Tony Stewart has 10 consecutive top-10 finishes. Credit: Autostock

Stewart wants to carry momentum into Chase

Tony Stewart's eighth-place finish last Saturday night in Bristol hardly caused a ripple of excitement in NASCAR, even though he earned the result by jumping 11 positions in the final 30 laps.

After all, the 2002 champion has been setting a higher standard recently.

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With five wins in his last nine starts and no finish worse than eighth, Stewart is riding the hottest streak in NASCAR's top stock car series since Jeff Gordon won seven of nine and closed the season with 20 consecutive finishes of seventh or better -- 18 of them third or better -- in 1998, on the way to one of his four championships.

But now that he is assured a spot in the second Chase for the championship, the 10-race playoff that begins in two weeks, Stewart notes that he has won nothing -- yet.

Once the drivers get through California and Richmond, the top 10 drivers in the points -- as well as any others in the now unlikely situation of being within 400 points of the leader -- will have their points reset. Any margin Stewart builds over the rest of the field will be mostly wiped away, with each of the drivers in the Chase starting the 10-race dash separated in increments of five points.

"For so many years, the Cup Series was about winning the title based upon what guy had the most points at the end of the year because he was the most consistent," Stewart said. "The Chase for the championship is just a change in time.

"I'm not sure it really matters what I feel about it. It is what it is. I think it can be a positive thing for our sport, but we'll just sit back and see what happens. I'm not sure if any of us like or dislike it, but we can't do anything about it. Its second year hasn't even started, so we'll just ride it out and see how it works."

While Stewart and several of the other drivers at the top of the standings can just relax and go racing over the next two weeks, there are seven drivers feeling the pressure.

Only 128 points separate eighth-place Carl Edwards -- 561 points behind Stewart -- from 14th-place Dale Jarrett. Only 84 separate Edwards and 13th-place Elliott Sadler. In between are Ryan Newman, Gordon, Bristol winner Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray.

"If you are solidly in the top 10, it will be business as usual," Stewart said. "But if you're 11th in points and you're within 50 points of the guy in 10th, and it's down to the last two races, you're going to race just like you are racing for the championship.

"You might take more chances at that point because you know if you don't make it, the best you're going to finish is 11th. I can see where guys who are on the bubble might race a little bit different in the last couple of races if it looks like they may not make the top 10."

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For Stewart, though, it will be business as usual as he tries to maintain the momentum that has carried him from 10th to first in the past three months.

"I'll tell you the same thing we told everybody from day one: We take each race one at a time," Stewart said as his team prepared his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet for Sunday's race at California Speedway.

"As race car drivers and as race teams, our job is to go out and do the best we can each week. With that attitude in mind, that's how we've done what we've done in the Cup series. We've stayed in the top seven for six consecutive years."