Stewart uses Happy Hour to tune his backup car

LONG POND, Pa. -- It took less than two minutes -- and not even one hot lap -- to knock the swagger out of Tony Stewart on Saturday morning at Pocono Raceway.

Pennsylvania 500

Practice 2 Speeds

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1.	Jimmie Johnson	167.292
2.	Clint Bowyer	166.334
3.	Carl Edwards	165.911
4.	Jeff Gordon	165.908
5.	Kevin Harvick	165.810

Practice 3 Speeds

Pos.	Driver	Speed
1	Jimmie Johnson	165.795
2	Kevin Harvick	165.417
3	Mark Martin	165.189
4	A.J. Allmendinger	164.932
5	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	164.893

• Practice 2 | Practice 3

Stewart, who won the Pocono 500 in a backup car eight weeks ago at the three-cornered 2.5-mile tri-oval, gets the chance to do it again in Sunday's Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 after he ironically crashed June's winning car when he entered Turn 3 on his first hot lap.

Stewart's crew chief, Darian Grubb, opted to wait until after Happy Hour to replace the backup's engine with a spare off the truck that Hendrick engine tuner Scott Maxim said was "a newer build." In the backup, Stewart ran 26 laps between the two Saturday practices. Stewart will still have to drop from the pole to the back of the inside line of the grid on Sunday's pace laps.

On his second lap on the race track Saturday, Stewart turned his No. 14 Chevrolet into the corner on the dark strip of newest asphalt that marks the primary groove, but it slipped and hooked the right-rear corner into the outside wall, which snapped the right-front fender into the fence.

Stewart's car bounced off the wall and continued toward the exit of the corner before it looped through a spin directly in front of the oncoming cars of Jeff Gordon, who was in the middle of the race track and Kurt Busch, who was on the inside.

Friday had also repeated June's rainout of qualifying. And with the pole once again his, Sprint Cup point leader Stewart was very optimistic. But when he exited the infield care center after his accident Saturday, he looked as if he'd just been told of a close friend's death.

"I just -- I screwed up, got in too deep and got loose and couldn't save it," Stewart said. "Yeah [I'm just mad at myself]."

Stewart's own Stewart-Haas Racing team, which has led the points for the last eight races, immediately proved why when it unloaded its backup car, another chassis used last year by the former Haas CNC Racing that was rebuilt over the winter and had finished eighth at California and third at Darlington in its two races this season.

The team took just a little more than a half-hour to unload and prepare the backup, which allowed Stewart to get on track for an 11-lap run at the end of the 45-minute first session. And as he debriefed he issued a potential warning to his competition.

"It's about like where we were last time," Stewart said in recalling June, after describing minor free, loose and tight conditions in the track's three corners. The data told an effective tale.

Stewart jumped to 21st on the speed chart in his first couple laps on the track, and ended up there behind fast man Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports' three-time defending Cup champion who was quickest in both Saturday practices in his No. 48 Chevrolet.

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Stewart's average speed for his 11 laps was 162.073 mph, the seventh-fastest average of everyone who ran at least 10 laps in the practice. During Happy Hour, Stewart had the 41st car to hit the race track, about 20 minutes into the session. His first lap was 25th on the speed chart and he ended up running 15 laps to fall into 26th on the final list. He had the 16th-best average of the 41 cars that turned at least 10 laps in Happy Hour.

There were no other incidents in either Saturday practice. Michael Waltrip will also have to drop to the rear of the field on Sunday because he went to a backup car after driving off the inside of the frontstretch coming off Turn 3 and tearing the splitter off the front of his No. 55 Toyota.

Four drivers scrambled out of Pocono Raceway after Happy Hour to fly to Iowa Speedway for Saturday's Nationwide Series race. Kevin Harvick ran 20 laps in the first practice and 21 laps in Happy Hour in his No. 29 Chevrolet and was second to Johnson.

Kyle Busch ran 17 laps in the first session and 12 laps in Happy Hour in his No. 18 Toyota and was 17th. Carl Edwards ran 16 laps and was third in the first practice, then did 25 laps in Happy Hour in his No. 99 Ford and was 23rd. Tony Raines did three laps in the opening practice and didn't go out in Happy Hour.

Stewart, as happy as he was on Friday to get credited with the pole, restated the obvious -- that he didn't need to start there to win, without having any idea Saturday's first practice, in which he crashed in the Tunnel Turn in June, would have the same result.

"You don't have to be on the pole to win here -- we started from dead last in the last race," Stewart said on Friday. "It's obviously a lot easier if you can start up front and don't have to pass 42 cars to get there but it's not a deal breaker if you have to start 43rd. We proved that the last time."

Stewart actually got a little testy Friday when he repeatedly was asked about track position.

"Well, considering we started in the worst track position possible [in June] I don't think it was quite that important," Stewart said. "We're not reinventing the wheel here. It's the same as it always is. At the end of the day when everybody's cars are good you can't start 43rd the last segment of the race and expect to win -- but if you start the day and you work and gain that track position as the day goes on it's no different. We're not doing anything different this week than what we normally do here."

Stewart scoffed again when asked if the difficulty drivers had in passing last weekend at Indianapolis -- a track that in some ways is seen as similar to Pocono -- would re-occur.

"Well we're not at Indy this week," Stewart said. "What you saw here when we were here last time I think is what you're going to see [Sunday]. Every race track is different. Every style is different. This track gets wide enough that you can pass."

Again, Stewart had no idea what he was predicting on Friday when he talked about gaining the first pit selection, which came with his default pole.

"It really was a benefit having that first pit selection last time, especially our situation of myself crashing the car in practice and having to go to the back for race day," Stewart said. "That helped us gain a lot of spots on pit road. It helped take what should have been an extremely long day and make it a good day."

Stewart again proved to be prescient when was asked Friday about maintaining momentum as the Chase for the Sprint Cup approaches.

"You want to keep doing what you're doing," Stewart said. "Obviously, it's hard to imagine that you're going to have everything go exactly your way for 38 weeks. We've had days that didn't exactly go right. The good thing is we've had so many days that have went right, it's kind of overshadowed that.

"We know what the reality is, we know there are only a certain number of variables that we can control and there are a lot of variables that we can't. All we can do is focus on those variables that we can and we'll cross the bridge if and when something else happens -- we'll deal with it the best we can."

That'll start Sunday afternoon.

"We know we can [win]," Stewart said. "But I tore up a really good race car [Saturday]."