Benton: Stewart won't put much stock in fast start

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Tony Stewart won the Nextel Cup points title last year, despite only forging an 11th-place start after the initial seven races.

This season, as NASCAR heads into its seventh race, the Subway Fresh 500, Stewart is fifth in the points standings.

But don't even think Stewart has started doing the math on that.

"This business is strictly a week-to-week business," he said Tuesday in a teleconference with national media. "What you did last week may or may not work this week. The main reason is technology. Every week, people are working to get their programs better than what they were the week before.

"I'm happy where we're at. In this business, there are no guarantees that what you are doing now is going to get you to the Chase (for the Championship), nor is there a guarantee it's going to win you a championship."

After taking last weekend off, Nextel Cup drivers will race Saturday night at Phoenix International Raceway. And it just happens to be one of Stewart's favorite tracks.

He has competed in six different series - midgets, Silver Crown, Indy, Supermodifieds, Busch and Nextel Cup - on the 1-mile oval, and he considers Phoenix his Western home.

"I've learned a lot about the track and where the sweet spots are on that race track," Stewart said. "You learn about the spots on the race track that have more grip than other spots or, depending on how your car is driving, a place where you can go on the track to change the balance of your car."

In a wide-ranging session with the media, Stewart:

• Expressed concern about newer drivers' race etiquette.

"There's a lot of young drivers that don't have that respect for the series and for the veterans of the series," he said. "Having respect . . . doesn't mean you have to lay over and give them the wins. There's a difference in how we race in Cup vs. how those guys race when they came through the Busch and Truck series.

"Those guys need to learn how we race. For them to think they're going to come in and change how we race is ludicrous."

• Said he misses competing on the IndyCar circuit, though he doubts he'll ever return to it.

" . . . The earliest that I could be back in an IndyCar would be 2010," he said. "I'll be almost 40 years old by then. Every year that goes by, it just seems like that's part of my career that is kind of like a chapter in a book that seems like it's closed and we've moved on to another chapter. I would honestly say you'll never see me in an IndyCar again. But I've learned to never say never also."

• Credited crew chief Greg Zipadelli for much of the success of his No. 20 Home Depot team.

"He lives, eats, breathes, sleeps this race team," Stewart said of Zipadelli. "I hit the lottery getting him as a crew chief. The reason we've been so successful together as a team is because we both have the same passion and desire to win."

• Admitted he takes his 6-pound Chihuahua, Kayle, to most races.

"Everybody kind of laughs. Their first impression is, 'Wow, this tough guy has a Chihuahua.' . . . She's kind of been our good-luck charm from Day 1."

Seattle vs. Denver?

International Speedway Corp., which owns 11 Nextel Cup tracks, has said it considers the Denver area an important market.

So, if ISC continues to encounter problems in its bid to build a NASCAR track in Kitsap County, Wash., across Puget Sound from Seattle, the group might take a closer look at Denver.

ISC has scheduled a May 31 meeting with Washington state lawmakers, who aren't eager to pay almost half the cost of a proposed $345 million, 84,000-seat speedway. ISC officials claim the track and the tax revenue it would generate would more than balance what the public invests.

Meanwhile, ISC spokesman Stann Tate said things are proceeding as planned on construction of a track in Staten Island, N.Y.

Pit stops

• Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates announced that Steven Lane will take over as crew chief of David Stremme's No. 40 Coors Light/Lone Star Dodge. Lane had served as car chief for the No. 41 Dodge driven by Reed Sorenson.

• Denny Hamlin leads Clint Bowyer by three points (71-68) in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings. Three rookies are among the top 15 drivers in the Nextel Cup standings, with Bowyer 13th, Hamlin 14th and Martin Truex Jr. 15th. J.J. Yeley is the only rookie who has led a lap in two consecutive races this season. He led at Texas and Martinsville.

• Scott Riggs, in his first season driving the Evernham Motorsports No. 10 Dodge after leaving MB2, failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 and did not finish at Bristol. But he has jumped from 36th to 28th in the points standings with two consecutive top-10 finishes. "It was definitely not in our plans to miss Daytona and put ourselves in a hole, but the team is coming along well," Riggs said. "I was frustrated and down but not as down as some people thought. Results show everything."

bentonj@RockyMountainNews.com