There’s no mistake about it. Tony Stewart said he was going to be partying hard following his Saturday night win in the Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Tony Stewart’s first victory in his own car gave him $1 million. Stewart passed Matt Kenseth with just two laps remaining and won the Sprint All-Star Race.
Stewart stated: “I don’t know if I’ll even be conscious [Sunday],” he said shortly after winning the race and the $1 million that came with it for the first time in his career. “We might set an over/under [bet] and see what time I actually wake up.”
Although this was the his first time winning the All-Star event, it’s not like Stewart has been a stranger to Victory Lane. He entered this season, his 11th in Cup racing, was 33 career victories.
All of those came in points races. And more significantly, all of those came while Stewart was driving a car owned by Joe Gibbs Racing. This was his first win as owner-driver.
Everyone has been surprised with how consistently competitive Stewart has been in his Office Depot No. 14 Chevrolet during the early portion of this season for Stewart-Haas Racing, including Stewart. He said so many times prior to Saturday’s win, when he passed Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford with a lap and a half to go and sailed to a victory that perhaps means more than all the rest.
At the very least, it means more than most of the rest because he did it not only for himself but also for all the loyal employees who now call him boss and for the man who gave him half ownership and nearly complete control over it last year.
That would be Gene Haas, who was serving a prison sentence for a tax evasion conviction. Haas earned an early release just last week and on Saturday attended his first race since then, witnessing first-hand the magical transformation of his race organization that has taken place seemingly overnight under Stewart’s guidance.“There are guys on this team that haven’t been to Victory Lane before,” Stewart said. “That was something I was really looking forward to, getting there and congratulating Gene on his first win, and these guys that have been with the team and have not been in Victory Lane. To see those guys get their first win and be part of it with them was what I was really looking for.
“That means more than a million dollars does to me.“
For good reason, Haas has remained in the background as Stewart has transformed his operation. Stewart admitted that he was nervous when he discovered his mostly silent partner was going to attend Saturday’s All-Star race.
“I wanted him to be proud when he got here — proud of what we’ve done and proud of what he’s been such a huge part of putting together,” Stewart said. “Everybody has given us all the credit for this. But you really have got to give him the credit for taking the gamble and taking the risk to have us come and be a part of this organization, for trusting us to make some pretty big decisions and personnel changes.
“That’s not something that a lot of people in that position are willing to do, to give up control, to let a totally different group of guys come in and all of a sudden start changing things around. But Gene was willing to do that.”
Among the most obvious personnel changes were bringing Stewart and Ryan Newman on board as the two new drivers for the organization. There were many others, hiring of Darian Grubb away from Hendrick Motorsports to be Stewart’s crew chief.
For a while late Saturday night, it looked as if it would be Newman and not Stewart who was going to wheel the first Stewart-Haas car into Victory Lane. But Newman’s No. 39 Chevy got caught up in a three-wide sandwich that also included the No. 18 Toyota of Kyle Busch and the No. 24 Chevy of Jeff Gordon as they battled for the lead with eight laps to go. Newman faded at the end because of the damages his car suffered.
Meanwhile, Grubb kept making the right adjustments at the best of times to Stewart’s car and the No. 14 kept coming.
“Honestly, there wasn’t a corner of the car we didn’t touch,” Grubb said. “We took Tony’s feedback and made adjustments all around — a little bit of tire strategy, track bar, wedge, air pressure … about everything we could do.”
Stewart and Newman were very competitive through the season’s first 11 points races, but were hungering to get to Victory Lane. Doing it in front of Co-Owner Haas made it mean a little more for Stewart.
“He’s been following us every week and knows what the teams have been doing. He knows what happens every day at the race track,” Stewart said. “We just wanted to have a good night for him.”
It turned out to be the best night for the Stewart-Haas Racing team.
Tony Stewart’s first victory in his own car gave him $1 million. Stewart passed Matt Kenseth with just two laps remaining and won the Sprint All-Star Race.
Stewart stated: “I don’t know if I’ll even be conscious [Sunday],” he said shortly after winning the race and the $1 million that came with it for the first time in his career. “We might set an over/under [bet] and see what time I actually wake up.”
Although this was the his first time winning the All-Star event, it’s not like Stewart has been a stranger to Victory Lane. He entered this season, his 11th in Cup racing, was 33 career victories.
All of those came in points races. And more significantly, all of those came while Stewart was driving a car owned by Joe Gibbs Racing. This was his first win as owner-driver.
Everyone has been surprised with how consistently competitive Stewart has been in his Office Depot No. 14 Chevrolet during the early portion of this season for Stewart-Haas Racing, including Stewart. He said so many times prior to Saturday’s win, when he passed Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 Ford with a lap and a half to go and sailed to a victory that perhaps means more than all the rest.
At the very least, it means more than most of the rest because he did it not only for himself but also for all the loyal employees who now call him boss and for the man who gave him half ownership and nearly complete control over it last year.
That would be Gene Haas, who was serving a prison sentence for a tax evasion conviction. Haas earned an early release just last week and on Saturday attended his first race since then, witnessing first-hand the magical transformation of his race organization that has taken place seemingly overnight under Stewart’s guidance.“There are guys on this team that haven’t been to Victory Lane before,” Stewart said. “That was something I was really looking forward to, getting there and congratulating Gene on his first win, and these guys that have been with the team and have not been in Victory Lane. To see those guys get their first win and be part of it with them was what I was really looking for.
“That means more than a million dollars does to me.“
For good reason, Haas has remained in the background as Stewart has transformed his operation. Stewart admitted that he was nervous when he discovered his mostly silent partner was going to attend Saturday’s All-Star race.
“I wanted him to be proud when he got here — proud of what we’ve done and proud of what he’s been such a huge part of putting together,” Stewart said. “Everybody has given us all the credit for this. But you really have got to give him the credit for taking the gamble and taking the risk to have us come and be a part of this organization, for trusting us to make some pretty big decisions and personnel changes.
“That’s not something that a lot of people in that position are willing to do, to give up control, to let a totally different group of guys come in and all of a sudden start changing things around. But Gene was willing to do that.”
Among the most obvious personnel changes were bringing Stewart and Ryan Newman on board as the two new drivers for the organization. There were many others, hiring of Darian Grubb away from Hendrick Motorsports to be Stewart’s crew chief.
For a while late Saturday night, it looked as if it would be Newman and not Stewart who was going to wheel the first Stewart-Haas car into Victory Lane. But Newman’s No. 39 Chevy got caught up in a three-wide sandwich that also included the No. 18 Toyota of Kyle Busch and the No. 24 Chevy of Jeff Gordon as they battled for the lead with eight laps to go. Newman faded at the end because of the damages his car suffered.
Meanwhile, Grubb kept making the right adjustments at the best of times to Stewart’s car and the No. 14 kept coming.
“Honestly, there wasn’t a corner of the car we didn’t touch,” Grubb said. “We took Tony’s feedback and made adjustments all around — a little bit of tire strategy, track bar, wedge, air pressure … about everything we could do.”
Stewart and Newman were very competitive through the season’s first 11 points races, but were hungering to get to Victory Lane. Doing it in front of Co-Owner Haas made it mean a little more for Stewart.
“He’s been following us every week and knows what the teams have been doing. He knows what happens every day at the race track,” Stewart said. “We just wanted to have a good night for him.”
It turned out to be the best night for the Stewart-Haas Racing team.
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