Tony Stewart has six top-10 finishes in the last seven road course races. Credit: Autostock
By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
August 12, 2002
9:14 AM EDT (1314 GMT)
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WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Tony Stewart put a bad week of publicity behind him by doing what he does best -- winning races.
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| Stewart took his 15th Winston Cup victory. Credit: Autostock |
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Stewart led three times for 34 laps of the 90-lap Sirius Satellite Radio at The Glen on the 2.45-mile, 11-turn road course of Watkins Glen. He took the lead for the final time by passing Ryan Newman with 18 laps remaining.
He had to hold off the competition twice after restarts. Stewart's No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac beat Newman to the line by 1.636 seconds.
After spending much of the week answering questions about his actions after the Brickyard 400 last week, he let his race car do the talking on Sunday. Stewart took his third victory of the year, 15th of his career and second on a road course.
More importantly, he drew within 104 points of Winston Cup points leader Sterling Marlin, who limped home 30th.
As happy as Stewart was, it was a bittersweet Victory Lane.
"I owe this all to my Home Depot team and that Home Depot has stuck with me this week," Stewart said. "It's been a tough week for all of us. Especially when you get someone like myself who has hurt his race team and hurt his sponsors, not only last weekend, but with other things I've done.
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"We've done a lot of great things. I've done a lot of things to hurt this race team, too. It's nice to be able to come back down here on a day like today and run like we did.
"Other than that one mistake of missing the corner a little bit, we had a pretty clean day. I felt bad I run into Robby. He's come a long way in Winston Cup racing and he's gaining a lot of respect from the drivers. I didn't mean to get into him intentionally.
"We waved at each other on the next yellow so we both knew everything was all right."
Newman's No. 12 Alltel Ford led twice before Stewart made his move around him. Despite losing power sterring midway through the event, Newman held on for his fifth straight top-five finish. He leads all Winston Cup drivers with 10 top-fives.
"I just didn't get into Turn 10 real well," Newman said of Stewart's pass for the lead. "He got down under and just went by me for the lead.
"The guys did an awesome job, awesome pit stops and it was a great team effort. I just drove my heart out trying to stay up front there. I couldn't hang with Stewart there on those restarts.
"He would pull so much and I didn't have any power steering. It was definitely tough and it was so tight. I had to block Robby (Gordon) a couple of times but he did the same to me. It's just the kind of racing you have to do when you have such competitive cars.
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| Dale Earnhardt Jr. found the gravel and finished 35th. |
Newman's finish vaulted him to the top of the Rookie of the Year battle over Jimmie Johnson, who finished 16th.
Robby Gordon was third in the No. 31 Cingular Chevy for his fourth top-10 in the last five races. Gordon led 21 laps.
At one point, he and Stewart got together on the track. After the race, Gordon bumped his car slightly into Stewart's.
"Tony tried to drive by me going down into Turn 1 and locked up his brakes and got into the side of me," Gordon said. "Once I got away from him, I pulled him. We had a good car.
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"Ryan did an awesome job today, he did a really good job. As far as what I did to Tony after the race --- that was just a little love."
Road course specialist P.J. Jones was fourth in the No. 14 Conseco Pontiac -- it was the best finish of A.J. Foyt Racing's three years in Winston Cup.
Ricky Rudd finished fifth from the pole, leading three laps.
A red flag come out with three laps remaining when Kenny Wallace lost control of his car in Turn 10. Wallace skated across the pea gravel before slamming into the foam barriers. He walked away uninjured.
On that same lap, Terry Labonte cut a tire, spraying debris on the course.
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| 31 cars finished on the lead lap at Watkins Glen. |
Thus, NASCAR put out the red flag for 13 minutes to clean up from both incidents. That set up a green/white restart before the checkered flag was thrown.
Sterling Marlin retained the point lead by 53 points despite engine trouble for the.second straight week. Martin's 10th-place finish moved him past Johnson into second.
None of the top four drivers in the points (Marlin, Martin, Johnson, Stewart) have ever won a Winston Cup title.
There were 12 lead changes among nine drivers with seven cautions for 18 laps.
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