Stewart's vast experience at Phoenix gives him edge

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Tony Stewart may reside in the Midwest but his experience in the desert has the driver hailing Phoenix International Raceway his West Coast home.

No other Sprint Cup driver can compete with Stewart's expansive history on the 1-mile track as the veteran wheelman has motored a list of different machines; they only vehicle likely to remain being his personal car.

Tony Stewart

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"I've spent a lot of time here," said Stewart, who qualified 12th for Saturday night's Subway Fresh Fit 500 and already has one Cup victory at PIR. "I probably know every line around this racetrack that's ever been ran and why it's been ran around here. It helps when you get in the stock cars or anything you get in here. I pretty much know how to get around here."

The track was dubbed Stewart's, "West Coast home away from home," by Buddy Jobe, former owner and president of PIR soon after Stewart made a grand entrance in 1993 at the Copper World Classic where the season-opening race for the USAC Silver Crown division was held. In Stewart's desert debut, the young driver qualified second and led 31 of the 51 laps before finishing second to Mike Bliss.

His second-place finish garnered Stewart a $3,500 pay check, a pittance compared to today's purse, and from there Stewart raced the remainder of the season, and competed in Sprint and Midget races across the nation.

He would go on to drive six different cars at PIR; Midgets, Indy Racing League cars, Supermodifieds, Nationwide Series cars and Cup cars, old and new.

The only difference this time around is Stewart's Toyota-manufactured engine and the Subway sandwich sponsor on the hood.

Will it make a difference? Maybe, but Stewart, who this time last year finished second to Jeff Gordon after a strong side-by-side battle, said it's not "re-inventing the wheel."

"We're just driving a different car. It's a matter of just getting the cars to drive the way you want it to each week," said Stewart, who in 12 starts on the desert mile has an average finish of 9.4 with six top-five finishes and eight top-10 finishes.

But admittedly the extensive laps logged in various machines give the Joe Gibbs Racing driver an advantage.

With every changing series he has run comes a different line as well. The experience helped Stewart learn the track and where the sweet spots lay. By the time his Cup career began in 1999, the track felt like home.

"Every type of car that I've driven here ... running all those different divisions, the one common variable is the two ends of the track are unique and different from each other," Stewart said. "It's always been a situation where if you're car is really good in [Turns] 3 and 4, you're normally a little bit tight in 1 and 2, and if you get 1 and 2 really good, you're normally a little bit too lose in 3 and 4.

"You do have to weigh the options and try to find that balance of which end of the track is more important to you. You know you're probably not going to be perfect in both ends and will have to pick one or the other to get your car really good. I do have a preference but I don't tell everybody else that. That's what having all these years and these laps of experience here -- that's the one secret variable that I try to use to my advantage on the weekends here."