NASCAR Cup Series

Early results show Stewart-Haas is the real deal

Published May. 5, 2009 2:02 a.m. ET

foxsports

When Tony Stewart announced he was venturing from the secure confines of Joe Gibbs Racing to form his own team last year, pundits questioned his sanity.

Ten races into the season, It's Stewart who should be questioning the pundits as he and teammate Ryan Newman are both nestled into the top 10 in the standings.

For Newman, his debut at Daytona with Stewart-Haas Racing was disastrous as he tore up three cars in the course of four days. He opened with an engine failure nine laps into his first practice. Incidents in the Gatorade Duel qualifying race, first with Boris Said and later David Reutimann, knocked him to a 24th-place finish. And Happy Hour was anything but happy. Twenty-five minutes into the final practice for the biggest event of the year, Newman cut a tire, which caused his car to spin and run into his teammate/team owner.