Stewart goes 'old school,' improves on car at Dover

DOVER, Del. -- Since he assumed half-ownership of Stewart-Haas Racing, former two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart has been noticeably more agreeable, mellower individual around every Sprint Cup venue this season.

Friday at Dover International Speedway, five minutes after spending 90 minutes trying to dial his No. 14 Chevrolet in for qualifying for Sunday's Autism Speaks 400, Stewart's patience was tested during his media briefing.

Building a winner

When Gene Haas had had just about enough, Joe Custer had an idea involving Tony Stewart.

• More

In his 10-year career with Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart swept the 2000 season's two Dover stops, after qualifying 16th and 27th, respectively. Since the current "new car" came into use in 2007, however, Stewart's finished 40th, ninth, 41st and 11th here.

Stewart's 30th on Friday's practice sheet perfectly forecast his 31st-place qualifying effort, but on Saturday he improved to 11th in the morning practice and was 13th in Happy Hour, running a total of 83 laps.

His "issue" was with even having to deal with the media Friday. After four simple questions about his experiences at Dover, the perspective broadened when Stewart was asked about the upcoming Goodyear tire test at Indianapolis.

Stewart, who came into the weekend second in the Sprint Cup driver standings and thus must attend a weekly media briefing, consecutively was asked if he was going to the test, and could he talk about it?

"I am going, yes," Stewart said. "What do you want me to say about it?"

One way in which Stewart resembles Dale Earnhardt -- and even his current teammate, Ryan Newman -- is that he demands a little effort, and a little thought, from his interviewers.

"Well, did they invite you because they know they respect your opinion?" he was asked.

"Well, we're going," Stewart said. "We'll just wait and see what happens. I mean, there are a lot of guys going Tuesday and Wednesday and we're going Monday and Tuesday to do the pre-test. So we're just trying to figure out what we can do to help." (Continued)