief Dave Rogers directed his team to make a quick fix of the car’s aerodynamics. With a makeshift piece of sheetmetal pop-riveted onto the right-rear quarterpanel and rear bumper, along with some prodigious use of duct tape, Stewart’s No. 20 Old Spice Toyota was almost as good as new.
When the race restarted on lap 67, Stewart was in 18th-place, but he quickly made mincemeat of the cars ahead of him, vaulting into the top-10 on lap 72 and rising to as high as seventh by lap 75.
“I was fighting tight in the center of the corner and tight the last third of the corner. Basically, the last two-thirds of the corner I was tight,” Stewart said.
“A change that I thought was a good change yesterday (in practice) wasn’t so good tonight. I think I cost us a lot yesterday in practice. We made a change right before the end of the first practice and I’m not sure that was the right thing to do, and it was a change that I told the team I liked. I thought it was going to be better, but we just didn’t get a chance to run it long enough and I think it hurt us.”
Winning the Dollar General 300 was Stewart’s JGR teammate Kyle Busch. The driver of the No. 18 Toyota lead twice for a race-high 101 laps to score his fifth win of the season and the 16th of his Nationwide Series career
The win was also the 13th win of the season for JGR, tying the Nationwide Series record for most wins by a single organization. The previous record was set last year by Richard Childress Racing (RCR) via drivers Kevin Harvick (six wins), Jeff Burton (five wins) and Clint Bowyer (two wins), who accomplished the feat driving the Nos. 21, 29 and 2 Nationwide Series entries. RCR’s record-setting 13th win came in the season’s 35th and final race at Homestead (Fla.) Miami Speedway with Burton in the No. 29.
JGR’s record-tying win came in just the 20th race of this year’s 35-race schedule.
“It shows that it’s the entire organization. It’s not just the 20 team or just the 18 team,” said Stewart, who is responsible for five of JGR’s Nationwide Series wins in 2008. “Both of these teams have run well and won this year and been contenders everywhere they’ve gone. When you’re a driver, that’s the best case scenario, and all you can ask for is just to have that opportunity and know that when you show up at the track you got a shot to win every week. You know you’re a contender before the car even comes off the truck. You cherish years like this. Years like this don’t come along that often, and it’s a big honor to be a part of a year like this that has a lot of potential to be a monumental, record-setting year for this organization in this series.”
Stewart’s ninth-place effort kept the No. 20 car first in the Nationwide Series owner standings, with a 190-point lead over the No. 2 entry of RCR.
There were three caution periods for 15 laps, with 10 drivers failing to finish the event.
Denny Hamlin, driving for Braun Racing, finished 3.120 seconds behind Busch in the runner-up slot, while Brad Keselowski, Brian Vickers and David Reutimann secured the rest of the top-five. Greg Biffle, Bowyer, Burton, Stewart and rookie Landon Cassill comprised the remainder of the top-10.
The next event on the Nationwide Series schedule is the July 19 Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. The race starts at 9:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by ESPN2 beginning with its pre-race show at 9 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
Stewart returns to the No. 20 Old Spice Toyota Aug. 16 Carfax 250 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.