A runner-up finish and back- to-back victories in his past three races have propelled Tony Stewart from 10th to third in the Nextel Cup standings.
The 2002 series champion hopes to capture his second consecutive victory at Chicagoland Speedway, host of Sunday’s Sheetrock 400.
“As good as we feel, we still know that we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Stewart told reporters in Daytona Beach, Fla., after winning Saturday’s Pepsi 400. “We go to Chicago, and this is the area where Roush (Racing) and Hendrick (Motorsports) have been dominant, so we’ve got to be on the top of our game.”
Stewart, who trails series leader and Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson by 136 points and Roush driver Greg Biffle by 63 points, began his three-race tear with a second-place finish June 19 at Michigan. He won the June 26 road race in Sonoma, Calif., and was dominating in Daytona’s summer classic, leading 151 of 160 laps.
“It’s great to have these two wins these last two weeks, but we’ve got to go still find that part of the equation that they’ve found,” Stewart said of the combined nine full-time entries from Roush and Hendrick.
Look out for Nemechek
Although Roush and Hendrick drivers have combined to win this year’s four races at 1.5-mile tracks, Joe Nemechek of MB2 Motorsports will be one of the favorites at Chicago.
Chicagoland, a 1.5-mile facility owned by International Speedway Corp., is the sister track to Kansas Speedway, where Nemechek made history in October by winning the Cup pole, the Busch race and the Cup race.
Since, Nemechek and his fellow Cup drivers have not competed at one of ISC’s newer 1.5-mile tracks.
“They’re not quite identical twins, but very similar,” Nemechek said in a release. “For the Army team that’s obviously good news, and I will keep telling myself this weekend that I am in Kansas.”
Lucky 13
Nine races remain until the 10-race Chase for the Championship begins Sept. 18 at New Hampshire. But unlike last year, more than 10 drivers are looking to qualify for the playoff-style cut.
If the Chase began today, 13 drivers would make the cut, the final three for being within 400 points of Johnson, the leader. Last year, the inaugural Chase field featured only 10 drivers.
Jeremy Mayfield, Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon rank 11th, 12th and 13th in the standings. Gordon, a four-time series champion, is 396 points behind his Hendrick teammate.
Last year, Mayfield had to win the final race before the cut to qualify for the 10th and final Chase position.
“We feel like right now we are in better shape than we were last year, but we still have to build ourselves a cushion to where we don’t have to go through what we did,” Mayfield said in a teleconference.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
