As the summer sun heats up tracks, so does Stewart

INDIANAPOLIS -- Baseball divisional races are heating up. Pro football teams are reporting to camp. And Tony Stewart is beginning to look like a champion again.

The NASCAR star, only a few weeks ago in the midst of 20-race winless streak unprecedented since his rookie season, won his second consecutive event Sunday with an impressive performance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (watch video). The last time he won at the Brickyard, Stewart and his Joe Gibbs Racing team used the victory to anchor a torrid late-season run toward the driver's second title on the sport's premier series.

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That came in 2005, when Stewart finished eighth or better in 13 consecutive starts to grab the championship race by the throat, carrying that momentum through the Chase and culminating in a 35-point victory over Greg Biffle in the final standings. It was also one of six instances in the past nine years where the winner of the Brickyard has also gone on to win the Nextel Cup.

That was a challenge Stewart seemed to embrace in the aftermath of his latest Brickyard victory. For the competition, it's a dangerous precedent -- this is the same driver who said after qualifying Saturday that he thought he was going to have a good race on Sunday, and then proceeded to whip the field.

"There's still a lot of racing to go," he said Sunday evening, his second Brickyard trophy on the table next to him. "There are no guarantees. But it's neat knowing that the last two guys that have won this race have won the championship. Am I going to be upset about that fact? Absolutely not. Am I going to be excited about it? You betcha. But does that mean it's a shoo-in? I wouldn't mortgage my house on it -- yet. I might with one race to go, depending on what the point standings look like. Might not have to take as good odds, but I might take that bet."

In good years, Stewart's No. 20 team traditionally starts slowly, catches its stride around midseason, and then reaches its performance peak in the weeks preceding the Chase. His drought-snapping victory two weeks ago, followed by what seemed a breezy few days at what's usually a pressure-packed track for the Indiana native, had some wondering whether another Summer of Tony was on the horizon.

"They're a strong team. Because of the Chase, anybody is a threat for the championship, especially if they're showing strong runs and winning races at this point in the season. I still think we're a little bit more consistent than them, but I think right now they've got a little bit of an edge on us in speed, and we've got to find it," said points leader Jeff Gordon, who finished third at Indianapolis.

"The thing is, 10 races in the Chase is a lot longer than people think. Even though you'd rather the championship, in my opinion, be all the races, I understand what it takes in those last 10 to be good. And you've got to have the fortune going your way and you have to have fast racecars. We've been doing that consistently, so I still feel really good about the championship. But I know we're going to have to beat Tony for it, among other guys."

Gordon's 18th top-10 finish of this season -- already as many as he had in all of last year-- kept him comfortably atop the standings, with a 371-point advantage over Denny Hamlin. But he'll lose almost that entire cushion when the Chase begins, and the hot weather and slippery track conditions continue to suit Stewart's driving style and the setups of crew chief Greg Zipadelli.

"Man, it just seems like a normal year. This time of year, it seems like we get hot. We've even tried to sit down and figure out what we miss in the spring. It just seems like this time of year when the tracks get hot and slippery, and I prayed for a day like [Sunday]. I wanted it to be hot. I wanted it to be sunny, to where the track would get a little slippery," Stewart said.

"It just seems like when it starts getting slick, that's when we really excel at this place. When it's got a lot of grip, everyone's fast. It's just a matter of who hits the perfect setup. It just seems like when it gets slick, the setups Zippy gives me, my driving style, they match each other."