Stewart focused on single goal in return to the Chase

LOUDON, N.H. -- Tony Stewart's made no mistake at New Hampshire International Speedway this weekend that he's ready to get down to business when he opens his first Chase for the Nextel Cup in two years Sunday in the Sylvania 300.

Part of doing that is putting the business of remaining with Joe Gibbs Racing by extending his current contract -- which runs through 2009 -- aside for the next 10 races.

Sylvania 300

Chase Qualifiers

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
2.	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet
3.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
4.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
6.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
8.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
11.	Carl Edwards	Ford
12.	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet
14.	Denny Hamlin	Chevrolet
18.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
23.	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet
30.	Matt Kenseth	Ford

"I'm not even going to work on it any more until the season is over -- seriously," Stewart said. "Yes -- absolutely my main focus has to be on the Chase. All these things like right now [doing a media session] are a total distraction to what I'm trying to accomplish the rest of the season and that's why I'm not going to do any more than I have to do until the end of the year.

"My goal is to win the championship and focus on the things I have to focus on to get that done."

Stewart won his second Cup championship, and his first under the 10-race Chase format, in the system's second season, 2005. But last year he failed to even make the 10-man championship field.

However, once the Chase began, Stewart rebounded from his temporary slump and won three of the 10 Chase races -- even though he could advance himself to no better than 11th in the final point standings.

This year, Stewart's won three of the last eight races and with himself and JGR teammate Denny Hamlin seeded third and sixth, respectively, as the Chase begins, Stewart feels like the teammates can be real contenders through cooperation.

"Well, we [help each other] every week -- it's not going to be any different these next 10 weeks than any other week," Stewart said. "We always help each other [so] it's not going to be any different in the Chase.

"Now granted, if it's down to just him and I with two races to go, I'm sure we won't help each other quite as much. There is nobody in this garage that's going to do that -- [but] we'll help each other as much as we can to get one of those two cars in a situation to win a championship."

And Stewart stressed that, as good as Hamlin was in his rookie season of 2006 when he won two races, easily qualified for the Chase and finished third, he's even more at ease and competitive this season, despite winning only once.

"I think it's like we've always said, you don't just come into this series and feel comfortable [because] your life totally changes when you come here," Stewart said. "There is no way to prepare for it. You just get thrown into it and it is what it is for a while. It takes guys a little while to get used to it."

But Stewart said confidence has never been short in his Virginia teammate.

"From day one, he's had confidence," Stewart said. "Obviously, winning his first race at the Shootout [2006 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona] didn't hurt that."

Hamlin agreed, to a point, and Friday's results from the track bore that out.

"We definitely feel a little bit of confidence coming into this weekend and next weekend -- but practice didn't go as well as we hoped for and we've just got some things that we've got to work out on the car and figure out how to be better at," Hamlin said. "So I think if we can do that, we should be alright."

Hamlin practiced 31st in the only session held before qualifying Friday, while Stewart was seventh. Hamlin picked up to 14th in qualifying, while Stewart was sixth -- as nine of the 12 Chase drivers qualified in the first 14 positions.

Jeff Gordon (18th), Jeff Burton (23rd) and Matt Kenseth (30th) were the only ones who did not.

Rain on Saturday morning, which washed out the early session, made Friday's practice efforts even more critical, when Gordon was 10th, Burton 23rd and Kenseth, 46th.