LONG POND, Pa. -- With three top-10 finishes in his past four races, Ryan Newman has pulled himself back into contention for a berth in this year's Chase for the Sprint Cup. Now he's hoping a return to Pocono Raceway will spark a similar turnaround for teammate Tony Stewart.

"I'm just glad to be able to do media availability again," Newman said, referring to NASCAR's weekly requirement for drivers currently in the top 12 in the standings. "It's been a strong recovery, and it's taken a little bit of time, but a strong recovery for our team from how we started the season. So coming into Pocono, I'm happy to be in the top 12."

If Friday's qualifying effort was any indication, perhaps Stewart-Haas Racing is already reversing course in a big way. Stewart's lap of 168.840 mph was the sixth-quickest run of the session, putting him in the third row for Sunday's Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500. And Newman will roll off the grid ninth after posting a lap of 168.669 mph.

Stewart is currently 16th in the standings, but he won this race one year ago, outlasting Carl Edwards in a fuel economy run for his first victory as a car owner. For Stewart, it was a bit of vindication.

"I've lost a lot more races like that than I've won," Stewart said. "It was between Carl and I. We were the strongest two cars at the end of the race and we were able to get the track position we needed. Our guys did a great job of getting us out of the pits in the lead and that gave us the opportunity to make Carl push harder in the beginning to get the lead.

"Once he went into that fuel conservation mode, we had to follow suit. To be in a situation where your speed is dictated off the guy behind you and not off of what you can do, it's a different style of racing. It's hard. It's just as hard, if not tougher, than trying to run 100 percent."

Unfortunately, whatever bad luck Stewart thought he had shaken off has returned with a vengeance this season. After finishing second at Bristol, Stewart's best finish has been a ninth at Dover. According to Newman, that's a huge change from a year ago.

"If you look at it back this time last year, yeah, we were working our way up and Tony was pretty strong," Newman said. "I'd say we're not the strength that we should be or want to be, but we're happy to be in the top 12 from where we started -- with two DNFs in the season -- and we'll keep working on it.

"Tony is obviously working on it real hard. It seems like he's caught some of the luck we had last year at this time. It's just a matter of fighting through it."

Newman said he's doing his best to help Stewart while not trying to overanalyze the problems the No. 14 team are facing.

"In general, it's just that common understanding of the teamwork and what we can do to help each other," Newman said. "It's really no different than anything else that we do any other time of the season. It's just a matter of being maybe a little more delicate about it.

"You don't want to knock a guy when he's down and you don't want to tell him all the things that he's doing wrong. At the same time, you want to try to help him with what we think is right."

For example, Newman said it's better to offer suggestions.

"You don't go up to a guy and say, 'Hey, why do you have that right-rear spring?' " Newman said. "You say, 'Hey, we're running this right-rear spring and this is what it did for us.' Just offering advice is the best thing we can do because as I've always said, it's the toughest sport in the world where you're competing against your own teammate. So it's a very delicate situation to be able to work all those things out."

Stewart knows what it takes to win here, and that may be half the battle.

"All three corners are different," Stewart said. "That's the most challenging part. It seems like you can always get your car good in two of the three corners, but the guys who are contending for the win are the guys who can get their car good for all three corners, which is very hard to do. It seems like if we can get our car to go through the Tunnel Turn well, then we're normally able to get it to go through the rest of the racetrack well.

"The Tunnel Turn seems to be our toughest turn on the race track. Getting through Turn 2 and the last corner of the racetrack that's flat, long and sweeping, those seem to be the toughest two corners to get through. And if you're a little bit off, you're a bunch off. If there's a guy who can get all three of those corners right, then that's the guy who's going to win the race."