FORT WORTH, Texas -- Less than three weeks remain in a tenure that has been 10 years in the making.

But Tony Stewart said he doesn't have time to get sentimental about his pending departure from Joe Gibbs Racing and the No. 20 Toyota team he's leaving behind at the end of this Sprint Cup Series season. Not yet, anyway.

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I've said that from Day One, that it hasn't been a distraction. When I come here on the weekends, I take that hat off for the week and put that off to the side and I focus on what we're doing here with the Home Depot cars.

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TONY STEWART

"When we get to Homestead [for the final race of the season Nov. 16], I'm sure that's probably going to be weighing a lot heavier in that category than it is right now," he said Friday during a break in preparation for this Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. "Right now we're still trying to focus on what we're doing each week. We're still trying to focus on winning the races right now."

Doing so this Sunday became more difficult for Stewart when the No. 20 blew a right-rear tire during the first of two practices Saturday at TMS, forcing him to a backup car and a starting position in the rear of the 43-car field. Earlier, he had qualified the car in eighth.

The tire shredded, ripping apart the car's right-rear quarterpanel and side window -- giving the No. 20 team no choice but to go to the backup car. The backup was prepared in time for Stewart to participate in most of the final practice, but Stewart obviously was playing catchup. His fastest lap of 177.264 mph was only 26th fastest -- nearly five mph slower than the fastest lap time posted by Carl Edwards, who was quickest in his No. 99 Ford.

Saturday's struggles notwithstanding, Stewart maintained earlier that he has not been overwhelmed by trying to juggle his dual roles as driver of the No. 20 car and as co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, which was formed in July and will begin operation next season by fielding new cars for Stewart and fellow driver Ryan Newman.

"It's really not been difficult. During the week you're working on the stuff for next year, and on the weekends you stick to what you do here. You just change that focus," Stewart said. "You know, to me I don't find it as a hard task so far to do that. Obviously next year we'll have to get together after a couple of weeks to see where we're at as far as if that perspective changes a little bit. But right now it's not hard to do." (Continued)