Stewart has chance to join elite list of title winners

With 17 races -- including the Race to the Chase -- remaining this season, it may be somewhat premature to start speculating, but by winning the 2009 championship, Tony Stewart would have an opportunity to join six other drivers a very exclusive club. To date, only Tim Flock, Buck Baker, Ned Jarrett, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte have won championships for different owners.

Flock

Baker

Flock was hired to drive Ted Chester's Black Phantom Oldsmobiles early in 1951 and wound up winning seven times, placing him third behind Herb Thomas and brother Fonty Flock in the season standings. Switching to Hudsons the next season, Flock scored eight victories, including a stretch in June, July and August where he won seven races in 10 starts. That was more than enough to earn him the 1952 championship.

Racing monkey "Jocko Flocko" got more attention in 1953 than Flock's record, as he won just once. And at the end of the season, Chester shut down his racing operation, leaving Flock looking for work in 1954. He drove an Oldsmobile at Daytona that winter equipped with the first two-way radio system and dominated the race, but NASCAR officials disqualified him for an unapproved carburetor. Frustrated, Flock decided to leave racing behind and open a gas station in Atlanta, but that venture failed.

So Flock came to Daytona in 1955, helmet in hand, hoping for a break. And he found it in one of Carl Keikhaefer's immaculately prepared Chryslers. He led all 39 laps on the Daytona beach course, then went on to reel off 17 more victories and a total of 18 poles in capturing his second Cup title. But the pressure of working for a demanding taskmaster like Keikhaefer was more than Flock could take. Sick with ulcers, Flock quit the team early in 1956. He drove only a part-time schedule for the remainder of his career, and was kicked out of the sport by Bill France for helping to organize a driver's union in 1965.

If Stewart is able to complete what he's started so far this season, the driver most similar might be Baker, who was listed as car owner for the second of his two championships. Driving for a variety of owners in 1955, Baker finished second to Flock, prompting Keikhaefer to hire him for the 1956 campaign.

Over the next two seasons, Baker would win 24 races, 18 poles and score 61 top-five finishes to become the first driver to win back-to-back championships. When Keikhaefer suddenly closed up his shop after the 1956 season, Hugh Babb's Chevrolet-backed operation came calling. (Continued)