var STORIES = [{"id":"695","title":"Darlington's Extreme Makeover","race_name":"Darlington","status":"active","story_text":"<strong>ATLANTA (May 7, 2008) - <\/strong>Back in 2005, one of Darlington (S.C.) Raceway's two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series dates was moved westward to the two-mile oval in Fontana, Calif.  For die-hard NASCAR fans, it was hard to believe that an event in racing's heartland - on NASCAR's first and oldest superspeedway no less - could be jettisoned to a land where David Hasselhoff is better known for his driving prowess than David Pearson.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nDarlington Raceway was being forsaken for something bigger and better, and when its lone remaining date was placed on Saturday night of the hallowed Mother's Day weekend, obituaries for the 1.366-mile oval were already being drafted.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nBut a funny thing happened.  Lights were installed, and instead of roasting in late-summer mugginess, fans were treated to a crisp and comfortable night race in early May.  And with the race on Saturday, Mom still had her day in the spotlight.  Since 2005, the night race at Darlington has been a sell-out.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nWhile Darlington is steeped in tradition, history had shown the track's leaders that holding too tight a grip on that history could make the venerable, egg-shaped oval obsolete.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nLate last August, Darlington underwent an extreme makeover that involved far more than just a nip and a tuck.  The Lady in Black, as Darlington is commonly referred to, got a new surface that eliminated its numerous bumps and sometimes problematic drainage issues thanks to 15,000 tons of new asphalt.  Also added was a mammoth tunnel beneath turns three and four that can fit the modern-day transporters used by race teams.  Freshly paved pit roads and newly installed concrete pit walls completed the track's transformation.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nBeyond the cosmetic appeal, what does this all mean for those who must race around Darlington's confines?  No one really knows for sure, except that the new asphalt will make for track record times.  Drivers lucky enough to participate in a Goodyear tire test two months ago reported diving into the track's corners at over 200 mph.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nFor Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, that sounds fine to him.  The old Darlington was never all that hospitable to Stewart, as his best finish is fourth - logged just twice - with only seven laps led in 15 career races.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nAs Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500 is sure to pose a challenge to Stewart and the rest of his counterparts, it's at least a new challenge, and one that Stewart aims to make the most of.\r\n<br />\r\n<em><strong><br />\r\nTony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing:<\/strong><\/em><br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>With fresh pavement essentially making Darlington a new race track, how will you approach the weekend?<\/strong><br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"I can promise you one thing, I'll make more laps in my first run of the day than I would if I were in a Sprint car or a Midget practicing at a new race track.  Normally when you go to a Sprint car or Midget track, you only get four or five laps of practice on the dirt and that's it.  At Darlington, I'll use all of the practice time they'll give us.  It's just a matter of going out and using the track time as if you were testing.  You go out and sneak up on it, steadily improving yourself with each lap.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>Because the new pavement has increased speeds, will aerodynamics play a bigger role at Darlington?<\/strong><br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"Aerodynamics plays a role everywhere we go nowadays.  Martinsville might be the only track where aerodynamics don't really play a role anymore.  So even at a place like Darlington, you've got to make sure you keep the fenders straight because you need every bit of downforce you can get.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>Does going to a venue that's been significantly altered - either with fresh pavement or with a new layout - prove to be an advantage for the rookie drivers, as for once they have the same amount of seat time at that particular race track than anyone else on the circuit?<\/strong><br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"It does.  That's what I liked when we went to Homestead (Fla.) in '99.  I felt like nobody had an advantage over me there.  Nobody knows the secrets at a new race track unless they've tested, and even then they may not know the secrets.  And for everybody that's going to Darlington, we all pretty much have the same amount of track time on the new layout.  It's a whole new ballgame and it's totally up for grabs.  It's really anybody's race.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>Is Darlington a frustrating track for you, in that you run well - top-10 - but not as well as you'd like?<\/strong><br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"I could probably run backward and run about the same as I do going forward.  That's how close I feel like I am to figuring out Darlington.  We've run decent at Darlington.  I mean, I've run in the top-five there before, but every time I think I have something figured out, I normally whack the wall and go, 'Oh boy, I really did figure it out, <em>didn't<\/em> I?'  I don't know that I'll ever feel like I've got Darlington totally figured out.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n \"It's a driver's track.  As a race team we've kind of struggled there.  I don't really believe we've had a race there where I felt like we had the car to beat or that we were a top-three car.  Typically, we're a 10th-place car there.  It's a place where we need to be better.  It's one of those tracks where if you're not having a good day, it makes you miserable.  But that's what makes Darlington fun if you do get around there well.  It's hard to be good there, and the guys who are good - it's a fun day for them.  Hopefully we can get ourselves in a position where we can get our balance a little better there and keep working toward being a top-five car instead of just a top-10 car.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"But at the same time, there are a lot of teams that aren't at the level that we are at Darlington.  It's just one of those deals where the only way you're going to find a way to make yourself better is to go there and just do your homework.  It takes a lot to get around that place consistently and fast all day.  It's just a tough place to get around well, and there's a group of guys that get around there well every time we go there.  We just need to find a little something that can help us get into that elite group.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<em><strong>Greg Zipadelli, crew chief of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing:<\/strong><\/em><br />\r\n<strong><br />\r\nNew pavement.  Higher speeds.  Is Darlington a whole new ballgame now?<\/strong><br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"From what you hear, the tire's fairly hard, really fast and speeds are crazy.  It's going to be completely different than what you've seen in the past.  What I'm hearing is that you run 15 or 20 laps and your fastest lap is 20 laps in. \r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"With the old surface, if a caution came out, you pitted and put tires on regardless.  Now you may see right sides only, you may see no tires, you might see just gas-and-gos, which is completely opposite of what we've seen in the past.  That's only second-hand from what I hear as far as the speeds were and how far into the run you were before you actually ran your fastest lap.  I know Goodyear went down there and tested twice and ran a bunch of stuff and I guess it was just really fast and fairly smooth in comparison to what it was.  It'll be interesting to see. \r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"That place was tough before to really see a lot of side-by-side racing.  You'd usually see some good racing at times, but now with the speeds they're running now, I don't know if that'll be the case.  The good thing is, if everybody's patient, I think the race track will age fairly quick and get back to where it used to be, at least a little bit, where tires were more important.  Darlington was one of those places that was unique from what we typically raced on, and that, to me, was why I liked going there.  It wasn't your mile-and-a-half standard race track.  The driving styles are completely different.  The drivers had to have a little bit different mindset.  Anytime you can mix it up a little bit from what we do every week is fun.  It breaks up the norm.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>How do you prepare for the unknowns that the new Darlington presents?  You haven't had a chance to test there and you're just going off of what you've heard.  How do you prepare for qualifying and for the race?<\/strong><br />\r\n<br />\r\n \"You just look back at the history of everything you've done at different places.  You try to build a setup for the car that's obviously adjustable, because we really don't have any data on what the race track is like.  The good thing is that we do have a little extra time that we're going to get to practice.  We'll be able to go down and run a little bit extra on Thursday, which is something that we don't normally have there.  It'll kind of give everybody an opportunity to go out and run and work on their car, go home and think about it, and then come back Friday and practice, qualify and get ready for the race.  That's pretty cool that they did that for us.  Whenever you get that night to go home and think about things, usually you can make some better decisions.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<table width=\"480\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" class=\"tableL1\">\r\n  <tr>\r\n    <td bgcolor=\"#000000\" class=\"tableL1_header\">\r\n    <img src=\"/pix/spacer.gif\" width=\"5\" height=\"26\" align=\"absmiddle\">TONY STEWART'S DARLINGTON PERFORMANCE PROFILE<\/td>\r\n  <\/tr>\r\n  <tr>\r\n    <td>\r\n    <table width=\"480\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"3\" class=\"tableL2\">\r\n        \r\n<tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#b3b3b3\"> \r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Year<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Event<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Start<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Finish<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Status/Laps<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Laps Led<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Earnings<\/b><\/td>\r\n            <\/tr>\r\n\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>2007<\/td>\r\n              <td>Dodge Avenger 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>22<\/td>\r\n              <td>18<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 367/367<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td>\r\n              <td>$145,961<\/td>\r\n            <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>2006<\/td>\r\n              <td>Dodge Charger 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>13<\/td>\r\n              <td>12<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 367/367<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td>\r\n              <td>$133,386<\/td>\r\n            <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>2005<\/td><td>&times;Dodge Charger 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>15<\/td>\r\n              <td>10<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 370/370<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td>\r\n              <td>$131,586<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>2004<\/td>\r\n              <td>Carolina Dodge Dealers 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>8<\/td>\r\n              <td>17<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 293/293<\/td>\r\n              <td>1<\/td>\r\n              <td>$101,118<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>Mountain Dew Southern 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>6<\/td>\r\n              <td>17<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 366/367<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$109,678<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>2003<\/td><td>Carolina Dodge Dealers 400<\/td>\r\n            <td>28<\/td>\r\n            <td>10<\/td><td>Running, 293/293<\/td>\r\n            <td>0<\/td><td>$103,158<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>Mountain Dew Southern 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>20<\/td>\r\n              <td>12<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 367/367<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$109,503<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>2002<\/td><td>Carolina Dodge Dealers 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>36<\/td>\r\n              <td>36<\/td>\r\n              <td>Accident, 225/293<\/td>\r\n              <td>7<\/td>\r\n              <td>$83,233<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>Mountain Dew Southern 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>4<\/td>\r\n              <td>8<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 367/367<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$100,528<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>2001<\/td>\r\n              <td>&dagger;Carolina Dodge Dealers 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>14<\/td>\r\n              <td>16<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 293/293<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$53,735<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>Mountain Dew Southern 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>33<\/td>\r\n              <td>4<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 367/367<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$93,900<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>2000<\/td>\r\n              <td>Mall.com 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>9<\/td>\r\n              <td>4<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 293/293<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$68,230<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\"bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>*Pepsi Southern 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>29<\/td>\r\n              <td>9<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 328/328<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$55,735<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n      <td>1999<\/td>\r\n      <td>*TranSouth Financial 400<\/td>\r\n      <td>10<\/td>\r\n      <td>6<\/td>\r\n      <td>Running, 164/164<\/td>\r\n      <td>0<\/td>\r\n      <td>$44,240<\/td>\r\n      <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>*Pepsi Southern 500<\/td>\r\n              <td>19<\/td>\r\n              <td>12<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 270/270<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td>\r\n              <td>$46,620<\/td>\r\n            <\/tr>\r\n    <\/table>    <\/td>\r\n  <\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<br />\r\n&times; Race length extended due to green-white-checker finish. <br />\r\n* Race cut short due to weather<br />\r\n&dagger; Qualifying canceled due to weather, starting position set via car owner points. <br />\r\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>- The Home Depot is NASCAR's Home Improvement Warehouse -<\/strong><\/p>","story_date":"2008-05-07","story_type":"Behind the Scenes"},{"id":"694","title":"Stewart Steely in Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond","race_name":"Crown Royal Dan Lowry 400","status":"active","story_text":"<strong>ATLANTA, GA (May 4, 2008) - <\/strong>Tony Stewart rallied to finish a strong fourth in Saturday night's Crown Royal Dan Lowry 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.  The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) posted his sixth top-10 of the season and his 13th top-10 in 19 Sprint Cup races at Richmond after overcoming a balky alternator that sapped the amount of electrical power available inside his race car.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"I don't know whether we lost an alternator belt or just broke an alternator or what, but I had to run the whole last half of the race with almost no fans, just front and rear brake blowers,\" said Stewart, as he sat on the pit wall after climbing from his race car.  \"So no bead blowers, no air conditioning - none of the driver comforts we're used to.  The last 100 laps we ran with no fans at all - not even brake fans.  To be able to run the last 100 laps like that and not have brake fans - which is a huge deal here at Richmond - I think we did pretty well.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nMaking the drive even more impressive was the fact that Stewart and crew chief Greg Zipadelli turned a Home Depot Toyota that was barely hanging within the top-10 for the race's first 300 laps into a car that deserved to be in the top-five when the checkered flag dropped.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"I'm really proud of Zippy and all these guys on The Home Depot team.\" Stewart said.  \"We were absolutely terrible for about 300 laps, and then the last two pit stops we made a change that really brought this car to life.  Most of the day we kept concentrating on an area that normally we have to focus on to be decent at the end of a race, but we went a totally different direction the last quarter of the race and actually got it halfway decent.  It was a little too late, but with a little help, it got us a top-five.  That's the whole moral of the story to this team - we never give up.  Even at the end we may not have been the best car, but we were a fourth-place car.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nThe driver with the best car was Stewart's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin.  The Chesterfield, Va.-native started from the pole and led twice for an astounding 381 of the 410 laps available (92.9 percent), but a cut tire with less than 20 laps remaining caused him to forfeit the lead and go three laps down.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"(Richmond) is Denny's Daytona 500 or my Brickyard 400.  I mean, this is it for him,\" said Stewart, alluding to Richmond being Hamlin's hometown track.  \"To have won the Nationwide Series race last night and to have been able to win the Cup race after leading as many laps as he did tonight, it would've been an awesome weekend for him.  And it still was an awesome weekend because everyone knew he had the fastest car here tonight.  Anybody who doesn't know that wasn't paying attention to the race.  Your heart hurts for him because you know how badly you want to run well at home, and this is home for him.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nStewart's other Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, finished second to score his seventh top-10 of the season and his sixth top-five in seven career Sprint Cup races at Richmond. \r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nBusch is now the overall point leader in the championship driver standings.  His second-place finish vaulted him past former series leader Jeff Burton by 18 points after round 10 of 36. \r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nHamlin and Stewart, meanwhile, occupy the sixth and eighth positions, respectively.  Hamlin dropped two spots and is 146 points behind Busch, while Stewart gained one spot and is 198 points out of first.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nClint Bowyer led just the final 13 laps of the Crown Royal Dan Lowry 400 to score his second career Sprint Cup victory and his first at Richmond.  Bowyer's only other Sprint Cup victory came in September 2007 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.  Busch, Mark Martin, Stewart and Martin Truex Jr., rounded out the top-five, while Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne comprised the remainder of the top-10.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nThere were 11 caution periods for 62 laps, with eight drivers failing to finish the 410-lap race, which was extended 10 laps past its scheduled 400-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nThe next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the May 10 Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.  The race begins at 7:20 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 7 p.m.  The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<p align=\"center\"><b>- The Home Depot is NASCAR's Home Improvement Warehouse -<\/b><\/p>","story_date":"2008-05-04","story_type":"Race Summary"},{"id":"693","title":"Get Rich Quick Scheme at Richmond","race_name":"Richmond","status":"active","story_text":"<strong>ATLANTA (April 30, 2008) -<\/strong> Tony Stewart has won over $67 million in his 10 years competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  Granted, the money isn't all his, as substantial portions have gone to Joe Gibbs Racing - the team that has fielded Stewart's No. 20 Home Depot machine since he debuted as a rookie in February 1999 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nStill, Stewart has done quite well, thanks in large part to two Sprint Cup championships, 32 point-paying victories, six non-point wins and 122 top-fives and 196 top-10s in 329 career Sprint Cup starts.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nThree of those point-paying victories, along with six top-fives and 12 top-10s, have come in 18 career Sprint Cup races at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, site of Saturday night's Crown Royal presents the Dan Lowry 400.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nStewart has gotten rich quick at Richmond simply by being quick.  The driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota has led a total of 792 laps at Richmond - 11 percent of the 7,192 laps available to him.  And its seemingly always been that way, for Stewart's first career Sprint Cup victory came at Richmond in September 1999, when he absolutely dominated by leading 333 of the 400 laps (83.2 percent).\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nStewart returned to Richmond's victory lane in May 2001 and 2002 when he scored his 10th and 14th career Sprint Cup wins, respectively.  And after his third Sprint Cup win at Richmond, Stewart came back in September 2002 to notch his first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series triumph.  Stewart successfully defended that victory by making his fifth trip to Richmond's winner's circle after taking the checkered flag in the 2003 Truck Series race.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nIn all, Stewart has raced a Sprint Cup car, a Craftsman Truck, a NASCAR Nationwide Series car, a USAC Silver Crown car and a USAC Midget at Richmond, and taken an impressive $2.25 million in purse money from Richmond's coffers.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\nAnd as Stewart gets ready to make his 19th career Sprint Cup start at Richmond and the 330th of his Sprint Cup career on Saturday night, he'll do using a get-rich-quick scheme that actually works - his heavy right foot.\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<em><strong>Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing:<\/strong><\/em>\r\n<br />\r\n<br /> \r\n<strong>With three Sprint Cup wins and two Craftsman Truck Series wins, you've had a lot of success at Richmond.  Is it one of your favorite tracks?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"It is my favorite track.  It's not one of them, it's the favorite track of mine on the circuit.  I've won two Truck races and three Cup races there.  It's where I got my first win.  It's definitely a place I enjoy coming to, and considering how it factors into the Chase, it's definitely an important stop for us.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>You've run well this year, as you've spent more laps in the top-15 than any other driver, yet you don't have the results to show for your efforts.  Does that get you and the team down, or does it make you and team more determined to get that next win?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"We don't settle for anything less than winning races.  When we know that we let one slip away, that's something that we do let ourselves get down about, but that's also what got us 32 wins and two championships.  We have such a high standard of what we feel our performance should be on the race track.  I think that shows the caliber team that we have.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>Does coming so close and not winning put additional stress on the team, or does it give the team more incentive to win because they know they're right on the cusp of getting that first win?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"That's just how competitive we are.  Zippy (crew chief Greg Zipadelli) and I have been through the thick and the thin together, but that's why we're a perfect driver/crew chief combination.  We understand each other well.  We have the same passion, the same desire, the same frustrations.  We're on the same playing field, side by side, on the way we think and feel about things.  Not winning might add a little bit of stress, but if you look at Zippy's past before he came to NASCAR, he was pretty successful.  I had good fortune before I came here.  I think we've both had good fortune since we've been here.  It's personalities.  We're not two guys that are going to sit back and be happy with second or third.  If that's detrimental, then that's what it has to be.  That's just who we are.  We can't change that.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>How long does it take you as a driver to accept your finishing position?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"It depends on the day.  If you've run between fifth and 10th all day, and at the end of it you get to third, you're pretty happy about it.  If you've been leading the race all day and you end up third, you're disappointed about it.  It depends on the circumstances that led up to it.  There's days that it goes both ways.  It just depends on the scenario leading up to it.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>How much has it helped not having to work with two different types of cars this year?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"I don't think it's been a big deal for the drivers, but I know it has been huge for the race teams and the crew guys not having to have two different sets of equipment for two different types of cars.  It's allowed everybody to focus on this car versus dividing your attention 50-50 on two different types of cars.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>What's the biggest difference between the current generation car and the car you used to run?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"These cars don't have near the downforce that our cars had last year.  With the limited amount of shock travel in the front, you're hitting bump rubbers, and last year we weren't allowed to have bump rubbers.  It doesn't float around the race track like it used to.  It's a lot harsher ride.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>Short track racing has been known for beating and banging, where contact between two cars usually results in at least one car getting spun out.  But has the current generation race car, with its common nose and rear bumpers, changed that dynamic?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"It has.  With these cars you don't have the kinds of accidents where guys get turned around because the bumpers on all these cars match up so well.  If you get in a situation where a guy checks up in front of you and you run into him by accident and the guy behind you hits you, you're not going to spin each other out.  That's made short track racing fun again.  You're not worried about having to explain to somebody that whatever contact you had was an accident.  And short tracks aren't cookie-cutter.  They're all one-of-a-kind and they all have their own personality.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>Richmond is the first of four straight race weekends where the race begins in the late afternoon daylight and then ends well into the evening.  As a driver, how do you adjust from dealing with the setting sun to then running under the lights?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"What you'll do is either run a clear visor or you'll run an amber visor, and you'll have colored tear-offs on top of it, and we can pull those off as the sun goes down.  That gives us the ability to use some tinting without using a tinted visor that we're stuck with for the whole night.  That makes it easy, and especially for us dirt track guys that are used to pulling them off anyways, it's no big deal.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"As far as the track is concerned, from day to night it normally just gains a lot of grip and normally it doesn't change the balance of your car.  It just gets faster as the surface temperature cools down.  Wherever your balance is, whether you're loose or tight, you just gain more grip and go faster.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>Sunday after the Richmond race you'll be back at a race track - Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway for the ARCA race.  What are you going to be doing there?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"I'm going to wave the green flag and Zippy (crew chief Greg Zipadelli) is going to drive the pace car during the parade laps.  It should be pretty cool.  I always liked that track and I'm glad to see that racing has returned to there.\" \r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<strong>What is your most vivid memory from Rockingham?<\/strong>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n\"Probably the Busch Series race back in 1998.  Matt Kenseth and I were racing pretty hard, and both of us were looking for our first Busch Series win.  I didn't know Matt, and he really didn't know me.  What I remember most about it is that I basically burned my tires off, and Matt did a better job of managing his tires for the length of the run.  I didn't do a very good job of getting through (turns) three and four on the last corner of the last lap and he gave me a little nudge.  He could've hit me hard enough to crash me, but he didn't.  He just barely nudged me up out of the way and I ran second and he won.  He was a gentleman about it, but he did what he had to do to win, and if the roles were reversed, I would've done the same thing that he did.  Looking back, we both had good days there.\"\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<table width=\"480\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" class=\"tableL1\">\r\n  <tr>\r\n    <td bgcolor=\"#000000\" class=\"tableL1_header\">\r\n    <img src=\"/pix/spacer.gif\" width=\"5\" height=\"26\" align=\"absmiddle\">TONY STEWART'S RICHMOND PERFORMANCE PROFILE\r\n    <\/td>\r\n  <\/tr>\r\n  <tr>\r\n    <td>\r\n    <table width=\"480\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"3\" class=\"tableL2\">\r\n        \r\n<tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#b3b3b3\"> \r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Year<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Event<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Start<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Finish<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Status/Laps<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Laps Led<\/b><\/td>\r\n              <td valign=\"middle\"><b>Earnings<\/b><\/td>\r\n            <\/tr>\r\n\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>2007<\/td>\r\n              <td>Crown Royal Jim Stewart 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>22<\/td>\r\n              <td>8<\/td>\r\n              <td>Accident, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>1<\/td>\r\n              <td>$127,236<\/td>\r\n            <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>Chevy Rock &amp; Roll 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>7<\/td>\r\n              <td>2<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>27<\/td>\r\n              <td>$207,986<\/td>\r\n            <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>2006<\/td><td>Crown Royal 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>18<\/td>\r\n              <td>6<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td>\r\n              <td>$139,661<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>Chevy Rock &amp; Roll 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>40<\/td>\r\n              <td>18<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td>\r\n              <td>$204,611<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>2005<\/td><td>Chevy American Recolution 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>3<\/td>\r\n              <td>2<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>143<\/td><td>$126,711<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>Chevy Rock &amp; Roll 400<\/td>\r\n            <td>25<\/td>\r\n            <td>7<\/td><td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n            <td>0<\/td><td>$127,478<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>2004<\/td><td>Chevy American Recolution 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>28<\/td>\r\n              <td>4<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>59<\/td><td>$105,433<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td><td>Chevy Rock &amp; Roll 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>15<\/td>\r\n              <td>19<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 399/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td>\r\n              <td>$98,748<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>2003<\/td>\r\n              <td>*Pontiac Excitement 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>9<\/td>\r\n              <td>41<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 223/392<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$100,283<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>Chevy Rock &amp; Roll 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>14<\/td>\r\n              <td>27<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 397/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$185,653<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#b3b3b3\">\r\n              <td>2002<\/td>\r\n              <td>Pontiac Excitement 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>3<\/td>\r\n              <td>1<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>28<\/td><td>$88,478<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>Team Monte Carlo 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>14<\/td>\r\n              <td>30<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 396/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>34<\/td><td>$150,175<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\"bgcolor=\"#b3b3b3\">\r\n              <td>2001<\/td>\r\n              <td>Pontiac Excitement 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>7<\/td>\r\n              <td>1<\/td><td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>93<\/td><td>$62,205<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n      <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n      <td>Team Monte Carlo 400<\/td>\r\n      <td>33<\/td>\r\n      <td>7<\/td>\r\n      <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n      <td>0<\/td>\r\n      <td>$49,350<\/td>\r\n      <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>2000<\/td>\r\n              <td>Pontiac Excitement 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>7<\/td>\r\n              <td>8<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>69<\/td>\r\n              <td>$53,835<\/td>\r\n            <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#dddddd\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>Team Monte Carlo 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>14<\/td>\r\n              <td>6<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>5<\/td>\r\n              <td>$55,130<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#eeeeee\">\r\n              <td>1999<\/td><td>Pontiac Excitement 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>30<\/td>\r\n              <td>15<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>0<\/td><td>$27,225<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n            <tr align=\"center\" bgcolor=\"#b3b3b3\">\r\n              <td>&nbsp;<\/td>\r\n              <td>Exide NASCAR Select 400<\/td>\r\n              <td>2<\/td>\r\n              <td>1<\/td>\r\n              <td>Running, 400/400<\/td>\r\n              <td>333<\/td>\r\n              <td>$136,160<\/td>\r\n        <\/tr>\r\n    <\/table>\r\n    <\/td>\r\n  <\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<br />\r\n<br />\r\n* Race cut short due to weather<br />\r\n<br />\r\n<p align=\"center\"><strong>- The Home Depot is NASCAR's Home Improvement Warehouse -<\/strong><\/p>","story_date":"2008-04-30","story_type":"Behind the Scenes"}]