Stewart will try to find the magic again at Dover

It was not just the axle cap of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet that crew members were scrambling to fix in the pits during Sunday's race in New Hampshire, it was also the magic.

The magic, that is, that had carried Tony Stewart to the top of the standings during the pre-Chase portion of the Cup Series schedule but had wavered in recent weeks and appeared to be vanishing in Sunday's playoff-season opener in Loudon.

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This weekend at Dover International Speedway, Stewart and his team will continue trying to patch up that magic and resuscitate its hopes for winning a Cup championship in its debut season.

"We had some definite lows [at New Hampshire] because of the mechanical issue with the car," Darian Grubb, crew chief for Stewart, said this week. "We'll just go to Dover ... and try to get the win."

A win in Sunday's AAA 400 would be most welcome in the Stewart-Haas shop. It would be welcome for the points it would bring, but also for the emotional lift.

Emotional lifts had not been a problem around the Stewart-Haas operation for the first 22 weeks of the season. The team and its drivers were exceeding expectations on a weekly basis back then.

Nine times in the first 13 weeks of the season, Stewart finished in the top 10. And when he finished second at Dover in Week 13, he found himself on top of both the standings and the story-of-the-year list.

A week later at Pocono, Stewart won his first race as an owner/driver and the surge was on. He won twice more in the next eight races, and his average finish in his 10-race blitz was 3.6.

The dude was running away with the points lead.

In early August, after winning at Watkins Glen for his eighth top-five in 10 races, Stewart was asked if he was thinking championship.

His answer was wise and understandable. It was also prophetic.

"That's way too early to do that," Stewart said. "There's so much that can happen still. I feel like we're in a good shot to be a contender for it. I'm not sure I feel like we're a dominant contender yet. It's hard because there's so many good teams."

The next week, Stewart finished 17th at Michigan. It was his worst finish since May in the Coca Cola 600 and it was not a hiccup.

Stewart has not had a top-10 finish since.

At Dover this weekend, Stewart not only will be attempting to rediscover the success of his early season, but also out to rediscover the success of his early career at the concrete, high-banked 1-mile track.

The first 12 times Stewart raced at Dover, he had two victories and nine top-five finishes. Only once did he finish out of the top 10 and he was 11th that day in the spring of 2002.

In the past nine races, he has no victories, three DNFs and two top-10 finishes.

Perhaps the best news on that front is that his best finish at Dover in recent years came earlier this season when he was second.

After New Hampshire and his 14th-place finish, some people were talking about how great it was that Stewart and his team were able to patch together a mediocre finish on a day that could have been disastrous.

They said that dropping from second in points to just sixth represented a moral victory.

Stewart was saying nothing. He dropped from sight after the race and left Grubb to try to put things in perspective.

"I haven't seen him yet," Grubb said post race. "I'm sure he is upset, just as much as I am. He should be. We let him down. We have to assemble that car to the utmost of our abilities, and we missed it. We are a new organization. We are going to have to fix all those problems and keep getting stronger."

Stewart knows a thing or two about magic. He knows how temperamental it can be and how talking about it can upset it.

And he knows what he needs to do at Dover is go out and re-establish it.

FIVE TO WATCH

Martin

Mark Martin, No. 5: Is the 50-year-old kid setting himself up for another huge letdown or his first Cup championship? We could have a much better feel for that after Dover. He is a four-time winner there and has finished in the top five at Dover a remarkable 21 times.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24: It began to look like Gordon was going to make a run at his fifth championship when the Chase started last week. Now, he's hanging on to those hopes -- he is 10th in points and 102 back. He can't afford another mediocre finish.

Clint Bowyer, No. 33: Too bad he had those two bad races at Bristol and Atlanta because he is driving like he could have been a contender these days. He is also interesting to watch as a barometer for how Richard Childress Racing will do next season.

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48: Stop me if you've heard this one before, but the Chase is starting and Johnson is in the thick of it. He is second in points this week, 35 back, and headed to a track where he has won four times in 15 starts.

Carl Edwards, No. 99: A year ago, he was this close to winning the championship. This year he is this close to being eliminated from contention just two races into the Chase. Go figure.

TRACK CHATTER

Biffle

Greg Biffle: "I will be disappointed if we are not in contention for the win this weekend at Dover. We led several laps there in the spring and won this race last year. We need a good finish there to keep Mark Martin in our sights. If we can keep gaining a little every week, we'll be right there in contention for the title at Homestead."

Kyle Busch: "We're just trying to steal points from these guys to help out the 11 [Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin]. Like I said, I'm going to try to help out my teammate as much as I can to win this championship. But, I also feel like we've got some good tracks coming up that we could do some damage at and finish off the year with some more wins, including this weekend. ... We've also got Charlotte, California, Talladega, which have been good places for us in the past."

Mark Martin: "I said ... in New York City that each race of the Chase only counts for 10 percent. You can't win one race, or have a DNF and think that that one outcome is going to change everything. Whether we did really good at Loudon or not so good, I was still going to leave that track knowing that was only 10 percent. I knew that a lot would be made of that race, but the reality is that you can't start getting a clear picture of the outcome of all of this until about four races to go."