I hate to brag, but for anyone who watched "Trackside" last Friday night on SPEED, I was the one who said Tony Stewart was peaking at the right time and would be heavily involved in this year's Chase. Well, Monday at Chicagoland he sent a pretty strong signal that while he might be distracted somewhat on the business side of things, when it comes to possibly winning another championship, well, he is all in.
In this sport today, you have to be 100 percent focused if you are going to be really good. In addition to the distraction of the business side, you also heard Tony talk about his frustration with the season to that point. Look, Tony is as fierce as a competitor as they come. They had some opportunities but couldn’t capitalize on them. For someone of Tony’s makeup, that’s really hard to take.
Just look at Bristol. What a horrible race for him and the team. That got all the pundits writing and talking about how there had to be something really wrong internally at Stewart-Haas Racing. There really wasn’t, though. I still maintain there were a lot of little things that kept them from being as successful as we are accustomed to seeing from Tony.
Look at all the pressure on them during the stretch run to the Chase. They were holding on to that 10th spot. Tony and the team handled everything thrown at them. They survived when others might have buckled under. They started running better there near the end and got some momentum going.
What better way to kick off a fresh start and championship hopes than coming out and winning the first race of the 2011 Chase. It has to be especially sweet for them because some folks are eating a bunch of crow now; they had written off the No. 14 as a pretender and not a contender.
How can you ignore what Tony has done with that organization since coming on board? He brought the leadership and winning attitude that place needed. Let’s be clear; Tony didn’t do it all by himself. He will be the first one to tell you that it was the people he put in place, his management team that really made that organization come to life. Other than Ryan Newman missing the Chase one time, Stewart-Haas Racing has always been there. That’s incredible for a relatively young organization. Trust me, there are a lot of established teams that can’t say that.
Folks have been trying recently to read more into Tony’s blowups on the radio or with the media. Tony doesn’t suffer fools. He really doesn’t enjoy stupid questions. It’s something that annoys him. He’s one of our top-echelon drivers. He demands a lot from those around him, but even more from himself. He expects to succeed, and when folks start to question him or his team’s desire, well, all you have done is insult the man. That insults what makes Tony Stewart who he is. So when Tony reaches the overload point of when he is fed up with the B.S. — well, Tony fires back. People want to focus on the bad and ignore the good because the bad makes a better story.
So that win Monday sent a lot of signals to a lot of folks. You also have to admit he wasn’t the only surprise at Chicagoland. Junior Nation had to be thrilled to pieces with Dale Jr.’s third-place finish right out of the box. I think we will have more surprises come our way as we go along.
Tony’s win says just because you didn’t have a hot hand coming into the Chase doesn’t mean you can’t win the Chase. To use a movie analogy, this could be a Rocky/Apollo Creed-type scenario. You have guys such as Tony and Dale Jr. who have been taking all the hits leading into the Chase and who finally might have reached a point of no more. They are digging in for the long haul. It’s going to be a 10-race war between these 12 men.
Who is standing at the end of the 10 races might surprise some folks. That’s the way our 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season has been up to the start of the Chase, so there is no reason to believe it won’t continue all the way to the checkered flag at Homestead in November.
