Stewart not thrilled despite third-place finish at Pocono

LONG POND, Pa. -- Sunday evening, in the aftermath of the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 at Pocono Raceway, owner/driver Tony Stewart appeared disconsolate despite what might end up being one of the most significant top-five finishes of his season.

Maybe it was concern over his impending charity event, Wednesday night's Gillette Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio -- which Stewart also owns -- that had him distracted, and then absolutely irate over the "idiotic" driving he said he'd been in the middle of all day.

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Tony Stewart comments on his finish, trying to catch Denny Hamlin and the quality of the restarts at Pocono.

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He voiced his concern over the Prelude on pit road after exiting his No. 14 Chevrolet, when he was asked, first, about his day and then about the upcoming event at his half-mile dirt track.

"Yeah, I've got a lot of work to do," Stewart said. "I'm going [to Eldora Sunday night] to start working. I was happy for the Old Spice/Office Depot team. I'm proud of our guys for getting us a top-three [Sunday]."

But Stewart just couldn't get enthused over the run, particularly when he came to the infield media center for a short conference.

"Not a very stellar day by any means [but] ended up with a top-three," Stewart said. "I wish we had been a top-three car all day but you take them any way you can get them and obviously we had a decent car, and a good enough car to stay up there and run with those guys.

"We didn't just stay up there on that green-white-checkered -- we were up there for 30-plus laps so we had a good enough car when we got up front, we just couldn't get there all day."

Even being asked if a good finish at Pocono gave him any hope for the thought-to-be-similar Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- whose Brickyard 400 later this summer is one of the most notable events in any season for Stewart -- didn't cheer him up.

"I don't know," Stewart said. "I mean, we just never got good track position all day. Finally, when we got good track position at the end of the day, we were decent, obviously. (Continued)