RICHMOND, Va. -- The past 14 Cup races have served to place Tony Stewart in perfect position to make a strong run at his third series championship, and Stewart doesn't care one bit that he's unable to fly under the radar.

"When you win a championship, 10 years down the road they don't remember how you did it, they don't remember what scenarios put you there -- all they really see is the paperwork and the column that says you won," Stewart said Friday before qualifying at Richmond.

“

I think the timing is right. I think we're getting confidence and that's what we've got to do right now.

”

-- TONY STEWART

"I'm one of those guys that I don't care if I finish in the top-20 the whole Chase -- if that's what we have to do to win the championship. You do what it takes and you do what you have to do, but I feel like we've got a lot of momentum right now.

"I think [winning] last weekend was proof of that, that we've been gaining on it a little bit at a time. It hasn't been any big chunks, but it's just been a lot of hard work with our organization and the results are starting to show."

Heading into Saturday's cutoff race for the Chase, Stewart has 11 top-nine finishes -- punctuated by last Sunday's victory at Atlanta -- and one 15th.

His other two finishes in those 14 races that stretch back to Dover in June, a 25th at Daytona and 27th at Bristol, are rare enough to be considered complete anomalies. But Stewart, who won Cup championships in 2002 and 2005, questioned whether his run could honestly be called a comeback.

"I don't know that we feel like we've got off our game as much as we just haven't been finding a feel that I like," Stewart said. "For some reason we've struggled getting that all season 'til late. I feel like the last 10 weeks in particular we've really started making gains. I'm really proud of [crew chief] Darian [Grubb]; I'm really proud of our organization for not just getting discouraged.

"I think after the year we had in year one last year [winning four times plus the non-points All Star Race] for the majority of the regular season that it would be very easy, I think, for that group to get discouraged this year and not be able to pull out of it."

Stewart started the season with a 22nd-place finish in the Daytona 500 and quickly raced into the top 10 in the standings. But just as quickly, the team hit a slump, failed to win and was 18th in the standings going to Dover in June. A ninth-place finish started the turnaround that's placed Stewart fourth in the championship, though he'll drop back once the field is re-set after Saturday.

"I think the timing is right," Stewart said. "I think we're getting confidence and that's what we've got to do right now."

If Stewart's able to break a mini-slump he's in at Richmond, the timing would be perfect as well. Since the new car came into use in 2007, Stewart started with five consecutive top-10 finishes, including two seconds, but his past two runs have been 17th in this race a year ago and 23rd in the spring of this season. But Stewart's looking to his Stewart-Haas Racing team's alliance with Hendrick Motorsports to change that.

Stewart's starting third of the Hendrick-aligned cars, in 15th and behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. (ninth) and four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson (11th).

"We all work hard together," Stewart said of his group and their Hendrick allies. "We all work together as a group and it's nice to have the confidence in our organization that we're not just sponges that are feeding off of the Hendrick organization. We contribute and give back, too.

"It's nice to be in a situation where we're helping control our own destiny, also. It's a partnership. It's hard for people to understand that, that is truly what it is, and it is a partnership of six teams that are working together to be successful. It's smart, is what it is."

So while Stewart's looking to race smart, but hard on Saturday, his bigger goal is 10 races down the road after the Air Guard 400.

"The only way you know [what the New Hampshire Motor Speedway Chase opener means] is after 10 races," Stewart said. "You could finish dead-last at Loudon and theoretically still win the championship, so it's hard to say how much of an impact Loudon really makes 'til you get down to the end and you look at the point standings.

"I think probably the most important part is just momentum for the team and keeping the morale of the team up. You don't want to start the Chase and get behind and feel like you've got a strike against you for the next nine weeks."

More than anything -- and all talk of momentum aside -- Stewart's enjoying the fact that Saturday at Richmond can be a no-holds-barred, no worries kind of night.

"This close to the Chase, if something were to happen and we were to crash out or something, I don't think it would kill us momentum-wise going into the Chase," Stewart said. "I think you just look at it as a bad night. I really think the last two-and-a-half-months have set that [momentum] up. It's just one win at Atlanta but it did it.

"I think when you have built it up over the course of several weeks, I don't think that one bad race could tear it down. And at the same time, I'm not sure that one race builds the momentum all the way, but I don't think one week makes or breaks it."

So finally, that makes Stewart comfortable when he says he's as much a favorite to win this championship as anyone.

"I honestly agree 100 percent [there's not an overwhelming favorite]," Stewart said. "I feel like we're in a scenario where we've got the opportunity to have the most competitive Chase we've ever had with the new format. There are guys that started off the year strong that kind of have flattened off a little bit and there are guys that had a weak start to the year that are gaining a lot of momentum.

"I think it's hard to honestly pick one or two guys that anyone can say are truly the clear-cut favorites . Someone is going to go out there and say, 'Oh, I said that guy would do it!' But nobody truly knows. I really believe it is the most competitive field."