Stewart looks for win at his 'favorite' track

Credit: AP Photo

Tony Stewart has won two Trucks races and three Cup races, including his first, at Richmond.

By: Mike Mulhern | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: May 02, 2008

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will reach a dubious milestone at Richmond International Raceway this weekend — the two-year mark since his last victory on NASCAR's Cup tour.

He has come close to winning many times this season with new car owner Rick Hendrick that a win would seem to be in the cards. Earnhardt and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. will take their next step toward that goal this afternoon, during qualifying for Saturday night's Dan Lowry 400.

But Earnhardt isn't the only star who's dry right now. Neither Tony Stewart nor Jeff Gordon have won this season, either.

Stewart, in particular, would like to win Saturday's race — named as part of a fan contest run by Crown Royal — because his teammates are upstaging him. Stewart is a three-time winner at Richmond, a flat three-quarter-mile track, but hasn't won here since 2002, although he did run second last September.

So how can Stewart emphatically call this "my favorite track?"

"It's not 'one of them,'" he said, "it's the favorite track of mine on the circuit.

"I've won two Truck races and three Cup races. It's where I got my first win. And considering how it factors into the (championship) chase, it's definitely an important stop for us."

Stewart and other drivers have at times been quite critical of NASCAR's winged car this season. He ranted hard last weekend, then went out and dominated, until he was waylaid by a flat tire.

"These cars don't have near the downforce that our cars had last year," Stewart said. "With the limited amount of shock travel in the front, you're hitting 'bump-rubbers.' (Those are increasingly exotic and expensive rubber bumpers that the shock itself slams down onto at the end of each straightaway).

"Last year, we weren't allowed to have bump rubbers.

"So the car doesn't 'float' around the racetrack like it used to. It's a lot harsher ride."

On the plus side, however, the car has been remarkably stable, letting drivers beat and bang more than usual, without one sending another up into the wall.

"With these cars, you don't have the kinds of accidents where guys get turned around, because the bumpers (rear and front) on these cars match up so well," Stewart said. "If a guy checks up in front of you, and you run into him by accident, and the guy behind you hits you, you're not going to spin each other out.

"That's made short-track racing fun again. You're not worried about having to explain to somebody that whatever contact you had was an accident."

Richmond won't have all the racing action this weekend.

Rockingham — about 4½ hours south of Richmond International Raceway — will be back in business Sunday afternoon with an ARCA race, and Stewart will wave the green and crew chief Greg Zipadelli will drive the pace car.

The Rockingham mile, closed by NASCAR a few years ago because of weak crowds, has long been a favorite of drivers nevertheless, because speeds fall off during a fuel run, making for good racing.

Stewart's most vivid memory of the Rockingham track: "Probably a Busch series race back in 1998. Matt Kenseth and I were racing pretty hard, and both of us were looking for our first Busch win. I didn't know Matt, and he really didn't know me.

"I basically burned my tires off, and Matt did a better job of managing his tires for the length of the run. I didn't do a very good job of getting through turns 3 and 4 on the last corner of the last lap, and he gave me a little nudge. He could have hit me hard enough to crash me, but he didn't. He just barely nudged me up out of the way, and I ran second and he won.

"He was a gentleman about it … but he did what he had to do to win, and if the roles were reversed, I would have done the same thing."

■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.