Perhaps one reason why Tony Stewart seemed calmer and more collected after a frustrating end to Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is the increasing maturity he's shown as a team owner and veteran driver. Then again, it might just have been that Stewart had been there, done that.

In the 1999 Jiffy Lube 300 at New Hampshire, then-rookie Stewart seemingly had the race won, only to run out of fuel with two laps remaining, handing the victory to a shocked Jeff Burton. After that race, Stewart was in no mood to converse with the media.

That day, Stewart pitted for the final time with 104 laps remaining, and crew chief Greg Zipadelli thought his fuel-mileage calculations would be close but well within a safe tolerance. The team had done a mock fuel run during their Saturday practice and Zipadelli had confidence in his numbers.

And as all but John Andretti came in for a final splash of gas -- including Burton -- Stewart's No. 20 Pontiac continued to build a big lead. That is, until the engine sputtered coming out of Turn 2 on Lap 298.

"We knew it was probably going to be a lap-and-a-half gamble," Zipadelli said. "It turned out to be bigger than that.

"We thought we were conserving more fuel throughout the whole run than we had previously. If we did, and we were getting the same fuel mileage we had earlier, we should have made it."

When Andretti's car did the same, Burton -- who had to use a provisional to make the field -- suddenly found himself with the lead. He beat Kenny Wallace to the line by more than a second as Stewart struggled to get his car to refire on pit road.

Afterwards, Burton was stunned that Stewart and Zipadelli didn't play it more conservatively.

"When everybody else pitted, I was surprised that the No. 20 chanced it," Burton said. "They had such a gap at that point that they could have pitted and still won because everybody else had pitted.

"We were fortunate to win. They had a great car and Tony Stewart's a great driver. It's too bad for them."

The cool-down lap that day was anything but. A frustrated Stewart bumped fenders with Ricky Rudd, and Dale Jarrett -- who would go on to win the championship -- had a few words for Jeff Gordon after the two made hard contact while racing for third, but refused to elaborate to the media.

"That's between Jeff and me," Jarrett said.

Stewart later said he just wanted to go somewhere where nobody could hear him and scream as loud as he could. Eleven years later, and with crew chief Darian Grubb on the pit box, Stewart was more contemplative about letting a golden opportunity slip away.

"I'm not happy, that's for sure, but we went down swinging," Stewart said of his 24th-place finish Sunday. "It's hard to lose one that way, but at the same time, it was fun racing Clint [Bowyer] like that. He was definitely the fastest car and congratulations to those guys. He did a good job of saving fuel and I didn't do a good job.

"It's a tough way to start the Chase, but I'm proud of my guys. Darian kept swinging at it all day and finally on that last set of tires we got it halfway decent."

Coincidentally, Burton -- who would lead all 300 laps the following season for his fourth New Hampshire victory -- also ran out of fuel late in Sunday's race but was able to record a 15th-place finish.

If there's a silver lining to be found, perhaps the rest of Stewart's 1999 season would be a perfect example. He bounced back from his lousy luck at Loudon with five consecutive top-10 finishes, finally found Victory Lane in a dominating way at Richmond and then finished off the season with back-to-back wins at Phoenix and Homestead.

That strong second half moved Stewart from sixth to fourth in the standings as he more than kept pace with Jarrett the final 16 races. So could two-time Cup champion Stewart rebound in similar fashion in 2010?

As Jimmie Johnson showed in 2006 with his 39th-place finish in the Chase opener at New Hampshire, an early misstep is not necessarily a crushing blow to Stewart's title aspirations, as the next two tracks on the schedule -- Dover and Kansas -- are two of his best.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.