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Sprint Cup - Stewart Pocono Race Preview


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KANNAPOLIS, Aug. 2, 2012: When the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series left Pocono (Pa.) Raceway last August, crews immediately began ripping up the decades-old pavement so that fresh, new asphalt would greet drivers when the series returned to the quirky 2.5-mile triangle in June 2012.

Had one asked Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, if he wanted to see new pavement at the venerable facility, he probably would’ve said no and instead asked track officials to just rip up the old pavement and simply leave the dirt surface behind.

Stewart has thrived on dirt this year, especially of late. The three-time and reigning Sprint Cup champion has offset his time in the fendered-world of stock cars by also competing in the rough-and-tumble open-wheel ranks of dirt Sprint Car racing. And just as Stewart has succeeded in NASCAR, which his 47 career Sprint Cup wins attest, he’s simultaneously succeeding in a totally different racing environment.

The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series boasts great drivers who compete on tight-and-fast bullrings with high-horsepower Sprint Cars that constantly slide on the track’s dirt surface. Three times in the span of four days, Stewart displayed his master of this discipline by winning in a Sprint Car.

On the eve of the Brickyard 400, Stewart won the National Racing Alliance (NRA) Sprint Invaders 360 Winged Sprint Car Series event at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. And after finishing 10th in last Sunday’s Brickyard 400, Stewart ventured into Canada and kept right on winning. He won a 360 Winged Sprint Car race Monday night at Ohsweken Speedway in Ontario and then grabbed some more northern exposure for sponsors Office Depot and Mobil 1 by scoring his third career World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature win Tuesday night at Ohsweken.

Stewart has six Sprint Car wins in all this season, dating back to early February before the NASCAR season even began. It started with an All-Star Circuit of Champions 410 Winged Sprint Car race on Feb. 11 at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga. Stewart then won an American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) Midwest Region 360 Winged Sprint Car race on April 21 at Eagle (Neb.) Raceway. And he scored his second career World of Outlaws win July 17 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.

That versatility will suit Stewart well at Pocono, despite its dirt having been covered with pavement. While new asphalt encompassing its 2.5-miles, Pocono’s triangular layout remains tricky.

The track, designed by two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Rodger Ward, has three different corners, each modeled after a different track. Turn one, which is banked at 14 degrees, is modeled after the now-closed Trenton (N.J.) Speedway. Turn two, banked at eight degrees, is a nod to the turns at Indianapolis. And turn three, banked at six degrees, is modeled after the corners at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis.

It’s a unique design that has always been a challenge for drivers and mechanics alike as they attempt to find the fastest way around the “Tricky Triangle” in search of victory lane.

But just as Stewart has found the right combination to win at tracks where the dirt surface changes by the minute, he has seemingly always adapted to Pocono’s nuances.

In 27 career Sprint Cup starts at Pocono, Stewart has earned two poles, scored two wins and racked up eight top-threes, 10 top-fives and 19 top-10s while leading a total of 156 laps.

Stewart is obviously well-schooled at Pocono, which makes the paint scheme on his No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet even more appropriate. The signature red and black of his No. 14 machine has instead been replaced by white with a montage of back-to-school supplies – all of which can be found at Office Depot. 3M™, Lenovo®, Elmer’s® and Monster® Headphones & Speakers are Office Depot partners with products featured on the car, including everything from notebooks, a laptop and headphones, to pens, pencils and Post-It notes showcase the variety of school supplies and technology that one’s child needs to be successful in the classroom.

“We always get excited about sporting a new back-to-school paint scheme on our No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy,” Stewart said. “The paint scheme is a fun way to remind parents and students that Office Depot provides one-stop, back-to-school shopping. From elementary school to college, Office Depot has the supplies that will help students start the new school year off right.”

And as Stewart heads back to Pocono, three Sprint Car wins in the span of four days means that he’ll start the weekend off right, where in Sprint Cup, Stewart plans to improve upon the third-place finish he earned there just two months ago.

TONY STEWART, Driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 “Back-to-School” Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing:

What did you think of the June race at Pocono – the first since the track was repaved?

“It actually turned out to be a lot racier then I thought it would be. The racing was really, really good. Guys could pass, and that’s something you don’t normally see at a new racetrack, especially Pocono, which has historically been a one-lane racetrack. So to see it in a place like that, where the groves have always been so narrow, to be that racy right off the bat was pretty impressive.

“It was still hard to pass, but it kind of normally is. It seemed like at the end of the race it got pretty racy there and guys could move around a little bit. All in all, for a freshly paved track, it was a pretty good race.

“It was frustrating the first half of the race until guys got their cars better. You really just kind of got stuck, and then it seemed like the longer the race went, the easier it got to pass toward the end.

“The restarts were insane, but you had to take full advantage of them. That was the biggest opportunity to make gains and, definitely, big gains. You could get three or four at a time if somebody got bottled up a little bit. Had to be on your toes for the restarts, for sure.”

You have three wins so far this season, which puts you in a three-way tie with Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski for the most wins this year. As a near-lock to make the Chase, does it give you the freedom to take more chances than you normally would, where you could gamble on fuel mileage to collect another win?

“Now that we have three wins, I think we can take those chances if we wanted to, but right now, we’re more worried about just trying to be consistent. We want to be consistent week in and week out, versus trying to take chances worrying about high and low.”

Winning by maximizing fuel mileage has been a theme at Pocono. Your win at Pocono three years ago came in a fuel-mileage race. Can you explain what you did to make sure you had enough fuel to go the distance while many of your competitors did not?

“I’ve lost a lot more races like that than I’ve won. It was between Carl (Edwards) and me. We were the strongest two cars at the end of the race and we were able to get the track position we needed. Our guys did a great job of getting us out of the pits in the lead and that gave us the opportunity to make Carl push harder in the beginning to get the lead. Once he went into that fuel conservation mode, we had to follow suit. To be in a situation where your speed is dictated off the guy behind you and not off of what you can do, it’s a different style of racing. It’s hard. It’s just as hard, if not tougher, than trying to run 100 percent.”

You’re carrying a back-to-school paint scheme on your Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevy this week. What kind of a student were you in school?

“I wasn’t the best student. I didn’t get the best of grades, but it was because I didn’t apply myself. From the time I was eight on, I wanted to be a racecar driver. I didn’t understand how important school was at the time, so I didn’t apply myself as well as I should have.”

Did you have a favorite teacher?

“I didn’t have one particular favorite teacher. I was very fortunate to have good teachers through elementary school, junior high and high school. There weren’t very many teachers that I didn’t like. Looking back, you realize that they were all important. I was very fortunate. I felt like the schools I went to were just regular public schools, but we had very good teachers there, and had teachers that had a lot of personality and taught more than just what was in the books.”

Did you have a favorite subject?

“I did. I liked all of my math classes. In high school, I liked physics and geometry. Those were probably the classes I liked the best. Obviously, I didn’t even realize at the time why I liked them so well, but after graduating high school and moving on, you realize how much you use all of that in racing. Those three subjects were very important and still are.”

Were you voted anything like “Most Likely to Succeed” or was anything said about you in your high school yearbook?

“I slid under the radar. I was a pretty down-to-earth and low-key kid. I was so busy racing on the weekends that I didn’t go out and do a lot of things with kids that I went to school with. My time on the weekends was spent racing. Everybody else was going to football and basketball games and I ended up going racing instead.”

 
 
But just as Stewart has found the right combination to win at tracks where the dirt surface changes by the minute, he has seemingly always adapted to Pocono