Stewart confident despite being forced to backup car

LONG POND, Pa. -- Points leader Tony Stewart benefited from the rained-out qualifying session at Pocono Raceway this weekend, but not for long.

Stewart spun and wrecked his No. 14 Chevrolet during Saturday's first practice session while exiting the tunnel turn.

"I went off into the grass, but I hit the right-front of the splitter with, I guess, one of the access roads or something and ripped the whole nose off of it," said Stewart, who then pulled his car into the garage to allow crew member to pull off needed parts, shocks, etc. to be place on his backup car.

Mowing the lawn

Tony Stewart gets loose coming out of the tunnel turn and spins through the grass in practice.

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Since he was forced to pull the backup car off the trailer, Stewart -- the first owner/driver to lead the point standings since Alan Kulwicki in November 1992 -- will lose his pole position and start at the back of the field Sunday.

Still, he is confident in his crew and with his car.

"Yeah, I mean if you look at how Jeff Gordon ran last week [at Dover International Speedway] and ended up with a bad part there for a little bit, but had a good car," he said. "We'll be the same thing. This car will be good. It's just that we're losing on the race track right now."

With six top-five finishes and a series-leading nine top-10s, Stewart sits atop the points by 46 markers over four-time champ Gordon. In the first practice session, Stewart was third-fastest at 166.701 mph and slowed slightly to 164.82 in the final session, placing him sixth-fastest on the chart.

He will start the race with chassis No. 450 -- the same car Stewart ran at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier this season where he started 10th and finished 26th.

As for the rest of the competition for Sunday's Pocono 500, Jimmie Johnson led the first practice session at 167.607 mph and Denny Hamlin led the final session at 165.317 mph.

Rounding out the top five fastest in Happy Hour: Ryan Newman was second (165.213 mph), Greg Biffle was third (165.210 mph), Clint Bowyer was fourth (165.080) and Johnson was fifth (165.017 mph).

Considering the rain washed out Friday's only practice session, drivers were pressed to test and try everything possible during Saturday's practice sessions.

"We kind of use Friday as our test day to try things that you usually don't have time to try on Saturday. So [Saturday] is just full-blown, getting your car driving all right now," said Jamie McMurray, who stayed in the top 10 on the speed chart for both practice sessions. He starts 22 on the grid Sunday.

Kurt Busch, 10th-fastest in final practice, said he was disappointed with the rainout because the team had some "fresh ideas" to try out.

"It just seems like you're always working from behind after a rain-shortened session gets away from you," he said. "It just presents a few questions and we hope to get those answered."

Biffle said if the track doesn't change overnight or Sunday morning, practice times should pretty much translate to race day.

"[The track] may be a little slicker than it is now," Biffle said. "The guys are pretty happy with the lap times. They think we have a top-five car, and that's good for us here."