Tony Stewart caps a season to remember with the title

Sterling Marlin's out-of-car experience late in the Daytona 500 cost him several positions.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. November 23, 2002; Jenna Fryer writing for the AP reported that this season began with Sterling Marlin fixing his fender and Tony Stewart's engine going up in smoke.

It ended with doctors sidelining Marlin, and Stewart nearly self-destructing on the way to his first Winston Cup title.

In between, Jeff Gordon took a detour in his storybook life, and Ricky Rudd starred in chapter after chapter of his own thrilling drama.

A fresh crop of kids flexed their muscles on the track and in the advertising market, while some veterans struggled to find both Victory Lane and television time.

After surviving a near-fatal plane crash, Jack Roush won the battle to get his cars back up front - then lost yet another fight with NASCAR.

And the sanctioning body showed both its power and a knack for making bad decisions.

Unlike last year, when Dale Earnhardt's death in the Daytona 500 cast a dark cloud over NASCAR, this year will be remembered for all the right reasons: The on-track action and the characters who make the sport.

It all started in February at the Daytona 500, a race Stewart was favored to win. But his motor blew on the second lap and he spent the rest of the day driving back to North Carolina, alone with his thoughts and the grim reality that he'd have to become the first driver to go from worst to first in one season.

Marlin, meanwhile, had a chance to win Daytona, but with a crumpled fender pressed against his tire, his team knew it was only a matter of time before it blew.

So he got out of his car during a red-flag and tried to pull away the sheet metal. NASCAR said no, Marlin lost his shot at the win, and Ward Burton went on to the victory.

A week later, NASCAR showed its inconsistency by refusing to follow the Daytona precedent and not red-flagging the race at Rockingham - denying Marlin a chance to run for the win.

The very next week, Marlin earned his first victory of the season in Las Vegas - a win was aided by another NASCAR gaffe when Marlin was not penalized for speeding on pit road because of miscommunication with the officials.

Marlin settled into first in the points standings and stayed there for 25 consecutive weeks. But his season was derailed after a September wreck at Kansas left him with a broken vertebra in his neck and an order to stay out of his car.

"Yeah, we'd like to think we could have got the title this year," Marlin said. "But it's not the way it played out. We'll just be back next year and give it another go."

One hauler over from Marlin's was the new Jeff Gordon.

The four-time Winston Cup champion announced in March he and his wife, Brooke, were divorcing seven years of a high profile marriage.

It led to a shakeup in personality for the image-conscience Gordon. He was suddenly fun, accessible - a regular guy. By the time he showed up at Sunday's season finale with five-days' growth of beard on his face, few even raised an eyebrow.

He also went a career-high 31 races without a victory, but rallied to win three races and finish fourth in the points.

"I'm pretty proud of the effort that was put out with all the circumstances like the pressure of not winning on us all year long, and with my personal issues," Gordon said.

Meanwhile, Rudd kept the NASCAR world entertained all summer with an ongoing saga. He was the first of the veteran drivers to complain about TV attention being shifted away from the graybeards and onto the "Young Guns."

He was so irritated that he hinted he might retire.

Instead, he played a back-and-forth game with car owner Robert Yates full of accusations and allegations. There even was a fistfight with crew chief Michael "Fatback" McSwain.

By the time an engine builder punched Rudd in the eye after a September race at Richmond, Rudd and Yates had already announced their split - he was trading with Elliott Sadler and would drive for The Wood Brothers in 2003.

Oh, by the way, he also broke NASCAR's Iron Man record with 680 consecutive starts.

Perhaps Rudd's gripes about the Young Guns were true. After all, rookies Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson certainly proved the kids could race by combining for four victories and 11 poles.

They were both in contention for the championship at one point - Johnson became the first rookie in history to lead the standings - and had a stirring battle for Rookie of the Year. Newman edged Johnson for that title, but Johnson beat him in the standings, finishing one spot ahead of Newman in fifth place.

Jamie McMurray, not even a NASCAR rookie yet, also set a Winston Cup record by winning in his second race as Marlin's replacement.

Kevin Harvick showed how temperamental the newcomers could be when his bad behavior led NASCAR to park him in March at Martinsville. It was an unprecedented penalty, and ultimately was the hard lesson the brash driver had needed.

Still, Kurt Busch proved the kids wouldn't be pushed around, bumping Jimmy Spencer out of his way in Bristol for his first career victory. It started a season-long feud between the two - Busch called Spencer a "decrepit old has-been" - that only quieted after they were both called to the NASCAR hauler.

Busch closed the season as the hottest driver by winning three more times in the final five races, proving Roush Racing was back on track after a horrible 2001 season.

It was a little consolation to Roush, who felt wronged again when NASCAR docked driver Mark Martin 25 points for using an illegal spring. The deduction of points was adopted midway through the season, and Roush feared the new policy would rob Martin of a chance at his first title.

He appealed and lost, but the 25 points didn't matter in the end. Stewart beat Martin by 38.

Still, Roush was lucky to even see the end of the season. He could have died when the small plane he was piloting crashed into an Alabama lake, but a retired Marine dived into the water and pulled him out.

Stewart's battle was with his own demons.

He punched a photographer, then admitted he needed help to control his temper. He was accused of shoving an EMT worker, and a Tennessee grand jury heard a complaint that he pushed a fan, although refused to indict him.

Stewart was fined a total of $60,000, finished a second-straight season on probation, and seemed to make enemies everywhere he went.

It didn't matter, though, when he was in the race car, tearing up the track for three wins and the championship. When it came to driving, nobody was better.

"Tony is really, really, really a great racer," driver Jeff Burton said. " A lot of time has been spent this year talking about Tony's negatives ¼ but they are the deserving champions, they were the fastest and most consistent throughout the year."

No one knows what kind of champion Stewart will make, not even him. The only certainty is that he'll keep on racing.

"I made my father a promise when I was 8 years old that when I don't enjoy what I'm doing, then I'd quit doing it," he said. "If there comes a day that I truly don't enjoy it anymore, then I'll quit.

"There is a lot of stuff that happened to us this year and I can't imagine any year being worse. But I'm hoping and praying that I got the worst of it behind us."